The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 855 We Are Not Leaving

The light in the living room was too bright for the afternoon. The cream upholstered sofa dipped from the weight of the three grown adults sitting on it. Doris, who sat on the edge, spoke first, "We have made the decision to stay." Her voice was firm but still polite. Her eyes darted slowly to the two other people beside her, and she then added, "As we have discussed about it, we replace that life in the countryside is much worse than our current state of life. So then, Allen and I have made up our mind to stay in Y City. We are not going back anymore." The room remained silent for a little while.

From her seat, Peggy fidgeted a bit in awkwardness. Her eyes briefly cast a glance at Doris from her peripheral vision. To show her support to what Doris said, she spoke, "That's true. Remember the saying which reads 'Water without control flows to lower places in nature whereas men struggle to move to high positions'? It teaches us that we can't live in that poor place for the rest of our life. Instead, we should make use of each and every chance we have to live a better life. Now that we have that chance, then we should stay in this big city."

She sighed deeply, and then continued, "Y City is so huge. There are many more chances here than in the countryside. When they get married, Allen will go out and replace a job. After that, we can become real 'people of Y City' as well. I can't wait to see that day coming." After she finished her words, Anthony's eyebrows shot up to his forehead.

Did he hear that right? "Wait, so you are going to stay in this house for a long period of time?" he asked, but he spoke in a curt voice to mask his contempt. 'The people in this family, except Sue, are so shameless,' he thought. If they weren't in front of him, he would have slapped his hand on his forehead in exasperation by now.

Peggy responded, "It is not like we have another choice. We also don't want to do this to Sue." She sighed, as if she really felt sorry for Sue under all that fake sympathy. She hoped that her eyes reflected sadness with her tirades. However, she continued with her acting and added, "As it turns out now, Sue has to make her sacrifice. I feel so sorry for my girl."

On the other hand, Doris decided to go completely off-topic and didn't wait for their conversation to end, and interjected. She turned to Anthony who sat on the side sofa and talked to him, "Mr. Xiao, I didn't get a chance to ask you about something."

"What is it?" Anthony looked at her dubiously.

"What is there between you and Sue?" Doris asked in a skeptical tone. It was her turn to have her eyebrows raised.

"I..." he stammered in his seat. He couldn't replace the right words to answer her question. He did not expect for Doris to ask such a question in quite the straightforward manner.

At this, Doris continued, "If you two are merely normal friends, then what does our family matter have to do with you? Why do you care about her family issues? Don't you think that this is beyond what an ordinary friend should care about?" She said in a seemingly jeering voice. She knew that she had hit a spot by asking the right question. She added, "So my conclusion is that you have an abnormal relationship with her. That is why you are here, and you are trying to do something for her in order to impress her, am I right?"

At this point, Anthony tried to give rather safe answers to her blunt questions. He asked, "What are you implying?" Though it was quite clear what Doris was referring to, at least to Doris, Anthony still asked in doubt.

"Mr. Xiao, You have feelings for Sue, don't you?" Once again, Doris asked straightforwardly. She continued, "You will answer me first, or else I won't explain what I mean."

"I have no feelings for her," Anthony firmly asserted. "We are just friends. I did not come to blame you or to do anything so I could please her. I simply feel that it may not be appropriate for you to make Sue live elsewhere. Indeed she does have a decent job and earn decent salaries, but still she is a young girl. It is going to be very hard for her. How long do you think she will be able to sustain living outside of her house on her own?" he added further.

However, Doris begged to differ. "Mr. Xiao, you are lying," she argued just as firmly. She then said, "If you have no feelings for Sue, why are you so eager to help and support her?"

"I..." Again, Anthony was rendered speechless. Doris sure was the blunt woman. After a short lapse of silence, he found some excuses to defend himself and said, "Any friend who sees Sue being mistreated by her family will do the same to protect her."

"Well, your story may fool others, but not me, not you." The tone of Doris' voice held a slight mirth as she laughed softly. She was a clever girl, and it was crystal clear to her that Anthony kept dodging her questions and replaceing excuses. She thought that was hilarious and ridiculous. She added, "Your words can lie, but your eyes can't. Just look at yourself, look at your own eyes. You can't hide the sincere care and overwhelming worry emitting from them. If this is not called affection, then I don't know what else is.

If what you said is true, the only explanation I can replace for you is that you don't even know your own feelings."

When she finished, Doris' words struck the deepest part of Anthony's heart, where he was indeed hiding what he truly felt for Sue. Until now, he was clueless, or rather reluctant to figure out how he truly felt for Sue. He inwardly started to ask himself what it was that he was trying to cover up so badly.

"Mr. Xiao." The voice of Peggy broke Anthony from his deep train of thought, and pulled him back to reality. Peggy was suspicious of their relationship as well. Even from the first time that she met Anthony, she felt that something was up. Their conversations today only further validated her suspicion. However, to be honest, she was actually happy to see that a man of some power and wealth had fallen for her daughter. Sue had already been exploited to the fullest for the family's benefit, but now this worthless daughter of hers became a valuable asset once again. Now, to her, Anthony only meant money, so she would do everything she could to make sure that he would marry Sue.

