Lena did not know what time it was when she woke up the next morning. Somehow, her alarm did not go off but her biological clock still woke her up.
She looked at her phone and noticed that Kris stayed with her for another full hour after she probably went to sleep.
Lena: Good morning
Kris: Morning
Kris: Remember tomorrow
Lena: Yep
Lena got up and hummed. It was so nice to go to sleep with goodnights and wake up with good mornings from the person you love. Lena could somewhat already imagine waking up next to him every day.
Lena was going to wear some business casual pants today but there was a slight knock on her door as she was getting dressed. She put on a light rob and walked to open her door.
"Mom?"
"Lena, we are not going to work today." Shen Milli clarified. "I already called our work that we are not coming in today."
"Then, what are we doing today?"
"I was thinking, we can go shopping and then go eat something together. It"s been a while since we went shopping together. I don"t even know what you like anymore. We should spend more time together."
"Ok. Let me change." Lena spoke.
"I"ll see you downstairs for breakfast. We can leave after that."
Shen Milli closed the door and Lena went back to decide what she wanted to wear today instead. She checked the weather and it was nice and sunny today. It was a good day to wear a dress. She picked up a cute burgundy colored dress.
Lena put on some slippers and went down to eat. Her dad was already out so it was just her and her mother.
Today, Lena would be driving her mom and her to go shopping. Lena was considering if James should come along but since he would be working with her this weekend, she gave him the day off.
Lena"s first stop was a small bakery. Although they just had breakfast, it was nice to get some warm sweet bread in the morning as other shops are just opening for the morning.
After that small stop, they went shopping for Shen Mao first. The entered a store were men"s clothing was sold at. Shen Milli picked up a gray suit.
"Do you think your dad will like this?" She asked Lena, but Lena"s mind was focused on the set of ties they had displayed.
"Hmmm?" Lena replied after a few seconds.
Shen Milli smiled. "Are you thinking about getting something for him?"
"I think he only wears specific custom made tailored suits and clothing."
"I was referring to you dad... not your man."
"Well--- I..." Lena paused. "I think dad looks great in anything that is not bright."
Shen Milli laughed. She put the grey suit back where she got it from and walked pa.s.s Lena. "You should get him something. He would wear whatever you get him and you know that."
Lena walked over and picked up a tie. "Yeah...."
When they left the store, Shen Milli bought several items for her husband while Lena took a very long time to pick a tye for Kris. He was too simple and Lena did not want to get something that would not match his personality anyways. She just chose a nice, simple, charcoal black tie.
After that, Lena had to drive them to a different store. Shen Milli wanted to go to a store that she frequently visited. As Lena was driving slowly on the smaller road, a young child suddenly popped out of nowhere in front of her car.
Thankfully, she was able to press her breaks on time. Both her and Shen Milli"s body jerked from the quick stop. Lena checked that her mom was fine before she went out to check the situation.
"Are you okay?" Lena asked.
"I... I am fine.." The young girl spoke.
"FINE?!" An older woman walked up to the street.
As if Lena"s situation did not catch people"s attention, the loud voice definitely caught more eyes. People stopped on the streets and looked at them.
"How can you be fine?! You are scratched and might have internal injuries!" The older woman yelled and pointed at Lena. "You! You crashed into my daughter and you think you can get away?"
"I am very sorry. I can call the police right now to report the situation." Lena sincerely apologized and took out her phone.
"Police?! Why do you need to report to them? Because you think you are rich, you can just report it and leave. We all know nothing will get done since you are so rich, young miss." The mother continued to rage at Lena.
The crowd gathered more as they listened to the mother.
"Look at the young miss, she must be really rich. Her clothes and her car are all expensive." Someone from the crowd spoke.
"Yeah... bet she is just going to leave without getting charge."
"What kind of woman drives like that and don"t take responsibility?"
Lena was very apologetic and was going to really take care of the situation carefully. But after hearing that the mother was rejecting the attention of police and throwing the rich card at her, Lena knew that the mother was just a greedy woman.
"Are you saying that the police are all corrupted and take bribes as long as someone is rich?" Lena pointed out.
"I--- No. But who is to say that my child was not harmed and you will pay for the damaged?!"
"That is why I am reporting it. An official police report will have doc.u.mented the situation and the expenses will be put on me."
The mother calmed down a bit. "Then call them."
Lena smiled. She picked up her phone and dialed the emergency number. After the call connected, Lena told the responder her situation.
"Ah yeah. I am on Granger street. There is a woman here claiming that I crashed into her daughter with my car. I think she is committing fraud and I need an immediate report here."
When the mother heard "fraud", she quickly swatted Lena"s phone out of her hand and her phone crashed onto the cement floor.
"Fraud?! You are the one committing fraud, not me!" The mother shouted. "Everyone here saw that you hit her with your car."
Lena bent down and picked up her phone. Shen Milli was going to get out of the car but Lena waved her hand to tell her mom that she got this.
Lena stood back up and walked closer to the angry mother. "Woman... Look at your daughter. Her scratches are already healing, so those were not from my car. And trust me, if I crashed into her, she would be dead and bleeding right now."
"You! You are making excuses to not take responsibility."
"Yeah, yeah. The police will be here to investigate this. You have until they come, to stay, or leave right now and you might not go to jail."
"Sammy! Come here. We are leaving." The old mother went to grab her daughter but Lena blocked her path.
"I said you, not your daughter." Lena clarified.
"You b*tch. You can"t block me from taking my daughter."
Lena turned around to the teen girl. "Do you know this woman? Is she your mother?"
The teen girl was scared. She looked at Lena, then to the other woman, and back to Lena. "She"s not my mom."
"Well... looks like I should have the police take you for kidnapping too?" Lena turned back and replied to the angry mother.
The angry mother did not take a second to let Lena stop her nor took the chance with the cops, she bolted out of the scene. People from the crowd gasped at the scene. A few minutes later, the police came but Lena just said it was a misunderstanding.
The crowd broke out. Shen Milli got out of the car and went to stay with the teenage girl as Lena went to move her car off to the side of the road.
"Do you have someplace to stay?" Shen Milli asked the little girl.
Both her and Lena knew after a while that there was something wrong. First, it looked like the girl was running away from that other lady. And it looked like her injuries was not from anything but parental abuse.
The teenage girl looked at Shen Milli and Lena. "My dad."
"Where is he?"
"Somewhere here. Mom and he is not together anymore."
"Does he know what your mom is doing to you?"
The girl shook her head. "No... mom does not let me talk to him. He does not know we are in City A."
"Do you know exactly where he is here?" Lena asked. "We can take you to him."
"I don"t now. I only say him with someone." The little girl took out a magazine page that was probably ripped out and handed it to Lena. "Him. My dad was with him."
Lena glanced at it. "Are you sure your dad knows him?"
"Yeah! They walked into a car together."
Shen Milli grabbed the page of magazine from Lena. She looked at it. "Isn"t this... Tyler Huang?"