Chapter 963
Her words sent Patrick into dead silence.
Upon seeing Patrick''s expression darkened, Amelia, who was all this while watching their
interaction, finally burst outughing.
Herughter immediately attracted stares from Patrick and Ashley.
Standing with arms akimbo, Ashley grumbled in annoyance, "Eh, aunty! Patrick and I are fighting
now because of you! Not only you didn''t stop the fight, you find it entertaining when watching us.
You''re such a culprit!"
Patrick, too, was staring at her with a ferocious expression. She guessed Patrick was trying to
deliver the same message as Ashley.
Amelia could even tell his unspoken monologue. Surely he must be thinking that she was thest
person to entitle tough since themotion started because of her. He would not have to suffer
from such humiliation had he not trying to speak for her.
Clearing her throat, Amelia put on a stern expression before she said, "Alright Ashley, I guess you
already have enough fun, hadn''t you? Patch up with your homework now. You have tons of time to
be with your uncle tonight. You can take the chance to mend your rtionship with your uncle that is
now ruined because of me."
"Mm, this sounds much better." Ashley finally settled down from her restlessness in satisfaction.
At the sight of this, Patrick shot Amelia a disapproving nce and said sternly, "You''re going to spoil
her."
Undefeated, Amelia fired back, "You sound as if you had never pampered her."
The kid''s room was separated by two settings at this moment.
On one setting, Amelia and Andrew were sitting on the floor with legs crossed while ying chess.
Amelia used to y chess at her young age.
Back then, when Amelia was yet a grown-up, George had arranged a variety of extra-curricr
sses for her.
However, none of them had sessfully developed into her strength due to Amelia''s rebellion
against her father.
She used to think that it was because of George''s change of identity and status that he had to
cultivate her undiscovered talents. She was no more than someone who was connected to him by
blood that was not supposed to bring him shame.
And it was all down to a matter of pride.
In order to always make him feel proud, Amelia became the one who suffered from his pride. There
was no way possible that she was going to feel justified.
For instance, she was asked to present a speech in a foreignnguage or perform a talent
whenever her house was having a guest.
She did not want to be a tool for her father to show off, not especially after the death of Petty
Simmons.
"Auntie Amelia, it''s your turn."
Amelia was so engaged in her thought that Andrew had to remind her.
"Yeah, sure!" Collecting herself from the thought, she made another move based on the scatted
piece of memory that she could hardly recollect.
At the sight of this, Andrew spoke in a serious manner, "Amelia, why did you keep falling into my
trap? Are you belittling me?"
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Upon closer inspection of the tabtion of the pieces, Amelia realized that Andrew was right. She
hurriedly said, "Can I redo it?"
Andrew said, "You will be offending the touch-move rule then." "Alright."
Amelia said, "It''s your turn."
On his next move, Andrew captured the piece that Amelia had just moved.
"You''re not going to let me win, are you?" Amelia sighed.
Upon deliberating, Andrew finally said, "Or we don''t count it this time?"
Amelia could tell that Andrew himself was dejected at the idea of cheating during chess ying. But
in order to not injure her feeling, he had brought himself topromise his principle.
She was moved by his thoughtfulness. Meanwhile, she could not help feeling embarrassed. Even a
kid knew that the touch-move rule was an absolute one to beplied with. As an adult, she could
not have let the kid make such an exception for her even if this would mean that she was going to
lose this match to him.
"I can restore the piece to the chess board." Andrew said again.
"Hold on." Amelia immediately stopped him before he put his words into action. She then said
indifferently, "You sound certain of a fact that I''m going to lose without this piece! Ohe on, I''m
not that weak! Go ahead, kiddo."
Upon hearing this, Andrew''s eyes sparkled with excitement. He was convinced that Amelia had not
shown her full potential.
Hence during the following match, Andrew barely made any mistake in his move. Amelia was not
sure how to describe her feeling at the moment.
Amelia could not help feeling regretful. She should have admitted that she was a weak yer at the
very beginning.
On the other end of the room.
Ashley was sitting restlessly on her chair while working on her mathematic questions.
Having both question paper and draft paper on the table, she worked through every solutions that
she could think of yet she still got the answer wrong. The cold stare from Patrick all the time was
akin to shooting from a machine gun which stressed her out.
"I don''t want Patrick to help me with my homework anymore!" Ashley cried out to herself.
Not only had she not gained any advantage from him, she was being frightened by his ferocious
gaze all the time.
"Why did you stop?"
Patrick questioned her as soon as Ashley went into a daze.
"No! No, I didn''t."
Holding back her tears, Ashley began working on her draft paper again.
Patrick said faintly, "Wrong."
"Um... Where did I get it wrong this time?" Pausing, Ashley asked earnestly.
Snatching away her draft paper, it did not take long for Patrick to circle out her mistake.
Ashley pouted when she took back the draft paper. "This has nothing to do with me getting the
wrong answer. It''s just that this question will never have a correct answer itself!" She murmured to
herself.
Patrick''s gaze drifted in direction of Amelia from time to time while guiding Ashley toplete her
homework.
He could not tell her expression as she was she was sitting with her back facing him. However,
judging from Andrew''s shy smile, it was not hard to tell that they were having a good time ying
chess.
He wondered if any other people could make her happy except for him.
At this thought, Patrick unconsciously asserted force on the pencil that he was holding. As a result
of this, the pencil that was yet to return to Ashley
immediately snapped into half.
Staring at the draft paper gloomily, Ashley felt panicked at the sight of this.
She wondered if she was being too slow in study that her uncle had to vent his anger through
breaking her pencil.
At this moment, Ashley felt grateful towards Andrew''s patience for her all this while.
Receiving the stare from Ashley, Patrick squinted at her and asked, "Why are you looking at me?"
Ashley swallowed a little nervously. She dared not to tell the truth that it was because of the pencil
that he broke into half. Instead, she ttered him, "Because you are handsome!"
Upon hearing this, Patrick seemed to recover a little from his disappointment.
His gaze was no longer icy cold when he spoke again, "You should look at your questions."
Heaving a sigh of relief, Ashley replied. "Mm, will do."
Few momentster, there came the sound of door knocking.
"Eh, someone is knocking."
ncing up, Andrew spoke to Amelia, who was racking brain on her next move.
"Uh?" Amelia was slow to process his words.
"Really. I think daddy is home already." Standing up, Andrew politely said to Amelia, "Aunt Amelia,
please excuse me. I''m going to answer the door first. We shall resume after dinner."
"Sure." Amelia fell back into her thought after acknowledging Andrew''s words.
If Andrew could tell themotion outside the door while ying chess, she could not help
wondering if she was indeed a terrible yer, or that it was Andrew who was outstandingly talented.
"Perhaps both are the reasons." Frustrating, Amelia thought.
At the door.
Andrew was surprised when he saw the person standing in front of him upon opening the door. It
turned out that it was not his father who was knocking, but Aunt Florence.