Turning Of the Tide by Diana Sander

Chapter 563

Angie’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot as she watched her daughter scamper away in a hurry. She smiled

awkwardly. She was so happy chatting with the in-laws that she forgot about the potential problem upstairs.

It was fine if Stella was dressed neatly, but she came down as she always did when she was at home.

Frank, who had been leaning against the door, suddenly stood up straight and said to the people in the living room,

“I’m heading out for a while.” Emma nodded and did not ask where he was going. She simply instructed, “Drive

slowly.”

“I know,” Frank replied calmly.

Actually, Frank had straightened his mindset. His relationship with Ava was no different from being married. Since

he was living at the Turner Manor, it meant that they had long accepted him into the family. He might as well get

familiar, especially since the Yamin family was here. After all, he and Ava would be married sooner rather than

later.

After Frank left, Emma retracted her gaze and began to persuade Angie. “Don’t be angry. This means that Stella is

treating this place as her home. This is a good thing. You don’t want your daughter to lose sleep over it, right?”

“No matter what it is, you can always put a positive spin on it. Nothing can make you angry.”

Emma said with a faint smile, “That’s because I think about the positive side of everything. You can’t get angry

when you think about things that don’t make you angry. Children have their own way of living. We have our own

ideas. Once Stella gets married and has children, it will be difficult for her to sleep late every day. There will be little

fellows waiting -to be fed beside her and wailing like alarm bells.”

Angie was amused by Emma. “Your emotions are always so stable. It’s great that Joseph is like you. I’m just

impatient. I’m extremely irritable when something happens. Sometimes I just explode into a temper. It gets me so

angry every time.”

After Ava brought Jasper upstairs, Natalie did not ask Ava to bring Jasper to get his toys. Instead, she communicated

with her son for a while about

10.23

going to see his little cousin before getting his toy.

In Christina’s room, three women were sitting and chatting. Jasper was sitting beside the cradle. His gaze met with

the eyes of little baby in the cradle. It was as though both of them wanted to see who could maintain eye contact

the longest.

Natalie said, “Jasper, he’ll be shy if you look at him like that.”

Jasper said, “No. He doesn’t know how to speak.”

Natalie blinked at his response.

Christina raised her hand to her mouth. Such behavior was expected of the son of Trevon. “Your mother-in-law is

taking care of the twins?”

“Yes, we came out to relax for a few days. Rachel and Theo insisted that we come out. If we don’t, Theo might

chase us out.”

In order not to burden Christina, Natalie told half-truths.

Ava’s phone vibrated. She took it out and saw that it was from Frank. [I’m going to buy a toy for Jasper.]

Ava replied, [Alright. Drive carefully.]

Frank responded, [Sure.]

Half an hour later, Stella came out of her room fully dressed. When she heard the laughter overflowing from

Christina’s room, she knocked a few times before pushing the door open.

She scratched her head awkwardly. As soon as she entered, she received a cold look from Christina. Christina

criticized sarcastically, “You can still sleep for a few more hours. Why don’t you sleep until after lunch, too?”

Stella lowered her head as she realized her mistake. After all, she was in someone else’s house and was a guest. It

was indeed not good to sleep in. It was just that the bed was too comfortable, and she overslept.

Stella thought to herself, “When I leave, I must ask Ava what brand their mattress is. Actually, if not for the loud

noise downstairs, I may really have missed lunch.”

However, she did not dare to say this to Christina. She only thought about it silently.

Ava tried to smooth things over and said with a smile, “It’s fine, Christina. I used to sleep like this too. Perhaps Stella

can’t get used to sleeping in a different bed, right? Did you toss and turn in the first half of the night because you

couldn’t sleep?”

279

10:25

“That’s right. You’re right. Perhaps I just haven’t adapted yet.”

Christina was furious. She really did not know when Stella would become sensible. She did not understand the

etiquette and the ways of the world yet. Christina blamed herself for forgetting to remind Stella to set the alarm

last night.

The girl probably thought that she really was on a long vacation.

As she was reprimanding Stella, Joseph pushed open the door and entered the room. “What’s wrong?” The

atmosphere in the room was a little serious.

Ava’s eyes indicated that Christina was angry and asked Joseph to persuade her. Joseph, who understood what she

meant, walked to Christina’s side with a smile and winked at his sister. “I thought something was wrong. Since this is

Stella’s first time visiting our house and she slept late, it can only mean one thing. Guess what the reason is.”

