From Forgotten Wife To Fierce Queen - Chapter 346: Chapter 346

Arriving at the hotel, Paisley called Dominick from the lobby, but no one answered.
She had no choice but to call Linna, who told her that Dominick was in the study having a video conference and had probably put his phone on silent.
After confirming that Linna could let her in, Paisley prepared to go upstairs.
"You go up by yourself. I'll wait over there," Max said, pointing at the lounge area in the lobby.
"You're not coming up with me?" Paisley asked instinctively. She thought, 'Didn't he say he wanted to see Serena? Isn't that why he insisted on coming? If he goes upstairs with me, he will see Serena right away. Serena is probably looking forward to seeing her uncle too.'
"Yeah." Max nodded understandingly. "Dominick has a strong bias against me. If I go up with you, he'll definitely give you a hard time, and I don't want to put you in that position."
Paisley frowned as she thought about Dominick's usual stone-cold expression, like someone owed him a hundred lives. "That's his problem. Why should I feel awkward?"
"It's fine. Go ahead, I'll wait here," Max said casually, waving her off.
"Alright then, I'll be down soon."
When Paisley reached the floor of the presidential suite and stepped out of the elevator, she saw Linna standing at the door with an amused expression.
"What's going on? What's with that look? Where's the kid?" After not seeing Serena for a few days, Paisley had expected Serena, the ultimate mom-obsessed child, to rush out and greet her.
Instead, there was no one at the door except Linna.
Linna pointed inside. "She's in there."
Feeling puzzled, Paisley stepped forward. Every time she came home, Serena would always pounce on her like an excited puppy. This was the first time Serena had ignored her, which left her feeling a little uneasy.
Linna looked at Paisley's expression and hesitated. "Um—"
"What?" Paisley asked, her suspicion growing. "Did something happen?"
"Well... not exactly... it's just—"
Paisley didn't bother waiting for Linna to finish. She pushed past her and walked straight in.
As soon as she entered, she realized that the spacious living room was empty. But then, she heard Serena and Grayson's voices coming faintly from a nearby room.
Grayson said, "Rena, you're doing it wrong. You have to do it like this...Look, one hit and it's dead."
Grayson continued, "Yeah, yeah, use that bomb...That's right; stay on its tail."
Serena said, "Ugh, why won't this big boss die?"
Serena said, "Oh, I finally cleared the level! I defeated the big boss!"
Grayson cheered, "Yeah! The big boss is finally dead!"
"What do you mean, 'dead'?" Suddenly, Paisley's voice came from above Grayson and Serena's heads.
They had been hugging in celebration, but their bodies tensed up instantly. The next second, they buried their heads into each other's shoulders. No matter what, they refused to look up.
Serena whispered close to Grayson's ear, "Mom's here."
Grayson hunched his shoulders and buried his face in Serena's neck. "What do we do? Is she going to scold us?"
Paisley stared at Serena and Grayson, who were huddled together like frightened puppies, and then reached out to touch the computer.
It was hot. She scrolled down to check the usage time. It had already been four and a half hours.
Paisley asked in a calm yet chilling voice, "Have you two been playing games this whole time?"
"Answer me." She emphasized her words.
The Serena and Grayson jumped up like startled grasshoppers.
"Y-yeah," Grayson stammered for a long moment before spotting Dominick, who had just finished a meeting. He immediately said, "Dad told Rena and me to play!"
Serena first turned to look at Grayson, and then glanced at Dominick, and finally at their terrifying-looking mother. She nodded vigorously. "Yeah."
Dominick had been in his study all morning for video meetings. The Christmas holiday was over, and the company had officially resumed work. But as the CEO, he still couldn't return just yet, so he had to handle meetings remotely.
He had vaguely heard Paisley's voice and suddenly remembered that she was coming to pick up the kids today, so he hurriedly wrapped up his meeting.
The moment he stepped out, he was met with Paisley's furious gaze.
"W-what's wrong?" He suddenly felt a little guilty and flustered.
Before Paisley could speak, he noticed the game screen still flashing on the computer. Instantly, he understood everything. "Wait...you two didn't play this whole time, did you?"
He didn't even need them to answer. Just looking at their hunched shoulders, lowered heads, and shrinking posture was enough to know the truth.
Paisley snapped, "Dominick, is this how you take care of the kids? Didn't I tell you to limit their screen time, especially when it comes to games?"
"Well—" Dominick looked at Grayson, who had just sold him out. "Grayson, didn't I say just for a little while?"
He had steeled himself earlier, determined not to let the two kids play games anymore. But every time he looked into Serena's big, round eyes, he just couldn't bring himself to say no.
Right now, he was desperately trying to shed his "scary man" image, so he gave Serena anything she wanted.
Dominick knew he was at fault, so all he could do now was shift some of the blame onto Grayson. However, there was no way Grayson would let himself be thrown under the bus in front of Paisley. After all, Grayson had only just started to repair his relationship with her.
"Yeah, you did say we could play for a little while, but you never said how long 'a little while' was," Grayson argued stubbornly.
"Yeah." Serena nodded like a little robot, only making sounds of agreement.
"Y-you little—" Dominick turned anxiously to Paisley. "A little while means no more than thirty minutes!"
"But you never said that. You only told us you were going to a meeting and that we could play until you finished. Now that your meeting is over, aren't we already done playing?"
Grayson looked at Paisley with the utmost sincerity. "Mom, Rena and I were just following Dad's instructions. That's why we played for so long."
Serena added, "Yeah."
"You—you two—" Dominick was speechless, stumbling over his words, unable to refute.
As the business tycoon who dominated the corporate world, Dominick didn't expect that he would be utterly defeated by Grayson's sharp tongue.
He thought, 'This little brat must have inherited his mom's silver tongue. Everything he said was infuriating.'
Dominick gritted his teeth at the thought, but when he turned to Paisley, he had no choice but to admit defeat. "You're right. I should've watched them more closely."
Linna had been thoroughly enjoying the show, laughing the whole time. But when Paisley shot a glare her way, she immediately shut up. "P-Paisley, why are you glaring at me? I wasn't the one who let them play!"
"Why do you think I asked you to come along?" Paisley questioned coldly.
"To keep the kids safe," Linna replied.
"So aside from keeping them safe, you just did nothing?" Paisley was exasperated. At this moment, she really missed Maria.
Linna chuckled sheepishly. She had hesitated about stopping the kids, but seeing how happy they were, she hadn't wanted to ruin their fun. Besides, she figured Dominick would take the fall anyway.