The Woman From Hell

"It's fine, Petra. It's always a pleasure to have you over. Please, come in." I moved over and invited Petra in.

I brought her into the living room and ordered Miss Woods to serve some pastries and tea for her. I apologized again. "Petra, you're here to talk to Theo, right? Let me give him a call."

Petra had arrived at the door. I assumed that she was here to talk business with Theo.

"No, it’s fine. I came here today to see you because I wanted to talk to you." From the moment we entered through the door, Petra had been staring at me with her beautiful eyes while smiling.

I did not know why she was looking for me, but I knew it was not going to be a brief conversation. However, before she told me what she was here for, there was not much I could say.

Embarrassed by her stare, I coughed lightly and said," Petra, you take such good care of your skin. Your skin and your body look even better than models’."

When women had nothing to talk about, those were the magic words to break the awkwardness. It always instantly brought them closer.

"I guess that's the most prized thing for a woman,

huh? To be able to take care of their body. But sometimes having good skin is based on genetics, so I suppose I have to thank my parents for it. I don’t really do much to my skin. Mrs. Grant, your skin looks impeccable too. It looks so supple. I'm sure it’s mostly genetic too, right?"

"I’m a country girl, so I have tougher and rougher skin. It's nothing compared to yours." I smiled lightly, lifted my cup of tea, and said, "Oh yes, thank you for your help last time. I wanted to thank you in person, but I didn’t want to disturb your rest."

"That was nothing. It’s not even worth mentioning, Mrs. Grant. Don't worry about it." Petra took a sip from her cup of tea and said, "Did you say that you're a country girl? That’s a surprise. Where did you come from? What do your parents do for a living?"

"A small, insignificant county town. My father passed on early, so I grew up only with my mother, but she also passed away a few years ago. Oh yeah, we've been talking for so long but I still don't know why you came to see me." I did not feel like talking about my past, so I digressed.

Perhaps realizing my bluntness, Petra hurriedly said," Mrs. Grant, please don’t mind me. To be honest, I found you to be familiar and felt close to you when I saw you the last time. I couldn’t help myself and asked you too many questions. I came here today because I’ve been thinking about you, so I came to see you."

I could not help but feel doubtful. However, she had already said that she was just here for a chat. When I saw her earlier, I thought it was because of Xander. After all, Xander was her son. It was normal for her to come over and ask questions after such a big scandal happened.

I smiled and said, "Maybe it's because of my personality. I've gotten that a lot. Previously, Xander also told me that I reminded him of you. But some people have also told me that I bear a resemblance to Miss Reed. Oh yeah, you were close to Miss Reed, right?"

I saw the two of them shopping together the previous time, so I figured they must be very close.

Petra smiled and did not say anything more. Instead, she just quietly sipped her tea.

After a long time, she took out a beautiful invitation from her bag and said with a smile, "It's my birthday today, so some of my friends are going to celebrate it with me. Mrs. Grant, why don’t you join us with Mr. Grant?”

I took the invitation with both hands and said, "I’m honored to be invited by you, Petra. I'll make sure to go with Theo."

"I heard that you two have been married for a few years, so you guys must be very close, right?" Speaking of Theo, Petra asked.

"We’re alright," I replied faintly, not saying anything

more.

Perhaps Petra noticed my attitude because after she sat for a while, she suddenly said that she had something to do and got up to leave.

As I gazed at her back, I fell into deep thought. I could not help but doubt the whole thing. Petra did not seem like a busybody and I would have never imagined that she would just randomly come over for a visit.

"Young Mistress, was that Petra?" Miss Woods asked a s she came over.

"Do you know her too?" I did not expect Miss Woods to be so in the loop to even know someone from the fashion industry. Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"Many years ago, she came to the old mansion once and begged Old Madam Grant to help her look for her daughter. It's been years and I'm still not sure if her daughter was ever found. She looked quite pitiful at that time. Old Madam Grant has been on the lookout for her all these years, but there are just too many people in the world! How sad." Miss Woods sighed.

It turned out that Petra was having a hard time looking for her daughter. It was hard to imagine an influential person like her losing her wits and going around begging for help.