Married the Sick Uncle – Just Waiting to Inherit His Fortune

Nathan Fawcett said, ”I’m worried I’m not doing enough, that I’ll give Justin Shields an opening. I hear your mother is very fond of him.”

He never used to mind these things, but thinking about it now just made him angrier and angrier.

Anne Sutton looked at him. ”The past is the past. Justin Shields is my mother’s friend’s son, so of course she dotes on him. If you hadn’t come along and stirred things up, my mother would’ve forced me to marry him. We might have even had kids by now.”

”Stirred things up?” Nathan Fawcett frowned, taking issue with her choice of words.

Anne Sutton laughed. ”My mistake. I meant... your *help*! You know how terrible my relationship with the Shields family is.”

’Mrs. Shields running over to accuse me of stealing Stella Shields’s fiancé, my own mother getting angry with me...’

Anne Sutton’s impression of the Shields family was already in the gutter.

Just then, Anne Sutton’s phone, which was sitting on the table, chimed.

Nathan Fawcett glanced over and saw the message: *Anne, Happy New Year’s Eve!*

The sender was none other than Justin Shields.

For him to send a message right at this moment was just adding fuel to the fire.

The corner of Nathan Fawcett’s mouth twitched. ”He certainly pays you a lot of attention.”

”It’s nothing! Ha, friends send holiday greetings all the time. It’s not like he said anything else.”

Nathan Fawcett asked, ”Have you two met since you came back?”

He looked at her curiously.

”Um, we’ve just talked on the phone twice,” Anne Sutton said.

”Twice?” In Nathan Fawcett’s eyes, two phone calls was already a capital offense.

Anne Sutton looked at him and said, ”We didn’t talk about much. He just heard about my parents’ divorce and was asking about it.”

The corner of Nathan Fawcett’s mouth twitched, but he couldn’t hide the murderous look in his eyes.

Anne Sutton sat to the side, eating with the father and son.

A short while later, her phone chimed again.

She unlocked her phone and saw a message from Charles Prescott: *Have you eaten yet?*

When Anne Sutton saw the message was from Charles Prescott, she didn’t reply.

Justin Shields had helped her before, so she still considered him a friend.

But Charles Prescott was different.

’Even if he helps me, I won’t feel indebted to him. He owes me this!’

Anne Sutton ignored him.

She figured if she just didn’t reply, that would be the end of it.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door.

”That’s probably Sharon Sutton,” Anne Sutton said.

She went to the door and opened it to find Charles Prescott standing there.

Anne Sutton was speechless.

’What rotten luck!’

She looked Charles Prescott up and down. ”Why are you here?”

”You’re eating?” Charles Prescott said. ”Your mother must be home. I came over hoping to join you.”

”We’ve already finished, so you can leave,” Anne Sutton said. ”Besides, I wouldn’t want to waste my mother’s cooking on you.”

Back when Charles Prescott was her fiancé, he’d never given the Sutton Family the time of day.

He looked down on all of them.

But now he had the gall to show up and ask for a free meal. Of course, Anne Sutton wasn’t going to let him.

”It’s a holiday,” Charles Prescott said, ”and I haven’t had dinner yet.”

He was playing the pity card.

Anne Sutton looked at him, thought for a moment, and said, ”Fine. Come in.”

’From the looks of it, he probably won’t leave unless I let him in.’

’He’d just keep finding other excuses.’

’It’s better just to let him in.’

Charles Prescott’s heart leaped with joy when he saw that Anne Sutton had actually let him in.

He smirked. ’If she’s willing to let me in, it must mean she’s starting to forgive me.’

Charles Prescott followed behind Anne, and before he could see who else was there, he heard her announce, ”Charles Prescott is here.”

Charles Prescott assumed she was speaking to her family.

Only after walking in did he realize she was talking to Nathan Fawcett.

Henry Underwood had been following Anne Sutton around for the past two days, running all sorts of errands, but he’d never mentioned Nathan Fawcett coming over.

When Charles Prescott saw Nathan Fawcett, his expression froze.

He glanced at Anne. ’No wonder she let me in. It’s because *he’s* here.’

Seeing him standing there with a sour look on his face, Anne said, ”If you want to eat, get a bowl yourself. We’re already done.”

All that was left were scraps and leftovers.

If he really wanted to eat them, Anne wouldn’t stop him.

After all, Charles Prescott had sent people to help with her parents’ divorce.

Charles Prescott asked, ”When did you get here, Uncle?”

Nathan Fawcett looked at him. ”I’m here to keep Anne company. What are you doing here?”

Charles Prescott faltered. ”...I came hoping to get a meal.”

He’d originally wanted to get closer to Anne.

He’d thought Nathan Fawcett wouldn’t be here.

Seeing Nathan Fawcett as soon as he arrived felt like incredibly bad luck.

Charles Prescott made no move to get a bowl. Anne looked at him and said, ”If you’re not going to eat, I’ll have the dishes cleared.”

”Go ahead and clear them,” Charles said.

He had no appetite for leftovers, especially not in front of Nathan Fawcett.

”Didn’t you say you haven’t eaten?” Anne said. ”Why the sudden change of heart?”

It was obvious he’d lost his appetite after seeing Nathan Fawcett.

...

Seeing him like this, Anne was inwardly quite pleased.

’After all...’

’...if it wasn’t for this, I never would have let him in!’

Charles Prescott glanced at Anne but didn’t respond.

Anne turned to Ian. ”Are you all done eating, Ian?”

Ian nodded. ”Uh-huh.”

”Then let’s go play outside!” Anne said.

She led Ian out of the dining room.

This left Nathan Fawcett and Charles Prescott staring awkwardly at each other.

Charles was incredibly awkward. With Nathan here, not only was there no chance to improve his relationship with Anne, but he also had to face his uncle. The situation was unbearable.

After a moment’s thought, he quickly made an excuse and left.

Anne Sutton was holding Ian and standing on the balcony, watching people set off fireworks.

Cradled in Anne’s arms, Ian clapped his hands. ”So pretty, so pretty!”

Watching the little guy’s gleeful expression, Anne’s lips curved into a smile as well.

’Kids are just so adorable!’

’I thought this was going to be just another unremarkable New Year’s Eve, but...’

Nathan Fawcett’s arrival with Ian was an unexpected surprise, and it made Anne very happy.

Nathan Fawcett walked over. Seeing Anne holding his son, her face lit up with a smile as bright as a flower, he couldn’t help but smile too.

During a lull in the fireworks, when it wasn’t so noisy, Anne looked at Nathan and asked, ”Where’s Charles Prescott?”

”He left,” Nathan said. ”He probably didn’t want to see me.”

”You can drop the ’probably’.”

Anne smiled at Nathan. ”He was insisting on coming over for dinner. I didn’t expect him to show up so suddenly, but since you were here anyway, I just let him in. I knew he wouldn’t want to see you!”

Both Nathan Fawcett and Ethan Linden made Charles Prescott deeply uncomfortable.

After all, they were both men he desperately wanted to surpass but never could.

Nathan Fawcett came closer, looking at Ian, and said to Anne, ”Are your arms getting tired? Why don’t I take him?”

”It’s fine,” Anne said. ”I’m not tired at all. Our Ian isn’t heavy.”

”Mama, I am too heavy,” Ian corrected her.

Anne glanced at the little guy and nuzzled his cheek with her forehead. ”It’s okay. Mama likes holding you.”