Joseph threw the question at Christina, who was still glaring at Stella. Neither of them treated Natalie as an outsider.

“What other reason could there be? She must have stayed up late to watch drama.”/

“It means that she’s integrated well with our family. Stella, can you wake up before 9:30 tomorrow? Everyone wants

to go out and play. If you wake up late, you can only admire the flowers in the courtyard at home.” Stella nodded

vigorously. Seeing that Joseph was so protective of Stella, Christina was too embarrassed to say anything else. In

fact, she knew in her heart that Stella was at ease staying with the Turner family. Indeed, she was at ease wherever

she went as long as she did not have to go to work.

Natalie took out a card and gave it to Christina. She explained, “Joseph, Christina, this is a gift for the child from

Trevon and me. We don’t know what to buy, so we’ll let you buy it yourselves.”

“Then I’ll accept it.” Joseph did not stand on ceremony. He smiled and accepted it because he knew that he had to

accept this card. Natalie was here to give a gift. It was their act of kindness. Natalie would only be happy if he

accepted it.

“You are always so straightforward.” As expected, when Natalie saw that Joseph accepted it so readily, the corners

Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt

of her mouth curled up and she could not help but praise.

“Jasper, why do you keep looking at your little cousin? Come and let Uncle Joseph hug you. Wow. You seem to have

gained a lot of weight.

10:25

You’ll be going to school soon.” Joseph got up from the bed and handed the card to Christina, indicating for her to

keep it.

He picked up Jasper, who was sitting on the chair and rubbed his forehead against Jasper’s.

“He could have gone to the day-care center on September 1st this year, but Theo felt that Jasper was too young

and didn’t want him to go. He wanted him to play for another year,” Natalie explained.

“Sherri’s daughter didn’t go either?” Ava asked.

“Yes, she did not too. Sherri plans for her to go with Jasper next year.” After staying in Christina’s room for more

than half an hour, they went downstairs as they did not want to disturb Christina’s rest, Joseph didn’t follow them

downstairs immediately. Instead, he accompanied Christina in the room.

Stella came downstairs. She darted around the room. She felt that there was a scorching gaze glaring at her from

afar. It was so intense that she felt uncomfortable. She looked up and saw that it was indeed from her mother.

“Mom, I was wrong. Can you don’t look at me with your murderous gaze?”

The sound of a car pulling up at the house came from outside the door. Without a doubt, Frank was back.

Hearing the sound of the car, Ava, who had been sitting on the ground and looking at toys with Jasper, quickly stood

up and ran out. She ran too fast and bumped straight into Frank’s arms.

Frank held Ava’s waist with one hand and held a big toy with the other. It was a cool black submachine gun.

“What did you buy?”

He raised the gun in his hand as an answer to her question.

“Are you going to teach Jasper how to shoot a gun?”

“Yeah,” Frank replied.

Ava glanced at the gun. Even she could feel how cool it was through the box. She held Frank’s hand as they entered

the door. She raised her voice and shouted, “Jasper, come and take your gift.”

Trevon and Natalie stood up to see what Frank had specially gone out to buy. When they saw the toy in Frank’s

hand, Trevon smiled. “You are

10.25

very generous.”

It was obvious that the price of the toy was not cheap. When Trevon was young, he had often bought the brand to

collect, but his grandfather supervised his education and confiscated them.

“He’s my nephew after all,” Frank said naturally. He bent down and. handed the gun to Jasper. “Your father didn’t

buy you this before, did he?” There really weren’t any. There were planes, cars, Lego… The only thing he didn’t

have was a gun. It was because Trevon was afraid that Jasper could not control his strength well and was also

worried that the older people at home wouldn’t be able to manage the brat, so he didn’t buy it. Jasper nodded. He

liked it very much. He had wanted to buy it for a long time but his father did not agree. “Thank you, Uncle Frank. I

like it.”

Frank rubbed Jasper’s head after he made sure he outdid Trevon. Jasper was very happy to receive the gift and did

not object. He was so excited that he wanted to open it right away. Frank added, “Your father was stopped from

playing this when he was young so he could not play with it. That’s why he did not buy it for you.”

Natalie sat down and helped Jasper to open it. “If you want to play, let Daddy show you first. You can’t turn it on

people.”

Frank leaned against the door with his arms crossed. He said to Natalie, “It’s very safe. The water pellet will shatter

when it hits someone.”

Angie stood in the living room and listened to what was going on. She did not expect Frank to be so meticulous. She

really could not tell he was like this before now.

