Chapter 264 - 255: Mate's cooking

Erick rubbed his forehead in consternation as he skimmed through the reports that were handed to him that morning. He was inside his cubicle where he was sorting through his case files and was preparing for his trial. Although the court date has not been confirmed yet, he needed to prepare everything or else he wouldn't have any time in the future.

Earlier that day Ronan had come to visit him where they met up in the same room where the former first approached Erick about his wish to prosecute his adopted mother. However this time, he came alone as Master Silas was busy with other matters.

When the two men met up, Erick had thought the other man wanted to talk about the case. But apparently it wasn't so. It seems like Master Silas and the other two were aware that the three packs were going to 'ambush' Harding's fortress. Hence, Ronan had stated, on behalf of Master Silas, that they will be joining them. Erick has no problem with this and knew that his father would agree as well. The more help they could get, the better their position would be.

After they were done discussing that, Erick was about to bring the topic of the other man's prosecution against his adopted mother.. However, Ronan just waved casually and said that everything has been taken care of, making the former baffled.

He became more confused when Ronan handed him a thick file. He opened the file and was further surprised when he read the papers inside; Mrs. Paccito's illegal ȧssets; her bribery with one of the local officers; her bank transactions with some bunch of local thugs and thieves.

"Where did you get this?" Erick asked slowly, suspicion in his eyes. Even if he did some research on the woman, it wasn't as deep and serious as the ones Ronan had handed to him. And it was enough to not just prosecute the woman but also to put her in jail.

"Toby," Ronan simply said.

Erick let out a sigh. He should have known.

He tossed the file on the coffee table between them and said, "I can't use this. I would need a warrant before I would use this information since this was gained through illegal means."

Ronan ċȯċked an eyebrow. "Is it that hard to get a warrant?" he asked.

"Well…" it was then Erick finally realized something and a slow smile appeared in his face. He then nodded.

Looking down at the reports in his hand, he shook his head regretfully. Such a nice woman but it appears desperate times call for desperate measures. And she chose the wrong people to put her trust in. He then took the file that Ronan had given to him earlier. Even though he had said that he would not be using it, Ronan still left it with him, hoping it will be of use to him.

He continued to work, highlighting the points from the reports and writing new ones, praying that it would be enough to request for a warrant.

-----

Back at the young Kendall house.

Amber had just returned from work. That day, she accidentally met up with Mrs. Paccito at the daycare and the latter seems unperturbed as she greeted Amber hello as if she wasn't given a legal notice from her own son.

Honestly, Amber felt quite relieved when she saw the older woman's behavior. She did not want to get involved but circumstances forced her to. So she felt a bit awkward whenever she sees Mrs. Paccito when she has no reason to. Perhaps the guilt of hurting the old woman got to her? But then again, whenever she felt sorry for the old woman, she chastised herself, saying what about the children that she had helped smuggle out? All those kidnapped children who were probably living a bad life or worse, dead.

Many times she has this urge to ask Mrs. Paccito where she had smuggled the children to. And why did she do it? Where was her humanity when she took the children out from the safety of their family?

However, she held it in and could only nod back in hello before going back to her class. She wasn't sure how long she could keep it up, especially when she had known what the old woman had done. She never did like hypocrites and she never will.

So, because of that, she decided to cook to calm her nerves. She could not wait for Erick to return home so that she could cuddle with him and get rid of these 'bad vibes'.

It was fortunate that she had gone to buy groceries the other night so she had all the ingredients she needed to make chicken dumpling soup. She started off by boiling a whole chicken in a large pot and adding a bit of salt to the water to make the chicken more tender.

While the pot was boiling, she then started to cut some green onions, garlic and ginger. Once she was done with that, she transferred them to a large bowl before adding in sesame oil and soy sauce. She mixed them all together and set it aside, covering the bowl with cling wrap. She continued to cut carrots and celery into smaller pieces before transferring them in another bowl.

Seeing that the chicken had finished cooking, she transferred the chicken to another large bowl and waited for it to cool down a bit. While waiting, she turned back to the pot to remove the fats from the broth before adding the carrots, celery and bay leaf. She then left that to simmer to make the dumplings.

Luckily, she also bought the 'ready-made' wrappers so she doesn't have to make it from scratch. She tore the chicken meat off into smaller pieces and placed them in a food processor. Together with the onions, gingers and garlic, she made it paste-like. She transferred that to another bowl and started on the dumplings. She wasn't an expert when it comes to folding the dumplings so the first few dumplings didn't look nice as there were those in different shapes and sizes; there was one which seemed overfilled with the filling, so she just covered it with another bit of the wrappers.

After she was done folding, she carefully dumped them in the simmering broth and then seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Just as she was done putting all the dumplings in the broth, Erick had just returned home from work. He sniffed the air and thought it smelled quite fragrant.

Taking off his jacket and placing his briefcase near the coat rack, he walked into the kitchen. He smiled when he saw his mate busy cooking at the stove. He felt like he could never be bored of this scene; coming home to his mate preparing for their meal.