CHAPTER 471

After breakfast the next morning, Crystal was in excellent spirits as she took Madeline, Aldo, and Buddy out for a day of shopping.

Michael and Hanson came along as well. They were in charge of keeping an eye on the children so that Crystal and Madeline could shop to their hearts' content.

Crystal brought Madeline to Wendel City's most luxurious shopping mall.

The mall had a selection of everything a person could possibly want. As long as one had money, one could walk away with anything one wanted.

Crystal first brought Madeline to check out clothes, shoes, and bags, but the main event for the day was buying… jewelry! Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Clothes, shoes, and bags were all consumable fashion, but jewelry held its value. Crystal wanted to buy more jewelry for Madeline as it could even be passed down to her granddaughter in the future.

Crystal had the bodyguards carry the bags of clothes, shoes, and bags to the car while she and Madeline headed straight for the jewelry display.

As it was, Crystal wasn't someone who was all that fond of shopping. Most of the jewelry items she owned were presents from her husband and sons. She rarely bought any for herself.

But today, she had an excellent reason to buy as much as she wanted, and the thought of that made her excited.

She dragged Madeline over to the high-end jewelry display which contained all of the finest designs.

The jewelry sparkled in all its glory inside the display case. There was a selection of crystals, diamonds, pearls, rubies, jade, and more.

"See anything you like, Maddie?" Crystal held Madeline's hand and declared with a smile, "Your father said he'll pay for everything we buy today!"

"Mom, you and Dad have prepared enough for me. I don't need anything else." Madeline didn't share Crystal's enthusiasm. On the contrary, she was feeling a little helpless.

Madeline wasn't someone who loved shopping. Most of the time, she only bought things for her children. When it came to herself, she was satisfied with having the bare minimum.

Crystal had already swept through the selection of clothes, shoes, and bags earlier. Madeline had gaped in shock when she saw Crystal buying tens of each category for her.

It was too much!

Sebastian had already given her a lot of things that were of a similar fashion. She didn't have enough days in the year to wear it all and she truly didn't need all of this.

"There's no such thing as too much jewelry," Crystal refuted. "They hold their value, so you can use them if you like them, and if you don't, you can save them for my future granddaughter. Jewelry doesn't need to be used to make you feel good, you know. Even if you just keep them on display at home, you can still feel great whenever you admire your collection!"

Madeline was dumbfounded.

She didn't know what she could say to reject Crystal's offer.

She knew that her parents were trying to make it up to her by showering her with presents. They would probably be happiest if she simply accepted anything that they bought for her.

However, she wasn't used to people treating her so well. She didn't want to accept it because she felt as if she didn't deserve it.

Still, seeing how happy Crystal was right now, she didn't want to rain on her parade.

Oh, forget it.

I'll just go along with it. I can always find a chance to repay them later on.

This way, everyone's happy!

Madeline hadn't chosen anything, so Crystal took it upon herself to choose three sets—one each of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires—before she started urging, "Hurry up and choose, Maddie. You must choose at least six more!"

Madeline was at a loss for words.

"It's fine if you don't like anything here," Crystal said. "We can take a look at the other displays."

The sales assistant wasn't about to let a high-roller customer walk away just like that. She quickly began to make her recommendations to Madeline. "Our jewelry designs are the most sophisticated in all of Wendel City. These are all one-of-a-kind designs made by our designers. Miss, why don't you take a look at this set of rubies…"

She expended her entire vocabulary to promote the jewelry to Madeline.

Crystal stood aside and watched with a smile. She would be more than happy if the sales assistant managed to convince Madeline to select a few more pieces.

Madeline was young, beautiful, and carried herself with poise. Crystal couldn't think of any other young woman in Wendel City who was prettier than her daughter. She could sense other people staring at them when she walked out on the streets with Madeline, and her heart swelled with pride.

Alas, her daughter didn't grow up in Wendel City, but if she did, she would surely be the top socialite here!

What a fine daughter I have. She should wear the best jewelry!

As Crystal continued to gaze at her precious daughter with pride, someone called out to her from behind. "Miss Taylor?"

Crystal turned around and saw that it was a business acquaintance of hers.

She swiftly put on a professional smile and greeted, "It's been a while, Ms. Lowry!"

"It's you, Miss Taylor! I thought you looked familiar!" The person waved her over. "Come and help me

take a look at this jade, Miss Taylor. I can't decide at all. Come and tell me what you think."

"Alright!" Crystal agreed. She turned to Madeline and said, "Choose a few more sets. I'm going over there for a moment."

"Okay, Mom." Madeline nodded.

Crystal went over to help her acquaintance with the jewelry.

The two quickly became caught up in their conversation.

Meanwhile, Madeline kept listening to the sales assistant as she explained every single piece of jewelry in the store in great detail. She made it sound as if the jewelry here had been created by the heavens themselves, and Madeline was rather amused.

If only I could speak as well as these sales assistants, then our law office wouldn't be doing as poorly as it does now.

Thankfully, everyone at the law office was well-connected and had means of garnering business even without her help, or else, she wouldn't even be able to pay them a salary.

Now that they had moved their law office to a new location, no one knew about them, not even by word of mouth. She was young as well and didn't seem particularly convincing to clients. As a result, the law office didn't even manage to get a single case lately!

Although Madeline appeared to be listening to the sales assistant's recommendations, her mind had wandered far, far away. Thinking about the state of her law office made her feel a little depressed. With

how bad business is, I don't deserve to be here shopping for jewelry!

How depressing!

She was preoccupied with her thoughts when she heard someone calling her name. "Maddie?"

She turned around to see who it was.

James strode over in surprise. "It's you, Maddie! I never thought I'd bump into you here. What a coincidence!"

"Yeah. What a coincidence." Madeline smiled and surreptitiously took a step back.

It was James Dugray, Sam's childhood friend and the heir to the second most prominent family in Wingston. Once upon a time, he had been her admirer.

However, his pursuit of her brought her nothing but disaster.

When James' mother found out that he wanted to date her, she ran over to Taylor's Residence and warned her off haughtily. She said that the Dugrays weren't about to let a woman like Madeline into the family and told Madeline to stay away from James. She even said that Madeline shouldn't dream about raising herself from her lowly place in society by marrying the Dugrays.

From then on, Madeline stayed as far away from James as possible and would avoid him whenever she saw him.

Later on, Madeline left for Dusktown to avoid Phoebe, and ever since then, she never saw James

again.

She never thought she'd run into him here.

James looked pleased to see her, but she had a look of indifference instead.

She didn't want to see James.

James was the one who liked her and tried to date her. She had rejected him outright and told him that she wasn't interested in dating him.

However, his mother came over and humiliated Madeline without even knowing what the truth was. James' mother slandered Madeline by claiming that she had seduced James because she was delusional enough to think she could change her lot in life by marrying James.