The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 214

Before Judith could even respond, Zenia stood up on her own accord. "I'll go to the door and bring them in."

Zenia led three young women in from the entryway, their giggles echoing into the living room before their footsteps did.

"Mom, this is Wendy, my eldest brother's daughter. She's in grad school in Marina Island."

Zenia pulled forward a girl dressed in a Chanel suit, then gestured to the two behind her.

"This is Eleanor from my second brother's family—she works at an investment bank. And this is Rosalind from my third brother's family. She's an art major."

The three girls lined up and chorused respectfully.

Sitting at the head of the room, Judith gave a curt nod, a perfectly polite but rigid smile pinned to her lips.

The three girls took turns coming forward to present their gifts.

The older woman didn't reach out to take them. Instead, she simply instructed Maeve, "Put them away."

With the gifts handed over, the group stood awkwardly in place, their eyes constantly darting over toward Garnett.

Judith reached out and grabbed Lavinia's wrist. "Come into the sunroom with me and arrange some flowers. It's too noisy out here."

Lavinia set down her teacup and helped Judith to her feet.

Stepping into the sunroom, Judith sat down and let out a long, exhausted sigh.

"It's like this every single year. My birthday is louder than a circus."

She picked up a stalk of lily, stripping away the excess leaves.

"How has work been for you lately?"

"It's going really well. My coworkers are great, and my supervisors take good care of me," Lavinia smiled.

Judith nodded. "That's good."

She paused, then asked, "Did Garnett show you the designs for the jewelry cabinets? Which one do you like?"

Lavinia froze. Jewelry cabinets? Garnett had never mentioned a word about them.

Seeing the blank look on her face, Judith flared up with annoyance, slamming the flower stem onto the table.

"What is wrong with that boy? I explicitly told him I was passing everything down to you, and I told him to custom-build some jewelry cabinets for you. What? Did he not even bring it up?"

Julian nodded, turned on his heel, and walked out.

Maeve followed him out to peek at the situation and soon returned with a report. "Julian invited the Ford girls and Garnett upstairs to play poker. He told them he'd cover their losses. They practically ran upstairs when they heard that."

Judith chuckled and shook her head. "That boy is always so considerate of others. Too bad his wallet's going to take a hit today."

"Spending a little money to buy some peace and quiet is well worth it," Julian's voice came from the doorway, with Garnett standing right behind him.

Judith glanced at Garnett. "Didn't you go play cards with your new cousins?"

Garnett walked over to Lavinia, taking a seat beside her with a smile. "I'll let Zenia entertain her own nieces. I'd obviously rather stay here and keep you and Lavinia company."

Lavinia didn't look at him, keeping her eyes glued to the flowers in her hands.

She remembered Charley saying he would come today.

But on an occasion like this, when he wasn't a relative and hadn't been formally invited, how was he supposed to show up?

She wondered if he would keep his word this time, just like he always did.