CHAPTER 118: CHAPTER 118: MEMORIES (18)

Clara Fuller’s face turned white.

Laura Yates frowned in displeasure: "Clara is already very sad about not passing the exam, and you’re just humiliating her."

Florence Fuller sneered: "I saw her practicing piano at home instead of studying, and this is what she achieved."

Clara Fuller bit her lip, her eyes already brimming with tears.

Michael Fuller glanced at Clara Fuller, also feeling she was a bit of an embarrassment.

"Clara has already done her best." Laura Yates’s gaze coldly swept over Florence Fuller, then looked at Michael Fuller: "This result was unexpected for her too."

"I’m sorry, Dad." Clara Fuller choked up: "I didn’t expect to fail; I really worked hard..."

Florence Fuller looked at the dish in her bowl, feeling a bit nauseated.

Michael Fuller sighed: "Alright, your mom has talked to me. If you still want to go to that school in the U.S., I’ll make the arrangements for you."

Florence Fuller’s gaze tightened; this look uncontrollably turned to Matthew Fuller, with unclear emotions in her eyes.

Clara Fuller looked at Florence Fuller: "I still want to go to the same school as Florence, it’s okay."

Florence Fuller withdrew her gaze, her grip on the chopsticks tense and trembling.

She was suppressing her anger.

She wanted to study abroad to pursue her dream of music, but Michael Fuller wouldn’t let her.

Even though Clara Fuller failed, Michael Fuller could still send her in.

Ridiculous, just because she didn’t shed a few more tears than Clara Fuller?

Michael Fuller was too lazy to care anymore: "Alright, whatever."

"Florence," Clara Fuller looked at her softly, "should we go out during winter break?"

"Us?" Florence Fuller put down her chopsticks with a snap; Michael Fuller frowned unpleasantly at Florence Fuller.

"I don’t dare go with you; I’m afraid you’ll cause trouble and blame it on me." Speaking of this, she remembered the matter, looked at Michael Fuller: "Give me some money, I want to go out."

Michael Fuller frowned: "Where are you going?"

"You’ve arranged everything; afraid I might run off?" Florence Fuller sneered: "I want to go abroad."

Michael Fuller pondered for a moment, feeling she couldn’t escape.

"Going alone?"

"With Aunt Monrose."

Michael Fuller looked at her, hesitant, and then handed a card to Florence Fuller.

Florence Fuller snatched it away.

"You’ve been at the Monrose Family’s house for so long, haven’t met others?"

Questions like this Michael Fuller had asked her many times over the past two years, Florence Fuller answered the same as before: "No, I’ve told you Aunt Monrose cut off contact with their family long ago."

Michael Fuller watched her for a while, then continued eating.

Still, he was more thorough in his considerations; since Florence Fuller couldn’t connect with people from the Monrose Family, he had already made other arrangements for her.

The government officials’ family wasn’t too bad.

In the future, if Florence Fuller maintained this connection, collaboration with the government wouldn’t be a problem.

——

Florence Fuller didn’t want to spend the New Year at the Fuller Family; Old Mr. Fuller wasn’t fond of this returning granddaughter, but the old lady adored Clara Fuller to the point of instructing not to bring Florence Fuller back to the old home.

In the past two-plus years since Florence Fuller returned, she rarely met with them, and typically was not brought back to the old Fuller Family home for New Year.

It was laughable.

Ethan Harper returned to France, while Florence Fuller flew to Switzerland with Abigail Monrose.

Just as winter break began, Abigail Monrose took Florence Fuller to a ski resort to teach her skiing.

If she hadn’t seen Abigail Monrose’s dashing figure racing across the snow herself, she wouldn’t have imagined this typically gentle and meticulous aunt could have such a strikingly heroic side.

Abigail Monrose even mentioned there’s a private ski course in Switzerland that’s excellent, and that Florence could see even more impressive skiing when she’s there.

From this, Florence Fuller deeply fell in love with this skiing sport.

But just before departure, Abigail Monrose received a call, her face changed, and she urgently needed to return to France.

So Florence Fuller decided to venture to Switzerland on her own.

Abigail Monrose worried about her being alone, but Florence felt she needed to take the first step towards independence.

Still, she was determined and boarded the plane to Switzerland alone.

When she arrived in Switzerland, it was late at night; Abigail Monrose knew she insisted on going to Switzerland, so she had previously made all the arrangements with a phone call. Upon landing, people from the private ski resort were already there to pick her up.

It’s a two-hour ride to the private ski resort.

Traveling abroad alone for the first time made her nerves tremble with excitement; restless on the flight, only this two-hour car ride allowed her to drift into a deep sleep.

Then she was woken up, checked into the hotel, and went to her room.

Her previously exhausted body suddenly felt alert upon reaching the hotel.

Florence Fuller didn’t even open her luggage; the room was unusually quiet as she walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window to gaze at the vast snowy night outside, gradually becoming lost in thought.

Her mind wandered, as it did for a long time.

Until her phone in her bag started vibrating, snapping her back to reality, she took it out to see Ethan Harper calling.

She stared at the name, still immersed in her earlier trance; then, just as she planned to answer, the call dropped.

A message appeared.

Ethan Harper: "Arrived in Switzerland."

Florence Fuller: "Yes."

Ethan Harper: "Good."

Florence Fuller looked at the chat page, wanting to ask him how the week back in France was, but the words she’d typed were gradually deleted by herself.

Although unintentionally, she’d frequently been back and forth to Monrose Family and had once encountered many black-suited bodyguards at the Monrose residence.

They suddenly appeared in cars while Florence Fuller and Ethan Harper were in the garden discussing the flower cycle, and these people got out of their vehicles.

The leader was a foreigner in his forties who spoke French, which Florence Fuller couldn’t understand.

But when Ethan Harper saw him, his usually gentle and handsome face instantly cooled.

She sensed something amiss.

Still seated in a wheelchair, Ethan Harper pushed her, asking her to go inside.

She went in and watched from by the window.

Soon after, Abigail Monrose returned, and the guards behaved extremely deferentially as she approached.

They left within ten minutes of Abigail Monrose’s return.

Florence Fuller guessed they might be people from Abigail Monrose’s home in France.

Later, Florence nervously asked Abigail Monrose once, and she said she was preparing to divorce someone in France, though it’s proving difficult.

The person in France, Ethan Harper’s father?

Abigail Monrose’s mood turned sour, and Florence Fuller quickly changed the subject to other topics.

Furthermore, over the past two years, her contact had led her to vaguely understand Ethan Harper’s leg injury stemmed from his father’s business.

She turned off her phone screen and went to shower.

She hoped Abigail Monrose’s trip wouldn’t lead to trouble.

Following a day of jet lag adjustment at the hotel, the next day, Florence Fuller prepared herself to take the hotel-arranged car to the ski resort.

Abigail Monrose had already contacted a coach for her, and after learning some basics, she didn’t need to worry too much.

Prepared, she opened the door, where a tall, familiar figure appeared within her sight.

Florence Fuller, who had been languid earlier, perked up and jumped with excitement upon seeing him.