At that thought, her eyes gazed at Anthony as she tried to give him her valuable advice as a caring parent, "Mr. Xiao, if you really like my daughter, you should be proactive and act bravely. I know my daughter very well. She is a person who usually hides her true feelings and tends to compromise herself for the benefit of others. So then, you should always ask her so you would know what she thinks and what she wants. I trust that you can do a good job. If she can replace a responsible and mature man like you, I will be very happy to see that."

Anthony was again unsure of what to say. "Mrs. Wang, I..."

"Alright," her voice cut him off again. She further continued, "No matter what happens between you two in the future, I can assure you that I'm not going to say 'no' to your relationship. I'm not going to meddle in it. You are free to make your own decisions."

To assure Anthony that she did welcome him, she turned to Allen who remained quiet the whole time and instructed him to call Sue. She said, "Allen, give Sue a call and tell her to come back to eat. Tell her that I'm waiting for her."

However, Anthony did not think the same. "Please don't," he hurriedly said to try to stop Peggy from calling Sue. He was afraid that she might be unhappy to see him there. He said, "I know that Sue has been busy with her work recently, so I don't wish to trouble her to return home. That would cut her precious working time."

The woman turned her attention back to him and assured him, "Don't worry, Mr. Xiao." And then she added, "Please stay here. I promise it won't take long, I will just cook a nice meal for you now. I'm sure that you will enjoy my cooking."

She got up from her seat and proceeded to the kitchen. Allen rose up as well and went to his room to call Sue. The living room was now empty, saving for Doris and Anthony. After a short while of rather awkward silence, Anthony decided to interrupt the quietness and said, "What do you mean by what you said just now?"

However, Doris was having none of that. "Mr. Xiao, I believe that you are a man of wit. How can you not understand such a simple thing?" She replied, a grin plastered from ear to ear on her face. Anthony still asked dubiously, "What is it that you are referring to?"

"I can tell that there is something between you and Sue." Her lips formed into a smile and she continued, "If I'm not mistaken, you two are planning to marry in the future. Sue, being a girl, is going to marry someone anyway and live with her husband, as all girls do, so she is not in dire need of the house. But Allen is different. He is a man, so..."

She stopped there and didn't finish her sentence, but anyone with a common sense could figure out what she implied. After a short pause, she continued, "Mr. Xiao, though it may be improper for me to say so at this point in time, it is what the entire society expects, so I hope you can understand."

At her words, Anthony sneered inwardly to himself. 'After beating around the bush for so long, she finally came to the point. What she wants is the ownership of the house and she is afraid that my presence as Sue's future husband would pose a threat to her, ' he thought. 'Everyone in this family has no sense of shame. Never have I seen such a blatantly audacious family.'

Meanwhile in the bedroom, on the other end of Allen's call, Sue was extremely baffled when he told her that Peggy wanted her to come back home for a meal together. She found it quite strange. 'Why is she so nice to me today?' she wondered. When she couldn't think of an answer, she decided to still go and see what would happen.

She first thought of discussing it with Sheryl to see first if they could come up with an explanation for Peggy's actions, but the girl was not in the office today. She needed to accompany Shirley whose first day o school just started.

So then, Sue had nobody to consult with and just went back home anyway. 'It is useless to keep worrying,' she told herself.

She immediately gathered her things and rushed back home. Upon arrival, she was shocked to see Anthony sitting on the living room couch. She was unprepared for that and was rather annoyed. Her irritation was obvious as she asked with a frown, "Why are you here?"

However, her tone made it seem more like a statement rather than a question. It definitely showed how impatient she was.

"Mind your tone, Sue. Is this how we should talk to our guest?" The chiding tone of Peggy scolded her from the kitchen. She said, "Mr. Xiao has come to visit me. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Mom, you..." The frown on Sue's face became deeper as she walked to the kitchen. Her apparent displeasure heightened.

All she wanted was to stay away from Anthony, but now...

"Alright then Sue, host our guest well. He is not a guest who visits us regularly. Be nice and spend some good time to chat with him." Even until now, Peggy's voice still held that motherly tone when she spoke. However, it suddenly turned harsh and she hissed, "Mind your language. If I ever come to know that you... You will see what I will do to you."

Sue's eyes were downcast as she left the kitchen. It was evident from her tone of voice that Peggy was indisputably confident that she didn't have to state everything outright in order for her warning to effect. After making sure that Sue would do as she said, she turned to Doris who was still in the living room and said in a soft, gentle tone that was a complete opposite of her voice to Sue, "Doris, you can go back to your room and take a rest for now. I will call you when the meal is ready."

In turn, Doris was smart enough to decipher her words -- Peggy wanted to create some space for them to have a private conversation, so she just nodded in agreement and returned to her room. After that, only Sue and Anthony were left in the room.

She was quite annoyed and questioned Anthony straight to his face, "What do you want to do here?"

In return, Anthony carefully replied, "Sue, I am just worried for you.

I want to know if you are fine." His lips forced a bitter smile on his face. Who else should he blame but himself? He didn't appreciate the love Sue had shown to him and took everything she gave for granted, because he held on to the stupid idea that Sue wouldn't leave him no matter what. Now it was a completely different story. Sue didn't even give him a chance to talk to her. The tables were turned and now, it was he who needed to beg her to stay by his side. How lowly he had made himself!