Spoiled By The CEO: Why The Wife Is Kinda Sweet? novel Chapter 245

Natalia nodded.

“That’s not right,” Ariana frowned. “Logically speaking, with the mistress and her bastard daughter already taking her place, she should have had an inkling of what was going to happen to her and left her own daughter something more than just a necklace.”

“Grandma, you mean…”

“See, if I was your mother and I knew my enemy was gunning not just for your father but the properties of the household, I would have transferred a portion of the property to your name first. That way, even if something were to happen to me, you wouldn’t be as worse off as you could be. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Natalia blinked.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t wondered about it before, but her mother was already dead, so it was pointless to wonder.

And as far as she knew, when her mother was still alive, a lot of property under the Hawkins name had already been taken over by Philip and Clara.

Kiera had been a mild-mannered lady, and she didn’t like to squabble.

Because of that, even though that mother and son duo had developed an increasingly voracious appetite, eventually even changing the Hawkins name to Dawson, she hadn’t spoken up.

And she didn’t know if it was an illusion or not, but Natalia had always felt that her mother had something on her mind.

Sometimes, she’d unconsciously display feelings of guilt towards Philip.

That might have been why Philip’s behavior grew more and more rampant.

Natalia frowned, deep in thought.

Unwilling to allow her to linger in the sorrows of the past, Archie interrupted the topic.

“All right, it’s time for lunch. Enough with the doom and gloom. Here, Natalia, try this hairy crab.”

As he spoke, he peeled a crab himself and put it in Natalia’s bowl.

Natalia recovered her wits and nodded.

On the other side, Anne chimed in. “Daddy, I want to eat the crabby too.”

Archie looked at her and scraped off a little bit of crab roe for her.

The girl looked at the tiny chunk of crab roe in her bowl and raised a fuss.

Pouting, she huffed, “I don’t want it! I want a crabby that Daddy peeled, as big as Mommy’s!”

Then she pointed at Natalia’s bowl.

Natalia found it hard not to laugh at that.

Archie grew stern.

“Don’t you know your own body? The doctor says you can’t eat too much seafood. I’m cutting you some slack for your Mommy even letting you have this much. If you don’t want it, give it back.”

And he really stretched out his hand to take her bowl.

Seeing that, Anne snatched her bowl away.

Her bright eyes watered as her pout grew, looking especially pitiful.

“Bad Daddy, stealing my crab. I’m not sitting with Daddy anymore.”

With that, she hopped off the stool and ran up next to Natalia, sitting down next to her.

“I’m sitting with Mommy now.”

She deliberately looked up to smile at Natalia.

Natalia felt her heart melt as she patted her head in a comforting gesture.

She put some meat in Anne’s bowl, soothing, “If you can’t eat crab, Anne, how about some roast meat? Roast meat is good too.”

Anne nodded and spooned the meat into her mouth, eyes crinkling in satisfaction.

“Thank you, Mommy, the meat Mommy gives me is good.”

As for Archie – “…”

Who was it who’d rather die than eat roast meat, then?

Now that the mother was here, the father was left forgotten!

Looking at the mother and child snuggling up against each other, he felt a surge of displeasure.

A bit of sour jealousy.

Ariana was glad, though. She’d been worried that Natalia wouldn’t get along well with Anne. Looks like she’d been overthinking it.

She didn’t know how Anne’s mind worked. She’d devoted all those years and all that effort to find a good mother for her.

Anne just didn’t like any of them. Even that child from the Kawn family – such a sweet and gentle girl – only got a “barely decent” from Anne and no real approval.

Until she met Natalia, at which point a back door apparently had opened. Ariana had never seen Anne so well-behaved.

The old lady was glad.

Curious, Natalia asked, “I only knew that Anne’s body was in poor shape before, but not any of what was going on. Does she have a disease? Or was she always sickly?”

When that subject came up, the expressions of the family around the table changed subtly.

Archie’s face remained still, while Ariana sighed.

“It’s a long story. Anne’s different from normal children; she…”

Natalia leant in, listening closely.

“She wasn’t born from a normal pregnancy but through an artificial womb. A test tube baby. There were some issues, so the child has never been in good health.”

Hearing that, Natalia was quite shocked.

She’d always thought that Anne was a memento of one of Archie’s previous girlfriends?

But she was from an artificial womb?

Natalia had never seen it herself, but she’d heard of artificial wombs on the news while out of the country.

Apparently, some medical genius had simulated a pregnant environment for the baby to take up the burden of women giving birth.

She didn’t think it had actually succeeded!

Natalia’s expression of care and concern for Anne grew even more now.

She’d been through enough already, but it turned out she didn’t even have a mother!

If that person who donated an egg could even count as a mother.

Natalia felt a surge of deep regret that she hadn’t treated Anne a little better so far.

Anne was a bit confused herself, not understanding why the atmosphere among the adults had sank.

She blinked, then tugged on Natalia’s sleeve.

“What are you talking about, Mommy?”

Heart aching, Natalia bent over and hugged her, soothing, “Nothing. You’re a good girl, Anne.”

Anne let her hold her in her arms and didn’t move, staring sweetly up at her.

She wasn’t completely in the dark. It was just that she didn’t understand the finer points.

For example, she knew that they were talking about her background, and that Natalia was hugging her because she felt bad for her.

But she didn’t think she had anything to feel bad about.

Daddy had already told her she had a Mommy. Her Mommy was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Daddy even had pictures of Mommy on his computer. The moment Anne saw Natalia, she’d recognized her right away.

And Daddy had said that even though she was different from normal kids, that was just in the way she was born.

The rest was all the same. If they had to split hairs, then she was probably different in that she was prettier and cuter!