Hi Ex, Your Uncle Is My Hubby Now - Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Looking at Anthony's charming, slightly roguish smile, Irene found it hard to believe he was a widower who'd just lost his newlywed wife.
She thought, 'He must have been a true romantic. Otherwise, why would he have turned down so many admirers?'
"Princess Anthony, why the foul mood this early in the morning?" Irene grinned as she handed him a packed portion of waffle.
"My grandma was over yesterday. She remembered you liked these, so she made some just for you."
Anthony lit up, eagerly taking the container. He opened it, took a deep sniff, and sighed in satisfaction. "I feel alive again."
Perched on the edge of his desk, he started eating while grumbling to Irene about a new client. "Remember that gig I took on for that young girl as a favor?
"Yeah. Total nightmare. She's glued to that lifestyle app 24/7. First, she tells me she wants that soft, pastel 'creamcore' vibe. So fine, I come up with a whole design. She glances at it and goes, 'Actually, I think I want old-money style.'
"Back and forth, changing her mind every five seconds. I was spinning like a damn top. And in the end, guess what? She decides the original cream style was better after all.
"So what now? I'm supposed to quit my job, shut down the whole studio, and just be her personal stylist-slash-therapist?"
He hadn't made much money off the project, and the mental toll was real. Just talking about it made his blood pressure spike.
Irene, having been given a second chance at life, was calm and almost zen-like. "Chill. The customer's always right."
Anthony gave her a deadpan look. "Well, next time I get a client like that, I'm going full scorched earth."
Irene chuckled.
"Oh, right," Anthony said, suddenly remembering. "You've been MIA the past couple days, but I've been hearing all sorts of things about your family. Is it true your mom almost drowned you when you were a kid?"
"Yeah, pretty much. I was lucky—someone stepped in just in time. Came back from the edge." Irene said it casually, like she was talking about someone else's life.
Anthony came from one of those powerful old families in the Viremont City—he'd seen his share of monsters in human skin. But hearing a story like that about his friend still made his blood boil.
"Your mom's a real piece of work. She deserves to be paralyzed in bed, covered in bedsores, and rot away without enough money for a damn grave!"
He had a real talent for cursing people out.
After his tirade, he looked at her with a kind of tender admiration. "It's honestly a miracle you turned out the way you did. Our little seedling's grown up strong."
Given everything Irene had been through, the fact that she made it this far spoke volumes.
And the grandmother who raised her—Ruth—must have been one tough, remarkable woman.
Irene gave a cold laugh. "That's not even the worst of it. Just the other night, my birth mother tried to 'teach me a lesson' by luring a man to rape me. Luckily, I was ready and had her thrown in jail."
"Holy shit!" Anthony was stunned. "Please tell me she rots in there!"
"I've got a plan," Irene replied coolly. "Don't worry—I'm not letting her off easy."
Seeing she had things under control, Anthony relaxed a little.
"Still... won't all this affect things between you and Dorian?" He knew how obsessed she was with Dorian—completely lovesick, really—and it made him worry.
Irene shot him a look. "You think I can't live without Dorian?"
"I'm not saying that. It's just... you've basically got 'I'm hopelessly in love with Dorian' tattooed on your forehead." Anthony shrugged. "Look, Irene, people don't value what comes too easily. Especially men—they're wired that way."
And with Dorian, that hit a little too close to home.
Irene narrowed her eyes at him. "What about you then? You one of those guys?"