The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne)
Chapter 16

Day two.

Just past eight in the morning, Dorian and his family were having breakfast when his cell phone rang. The caller ID showed a number he didn't recognize. Lately, Dorian had been getting a lot of calls from unknown numbers, so he was used to it. Most of them were from companies responding to his job applications. Usually, it was something like, "Sorry, Mr. Hawthorn, you don't meet our recruitment criteria." Dorian sighed and answered the call.

"Are you Thaddeus' father?" The person on the other end of the line asked, in a friendly tone.

"I am. Who's this?" Dorian responded, while passing Vivienne her breakfast.

"I'm the assistant principal at Imperial Blossom Nursery. We'd like to invite Thaddeus to join our school. Is that OK with you?"

Dorian froze, fork in hand. After a pause, he asked, his voice shaky, "Who did you say you are?"

"I'm the assistant principal at Imperial Blossom Nursery." The voice on the other end was still friendly.

Dorian's mouth dropped open, and he jumped up excitedly. "Imperial Blossom Nursery? You mean, you want my Thaddeus to join your school?"

Cordelia also jumped up, equally excited.

Vivienne just looked up and continued to enjoy her fried egg. She turned to Thaddeus, who was looking at her, passed him a piece of toast, and moved the blueberry jam in front of him, whispering, "Eat up, you're too skinny."

Thaddeus smiled at her and said politely, "Thanks, Vivienne."

Dorian saw Cordelia staring at him excitedly and switched his phone to speaker mode.

"Yes, we've reviewed Thaddeus' files, and he meets our admission criteria. Do you agree to his enrollment?" The assistant principal asked, sounding a tad exasperated. Any other person, and she would not have repeated herself so many times. But this was Thaddeus! The higher-ups had personally ordered his admission. So, she had to be very patient with this.

"Agreed! Of course, agreed!" Dorian was so afraid that she would change her mind that he answered quickly and loudly.

"Then please don't go out today. I will arrange for someone to deliver the related documents to your home." After that, the assistant hung up.

Once the call ended, Cordelia excitedly grabbed Dorian's arm. "Dorian, is it true? Is it really true? Thaddeus... got into Imperial Blossom Nursery?"

Oh my God! Imperial Blossom Nursery! That was a school that money couldn't buy! A school that even connections couldn't get you into!

Beatrice had tried to get Michael and Joseph's son into that nursery school but failed despite pulling many strings. Rumor had it that Joseph's son was preparing to take the entrance exam for Imperial Blossom Nursery again.

"It's true! It's true!" Dorian felt like he was dreaming. He never thought that such unbelievable good fortune would come their way.

"Oh my! Vivienne is truly a lucky charm!" Cordelia was all smiles. "Ever since Vivienne came back, we've not only moved into Tranquil Estates, but Thaddeus also got into Imperial Blossom Nursery. Vivienne is our family's lucky star."

Cordelia was so excited that she almost ran over to hug and kiss Vivienne. Sensing her intentions, Vivienne thought to herself, "Please don't! I don't want to be kissed!"

In the afternoon.

At the Hawthorn family's old mansion.

Beatrice sat at the head of the table, with Joseph and Michael on either side of her.

"What's going on with Dorian? Why haven't we heard anything?" Michael asked, frowning.

"It's been three days. We need to get Dorian to agree soon, or this marriage is off," Joseph said, looking at Beatrice.

Beatrice picked up her teacup. Her gaze filled with hardship and her face grim. The nursery school principal had called her yesterday to say that their plan had failed. The three people they had hired had been arrested, and the principal and the teacher had been fired. As the mastermind, she had to get those three out. Thankfully, not many people knew about the incident, so it didn't affect her much. But she had no idea that Vivienne was so good with computers that she could recover deleted surveillance footage.

Hadn't she been at the Emerald Monastery since she was a child? She had heard that Vivienne hadn't left there for ten years and probably hadn't been to school, so who taught her to use a computer? "Mom! Say something! We can't let the marriage with the Ellington family slip away like this," Michael said anxiously. "Ever since Dorian refused to share the perfume formula, the company's performance has plummeted. Now, only our old customers still use our perfume. If we don't invest in researching a new formula soon, the company won't survive."

Beatrice narrowed her eyes and said in a low voice, "What's the rush? Haven't I taught you anything? You have to stay calm to succeed."

She put down her teacup and turned to Joseph. "Joseph, your relationship with Dorian is still good. Why don't you check on him?"

"He won't even answer my calls. How am I supposed to replace out anything?" Joseph was irritated. He had called Dorian many times over the past few days, but Dorian never picked up. He'd tried everything, but Dorian just refused to see him. He was at his wit's end!

Right on cue, the nanny walked in. "Beatrice, there are two people at the door. They say they're from Imperial Blossom Nursery. They've brought some school admission materials."

Upon hearing this, Joseph sprung to his feet, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Imperial Blossom Nursery? Did Andrew get in?"

Beatrice also lit up. "Quick, let them in!"

The nanny nodded and left the room.

A moment later, she returned with two men in business suits.

As soon as they walked in, they presented their ID cards, smiling, "Hello, we're teachers from Imperial Blossom Nursery. We're here to deliver your admission notice and related materials."

Beatrice nodded with a smile. Imperial Blossom Nursery sure was something else; their professionalism topped any other school. No wonder countless parents bent over backwards every year to get their kids into Imperial Blossom Nursery. There was a good reason for that.

Hearing this good news, Joseph rushed forward. "Is it my kid who got in?"

"Yes, exactly," One of the teachers replied. "Are you Mr. Dorian? The principal specifically instructed us to hand over the materials to you personally."

Joseph was stunned. "I'm Andrew Hawthorn's father. Why should the admission notice be given to Dorian?"

The teacher paused for a moment, then continued to smile. "We've admitted Thaddeus. So naturally, the admission notice should be given to his father."

"What?"

Beatrice, who was still sitting, along with Michael, Arabella, and Joseph, all had their eyes wide open, staring in disbelief at the two teachers.