When the gun was removed from the packaging, Trevon walked over with one hand in his pocket. He took the

submachine gun from his son’s hand. The weight was nothing to him. It was light and did not require any strength.

He raised his eyebrows at Frank, who was standing by the door. “Shall we have a competition?”

In an instant, Jasper’s toy was used in a competition by the two men. The people gathered in the courtyard also

actively helped, especially Stella, who really wanted to participate. “How are you guys going to compete? I’ll be the

assistant.”

When Angie saw that the children were going to play, she planned to go upstairs with Emma to see the baby. On

the stairs, Angie said, “No matter how many there are, they’re all children when they’re playful.”

Emma agreed. “No matter how old they are, they’ll still be children in our

10:28

eyes. It’s the same.”

Ava suddenly remembered that there were still balloons left at home from the previous gathering. “Shall you

compete at shooting balloons? There were many balloons left from before. Frank, can the bullet penetrate the

balloons?”

Frank stood up and pinched Ava’s neck. He replied, “No.”

The gun was for children to play with. He had bought the safest one there was, so it could not even burst a balloon.

It was very harmless. “Oh. What shall we use for the competition then?”

Natalie stood up with her son in her arms and coaxed, “When your daddy and Uncle Frank finish with their

competition, we’ll have them demonstrate how to use it for you, okay?”

“Yes.” Jasper’s emotions were neither high nor low. It was not high because he could not participate and could only

watch. It was also a little. high because his father was competing with Uncle Frank. He was quite looking forward to

it.

Natalie suggested, “How about we use disposable cups? Whoever hits more wins.”

“It’s too easy if we place them on a stool. I think we can increase the difficulty a little. For example…”

Just as Ava was still thinking about it, Stella had a flash of inspiration and spoke up first. “I know. We can hang the

disposable cups on branches, that way, they will move. You guys can aim at them. Is that more

difficult?”

Ava nodded in agreement. “That’s good. Frank, what do you think?” Frank said, “I’ll listen to you.”

Trevon turned around and gestured for the person who had suggested the idea to take action. “Show us how to

hang it.”

Stella was happy to do such a thing. However, she did not know where the cups were placed. She asked Ava, and

then Ava and Stella turned around and went into the villa to get the cups from the kitchen.

Chapter 563

Angie’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot as she watched her daughter scamper away in a hurry. She smiled

awkwardly. She was so happy chatting with the in-laws that she forgot about the potential problem upstairs.

It was fine if Stella was dressed neatly, but she came down as she always did when she was at home.

Frank, who had been leaning against the door, suddenly stood up straight and said to the people in the living room,

“I’m heading out for a while.” Emma nodded and did not ask where he was going. She simply instructed, “Drive

slowly.”

“I know,” Frank replied calmly.

Actually, Frank had straightened his mindset. His relationship with Ava was no different from being married. Since

he was living at the Turner Manor, it meant that they had long accepted him into the family. He might as well get

familiar, especially since the Yamin family was here. After all, he and Ava would be married sooner rather than

later.

After Frank left, Emma retracted her gaze and began to persuade Angie. “Don’t be angry. This means that Stella is

treating this place as her home. This is a good thing. You don’t want your daughter to lose sleep over it, right?”

“No matter what it is, you can always put a positive spin on it. Nothing can make you angry.”

Emma said with a faint smile, “That’s because I think about the positive side of everything. You can’t get angry

when you think about things that don’t make you angry. Children have their own way of living. We have our own

ideas. Once Stella gets married and has children, it will be difficult for her to sleep late every day. There will be little

fellows waiting -to be fed beside her and wailing like alarm bells.”

Angie was amused by Emma. “Your emotions are always so stable. It’s great that Joseph is like you. I’m just

impatient. I’m extremely irritable when something happens. Sometimes I just explode into a temper. It gets me so

angry every time.”

After Ava brought Jasper upstairs, Natalie did not ask Ava to bring Jasper to get his toys. Instead, she communicated

with her son for a while about

10.23

going to see his little cousin before getting his toy.

In Christina’s room, three women were sitting and chatting. Jasper was sitting beside the cradle. His gaze met with

the eyes of little baby in the cradle. It was as though both of them wanted to see who could maintain eye contact

the longest.

Natalie said, “Jasper, he’ll be shy if you look at him like that.”

Jasper said, “No. He doesn’t know how to speak.”

Natalie blinked at his response.

