Bringing the Nation's Husband Home III

IV | Missing him comes in waves. Tonight, she's drowning.

When "Heavenly Sword" was released, there were five days left until the New Year's eve. After Mrs. Williams's birthday, the busiest day for Isabelle was twenty eighth of the twelfth month. In the afternoon, they announced the release of "Heavenly Sword", and in the evening, she went to its release party.

On the twenty-ninth day, Camila flew to London with her boyfriend. Isabelle, who hadn't much to do, personally drove them to the airport.

At the time, it was already closing in to the end of the year, and so the roads had only a third of the cars usually there, which resulted in barely any traffic. On her way home, Isabelle received a call from her uncle urging her to come back to the Davis family estate that night.

Though Isabelle agreed, she only went back to the Davis family in the afternoon of the thirtieth.

The servants there had already gone home for the New Year's, and so when Isabelle arrived, Sophia and Mrs. Davis were wrapping dumplings.

Just as Isabelle pushed open the door, she hadn't even taken her shoes off when she heard Sophia call out, "Izzy, hurry! Come wrap these dumplings."

Isabelle gave a quick response, then saw Mr. Davis standing right at the door, sticking rhyming couplets on the wall. As he was on his own, she didn't feel right, so she went over to give him a helping hand. Later, she entered the house, washed her hands, and helped them wrap dumplings.

Mr. Davis personally cooked the New Year's dinner. After so many years, the Davis family still followed the same old rules during New Year's. The large dining table was filled with rich foods. They couldn't be without a chicken, duck, and fish, and the main dish was always the three filling dumplings. As Mr. Davis would say, the meat filling recipe was originally invented by Isabelle and Sophia's grandfather. Though it didn't taste surprisingly spectacular, it had a family-feel to it.

They started to cook the dumplings at seven o'clock, and Sophia went upstairs to get changed. She dressed herself up very nicely, and ran out the house with just her phone. Then, after about half an hour, just when the dumplings were all cooked, the doorbell rang.

When Isabelle opened the door, there was an extra person behind Sophia. It was Jake.

Sophia didn't wait for Isabelle to ask and said, "Jake's parents are abroad and can't make it back, so I invited him to spend New Year's celebrations at ours."

In the ten months Alexander hadn't been around, Sophia and Jake had gone public with their relationship. She had brought him to the Davis family estate a few times. If one looked back, Jake was the only boyfriend of Sophia's that had went past the door of the Davis family house.

Mrs. Davis had always liked Jake. After her daughter came back from their dates, she would even especially go and watch a few of his movies. She liked him so much that every time she played mahjong, she would often recommend her daughter's boyfriend's new dramas to her mahjong friends.

So, when Mrs. Davis learned that Jake had come over, she stopped cooking the dumplings and ran out of the kitchen to offer him a seat.

When New Year's dinner officially started in the Davis family home, New Year's Gala just came on the television. Mr. Davis went over to turn up the volume.

Even though people only kept saying that the New Year's Gala got worse year after year, they couldn't deny that it had become a tradition that made the New Year's feel special.

In the past, Mr. Davis would be the only man at the table for New Year's Eve, and Sophia would sometimes have a few drinks with him, but today there was Jake. Mr. Davis especially brought out a bottle of the good stuff he'd been storing.