Before Aunt Ane could give her an answer, a voice from behind had represented her. With his voice that was quite heavy and so suddenly, the man answered Cleo's statement on behalf of Aunt Ane.
"It's useless asking her. She won't answer you, " a baritone voice answered which made Cleo turn to him.
"Are you home?" Cleo asked in surprise.
Harry didn't answer. Instead, he discussed something else.
"She's mute," Harry exclaimed curtly, concisely and incoherently.
Cleo frowned. Trying to digest Harry's words. Mute? Who?
When the next second Cleo shifted her gaze to Aunt Ane and then Harry alternately, Cleo finally understood.
"Is she mute? Aunt Ane?" Cleo asked to make sure.
Harry didn't budge. Making Cleo think of it as a "yes" answer to her question.
"Why didn't you say it from the start?" Cleo asked Harry.
Harry seemed to be weighing something, "Did you ask me?" he asked. Hah?
With a relaxed attitude Harry pulled a chair and sat in front of Cleo. While glancing at Ane, he hinted at her something. Seeing that, Ane immediately stood up and walked towards the kitchen to prepare something for her master.
Unlike Cleo, who looked at him with displeasure.
"But at the very least, if I didn't ask, shouldn't you be able to say it? Your secretary didn't even say anything to me either! " Cleo protested.
Cleo knew this was none of her business. But after all wasn't she also a family member in this house? How could such an important thing not be said to her?! No wonder Aunt Ane has never answered her if she asked. Because she can't speak !!
Oh, God ... it turned out that all this time she had misunderstood a lot about Aunty Ane's attitude!
For whatever! Would she still be able to talk to her if she had just barely spoken out loud ?!
Cleo looked at Harry irritably. No wonder, Harry was so sure Aunt Ane would not divulge their fake marriage business. So was this the reason?
"Since when did she experience that?" Cleo asked, trying to find out. She looked at Aunt Ane with pity. Having the status of deaf was clearly not an easy thing. Especially if she was born with it.
Aunt Ane was lucky that Theodore's family still wanted to employ her. If it was out there, Cleo wasn't sure Auntie Ane would find it easy to find any kind of job because of this shortcoming. Although of course, Aunt Ane's cooking was the best!
"I have no idea. Maybe it's been 20 years, " Harry said modestly.
Cleo immediately nodded in understanding and did not ask any further. Shw suddenly remembered that Harry didn't like it when she asked a lot of questions. That's why when she saw Aunt Ane coming out of the kitchen bringing food to Harry, Cleo immediately finished her food.
Cleo deliberately took several large mouthfuls so that she could quickly finish hee meal. But just the third bribe, Harry's calm voice immediately startled hee.
"You just finished shopping?" Harry asked to Cleo.
Cleo immediately answered with confusion.
"Yes, I just did a little shopping this morning. But .. how do you know?" Cleo asked.
Harry, who had seen several piles of grocery bags on the sofa in the living room, did not immediately say that clearly.
"You left your trash at my place," Harry said confusingly.
Cleo looked at him confused. Trash? Where?
Just when she wanted to ask again because she didn't understand what he was saying, Cleo suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, my! I forgot to put all my shopping bags in my room," she shouted excitedly when she just remembered that the owner of this house didn't like messy things. The pile of trash that Harry was referring to certainly did not actually refer to actual trash.
The man simply considered all the things that were of no use to him as "trash". Therefore, when that man saw all of Cleo's things in the living room, he thought that Cleo had already littered the place with unnecessary items such as "a pile of trash".
This afternoon when she returned home after shopping for some items that she would gift to her friends at her old workplace, Mrs. Sofia suddenly called her. Asked her to accompany her to eat together and ended up with something that would be tiring for Cleo.
As a result, who would have thought that because of her sudden call and she came home without paying attention to her surroundings, Cleo forgot all the gifts. Quickly she ate up all her food and said.
"I'll take care of it immediately, as soon as I finish finishing this meal. Wait, just a moment, " she said obediently as she accelerated her spooning hand.
It didn't take two minutes, Cleo was finished with dinner. She walked into the front living room. And took all the shopping bags at once. Carrying it into her room quietly and not coming out of it for quite a while.
Harry who saw that, just sat quietly in his position. And didn't say anything until he finished eating.
***