The Rich And Bold

Puppet

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

SCARLETT

It was four in the evening by the time I got to the Diamond estate. As usual, Kai's mother welcomed me with a hug and led me to their entertainment room where the snacks and TV had already been set up. She smothered me with questions, asking me if I was okay after what I had found out at the dinner the day before. She only let it rest when I repeatedly emphasized that I was fine and that Kai and I had not broken up. She was relieved. Knowing Kai, he had probably left everyone to think whatever they wanted and locked himself in his room. 

I was the first to arrive and the twins were yet to come downstairs. 

"I have something for you," Brigida said as she walked to the Christmas tree by the door. The maid had already placed the presents that I had brought under the tree together with the ones that were already there. She bent down to pick up a huge gift bag and walked back to me. "We were supposed to give this to you yesterday. We share gifts as a family during our Christmas dinners, but we had to do that earlier this year because we will be apart on Christmas day." She smiled kindly.

I ruined their gift sharing. I blushed deeply and gripped my arms. "I-I'm s-so sorry. I ruined-"

"Oh, nonsense." Brigida shook her head with a chuckle. "You didn't ruin anything. Everyone got their gifts eventually. Your reaction was valid, anyone would have been as shocked as you were. Here, open it." She placed the gift bag in my head.

I hesitantly accepted it. The same warm feeling of acceptance engulfed me and I smiled. "You didn't have to."

"Of course we did. It's from the family." She touched my arm affectionately.

I sat in the sofa and removed the huge gift box from the gift bag. I opened it up to see five cook books from my favourite chefs. On each book was a sticky note from each chef. I gasped. 

No way. 

I opened the first book to see that the first page had been autographed.

"No way" I hurriedly flipped through the other books and realized that they had all been autographed. "No way" I repeated a second time. There was Gordon Ramsay, Yannick Alléno, Anne-Sophie Pic, Martín Berasategui and Joël Robuchon.

Brigida laughed and I looked up at her with teary eyes. "Thank you so much."

"Oh this is the least of the gifts you'll be receiving tonight sweetheart. We heard that you loved cooking and you had only met Blumenthal, so we decided to get you this."

"I love it Brigida, thank you so much. You have no idea how happy this has made me."

Her grin widened as she sat beside me to envelope me in a hug. "It's our absolute pleasure."

"Aww, mom I wanted to see her reaction." Azalea whined. I turned to see her walking in with her expensive white and gold walking stick, dressed in a white halter dress and sporting a new, gold anklet in addition to the two she always wore. She looked cute. She smiled when she saw me staring at it and explained that she decided to decorate her less functional foot and that she had even gotten another gold one ad an additional thin, diamond anklet for special occasions. She had also gotten two additional piercings on both lower lobes, making six in total.