Chapter 187: Annie and Claire meet the family
"Hey, mom..." But Alex was too oblivious to the change on his mother and brother\'s face, "Let me introduce you to this cutey," Alex said as he gently caressed the little girl\'s soft cheeks.
"... She is Annie," Alex introduced, "And Annie, this is my mom, Martha, and this good-looking, good-for-nothing uncle here is my brother, Damien."
Hering Alex, Annie looked at Martha and then towards Damien before turning her face away shyly and snuggling more into Alex.
"Don\'t mind her. She is a bit shy around strangers," Alex said as he tightened her embrace around Annie.
"For how long have you known about her?" Martha asked nervously.
"It has been some time now," Alex said, "Maybe four-five months."
"And you did not bother to tell us?" Damien asked, raising his eyebrows. Contrary to Martha, he sounded a bit angry.
"I thought about introducing you all sooner, but the timing never matched."
"How can you do that? Keeping us all in the dark?" Damien\'s voice was a bit high this time. And this scared Annie as well. She squirmed in Alex\'s embrace.
"What are you doing? You are scaring her," glaring at Damien in a hushed tone, Alex rebuked him.
"Alex," Just as they were talking, Claire walked by them and called out to him.
"Of course, there has to be a mother," Throwing his arms, Damien expressed his frustration.
"Miss Claire?" Martha was surprised to see Claire there.
"Doctor Rutherford!" Even Claire did not expect to meet the head of the VIP department at a party.
"So even you know the mother?" Damien asked his mother, "Am I the only one in dark?"
"Shut up," Martha was confused, and Damien\'s overreacting was not helping her either.
"Alex, is there some problem?" Claire turned towards Alex for answers.
"I..." Alex was not sure, but before he could say anything, Martha interrupted.
"You treated my son," Martha suddenly remembered but regretted the moment she blurted that out.
"Yes," Claire nodded.
"But how did you know?" Alex asked the question Martha was afraid of.
"Huh..." Martha tried to come up with an excuse.
"How did you know? I never told you the name of the doctor. Heck, even I did not know at that time," Alex asked.
"Wait a minute. You are a doctor. Now, why do I feel like I have seen this beautiful face?"
"We met her outside the hospital the other day when we were visiting Aunt Rachel," Alex reminded Damien and then turned to look at Martha for answers.
"That\'s it... I can\'t believe I would forget a beautiful lady like you," Damien clapped his hands.
"What are you guys doing here? And who is this beautiful lady?" While the four of them were busy among themselves, George also joined them.
"Claire. Doctor Claire. She recently joined our hospital," Martha averted her gaze away from Alex and introduced Claire.
"Doctor Claire? Now, why does this name sound familiar?" George tried to remember.
"She treated Alex when he was injured," Martha reminded George.
"Oh, Yes... Yes... I remember now," George nodded in enlightenment, "We have to thank you for taking care of our son. He is usually not the reckless type, but you know, he is a man after all... had to show off in front of that girl, hahaha..." George was his usual funny self.
"But Alex never took his files with him, and no one came to my office regarding his files. Because, as his doctor, to view his files, they would need my permission to do that," Claire highlighted.
"Well, money can help you bend a few rules without moving so much as a muscle. But please forgive us... We were worried about our son," George said as he placed his hand on Claire\'s shoulder and gave it a light squeeze, "You just need to find the one who would have his tail in front of you. Hahaha... You are young... You will learn soon enough."
But those words left Claire\'s heart racing. She suddenly felt anxious hearing that laugh.
"Enough joking around," Martha pulled George back by her side.
"What, now I can\'t even have fun with my daughter-in-law?" The whole tense atmosphere changed in a second, and everyone was joking again.
"And you won\'t even have to wait for your grandchild as well," Damien had also calmed down. "Isn\'t that right, cutie? Come to uncle... C\'mon, uncle will get you chocolates," Damien held his arms towards Annie, hoping for her to jump into his arms like many other girls.
But Annie instead leaned back, trying to get away from Damien and buried her face in Alex\'s neck again. This made everyone laugh while Damien grumbled.
"Well, at least we know someone is sensible enough," George said.
"Hahaha... Very funny," Damien\'s face twitched as he looked at his father, "I don\'t know how a toad like you got a swan-like, my mother. Damn, this world is unfair."
"Young man..." George glared at Damien.
"Old frog," Damien didn\'t back down either.
"... But I am relieved," Damien suddenly said, "I was worried that Alex got his memory back and did not tell us. Good thing that it is not the case."
"Memory back?" Claire looked surprised, "Are you missing something," Claire looked at Alex in confusion.
"Ummm..."
Now no one knew how to explain it to Claire. But thank goodness. Right at that moment, the lights went out, and the buzz in the room died away all of a sudden.
"What is going on?" Claire softly asked.
"Power cut?" Damien suggested.
"Shhh..." But George shushed Damien to shut up. He pulled away from Damien as well.
Suddenly the spotlight lit and turned towards the stairs. Following the path of lights, everyone present in the hall looked up at the top of the stairs as well. It was a classical, bigshot entry.
"Some big shot is coming," Damien said.
"I think we know who it is."
And Alex guessed right. Soon three people were on top of the stairs. It was Jessica and Rebecca. And along with them was their grandfather, Frank.
* * * * *