Chapter 688 688



"Anyway, I'm leaving now. I don't want to get stuck in traffic. I don't want to let my family wait for too long," Vernon said. "Mackie must've been grumbling right now, since she can't wait to eat the food without waiting for me."

"Merry Christmas, Diamond."

Thus, Vernon hummed happily as he walked to the elevator and went down. It took Diamond a while to process, then she said, "Merry Christmas, Boss."

Naturally, Diamond also didn't want to stay in this empty office. She wanted to go home to spend time with her family!

So she quickly packed her things and used another elevator to go down to the parking lot in the basement. 

Vernon drove his car to the Phoenix Apartment. He couldn't wait to meet with Chloe and Mackie. He was thinking of preparing a surprise for Mackie as well. Since this would be the first time he spent Christmas with a kind and a (future) wife, he wanted to make it special.

For Mackie, he wanted to give her a memorable Christmas present, and for Chloe…

"I'll think about that later. I want to make it special for her as well," Vernon thought.

Vernon parked his car in the basement and went up to the penthouse.

He quickly unlocked the door with his fingerprint, and the moment he opened the door, the first thing he saw was a Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree was already beautifully decorated, with colorful lamps, cute baubles and ornaments, and a shining star on top. It was a medium-sized one since the ceiling of the penthouse wasn't that high, and Chloe didn't want to make a huge mess around. 

But it was still beautiful, extremely beautiful that Vernon was dazed as he stared at the Christmas tree for a while.

Mackie was the first one to see her Uncle, "Welcome back, Uncle!"

She rushed to Vernon and hugged his thigh before pulling her hand to see the Christmas tree closer. 

"Uncle, I want to show you the Christmas tree we decorated all day!" Mackie said. Vernon followed Mackie as the little girl tried to drag him. He stood in front of the Christmas tree and looked up, staring at the beautiful Christmas tree closely. He inspected every lamp, ornament, bauble, et cetera.

This was the first time in more than a decade since the last time he ever saw a real house-decorated Christmas tree. The last time he saw it was when he was very young. Back then, Chloe brought a box full of Christmas ornaments and asked Little Vernon to decorate the Christmas tree in the Gray mansion for the whole day. 

He was so happy about it. Even after Big Sis Chloe left the mansion, he sat in front of the Christmas tree to stare at it all night, even going as far as sleeping near the tree because that was the first time he had ever decorated a tree.

Unfortunately, all the decorations he did with Big Sis Chloe were stripped off by the morning. His Big bro said that it was ugly and screamed 'peasant.'

Their Christmas tree had to be decorated with lavish things to show their power and money, and after that, Vernon always refused if Big Sis Chloe wanted to decorate a Christmas tree again.

Because his family would always strip everything and replace it with lavish things that meant nothing to Vernon.

Instead, those expensive decorations only gave him heartbreak because he felt nothing but bitterness when staring at the expensive Christmas tree.

'Finally, after more than a decade, I can finally see a Christmas tree decorated by my Chloe,' Vernon thought. 'I never expected this day would come…'

"What do you think, Uncle? I spent all day with Mommy, Granny, and my cousins to decorate this!" Mackie said. She pointed at one ornament right in front of Vernon's face and mentioned, "That one is a wolf ornament. I buy that one because it reminds me of you, Uncle! You're my Big Bad Wolf!"

Vernon stared at the ornament of a wolf howling to the moon. He touched it and then rubbed it for a while. He smiled as he patted Mackie's head, "It's really cute. Thank you, Little Wolf."

"Un! You should thank Mommy more! She's been busy decorating the tree, and then cooking our food with Granny since noon! She's very tired!"

"Where's your Mommy?" Vernon asked.

Mackie pointed at Vernon's bedroom and said, "Mommy is in your room, Uncle!"

"In my room?"

"Yup, she's busy cleaning your room! Ugh, Uncle's room is so smelly!" Mackie protested while scrunching her nose. "Uncle, why is your room so smelly?"

Vernon chuckled, "That's because Uncle is an adult man."

Mackie tried to process that answer, but she didn't get it. So Vernon added, "You will understand when you're at my age."

Vernon patted Mackie's head again before he went to his bedroom to check on Chloe.

"Chloe?" Vernon called as he stuck his head into the room. 

He heard an audible gasp in the dark room and something getting knocked before Chloe walked towards him. She looked nervous and a little embarrassed for some reason.

Chloe turned on the light and smiled nervously at Vernon, "G—Good evening, Vernon. I'm glad that you're home early. I just finished cooking everything, let's eat now, alright?"

Vernon stared at Chloe for a while, then asked, "What are you doing in my room? Why is it dark, and why do you look nervous?"

"A—Ah, i—it's nothing, really," Chloe replied nervously. "I just finished cleaning your room. I don't have time to do that in the morning."

"L—Let's just eat now. I'm sure you're hungry as well, right?" Chloe tried to push Vernon's chest to get away from his room. Vernon was confused about what his beloved was hiding from him, though he had no suspicion whatsoever because he knew that Chloe wouldn't hurt him.

'Is it a gift? A Christmas gift for me?' Vernon wondered. 'I guess that makes sense why she tries to hide it from me. But damn, this gives me expectation.'