"Alright." Allison was already used to the skincare routine.
Sophian placed cotton pads drenched in toner on Allison's face before slowly asking, "So, Ms. Allison, does Luke have another woman now?"
"The others think I don't know about this, but I do. The fact that he has another woman now means that he and his dad share the same morals. No matter how deeply in love they were before, their true nature will be revealed in the end. Sophian, I brought you here to open a new door for you. It's up to you to grasp it. You're pretty, so if other women can approach him, you can too."
"I'll try, Ms. Allison..." Sophian was outwardly calm, but she was shocked.
She had never seen a mother encouraging a woman to seduce her son who was already married with children of his own.
However, Allison's words gave her a boost of confidence.
At least when she tried to hook up with Luke, she would not have to worry about Allison being against it.
After Luke left Allison's bedroom, he went to Old Master Crawford's study and knocked on the door.
The old master's voice sounded from inside. "Is that you, Luke?"
"It's me, Grandpa," Luke replied.
"Come in," said Old Master Crawford.
Luke pushed open the door and frowned when he saw the situation inside.
Tommy was standing on the old master's chair while writing with a brush in his hand.
"What's going on here?" Luke closed the door behind him and went up to watch Tommy practice calligraphy.
Rainie explained from the side, "Great-grandpa said he wanted to check Tommy's progress to see if he's been slacking off because it's the holidays."
"Oh?" Luke looked toward Old Master Crawford.
"I enrolled Tommy into calligraphy class, so it's not too much to ask him to turn in his homework, right?" Old Master Crawford stroked his beard and said cheerfully.
He seemed to be unaffected by what was going on with Allison.
“Great-grandpa, I'm done." Tommy followed the old master's orders and wrote a couplet on paper.
"Alright, let me take a look." Old Master Crawford was even more delighted when he saw Tommy's calligraphy. He took after Luke. He may not be particularly interested in calligraphy, but he was quite talented when it came to learning.
No wonder the calligraphy teacher told him that his great-grandson had no interest in learning the craft but had a lot of potential.
Now, he could see that he indeed had the potential.
"How is it, Great-grandpa?" Tommy asked while looking at the smile on Old Master Crawford's face.
"Not bad. Another year and a half of practice and you can write letters for the family," said Old Master Crawford.
Tommy pouted and said, "I don't want to continue learning calligraphy."
"Oh? What do you want to learn, then?" Old Master Crawford placed the paper aside as he intended to roll it up and put it away when it dried up.
It was Tommy's handwriting, after all.
The fact that this little guy could write such words was quite impressive, considering he was still wet behind the ears.
"I want to learn the same thing as my brother. Calligraphy is boring," Tommy protested as he did not mind learning, but he did not want to learn something so tedious.
"You're not old enough to sign up for my class," Lanie said indifferently from the sidelines.
Tommy looked over at him and pouted in protest.
Old Master Crawford clapped his hands. "In that case, just continue learning calligraphy. When you're old enough, you can go study the same class as Lanie."
"Great-grandpa!" Tommy was unhappy.
Old Master Crawford added, "If you think calligraphy is boring, you can enroll in a few more sports classes like swimming and basketball, or even research classes for little kids."
When Tommy heard that the old master wanted to enroll him in so many classes, he could only keep silent.
Although these sounded interesting, he still was not willing to learn calligraphy.
However, his great-grandpa still seemed very keen on getting him to learn calligraphy...
"Enough. I have something to tell your Great-grandpa. Go play in the toy room." After assessing the situation, Luke saved Tommy just in time.
Otherwise, Tommy might cry on the spot.
The old master would not want to see him cry and wail on New Year's Eve.
"Okay, Daddy."
The three kids left the study together without lingering.
When the door closed, the smile on Old Master Crawford's face disappeared. He was in a bad mood today, but he only smiled because having the kids around cheered him up.
"Did you talk to Allison?" he asked. All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.
“Yes. She won't go back, and she refuses to let that woman go back too," said Luke.
“Forget it. She's your mother. It's still the new year, so you can't chase her away to Korea, right?" Old Master Crawford sat in his office chair with a cane in his hands.
No matter how much Luke forced her to stop, he still could not do anything about her behavior.
After being released from prison, Allison turned into another person. She was no longer afraid of him, and she no longer tried to get on his good side.
“I'm going to ask the chauffeur to send that woman back," said Luke as having a stranger in Crawford Manor during New Year's would be a lack of decency.
Besides, a lot of people would come to pay respects to the old master during this period.
Sophian was not in a maid's uniform either. It would provoke controversy when the time came.
It would be fine if she just stayed in the bedroom, but Luke could tell that Sophian was not the type to stay in the bedroom without moving, so warning her would be useless.
If it were not useless, it would have worked when he was talking to Allison.
“I don't want to see Allison make a scene and embarrass the Crawford family on New Year's Day," said Old Master Crawford.
Luke kept silent as Allison might make a scene if he sent Sophian to the mansion.
“Forget it. Let's wait until after the New Year's Eve vigil." Old Master Crawford decided. He was a bit superstitious as he thought that if the manor was not peaceful during New Year's, then the rest of the year would not go smoothly.
Hence, he had to compromise.
“Grandpa, I'll take the kids back after breakfast on the first day of the new year," said Luke.
“That fast?" Old Master Crawford was surprised. No matter how much Luke wanted to avoid Allison, he would still have dinner on New Year's Day at Crawford Manor before leaving.
It had always been like this. He would take the kids and leave after dinner, but at the time, it was to avoid visitors.
“Luca is alone in the villa, so she'll feel lonely. But I plan to bring you over too. Luca will prepare a bedroom for you to rest in, so you can stay there for a while and return once my mother goes back to Korea," said Luke.
Old Master Crawford hated Allison and Susan's quarreling the most.
He could avoid all the bickering if he moved in with Luke.
“You're doing it for Luca, right? Luke, is Luca really an ordinary person? If she's an ordinary woman, you shouldn't care so much." Old Master Crawford raised his doubts once again.