My mute bride

After work that day, Justin came to pick Rachel up at the office. “Have you been waiting for a long while?” Rachel wore her seatbelt before turning to give the man an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry. We had an emergency meeting about the product’s launch, and we lost track of time after a while.”

Justin started driving with a calm look on his face. “It’s fine. I just reached a while ago.” Rachel glanced at her watch. “It’s nearly 8.00PM now. I wonder if Charlotte and Samuel are asleep.” They had agreed to video call the two kids. Even though they had only been separated from the kids for a few days, they missed them and wanted to see them. They had agreed on the video call that morning, which was why Justin offered to pick Rachel up.

“I don’t think they’re asleep yet, but I think Gloria and Victor probably can’t stay up for long,” Justin replied.

“I feel pretty bad for troubling them. We promised to head over with them, and I can’t believe we haven’t made a move until now. They were supposed to be on their honeymoon, yet they had to bring the kids with them.” Charlotte and Samuel had followed Gloria to Tahiti for her honeymoon. Initially, Rachel and Justin were supposed to join them after the first two days, but they couldn’t seem to leave their work in Riverdale. So, they hadn’t been able to travel to Tahiti at all, and the couple on honeymoon had to deal with the kids instead.

Gloria and Victor had initially intended to leave everything in Riverdale behind to enjoy some quality time in Tahiti. Still, they hadn’t expected to bring another two kids along with them. “I don’t think I’ll be able to finish my work anytime soon. I’m afraid I’ll only be able to go over during Jolly’s wedding,” Justin announced. Rachel thought about his words for a moment. “That’s one month from now. Gloria is probably annoyed at this. If she knew that Jolly’s wedding was in Tahiti as well, she probably would have gotten Victor to delay their honeymoon for a month.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s much of an issue. We’re not sure what might happen one month from now,” Justin commented.

“That’s true. I hope everything goes well,” Rachel replied. Once they arrived at Rachel’s condominium, she hurriedly pulled her laptop out before making the video call. Justin went to the kitchen to pour them some water. He was familiar with the place, so his actions were swift and practiced. The ‘connecting’ sign popped on the laptop screen for a while before Gloria’s face appeared on the other end of the call.

She looked surprisingly fresh and energetic—Rachel had expected her to be more drained. With the different time zones that they were in, Gloria’s place was still bright and sunny. There were palm trees and blue skies in her background, which made the area seem serene and pleasant. “Did you just get off work, Rachel?” Gloria asked.

“Yeah. I just got home.” Rachel waved into the camera. “Charlotte!”

“Mommy!” Charlotte immediately threw aside the toy shovel in her hand before running over to the laptop. She was wearing a pink, one-piece swimsuit and ran over to give the screen a firm kiss. “Muacks!”

“Muacks,” Rachel replied with a smile. “Are you having fun, Charlotte?”

“Of course! When are you guys coming? Samuel and I found a lot of pretty seashells yesterday, and Mr. Victor said that we could use them to make a windchime!”

“I can’t believe you’re bringing this up!” Gloria rolled her eyes at the child before complaining to Rachel about what had happened. “Rachel, did you know that Charlotte got into a fight with some other kid over a seashell? I didn’t even know what to say!”

“I was the one who saw the seashell first. He wanted to snatch it away from me!” Charlotte protested.

“Is that a valid reason to get into a fight?” Gloria grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her closer to the camera. “Look at that, Rachel. She got into a fight and has a red mark on her neck now.”

“How did you injure yourself?” Rachel felt her chest tightening. “Is it a serious injury? Let me take a look at it.”

“Don’t worry about it. The mark is barely visible. However, the other kid was a little unluckier. As they were fighting, that kid stepped into one of the crabs’ hideouts, and his toe was bleeding after he got bitten by the crab’s pincers,” Gloria explained. Rachel frowned as she heard this story. She could already picture how gruesome the wound would be and imagine how worried and awful the other kid’s parents would feel.

“Did you apologize to the kid?” Rachel asked.

“I did. Their family was there for vacation too, and they were pretty nice about it. They didn’t hold it against us, and they apologized as well. We wanted to leave a contact number just in case something happened to the kid’s foot. But their family already had plans to leave that night itself, and the kid didn’t seem too interested in playing after getting injured,” Gloria explained.

Charlotte was squatting down by the sand pit and playing with her fingers. She clearly knew that she was in the wrong, considering how she was avoiding her. But, since her child was so far away from her, Rachel decided not to give Charlotte too much of a scolding. “Thanks for everything, Gloria. We’re still not done with our work here, so we don’t know when we’ll be able to go over,” Rachel uttered.

Gloria brushed Rachel’s statement off. “Hey. It’s no problem at all. I watched this naughty kid grow up, and I’ve seen her do worse. I know how cheeky she can get. You did a great job parenting Samuel—he’s so much more obedient.”

Rachel wasn’t surprised to hear this. Samuel was quiet and obedient until he wanted something. When he really wanted to do something, he’d kick up a fuss greater than Charlotte, making the adults more helpless than ever in the face of his tantrum. For example, when Rachel and Jolly first returned to Riverdale, Samuel had actually managed to trick his whole class into traveling for a summer camp. Then, he took a bus on his own to travel to Riverdale. Just the thought of what happened still made Rachel shudder with stress and worry.

“Mommy, aren’t you guys coming over?” Charlotte rested her head on Gloria’s arm. Even though Rachel had just lectured her, she didn’t seem afraid of Gloria at all. “When are you guys coming?” Charlotte asked in a whiny tone.

“We’ll come after we’re done with work, but we don’t know when that’ll happen,” Rachel replied.

“What about Daddy?” Charlotte seemed to finally recall the existence of her father. Rachel turned to look at the man boiling water in the kitchen. “Your daughter is asking for you.” He lowered his cup before making a short and curt statement. “What a rare occasion.”

Then, he sat down beside Rachel before waving into the camera. “I heard you caused trouble,” he said to Charlotte.

“No, I didn’t.” Charlotte chuckled. “Daddy, Mommy said that you guys aren’t coming over. Are you guys enjoying your alone time at home?”

“What nonsense are you saying?” Rachel felt somewhat embarrassed. Nevertheless, Charlotte was on a roll. “Mommy, didn’t you ask me what I wanted for my birthday? I have an answer now.”

“Okay. What do you want?” Rachel asked.

“I want a baby sister!” Charlotte cried.

Rachel froze after hearing this, and she felt blood rushing up from her face to the back of her ears. Even Gloria seemed rather stunned for a while. “Well, I think having a younger sister is a good idea. With a mother like Rachel, I bet she’d turn the child into a sweet and loving one,” Gloria commented.

“What are you guys talking about?” Rachel couldn’t seem to argue against them, so she just handed the laptop to Justin. “You can talk to them. I’m done talking. I’ll go see if the water’s ready.” Rachel got up and left the laptop in Justin’s arms. There was a slight smirk on his face. It was too early to talk about having another child. Just the fact that he had managed to build this relationship with Rachel was already a huge achievement to him, and he didn’t want to get his hopes up too high.

“Where’s Samuel? I don’t see him at all,” Justin said.

“He went out with Victor to get some ice cream. So you guys can wait for a while—they’re almost back,” Gloria said.

“Why is the connection so bad, Aunt Gloria?” Charlotte asked while winking at Gloria. Gloria seemed to get the child’s message immediately. “Oh. The connection is terrible here. Can you guys wait for a while? I’ll fix the Internet before calling you guys again. Don’t go home just yet, Justin.” Their actions were to make sure that Justin stayed around for a while longer.