Chapter 892 Perfection is Her Flaw
Irvin nodded before turning to look at Alexia. Elise glanced at her daughter for a while before raising her hand to swear an oath once more. “The same goes for Alexia, too!”
“Yep!” Alexia held her hand up half-heartedly before she tottered over to hold Irvin’s face and kiss him. “You can’t be angry after I’ve kissed you, Irvin. An angry boy is a naughty boy.”
Irvin shook his head before heading upstairs. “I can’t deal with you two!” With his hands behind his back and a slightly hunched posture, he walked up the stairs the way an old man would. Both Elise and Alexia chuckled at the sight of this. After Elise was done laughing, she came up with a new idea. Since we can’t disturb Irvin anymore… “Why don’t we pay Daddy a visit, Alexia?”
“Are you talking about Mr. Griffith? Did he agree to be our daddy?” Alexia grabbed her mother’s arm in excitement. “Yeah, he did.” Elise beamed. “But you’re only allowed to call him Daddy when no one else is around. When there are other people in the room, you have to call him Mr. Griffith. This is our little secret, okay?”
“I got it!” Alexia spun around excitedly. “Yay, I’ve found the best father in the world!”
…
It was late at night when Elise and Alexia came out of the elevator at Smith Co.’s headquarters. Elise had prepared some food for Alexander, and she held her daughter’s hand as they walked over to the president’s office. It was past working hours, so Alexander’s assistants had gotten off work, and all the lights had been turned off except the ones that lit up the walkway. When they arrived at the office, they saw Alexander working through the glass window.
The dim lights in the office shone down on a corner of the office table, and Alexander’s sharp features were further enhanced by the shadows. He looked especially elegant and classy as he focused on his work, and he even seemed rather sexy because of his messy fringe. Men always look the coolest when they’re being all serious, Elise thought to herself.
“He’s so handsome!” Elise snapped back into reality when she heard Alexia’s excited cries. “Shh!” Elise held her finger to her lips before she pulled her phone out and placed her packed meal aside. She lifted Alexia in her arm before she adjusted her front camera angle so that she could take a selfie with Alexander, who was hard at work, in the background. However, she forgot to keep her phone silent, and Alexander was immediately alerted when he heard the sound of the shutter. “Who’s there?” he asked.
“It’s me!” Elise replied before she walked into the room with her food in one hand while holding Alexia’s hand with the other. Alexander couldn’t hide the excitement on his face the moment he saw them. He left his desk and walked over to greet them. “What are you guys doing here?”
Elise shut the door behind her before she presented the meal that she had prepared. “I’m here to deliver some homemade supper, Mr. Griffith.” The moment the door was shut, Alexia let go of Elise’s hand before running over to the man. “Daddy!”
Alexander felt as if he were on cloud nine when he heard Alexia’s sweet voice and felt her warm and tight hug against him. He felt as if his heart had melted, and he couldn’t help but curl his lips into a huge smile as he held Alexia up in the air. “Hey, Lexi. Tell me, who taught you to call me by that name?”
“I’ve wanted to do it for a long time!” she claimed proudly. “Don’t worry, Daddy. This is our little secret, and I won’t tell anyone else about it. I’ll only tell Irvin! Hehe.” Alexander ruffled the girl’s fluffy hair. He felt a surge of emotions running through him when he finally heard the young girl call him her father. “You’re such a good girl, Lexi.”
She pressed her head into the man’s palm and rubbed against his hand as if she were a kitten. Now that Mr. Griffith is my daddy, it feels rather different even as he’s patting me on the head. Alexander couldn’t help but feel sorry when he saw the loving look on his daughter’s face. “It’s really late. You guys shouldn’t be out. It’s dangerous,” he uttered.
“Well, we didn’t have a choice. Your son thought we were being too loud, so we had no choice but to switch our focus to someone else. Hey, you’re not going to chase us out too, are you?” Elise uttered as she feigned anger.
“I couldn’t bear to do such a thing even if I had the guts to,” he replied in a sweet tone. Elise beamed at him before she turned to look at the drafts that were on his desk. She held them up in puzzlement. “Why do you have all these clothing designs?” Smith Co. was a finance and management company—there was no reason for its boss to have all these designs on his desk.
“I’m trying to design outfits on my own,” Alexander replied honestly.
“Why have you never told me that you know how to do that?” she asked curiously.
“Well, I only started learning a few years ago. Why don’t you give me some comments, master?” he teased.
“Well, it doesn’t look too bad. It looks a little like something I would design. Wait… This is my design, isn’t it?” Elise seemed to have realized something, but she wasn’t entirely sure.
“Don’t question yourself. This is your design. I simply modified it.” Then, Alexander told her all about how Brendan had been forced to imitate her work.
After explaining Brendan’s situation, he told Elise about his plan. “So, I’m planning to stick to the arrangement. I figured that I could give them a taste of their own medicine. These are all the design drafts that you left in SK Group, and I figured that I’d be able to use them after modifying them a little. I can’t wait to see the look on Wendy’s face when these designs are presented on stage.”
Elise thought for a moment before an idea popped up in her mind. She picked up a pencil on the desk before she started making some changes to the draft. “This sounds like a huge surprise. Why don’t you let me be a part of this?” Alexander didn’t stop her. He simply brought Alexia to the couch, where he feasted on all of the food that Elise had prepared.
By the time he was done with his meal, Elise had already completed her first draft. “What do you think?” She handed the draft over to Alexander. “You’re one of the globally-recognized designers for a reason. I can’t believe how gorgeous this looks now that you’ve modified your design from ten years ago.” Alexander offered all his generous praise before he spoke in a slightly meeker voice. “But… I’m afraid your identity would be exposed if the design is too perfect.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right.” Elise didn’t feel offended by his words. Instead, she glanced at Alexia before urging her to come over. “Come to Mommy, Lexi!”
“Oh! I’m coming!” Alexia tottered over and jumped into Elise’s arms. “What is it, Mommy?”
Elise showed Alexia the design that she had just made. “You’re the best, Lexi. Why don’t you help me take a look at this design? This dress seems a little plain. What should we add to make it look better?”
“Hmm…” Alexia dragged her long hum for a while before she noticed the picture of a bunny on the wrapper of some candy she had just eaten. She came to a conclusion immediately. “You can add a bunny! You can add it on the chest, the way the school adds its logo on my uniform!”
“A large bunny, huh? Okay!” Elise agreed to this suggestion without any hesitation.
…
About three days later, the Whitney and Griffith Families had arranged for a meeting. They wanted to plan Danny and Ariel’s wedding. Adam and Madeline arrived nearly half an hour earlier in an attempt to show their sincerity. They were worried that Danny would never get himself a wife, so Madeline persistently questioned Ariel during their meeting.
“What does your family do, Ariel? Should we prepare more gifts for our in-laws? Would it be more formal for you guys to try things out at home? Does your family have any superstitions? You need to tell me about them if there are any! You can tell Adam and me if you have any requests. You don’t have to be shy with us! We don’t need much—all we need is to have a daughter-in-law as nice as you!” Madeline uttered, leaving the others rather speechless.