Christina raised her hand to her mouth. Such behavior was expected of the son of Trevon. “Your mother-in-law is

taking care of the twins?”

“Yes, we came out to relax for a few days. Rachel and Theo insisted that we come out. If we don’t, Theo might

chase us out.”

In order not to burden Christina, Natalie told half-truths.

Ava’s phone vibrated. She took it out and saw that it was from Frank. [I’m going to buy a toy for Jasper.]

Ava replied, [Alright. Drive carefully.]

Frank responded, [Sure.]

Half an hour later, Stella came out of her room fully dressed. When she heard the laughter overflowing from

Christina’s room, she knocked a few times before pushing the door open.

She scratched her head awkwardly. As soon as she entered, she received a cold look from Christina. Christina

criticized sarcastically, “You can still sleep for a few more hours. Why don’t you sleep until after lunch, too?”

Stella lowered her head as she realized her mistake. After all, she was in someone else’s house and was a guest. It

was indeed not good to sleep in. It was just that the bed was too comfortable, and she overslept.

Stella thought to herself, “When I leave, I must ask Ava what brand their mattress is. Actually, if not for the loud

noise downstairs, I may really have missed lunch.”

However, she did not dare to say this to Christina. She only thought about it silently.

Ava tried to smooth things over and said with a smile, “It’s fine, Christina. I used to sleep like this too. Perhaps Stella

can’t get used to sleeping in a different bed, right? Did you toss and turn in the first half of the night because you

couldn’t sleep?”

279

10:25

“That’s right. You’re right. Perhaps I just haven’t adapted yet.”

Christina was furious. She really did not know when Stella would become sensible. She did not understand the

etiquette and the ways of the world yet. Christina blamed herself for forgetting to remind Stella to set the alarm

last night.

The girl probably thought that she really was on a long vacation.

As she was reprimanding Stella, Joseph pushed open the door and entered the room. “What’s wrong?” The

atmosphere in the room was a little serious.

Ava’s eyes indicated that Christina was angry and asked Joseph to persuade her. Joseph, who understood what she

meant, walked to Christina’s side with a smile and winked at his sister. “I thought something was wrong. Since this is

Stella’s first time visiting our house and she slept late, it can only mean one thing. Guess what the reason is.”

Joseph threw the question at Christina, who was still glaring at Stella. Neither of them treated Natalie as an outsider.

“What other reason could there be? She must have stayed up late to watch drama.”/

“It means that she’s integrated well with our family. Stella, can you wake up before 9:30 tomorrow? Everyone wants

to go out and play. If you wake up late, you can only admire the flowers in the courtyard at home.” Stella nodded

vigorously. Seeing that Joseph was so protective of Stella, Christina was too embarrassed to say anything else. In

fact, she knew in her heart that Stella was at ease staying with the Turner family. Indeed, she was at ease wherever

she went as long as she did not have to go to work.

Natalie took out a card and gave it to Christina. She explained, “Joseph, Christina, this is a gift for the child from

Trevon and me. We don’t know what to buy, so we’ll let you buy it yourselves.”

“Then I’ll accept it.” Joseph did not stand on ceremony. He smiled and accepted it because he knew that he had to

accept this card. Natalie was here to give a gift. It was their act of kindness. Natalie would only be happy if he

accepted it.

“You are always so straightforward.” As expected, when Natalie saw that Joseph accepted it so readily, the corners

Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm

of her mouth curled up and she could not help but praise.

“Jasper, why do you keep looking at your little cousin? Come and let Uncle Joseph hug you. Wow. You seem to have

gained a lot of weight.

10:25

You’ll be going to school soon.” Joseph got up from the bed and handed the card to Christina, indicating for her to

keep it.

He picked up Jasper, who was sitting on the chair and rubbed his forehead against Jasper’s.

“He could have gone to the day-care center on September 1st this year, but Theo felt that Jasper was too young

and didn’t want him to go. He wanted him to play for another year,” Natalie explained.

“Sherri’s daughter didn’t go either?” Ava asked.

“Yes, she did not too. Sherri plans for her to go with Jasper next year.” After staying in Christina’s room for more

than half an hour, they went downstairs as they did not want to disturb Christina’s rest, Joseph didn’t follow them

downstairs immediately. Instead, he accompanied Christina in the room.

Stella came downstairs. She darted around the room. She felt that there was a scorching gaze glaring at her from

afar. It was so intense that she felt uncomfortable. She looked up and saw that it was indeed from her mother.

“Mom, I was wrong. Can you don’t look at me with your murderous gaze?”

