Chapter 5

When she returned to Sherwood, the familiar environment gave her a sense of belonging. She was drained from the last few days of hard work. After a quick shower, Irene fell asleep not long after she lay down on the bed until a sudden knock on the door woke her up. That person knocked on the door hard, so Irene had to pull herself out of bed. She saw Lina standing at the door and Edric sitting in a wheelchair. Huh, did they come to find trouble again? Irene stood there holding the doorknob with a cold expression. “What?” Edric said with a long face, “Where have you been these past few days?” Edric and Lina were feeling both excited and worried these days after learning that Irene had two billion in hand. They were excited about getting rich, but they were also worried because Irene had blocked their numbers. Plus, they last saw her several days ago, so they could not ask her for money. Before Irene could speak, Lina glared at her and yelled, “You broke Dad’s leg, so you’ll have to pay!” She used to smilingly get money from Irene, but after Irene slapped her in the corridor, she had been pettily brooding about it since. Irene knew that they were eyeing her money, so she had already come up with a plan early on. She took a stack of receipts from the drawer in the living room and threw it in their faces. “I forgot to tell you that I was in Vegas the past few days, and I accidentally gambled away all two billion.” Who knew what inhumane things Edric would be willing to do if she had the money on her? She asked James to get her these casino receipts, which looked like the real deal. Edric himself was a gambler, so when he saw those receipts, he immediately touched the anti-counterfeit material on them. After realizing that they were real, he rolled his eyes and was about to faint. That was two billion! All of that two billion belonged to him! How dare she? When Lina saw Edric tremble with anger, it was perfectly clear to her. From her perspective, everything Irene owned was hers, so how could she tolerate Irene spending two billion like that? She flung herself onto Irene and screamed, “All of that belonged to me and Dad, you better give it b—” Slap! A palm landed on Lina’s face. Irene shook off the numbness in her hand and gave Lina’s swollen face a cold-eyed stare. “In your dreams.” No matter what, that money had nothing to do with Edric and Lina. Irene was upset that her sweet dreams were interrupted by them, so she raised her hand again, but before she could land it on Lina’s face, Lina screamed and ran away. “How did your mother give birth to such an evil creature like you?” Edric glared at Irene sinisterly. Irene kicked his wheelchair and flipped it over. “You have no right to talk about my mother.” Irene watched as Edric painfully struggled to stand up, and she realized that he had actually broken a bone. As the good daughter she was, what else could she do? Well, she sincerely wished that her father would be impaired for the rest of his life. She called security to chase them out and warned them to not let them in ever again before going back to a deep sleep. She was only half recharged after sleeping the entire day, but she still washed up and went out to eat. She drove around the city to buy a bunch of food as usual. She even hired people from the auto repair shop to drive the cars to a designated place before she stored them all in the space herself. After paying the balance to the auto repair shop owner, Irene sat on the ground and relaxed as she watched the sunset. In this lifetime, she would be able to live peacefully until the apocalypse ended! Ring, ring! She got a message notification, so she unlocked her phone to see a message from Paulette Chapman. [Nene, what happened between you and Daryl?] Paulette was her high school classmate, and she was the one who accompanied her through the rough times in her life after her mom died. Her outlook on life was different from Irene’s. Paulette was a top student with a degree from Stamford University, and she was currently working at one of Sunnhagen’s top companies, earning a middle-class salary. Irene was a little dazed to see her message. In her last life, the disasters came so suddenly that although she was still able to keep in contact with Paulette at first, the temperature continuously increased until all communication devices sustained varying degrees of damage. She lost all contact with the only friend she had. Irene gripped her phone tightly and started to blame herself. While she was busy hoarding supplies, she completely forgot about Paulette. After coming to her senses, Irene called Paulette. Paulette had a soft personality, so she spoke gently, “Nene, did Daryl bully you?” Irene denied it. She got together with Daryl because they were interested in each other, and they had only been dating for less than six months, so they were not that deeply committed to each other either. Irene was more concerned about Paulette. She could not just blatantly tell her that disasters were coming, so she could only beat about the bush and ask if she had thoughts about coming back to Sherwood. The disasters happened so suddenly that the entire city came to a standstill instantly. It was hard for Irene to imagine a softy like Paulette surviving the apocalypse in her previous life. She had a secret to keep, so Irene could not let Paulette live with her, but having her return to Sherwood would give Irene peace of mind. Paulette giggled. “What a coincidence. There happens to be a headhunter trying to recruit me, and I’m actually considering it. I’ll take your advice and go through with the resignation procedures next week. You’ll have to treat me to dinner when I return to Sherwood.” “No problem!” Irene promised. She did not have many people in her life. Aside from her father and sister, Paulette was the only one. Now that Edric and Lina had been kicked out, Irene hoped that she could protect Paulette well this time. After all, Paulette was the one who protected her from harm when she thought she could not get through her toughest times. The two chatted for a bit, and Paulette brought up the topic of Daryl again by asking carefully, “Did Daryl do anything to you?” Irene touched the tip of her nose. She had no intention of associating herself with Daryl anymore, so she did not hesitate to defame him at all. “Yes, I broke up with him because he was cheating on me.” Paulette was flushed from anger on the other end. “That jerk!” Irene laughed. “I never liked him much anyway, so the break-up doesn’t affect me. Let me know when you arrive Sherwood, alright Polly?” After she got a yes from Paulette, Irene hung up, and only then did she realize that her clothes were soaked in sweat. She opened the weather app to check and, holy moly, it was 38 degrees even though it was already well past six o’clock!