Chapter 505: 503 Vera Hale and Ivy Shea (2)

Finn Hale and Sussie Lopez stayed abroad for more than half a month. After returning to Beijing, the Hale Family gathered and had their first reunion dinner since Finn’s wedding.

The honeymoon was on an island, and when Sussie Lopez came back, she was noticeably tanned and thinner.

“How did you take care of her? Why is she thinner?” The Old Lady frowned and constantly urged Sussie Lopez to eat more.

“It’s not his fault, I just couldn’t get used to foreign food.”

“Then you should have come back sooner.”

Because he didn’t take good care of Sussie Lopez, Finn got a bit of a scolding. Then, he cleared his throat and said, “Well… since everyone is here, there’s something I want to tell you all.”

“Uncle, what’s so serious?” Wyatt Hale was playing with his little niece.

“Sussie is pregnant.”

The Hale Family: “…”

This child is a honeymoon baby. Judging by the timing, she must have conceived shortly after going abroad.

Wyatt looked at his uncle and thought to himself:

As expected of Uncle,

Impressive!

It looks like he’ll have a little brother or sister soon.

“Congratulations, Auntie,” Zoe Payne smiled.

While everyone was immersed in joy and all attention was on Sussie Lopez, little Vera unexpectedly blurted out, “Dad, Dad—”

“Vera? What did you call?” William Hale was overjoyed.

“Dad!”

The little one didn’t say it very clearly, but it was obvious she was calling “dad”.

William felt gratified; all those times he played the song “I Have a Good Dad” for her every day were worth it.

Zoe Payne felt a bit annoyed because Vera hadn’t yet called her “mom”.

Afterwards,

whenever Zoe had the chance, she’d hold Vera and try to get her to say “mom”.

But little Vera just giggled at her without opening her mouth. Julia Yates told her, “Just keep saying it and she’ll get it.”

Zoe persisted, letting Vera watch her mouth as she slowly enunciated, “Mom, mom—”

But the result was still “dad”.

This made Zoe somewhat depressed, especially since Ivy Shea had said “mom” as her first word. Ivy was always a cheerful child and very lovable, and he developed his gross motor skills early—he could walk before he was a year old…

Once he learned to walk, he no longer wanted to crawl.

At his first birthday party for the traditional grabbing ceremony,

he accidentally

fell and got his nose all bruised and swollen.

But he never liked to cry; after a few sobs, he clung to his mother, looking extremely pitiful, making Hannah Johnson’s heart ache.

Ivy was quite a troublemaker; there were many items prepared for the grabbing ceremony, such as a golden rice bowl, a golden abacus, and a gavel…

He grabbed a bunch,

and the elders were delighted, but he stumbled and gave all the items to Vera.

Isaac Shea had a headache,

“He’s supposed to grab things for himself, not to give away!”

Ivy adored his cousin Vera and was very generous to her, giving her anything good to eat or play with if she wanted it.

However, Ivy also had moments of mischief. Ever since he started learning to walk, he caused havoc everywhere.

Once, he even wandered into Isaac’s study, opened his drawer, and messed up his well-organized academic materials.

Isaac was so angry that he wanted to spank him.

Hannah Johnson didn’t spoil him and let him spank.

But before Isaac’s palm landed on his bottom, Ivy’s tears started to fall.

By the time Isaac’s parents arrived, Ivy had already gone to them to complain, sobbing without speaking but with tears streaming down his face.

Isaac’s parents felt so sorry for him, and as a result, Isaac, whose materials were messed up, got scolded for no reason.

Afterwards, when Ivy just started learning to eat, he scooped a spoonful of rice and offered it to his father.

The dining table always ended up looking like it had been ravaged by a dog, and Isaac refused to eat.

Ivy pouted and looked extremely aggrieved.

“Your son specially brought it for you, and you’re complaining? Just eat it.” Chairman Shea grunted coldly.

Isaac opened his mouth and took a bite,

then Ivy began feeding him a second bite, and a third…

It seemed he got addicted to it. Every meal thereafter, he insisted on feeding Isaac a few bites.

He wasn’t very skilled with the spoon.

Sometimes Isaac ended up eating hand-fed rice!

When Vera started learning to walk, she also did a lot of naughty things. For example, her favorite activity was running to Old Sir Hale’s vegetable garden to pluck leaves.

Old Sir Hale didn’t mind at first: “She’s a child, don’t suppress her nature. Let her enjoy herself.”

But it wasn’t enough for her to pluck alone; she had to bring along her Shea cousin.

Ivy, who was over three months older than her, brought no less destruction.

In about half an hour,

the vegetable garden was half destroyed.

Old Sir Hale was both heartbroken and helpless. It hadn’t been easy to maintain that garden, having consulted Cressida Jones for much planting advice.

When Cressida visited the Hale Family again and saw the state of the vegetable garden, she found it quite amusing.

Vera liked her and reached out for a hug as soon as she saw her.

“Why didn’t you give us a heads-up that you were coming with my brother?” Zoe Payne smiled at her brother and Cressida.

“We were just passing by and had something to discuss with you,” Tim Payne, always straightforward, got straight to the point.

“What is it?”

“At the wedding, I want Vera to be the flower girl.”

Lately, Tim Payne had been busy preparing for his wedding with Cressida, quite occupied.

“No problem,” Zoe naturally agreed, and the other flower girl spot went to Ivy.

Half a month before the wedding, Cressida delivered the custom-made little dresses, but Zoe was still worried, “Vera is too young and doesn’t follow directions. I’m afraid there might be some unexpected situations.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got it all arranged. We’ll let her get familiar with it beforehand.”

Children are always hard to control, but Vera was mostly well-behaved when she stayed by Zoe’s side.

For example,

she loved to watch her mother make incense patterns;

she also enjoyed sitting on a small stool, watching her mother dance;

She particularly liked the piece ‘Candy Fairy.’ Every time she saw her mother dance to it, she watched intently, sometimes even mimicking a few moves.

For this, William Hale had bought her many ballet dresses.

Vera was born with a full head of hair and usually wore two small pigtails with cute tutu skirts.

The Hale elders adored her deeply; they wanted to give her the stars in the sky.

She had a wardrobe full of various ballet outfits.

Zoe sighed, “Mr. Hale, you’re going to spoil her at this rate.”

“She’s my only daughter, what’s wrong with spoiling her a bit? Besides, the better I treat her now, the less likely she’ll be to fall for some sweet talker and get deceived by a jerk in the future.”

Zoe suffered a lot during childbirth, enduring over three hours of excruciating pain.

So William and Zoe agreed not to plan for a second child for at least the next two years.

Zoe chuckled softly, “What kind of person do you hope she marries?”

William’s face instantly darkened.

He felt that no man in the world was worthy of his daughter.