The sound of a car pulling up at the house came from outside the door. Without a doubt, Frank was back.

Hearing the sound of the car, Ava, who had been sitting on the ground and looking at toys with Jasper, quickly stood

up and ran out. She ran too fast and bumped straight into Frank’s arms.

Frank held Ava’s waist with one hand and held a big toy with the other. It was a cool black submachine gun.

“What did you buy?”

He raised the gun in his hand as an answer to her question.

“Are you going to teach Jasper how to shoot a gun?”

“Yeah,” Frank replied.

Ava glanced at the gun. Even she could feel how cool it was through the box. She held Frank’s hand as they entered

the door. She raised her voice and shouted, “Jasper, come and take your gift.”

Trevon and Natalie stood up to see what Frank had specially gone out to buy. When they saw the toy in Frank’s

hand, Trevon smiled. “You are

10.25

very generous.”

It was obvious that the price of the toy was not cheap. When Trevon was young, he had often bought the brand to

collect, but his grandfather supervised his education and confiscated them.

“He’s my nephew after all,” Frank said naturally. He bent down and. handed the gun to Jasper. “Your father didn’t

buy you this before, did he?” There really weren’t any. There were planes, cars, Lego… The only thing he didn’t

have was a gun. It was because Trevon was afraid that Jasper could not control his strength well and was also

worried that the older people at home wouldn’t be able to manage the brat, so he didn’t buy it. Jasper nodded. He

liked it very much. He had wanted to buy it for a long time but his father did not agree. “Thank you, Uncle Frank. I

like it.”

Frank rubbed Jasper’s head after he made sure he outdid Trevon. Jasper was very happy to receive the gift and did

not object. He was so excited that he wanted to open it right away. Frank added, “Your father was stopped from

playing this when he was young so he could not play with it. That’s why he did not buy it for you.”

Natalie sat down and helped Jasper to open it. “If you want to play, let Daddy show you first. You can’t turn it on

people.”

Frank leaned against the door with his arms crossed. He said to Natalie, “It’s very safe. The water pellet will shatter

when it hits someone.”

Angie stood in the living room and listened to what was going on. She did not expect Frank to be so meticulous. She

really could not tell he was like this before now.

When the gun was removed from the packaging, Trevon walked over with one hand in his pocket. He took the

submachine gun from his son’s hand. The weight was nothing to him. It was light and did not require any strength.

He raised his eyebrows at Frank, who was standing by the door. “Shall we have a competition?”

In an instant, Jasper’s toy was used in a competition by the two men. The people gathered in the courtyard also

actively helped, especially Stella, who really wanted to participate. “How are you guys going to compete? I’ll be the

assistant.”

When Angie saw that the children were going to play, she planned to go upstairs with Emma to see the baby. On

the stairs, Angie said, “No matter how many there are, they’re all children when they’re playful.”

Emma agreed. “No matter how old they are, they’ll still be children in our

10:28

eyes. It’s the same.”

Ava suddenly remembered that there were still balloons left at home from the previous gathering. “Shall you

compete at shooting balloons? There were many balloons left from before. Frank, can the bullet penetrate the

balloons?”

Frank stood up and pinched Ava’s neck. He replied, “No.”

The gun was for children to play with. He had bought the safest one there was, so it could not even burst a balloon.

It was very harmless. “Oh. What shall we use for the competition then?”

Natalie stood up with her son in her arms and coaxed, “When your daddy and Uncle Frank finish with their

competition, we’ll have them demonstrate how to use it for you, okay?”

“Yes.” Jasper’s emotions were neither high nor low. It was not high because he could not participate and could only

watch. It was also a little. high because his father was competing with Uncle Frank. He was quite looking forward to

it.

Natalie suggested, “How about we use disposable cups? Whoever hits more wins.”

“It’s too easy if we place them on a stool. I think we can increase the difficulty a little. For example…”

Just as Ava was still thinking about it, Stella had a flash of inspiration and spoke up first. “I know. We can hang the

disposable cups on branches, that way, they will move. You guys can aim at them. Is that more

difficult?”

Ava nodded in agreement. “That’s good. Frank, what do you think?” Frank said, “I’ll listen to you.”

Trevon turned around and gestured for the person who had suggested the idea to take action. “Show us how to

hang it.”

Stella was happy to do such a thing. However, she did not know where the cups were placed. She asked Ava, and

then Ava and Stella turned around and went into the villa to get the cups from the kitchen.