Chapter 269
Cain strolled over to where Minnie was sitting. “Hey, Minnie.”
Jasmine nodded in acknowledgment. “Hey, you made it.”
Cain plopped down beside her and started helping with the jigsaw puzzle. “I went to the movies with my mom earlier, and guess what? I saw your mom there.” Jasmine, previously engrossed in her puzzle, looked up immediately, her interest sparked. “You saw my mom?
At the theater?”
“Yeah, at the cinema.”
Jasmine pursed her lips, skeptical. “No way. My mom’s super busy right now. There’s no way she’d have time to go to the movies. You must’ve mistaken her for someone else.” Cain frowned, feeling a bit defensive. “I didn’t mistake her. It was definitely your mom.”
Jasmine shook her head, disbelief clear in her eyes. “You’re making it up.”
She had called her mom last night and again this morning, and her mom barely had time to answer. How could she possibly have time to go to the movies?
“I’m not making it up,” Cain insisted, feeling his frustration bubble up. “And she wasn’t alone. She was with another kid who looked about your height, and really cute!”
Jasmine hadn’t been taking Cain’s words seriously until now. But at this, she shot up, grabbing a handful of puzzle pieces and flinging them at Cain. “No way! You, you’re lying!”
Cain was telling the truth, but he couldn’t understand why Jasmine didn’t believe him and was getting upset. He was used to getting his way, too, and now he was genuinely angry. He retaliated by tossing a handful of pieces back at her. “I’m not lying!” “You-”
“What’s going on here?”
Their escalating argument had drawn the attention of Thorne and the others in the living room.
Claudia was the first to come over.
Cain, feeling wronged, was on the brink of tears. “I was just saying-”
“”Hmph!”
Jasmine, also teary-eyed, pouted and ran toward the living room. “Dad!”
Thorne watched her approach and caught her as she flung herself at him. After a quick word to the guests, he carried Jasmine out of the room, giving them some space. “What happened, sweetheart?”
Jasmine wanted to recount what her cousin had said, but the mere thought of Charlene being with a kid cuter than her brought tears to her eyes before she could get the words out. Meanwhile, Claudia and Tiffany had gotten the story from Cain.
Claudia turned to Tiffany, who admitted she hadn’t been paying attention at the movies and couldn’t verify Cain’s claim.
Claudia thought for a moment. “Sweetie, I believe you weren’t lying. It’s possible you saw someone who looked a lot like Aunt Charlene, but it might not have been Aunt Charlene.”
The Henderson family, aside from Irma, weren’t aware that Thorne and Charlene were considering a divorce. Charlene’s affection for Thorne over the years was something the family had witnessed firsthand.
When Thorne mentioned Charlene had pressing matters to attend to without getting into details, the family
assumed it was something urgent with the Ross family.
Now, hearing Cain’s story, Claudia and Tiffany were inclined to believe Cain might have made a mistake. After all, as far as they knew, there were no kids in the Ross family who were Jasmine’s age, and if Charlene had any free time, it seemed unlikely she’d choose to go to the movies instead of visiting the Henderson family. It just didn’t add up.