Awakening of the Scheming Wife
Chapter 37: Outsiders? Yes!

Chapter 37: Outsiders? Yes!

Her thoughts made him blush. What did he even do that made her think that he was cute?

He had always known that he was handsome, but he never thought that he was ’cute’.

But, from the moment he could hear Helena’s inner voice, he always heard that he was cute. Is he really cute?

But why? How?

He turned his head to look into the mirror. He ran his fingers through his chin and even raised an eyebrow.

(No matter how I look at myself, I am just handsome. How am I cute? This woman is really... I think she is humiliating me in her heart. Hmph. I want a divorce.)

He pouted and sulked when he looked back at Helena.

[What happened to him again? But he is still so cute! Ah!!!]

She started to ’scream’ again, but when he looked at her, her expression was as calm as it could ever get.

(Such a great actor she is. Hmph. No wonder I was fooled by her multiple times in my previous life. If I couldn’t hear her thoughts, I would have never thought that her thoughts and her expressions were in such a great contrast. There is no way I will be able to handle this woman. I have to get a divorce as soon as possible.)

After thinking that, he did not say another word and stood up to leave.

"Vernon," Helena called out to him before he could step his foot outside the door.

He stopped, turned back, and looked at her, "What is it?"

"We have to go to my dad’s house," She said.

Vernon frowned. After a couple of seconds, he realized that the new couple had to visit the bride’s family as per custom. He had completely forgotten about that.

He nodded, "Okay. I will arrange the gifts and everything. You pick the time, and we can set out."

Helena smiled and nodded, "Okay."

[When we get there, I can use the chance to search through Mom’s items for any clues. Having those clues will be helpful to have a good conversation with the commissioner.]

Vernon looked at her. He waited for her to tell him her plans but no matter how much he waited, there wasn’t anything from her.

His face darkened. He gritted his teeth and left.

Looking at his angry back, Helena tilted her head to the side as she mumbled, "What is he angry at now?"

Vernon almost stumbled as he walked when he heard her question from behind.

He balanced himself and walked away while stomping his feet, showing that he was more angry than he already was.

"..." Helena was dumbfounded. "He is really silly."

***

"Helena, Vernon, you guys are here," A middle-aged woman greeted the new couple at the door of the Ford family as they entered.

Helena and Vernon blinked their eyes. Behind the woman, Grace was standing with a smile to welcome them.

"Yes, we are home," Helena smiled and greeted them politely.

The middle-aged woman was Grace’s mother. They are the neighbors to the Ford’s family.

That was also why Helena and Grace had been childhood friends and were very close to each other.

They visited each other’s houses almost every day. So, having the mother and daughter in their house wasn’t surprising to her.

Vernon knew this as well.

But he knew something more than Helena did.

This middle-aged woman is going to be the future mistress of the Ford’s family. She will marry Helena’s father in the future.

Knowing this fact, he felt more weird looking at her in this house before her marriage into the family.

He almost called out ’Mom’ when he looked at her. Thankfully, he stopped himself from making the same mistake that he had made with Grace to her mother as well.

He just smiled and let Helena do the talking.

Helena smiled and hugged both the women as a greeting and asked, "Aunt Hedworth, when did you get here?"

That was when Vernon recalled that before their marriage, Grace’s name was Grace Hedworth. Once her mother married Father Ford, she made everyone call her Grace Ford.

"I heard that you were coming today and came here early to help with the arrangements," Mother Hedworth smiled and replied as she held Helena’s hand warmly.

"Aww. Thank you so much, Aunt Hedworth, for going through all this trouble for my sake," Helena smiled.

Her smile looked as normal as usual. But after listening to Helena’s inner voices for the past couple of days, he felt that there was something wrong with Helena’s smile this time.

As expected, he heard her inner voice again, [Sigh! Her gesture is very sweet, but why does this feel so weird? This is supposed to be our family affair. No matter how close we are, having their family during today’s event feels unusual. Or am I the only one feeling that this was wrong? Sigh! I shouldn’t be thinking like that, right? After all, Aunt Hedworth is here only to help my family. My thoughts are very disrespectful towards her good actions.]

She felt conflicted. On one hand, she knows that they were there to help them. But on the other hand, she felt that today’s event was supposed to be an intimate event for their family.

After all, the custom was for the daughter to meet her family after her wedding to discuss her newly wed life and also to spend time with each other because they would miss each other.

It is the time to get emotional.

With outsiders present, how could the family members casually get emotional?

With these thoughts in her head, Helena calmly talked to the ’outsiders’ without letting them know of her feelings.

Vernon blinked his eyes. He actually felt that Helena’s thoughts were right and she doesn’t have to feel guilty for having such thoughts.

No matter how close one’s friends were, there should be a time and place where they could be and they couldn’t be.

Today is not just her return to her family but also his first time entry to his in-law’s house.

Grace might be Helena’s best friend, but what does that have to do with Vernon? He should have to spend his time with his ’new family’ instead of an ’outsider family’, right?

If Vernon was close to Grace as well, then things might have been a little different, but he wasn’t.

Actually, having the friend over on this day was nothing weird. But them welcoming the newlywed couple was the most weird.

The friends should have come at noon as guests but not as the hosts welcoming the real ’owners’ of the family, right?

It was weird, no matter how one looked at it.

But it was rude to express such thoughts out loud, and thus everyone kept their feelings to themselves and entered the house.

Father Ford stood up from the sofa and smiled as he welcomed his daughter and son-in-law, "Helena, Vernon, you are here."

"Father."

"Father."

They greeted him simultaneously. But the only difference was that Helena wasn’t smiling while Vernon was.

Father Ford smiled at them as if he did not notice the changes in Helena’s expression when she looked at him. He acted as if everything was good and asked them both to sit.

Vernon let his men bring in the gifts he had prepared for Father Ford.

"It’s good that you are here. Why do you have to bring so many gifts?" Father Ford asked as he saw the men continuously bringing in many gifts.

"My mom said that it is the custom to bring gifts when meeting my in-laws for the first time after marriage. How can I not follow the customs?" Vernon smiled and replied.

"Ha ha. True. There indeed was such a custom. I had heard of that. But you could bring just something simple. What was the need to be so extravagant?" Father Ford laughed a little awkwardly before he asked.

"I don’t know what Father’s tastes were. So, I brought everything I thought that looked good." Vernon replied with a hint of arrogance but also with a mixture of cheekiness. That made people unable to get angry no matter how bad his words sounded.

Father Ford’s lips twitched. He just smiled without saying anything.

Helena, on the other hand, pursed her lips so that she wouldn’t laugh out loud. She found everything too funny.

But she couldn’t laugh. No matter whom she laughed at, someone’s face would be lost. She couldn’t let that happen. Not in front of the outsiders, at least.

Vernon saw her expression. Not caring about her concerns, he directly asked her, "What happened? Why are you laughing? Did I say something funny?"

"..." Helena was dumbfounded. She cleared her throat and slowly shook her head, "Nothing. Nothing is funny."

Vernon tilted his head innocently and asked, "Are you sure? Then why were you laughing?"

"I did not," Helena defended herself.

"But I saw you trying to stop yourself from laughing out loud."