Jenny went around the villa to greet all of the relatives with a smile. Then, she walked up to Mindy with her arms crossed. “Mindy, I’m not trying to be difficult, but your house is a mess. Aren’t you going to clean it up?”
Mindy had tried to clean up the house, but it would end up even messier within half an hour.
Jenny continued, “Anyone who didn’t know better might think your family were lazy. Look at this floor, there’s mud everywhere. And the table is piled up with junk that smells awful. What is all this stuff? Oh my goodness, look at this towel. It’s completely black! Why do you even keep this? Are you using this to clean the toilet?”
Penelope walked over and snatched the towel. “Why are you grabbing my face towel?”
Jenny froze for a moment before saying, “Anyway, tomorrow is Mom’s 80th birthday banquet. As a family, we might be able to tolerate a little mess, but we will all be embarrassed if outsiders see the condition of your home. Mindy, you really need to get it together!”
With that, she turned away with a disgusted look, as if she couldn’t bear to see the mess anymore.
Mindy’s expression soured.
Harold tugged at Jenny’s sleeve, signaling her to tone it down. However, she pulled her arm away angrily. Why did he tug at her sleeve? She still hadn’t said her fill!
Mindy suddenly smiled and said, “Of course things will get messy when there are lots of people. Actually, you should be thanking us. Otherwise, it would’ve been your house that would be messy and dirty now.”
Jenny choked on her saliva.
Being a person of culture, Mindy spoke tactfully, “Since you’ve benefited from this, you should keep a low profile. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew.”
“You–”
“Jenny, why don’t you help me clean up the house since you’re so bored? As you said, we can’t bring shame to the Sutton family.” With that, Mindy went to grab a broom.
Jenny looked like she had seen a ghost. “Uh… I just remembered I’ve got something to do. We’re leaving!”
With that, she grabbed Harold and fled in a hurry.
Luckily, the next day was the birthday banquet. After finishing the meal at the hotel, most of the relatives and friends headed back to their respective homes.
Lionel and Mindy finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, they were shocked to find Penelope and her family hadn’t left when the family of three returned home that night!
Lionel was dumbfounded. “Great-Aunt Penelope, what’s going on? Didn’t the car taking everyone back to the village leave this afternoon?”
“Oh, Anna said that we could stay a few more days since we haven’t seen each other in a long time. The birthday girl said it herself, so I can’t refuse her, can I?”
In fact, Anna had just said it out of politeness. It was mere courtesy, but Penelope took her word seriously.
Anna didn’t think too much about it. After all, they were staying at Lionel’s place and didn’t inconvenience her in any way. No one would refuse to be a good person at the expense of someone else.
Lionel and Mindy exchanged glances, both feeling utterly helpless.
Meanwhile, Miranda received a message from Madison. She didn’t have time to deal with the uninvited relatives in the living room and went straight upstairs.
There was some incomplete data in the datasets and needed to be added manually. Coincidentally, she had the original data with her, as she had printed a copy before leaving the lab that day. Luckily, this came in handy.
Miranda headed toward her bedroom while replying to Madison’s message. She had specifically locked her room because she brought along paper documents and didn’t want her relatives rummaging through them. She was also very careful each time she entered and left the room.
However, she immediately noticed something off the moment she opened the door and walked in.
Someone had clearly tampered with her desk. Her previously open laptop was now closed, the pen holder had been knocked over, and pens were scattered everywhere. Even her chair was pushed into a corner further away from the desk.
This wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was…
Her documents were gone!