Chapter 789: Maniacally Protective Father (3)
Chapter 789: Chapter 789: Maniacally Protective Father (3)
In a way, Silas Sullivan was a classic doting father. He couldn’t bear to see his daughter suffer the slightest grievance. In fact, he had wanted Winter Sullivan and Julian Caldwell to divorce eighteen years ago. But as a parent, he felt it wasn’t his place to encourage his own daughter to get a divorce, so he let Winter decide these things for herself.
Now that he heard Winter was thinking of divorcing Julian Caldwell, he was actually quite pleased.
Truthfully, he hadn’t been very happy back when Winter wanted to marry Julian. He always felt that Julian had his head buried in books and was too wrapped up in his own thoughts. To Silas, he came across as a bit effeminate and wasn’t good enough for his daughter.
Irene Zimmerman reached out and tugged on his sleeve, which made him swallow the barrage of less-than-pleasant remarks he was about to make.
Watching this small exchange between her parents, Winter Sullivan’s lips curled into a slight smile. She was almost fifty years old now, yet in her parents’ eyes, she was still the same beloved youngest daughter they had always doted on.
’I suppose the only reason I can be so bold about asking Julian for a divorce,’ she couldn’t help but think, ’is because I know I have a loving mother and father to fall back on.’
By the time military training ended, it was early October, which meant National Day was here again. The seven-day "Golden Week" holiday wouldn’t be introduced until 1999, so in the autumn of ’94, National Day didn’t yet have the feel of a long vacation. It was officially just a one-day holiday, but since it fell right next to the weekend, it amounted to a two-day break (weekends were only one day long back in 1994).
After the intense military training they had just endured, this two-day break was a joyous occasion for the freshmen at Veridia University. The local students from Veridia happily went home, while students from out of town gathered in small groups to go see the flag-raising ceremony at The Sunstone Gate.
Vera Xavier, however, lazily holed herself up at home. Her relationship with Fiona Wright and Shirley Ewing was good, but they weren’t yet close enough for her to bring them over to the villa. She didn’t want to give them the impression that she was rich and had a powerful background before they got to know each other better.
Little did she know, in their eyes, she was already considered someone with a super-powerful background.
Nathaniel Nathan had left early in the morning, saying he had to attend a mandatory event for his unit. That left her all alone at home.
She found it incredibly boring to stay at home all by herself. Thinking about how the villa didn’t have a single green plant, she decided to head to the nearby flower and bird market to buy some.
The flower and bird market sold not only flowers and birds but also a wide variety of plants. In essence, it was a rather classy sort of market.
Vera wasn’t a person of particularly refined tastes, nor did she know much about flora and fauna. But upon entering the market, she heard the singing of thrushes and larks and found the sound delightful. When she saw a fluffy little hamster cheerfully nibbling on seeds, her own spirits lifted.
There were also pets like kittens and puppies. She didn’t recognize most of the breeds and could only judge them on looks—"This one’s pretty, that one’s not"—without any sense of their quality. Still, she thought they were all adorable.
The thought of getting a kitten or a puppy was tempting, but she had school and was always busy. Realizing she wouldn’t have time to care for a small animal, she had to give up on the idea. With one last glance, she went back to her search for flowers.
But she had only taken a few steps when she spotted a tiny puppy by the side of the path, its eyes squeezed shut. It seemed to have been born with a disability and was lying there, completely motionless.