Oliver's Substitute Bride (Oliver and Jessica) novel Chapter 131

"Just tell Tom what you need. Look at you, standing here with a sad face and smoking early in the morning."

Carl glanced at the paper he held. It was Okay to ask Tom for help if he needed something else. But her father would definitely misunderstand him if he knew that his son needed something for women.

"Don't bother. It's almost ten o'clock. The mall will be open soon."

"Remember to go home early." His father instructed before he left.

"I know. Goodbye, Dad."

Carl was born abroad, when his father, Duke Salen, was a poor international student.

Later, Duke returned to China for starting businesses and successfully made a fortune. Then he arranged for Carl to study in a private school in America.

After graduating from college, Carl returned to work in Birmingham. He did a futures business here but lost a lot of money. It was such a disaster that even his mother couldn't help him. So, Carl had to return to America.

After returning home from abroad, he swore to get rid of his shame. So he became a trader on Wall Street. Later, he did business with Oliver.

As soon as the mall had opened, Carl walked into a clothing store and bought a whole suit of clothes when the shop assistants were still preparing for the opening.

When he came back, Alice couldn't wait to grab the clothes, put them on in the bathroom, and leave immediately.

Carl then went back to his room to sleep.

Jessica went to the Williams Hospital early in the morning. She had an appointment with the doctor for a prenatal examination.

After the checkup, the doctor told her to go around more often, because the baby in her belly was relatively larger than the normal size, and this would make her easy to give birth in the future.

That was true. Since she had recovered from the hospital and moved to the GrandVille Apartments, Oliver often made nutritious food for her. It seemed that she and the baby were over-nourished.

In addition, she was prone to sit more than exercise, so she had put some weight.

After finishing the examination, Jessica went to visit her grandma.

Her grandma mentioned the past again. She told her grandma that she had sent her painting to Oliver as a gift.

Seeing that Jessica and Oliver had a good marital relationship, she was greatly relieved that her beloved granddaughter would live a happy life.

Grandma asked, "Did you find a good framer to frame your painting?"

"Yes, I did. It was a friend who took me to a small shop in the east of the city. The framer is old but had superb skill. His wonderful frame made my ordinary painting even better."

"Frames do credits to paintings." Grandma said, "By the way, do you know the framer's family name?"

"Langston...It's Mr. Langston." Jessica worried that she would get it wrong. She was befuddled by the pregnancy and the injured brain, so it took her a few more seconds to remember the name.

"Well, it's Mr. Langston from the east of the city. I know this person. Your grandfather used to frame paintings at his place."

"It seems that people really need to develop their own skills." Jessica smiled, worrying that she was not good at drawing, and she totally had no idea what she could do when she resumed working in the future.

After leaving the hospital, Jessica followed the doctor's instructions and planned to go out for a walk.

She asked the driver to take her to a museum.

Walking up and down when attending the exhibition was much more interesting than doing sports.

The museum was holding an exhibition about renaissance oil paintings which were originally collected abroad.

Jessica had never studied oil painting before, but she enjoyed these paintings because different arts were interlinked.

Jessica suddenly heard someone calling her name. It was not loud but could be clearly heard in the quiet exhibition hall.

She looked around but did not find the caller.

In order to protect the paintings, lights in the exhibition hall were specially adjusted to be dim. However, she still couldn't remember the name of someone she had known before under brighter lights.

To avoid embarrassment, she smiled politely.

Then, she found an old man with glasses was walking towards her.

"Hi, Jessica, this is Hayden Halper. I heard from James that you had a car accident and lost your memory before. I'm really sorry to hear that."

Jessica replied Hayden who looked kind, "Hello, Mr. Halper. I'm fine. It was only a minor head injury. But I don't quite remember much of what had happened before. The doctor said that I had a bit of memory loss and will recover slowly to normal."

"Well, that's good." Hayden looked like he was really worried about her. "Are you still drawing?"

"Mr. Halper know I like to draw?"

"Of course, I know. I used to be your painting teacher."

That explained the matter. Jessica got embarrassed and smiled, "I'm sorry, Mr. Halper."

"Jessica, you don't need to say sorry. I'm relieved that you're healthy." Hayden found that Jessica was in much better condition than when she was in his studio.

Hayden went to the museum for an academic seminar and happened to have time to visit the exhibition. After a brief chat with Jessica, he hurried upstairs.

After Jessica returned to GrandVille Apartments, she was thinking about the conversation with Hayden. Hayden had told her that she learned drawing from him when she was a child, and she had drawn a set of paintings in his studio not long ago.

She felt that her current painting skill was not as perfect as she want. Oliver praised her only because he wanted to make her happy.

Then, she had the idea to invite Hayden to teach her drawing at home. Now she had a lot of time to refine her drawing skills.

After Oliver came back in the evening, Jessica told him her idea.

Oliver would not like to agree with it at first. He didn't mean to isolate Jessica from others. He worried that it would be tiring for a pregnant woman to sit and draw for a long time every day, and he was afraid that she was unable to stand the fatigue.

However, Jessica finally wined. Oliver agreed to invite Hayden home for teaching drawing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Jessica knew that Oliver didn't like strangers to visit the GrandVille Apartments, so it was not easy for him to agree to her request.

She obediently took a book and followed Oliver to his study for accompanying.

Oliver was busy with unfinished work on his computer.

From time to time, he looked at Jessica, who was reading on the sofa and smiled imperceptibly.

Oliver's phone rang. He took the phone and glanced at the caller ID. Then, he opened the door of the study and went downstairs to answer the phone.

Jessica also stood up from the sofa.

‘Why did he have to go downstairs for answering a phone call mysteriously?’ She was confused.

She was not a very suspicious woman, but Oliver's serious expression when seeing the phone call made Jessica feel that something was wrong.

Although she never stepped into Olive's work, she knew that he had never avoided her when he answered his work phone.

Jessica closed the book and threw it on the desk.