The Unveiled Rose
Chapter 246

Steven glanced at the text message-it was a statement of Jessica's expenses. He didn't know what she bought, but the charge was over 200 thousand dollars. Steven turned off his screen.

It was Annalise who had been with him during tough times. She had never squandered his money or bought anything extravagant. In contrast, Jessica was only with him after he became wealthy, yet she spent lavishly every day. Steven looked away, thinking he ought to set aside some time to properly figure out what led to the vast contrast in his emotions when interacting with Annalise and Jessica.

After that, he needed to carefully consider the consequences of losing each of them to see if he could take it before making a decision.

...

By the time Zane brought the old couple to the villa, Willow was already done with her workout. Though she was panting heavily, she seemed very happy.

Her eyes sparkled as she turned to look at Penelope.

Penelope's eyes were full of admiration. "You can run that far? That's amazing!"

Willow raised her chin, looking very proud.

When Zane saw her, he said, "Your grandpa and grandma are here!"

Putting aside his pride, Milton jogged over to Willow and asked, "Did you miss me?"

Willow got up from the grass and nodded heavily.

Dorothy approached her as well. "What about me?"

Willow continued to nod fervently.

Penelope approached the trio before standing behind Willow.

Zane introduced, "This is Willow's friend from kindergarten."

The two elders greeted Penelope warmly before leading the kids to the side to play.

I glanced at Zane, who immediately understood my thoughts and said to Suzy, "Let's head to the living room."

With the two elders watching the kids, Suzy naturally wasn't worried and followed us to the living room.

With a smile, I said, "Have a seat."

Zane walked over to the fridge, asking, "What would you like to drink?"

Suzy politely replied, "Plain water is fine."

"To tell you the truth, the reason we asked you over is to discuss something," I began calmly. "As you already know, Willow has autism."

After pouring a glass of water, Zane handed it to Suzy, who quickly thanked him.

Zane then sat beside me and said, "What we currently want to try is using dolls to help Willow with her recovery."

I then explained, "We plan to custom-make a cotton doll that looks like Penelope and have Willow start by talking to it.

"Once she gets used to talking to the doll, we'll place a walkie-talkie inside it. If you're willing to help us, we'll give the other walkie-talkie to Penelope. This way, the two of them can start chatting."

After I finished, I looked at Suzy.

Suzy answered without any hesitation, "You two have helped me so much, so it's only right that I help you. Besides, this would also be good for Penelope."

Nonetheless, she didn't dare to agree immediately. "How about I talk to Penelope about it first? And if she agrees to it, I'll call you right away."

"That would be great. Thank you," I said sincerely.

That was when Suzy quickly added, "Penelope only has Willow as her friend at school. She was just telling me yesterday how nice it would be if Willow could talk. I think she's also eager to communicate with Willow, so there's no need to thank me."

In the backseat of the car, Zachary saw that Annalise had posted the purchase links for the dolls in the comment section.

There were three in total-one was of Willow, one of Zane, and finally, one of Annalise.

As he added Annalise's doll to the shopping cart, he snorted at the dolls of Zane and Willow.

They were the ones who took Annalise away from him, so he would not buy their dolls. However, they were also the ones who gave Annalise a new life.

If he didn't purchase the other two, would Annalise feel scared when she returned with him? Would she be afraid that Steven would treat her badly because of Jessica?