C5 Replace The Gift

The car arrived at the ancestral mansion and Eve jumped out with the painting in her hands.

Ethan also left the car and a servant approached them. After greeting them, the servant told them Ethan's grandfather was in the garden behind the mansion, soaking up the morning's atmosphere.

"The garden is this way, where are you going?" As Eve was about to dash into the house, Ethan said in confusion.

Eve stopped walking and held tight to the painting. She must replace this gift with the one she'd presented last night fast. As the mansion seemed calm and the servants worked in harmony, it meant the old man hadn't opened her gift yet.

"Ethan, Darling." She turned around and put on her best smile, holding her stomach. "You can go see Grandpa first. I'm pressed and must use the washroom immediately."

Ethan frowned and glanced at the painting. "I'll hold it for you. Be fast."

"N–No no no." Eve shooked her head. "Since this gift is from me to Grandpa, I must give it to him hand to hand. Please go ahead, give me five minutes, I'll join you soon."

Without waiting for his response, Eve ran into the house through the large doors.

Ethan's grandfather's room should be on the left wing. She darted for the stairs, hoping no one would see or sense her presence. But in the middle of the stairs, she met some servants coming down with wrapped boxes. The birthday gifts.

"Good morning, Ms. Maxwell." The servants hid their surprise behind warm smiles.

Eve asked them where they were taking the gifts, and as her gut instincts told her, they were headed for the garden where the old man would take a look at each gift.

"This is our first batch, there's still more upstairs." Eve staggered with relief when the servants told her that.

She checked the gifts they were holding and hers wasn't among them. That meant she wasn't too late.

She increased her pace as she rushed up the stairs and headed to the old man's room. The first thing that caught her eye was the small box in a corner stacked between larger boxes.

Letting out another sigh of relief, Eve quickly replaced the box with the painting in her hand and peeled off her label from the box then carefully plastered it on the painting's wrap.

After that, she turned around and left the room, then came the sound of someone whistling.

Eve came face to face with Matt, Ethan's brother.

She quickly hid the box behind her and put on a blank expression. She didn't get along with Ethan's family, and Matt was on her number one blacklist.

The guy's personality was so troublesome that even Ethan couldn't stand him.

"Well, if this isn't my dear sister-in-law." As Eve did her best to hide the box, Matt kept walking forward.

"My eyes must be deceiving me, otherwise, why would someone like you come here early this morning? And oh, you're also snooping around." He tapped his chin, grinning widely.

"Rumors have it that last night, you and my Big Bro couldn't keep your hands off each other. It was too hard to believe, but your sudden absence from the party made me think again. Hehe, Eve, if you've devised a new way to torture my Big Bro, you should at least let me know. After all, I can give you better ideas."

"Y–You, stay away from me." He kept moving forward and now, Eve was trapped against the wall.

Damnit! She couldn't believe that people saw what happened between her and Ethan last night.

"I'm also curious about what you're doing in Grandpa's room," Matt went on. "Tell me you're not crazy enough to try anything funny on the old man. I'll cheer for you when it comes to tricking my Big Bro, but don't think that I'll let you go if you try anything on Grandpa."

Eve gulped and avoided his eyes. "L–Let me go, Matt. I swear I'm not going to break your head. If you don't get out of my sight, I'll make sure–"

"Gotcha!" While Eve was distracted, Matt grabbed her hand and snatched the box. Then he peeled off the wrap, opening it. "Now let's see what you're hiding in— Bah! Cow dung!"

The box fell off Matt's hands and he used both hands to cover his nose. Eve belched and she also covered her nose.

"Evelyn, you retarded maniac! Are you planning to kill my Grandpa!?" Matt yelled and pointed a shaking finger at her.

Eve grimaced and her eyes darted around for sight of anyone.

Matt was not exaggerating. The cow dung surely could kill the old man. Ethan's grandfather was a clean freak and was allergic to any kind of odor.

But in her past life, the cow dung didn't kill him, however, he spent several weeks recovering from the allergy. This incident led to a huge fight between Ethan and his grandfather. Ethan tried to protect her, but the old man couldn't hear of it. Eve ended up getting into the old man's bad books, Ethan included.

"This is so disrespectful, I must tell Grandpa about this."

As Matt turned around to head downstairs, Eve's heart jolted in fright.

"Listen here, Little Matt." She hurried after him and grabbed his arm. "If you dare tell Grandpa about this, I'll also tell him that you've started hanging out with a bad company that deals in drugs."

"W–What!?" Matt came to a screeching halt and his eyes flew wide. "H–How did you know about that?"