Divorced My Scum Husband, Married His Evil brother

"I see, hmm…" Vernon hummed for a moment. "What's her reason? Usually a child wouldn't want to transfer school. They'd be upset and refuse to do it willingly."

"It's bullying…." Chloe replied. "She has been bullied by two children whose mothers slept with Vincent. She had a good homeroom teacher who could protect her in school. Not anymore, though. Vincent must've arranged Mrs. Allison-- the previous homeroom teacher, to be replaced by a less-caring homeroom teacher that won't give a crap even if Mackie gets yelled at by her bullies."

"Sadly, I can't do anything to prevent the bullying because the Principal, Mrs. Andrew, is Vincent's lapdog. She'll do anything to appease Vincent because she's afraid that Vincent will pull his funding and also take back the land."

Vernon nodded. He looked calm, but there was a raging storm in his head. His mind replayed that moment when Chloe returned to his office covered with bruises. It was his fault because he gave in and allowed only two bodyguards to protect Chloe, even though he should've sent ten at least.

When Mackie said that changing school would stop the bullies from finding her and her Mommy, she really meant it. Because of this, Vincent will lose track of Chloe and Mackie's whereabouts, which would make him frantic.

'I have to be prepared if Vincent becomes frantic. He'll become very unpredictable,' Vernon thought. He opened his eyes and stared at Chloe. He sighed and muttered;

"Honestly, I've been trying to find a good time to suggest transferring Mackie to another school. That school is owned by my family, and currently under the hand of Vincent. So he can do whatever in that place," Vernon said. "As long as Mackie is in that school, you two will still be under his control, and I don't like that. I don't feel safe knowing that Vincent can take both of you easily."

Chloe was stunned by Vernon's statement because that statement was eerily similar to what Dorothea said.

As long as Mackie was still in that school, she was still under Vincent's control and was at his mercy.

"You're right," Chloe agreed. "I thought about it while taking a walk around your apartment today, and realized that I have to take decisive action to transfer Mackie, or else we will never be able to escape Vincent."

"For four hours?" Vernon questioned. "Mackie told me that you went out for four hours."

"Haha, yeah… I was just bored. So I walked to each floor to check the corridors. Nothing much," Chloe said. She averted her gaze subconsciously, even though she tried her best to look natural in front of Vernon.

…

Vernon went silent instantly. His eyes darkened, staring at Chloe, who was fidgeting uncomfortably in front of him.

"V—Vernon?" Chloe called his name. "Are you okay? You look… angry…"

"Oh, sorry," Vernon tried to act nice to hide his anger. But he couldn't smile at all. "I was thinking about what happened to you during that Autumn Festival."

"Ah, please forget that, I don't want you to think about bad memories too much," Chloe said. She stretched her hand, trying to reach Vernon, but Vernon didn't even budge, which made her feel awkward.

"I can't forget it, I refuse to," Vernon replied. "I feel like my pride as a man has been trampled when I saw you getting bruises all over. It hurts me too much that I keep thinking about it day and night."

"Chloe, your pain is my pain. We have a connection, and I want to know everything about you, got it?" Vernon said. He was trying to give a signal to Chloe to come clean about her four hours of absence today, so things wouldn't escalate because Chloe was a bad liar, and she wasn't fooling anyone right now.

Unfortunately, Chloe only shook her head, "I have nothing to hide from you."

"You sure have nothing to hide from me," Vernon said sarcastically, though Chloe didn't seem to catch any of his hints. So he tried to shift the topic, or else he'd get infuriated, "Anyway, I have a few private elementary schools in mind. It's not in a gated area like Mackie's current school, but it's not too far from our current location."

"Besides, I've been thinking about moving out as well," Vernon said.

"Moving out?!" Chloe jolted.

"Yeah, I mean, I live in this penthouse because I don't really have a family. This is just a place for me to rest in New York before you and Mackie come to my life," Vernon said. "Now that I have a family, I prefer a landed house, a house in a gated neighborhood, with proper security and a nice garden. I know that you like gardening, right?"

"Mm…" Chloe nodded. "I love gardening, I've been doing it since I was a child."

"I know. I watched you gardening in Gray mansion when I was a kid," Vernon said. "I can buy a house near Mackie's new school. I don't even mind if we have to move far from here, maybe a state away?"

Chloe remembered Dorothea as Vernon kept on talking about moving out. Dorothea was trying to heal herself from such a traumatic life experience. She was trying to get better, and Chloe knew that Dorothea needed her as a support.

She couldn't just leave so far away and leave Dorothea alone. Something bad might happen if Dorothea's depression spiraled out of control!

"What do you think?" Vernon asked.

Chloe swallowed her saliva.

Honestly, she wanted to live in a landed house with a spacious garden, so she could do gardening in her free time. Vincent's mansion was beautiful, but the fact that Vincent lived there turned the beautiful mansion into a prison she couldn't wait to escape.

But Dorothea's mental health was her utmost concern now. She also wanted to help mend Dorothea and Vernon's relationship, so moving to another place was out of the question.

"I—I don't think we need to move out, Vernon," Chloe said. "We can transfer Mackie to another school, but I want us to stay here, in your apartment, at least for a while."