'If he shows regret and repent, I might allow him to see Mackie on the weekend after we get divorced. After all, I know that Mackie idolized her father so much….'
Chloe's mind was full of thoughts of her ruined family.
What should she do once the divorce has been finalized? Should she completely alienate her daughter from her father and move states away from Vincent's family?
'Ah, it's so complicated…' Chloe sighed, full of woe. She continued pondering but quickly snapped out of her daze when her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She took her phone out and saw the caller's id.
'Diamond.'
"Diamond? Is there something wrong with Vernon today?" Chloe wondered.
She picked up the call without much thought and greeted first;
—
"Morning, Diamond. What's up?"
…
…
There was a long silence from across the phone. Chloe waited for at least one minute of silence until she called her name, "Diamond? Are you there?"
"Gurl… where are you right now?" Diamond asked.
"Uh… I'm in the supermarket. I'm grocery shopping right now."
"You sure? Are you going with someone there?"
"Nope, just me alone," Chloe replied. "What's wrong?"
…
Diamond glanced at the man sitting in the driver's seat, clenching the steering wheel as he tried to hold himself. His bloodshot eyes were staring straight at the busy road, but his focus was more on the call since Diamond put it on loudspeaker mode.
'Oh god, please don't say anything wrong, homegurl. I don't want to die because this asshat can't control his anger,' Diamond secretly prayed in her heart as she continued questioning her best friend.
"Did you… happen to meet someone before coming to the grocery store?" Diamond asked.
…
Chloe paused for a moment. She wondered why Diamond suddenly asked something like that when Chloe hadn't told anyone about her meeting with Maria today.
'Did my meeting with Maria get leaked somehow?'
Realizing the suspicion, Diamond hurriedly added, "I was just asking, gurl. I don't want you to get attacked by random people. Who knows, your ex-husband might be sending someone to attack you, right?"
"Ah—" Chloe breathed out relief. It seemed that Diamond didn't know about her meeting with Maria and was just looking out for her.
'Geez, she's such a worrywart,' Chloe giggled a little as she found it heartwarming how much Diamond cared for her.
Little did Chloe know, Vernon had already informed Diamond everything he knew about her meeting with Maria.
"Well, I drove Mackie to school, and then went to get a coffee, and now I'm here, grocery shopping to stock the fridge," Chloe explained. She felt much better now that she was chatting with Diamond.
"Oh, by the way, Diamond. I'm now in the dairy aisle, I remember that the fridge is empty of banana milk. Should I buy him a big carton instead?" Chloe asked while checking the rows of milk. "Hmm… he often went home late at night and drank wine to relax. It's alright, but sometimes he drinks with no limit and ends up passing out on the couch. But if I make him a banana smoothie, he'll drink that instead."
"I don't want him to drink too much, since he's so busy with work," Chloe murmured, not realizing that Vernon was listening to her the whole time. "Maybe if I stock the fridge with banana milk, he will stop drinking too much and opt for milk instead? Or maybe I should just make a banana smoothie every night? Geez, he's so handful sometimes."
…
…
Vernon listened the whole time, and his anger gradually dissipated.
Chloe was nagging at him, but her words of concern were like a heavy rain washing away the forest fire.
Gradually, Vernon's expression eased up, and he leaned on the seat to relax.
The edge of his lips perked a little and signaled Diamond to say YES to Chloe.
Diamond saw the gradual change in her boss and felt somewhat creeped out by how amazing her homegirl was.
Her boss was about to chew anyone in front of him. Even Diamond didn't dare to breathe too loudly, afraid he'd get annoyed by her presence.
But this madman looked so relaxed— even happy when Chloe nagged at him on the phone.
"Y—Yes, gurl, you should buy him that. I think he'll be happy with how considerate you are," Diamond said.
"Considerate?" Chloe frowned. "I'm just doing my job as a maid. I need to take care of his health, and make sure he's in top shape."
"He told me that he will be the richest man on earth, so I guess the best thing I can do to support him is to keep him healthy…." Chloe said.
'Gurl, that's what we call considerate!' Diamond wanted to yell at Chloe and begged her to stop saying stuff like that. Because her scary boss looked even scarier now because he was grinning from ear to ear!
"Hold on, Diamond, I have to ask a clerk if they have a low-sugar variant for this banana milk. I need to make sure Vernon doesn't eat too much sugar. He has a sweet tooth," Chloe said while on the phone.
Diamond glanced at her boss again.
Now her boss' grin became so wide, even his teeth were showing. It looked so creepy to Diamond because her boss never showed that kind of smile in front of her.
'Oh god, I don't want to see what kind of expression he will make next. I think I'm going to have a nightmare tonight.'
Unable to maintain her calmness, Diamond said to her homegirl, "Gurl, I have to hang up now. I'm still on the road. Talk to you in the office at lunch, okay?"
"Oh, so soon? I thought you could talk to me while I'm shopping," Chloe said. "Alright then, talk to you later."
Beep.
—
Vernon's ear-to-ear grin vanished right after Diamond hung up the call, and he protested, "Why did you hang up the call? She said that she still wants to talk to you!"
"Sir, all she did was just grocery shopping while nagging about you… you can do that later at your penthouse, right?"