Jolene straightened up and realized that Raymond had probably overheard what she’d just said. She felt the need to explain: “I was thinking—they’re both five-year-olds, so kids have to handle things in a kid’s way. You can’t just let him get pushed around for nothing. If we just let it slide, that’s way too frustrating. And then George might think Ben is easy to bully, and it could even turn into school bullying down the road. We need to make sure Ben understands that no one at school can push him around, and that his family will always have his back—he can’t just keep quiet when he’s being mistreated…”
As she spoke, Jolene started worrying about Emma—she was so small and thin. Would she get bullied at school?
So far, the public elementary school environment seemed okay, but Jolene knew she had to work hard to earn enough money to send Emma to the best schools. She couldn’t let her grow up in a bad environment—she’d heard school bullying was pretty common in the U.S.
Raymond nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right. Ben should learn how to fight back too—not just avoid George. George needs to understand what it felt like for Ben.”
Seeing that her employer supported her approach, Jolene felt relieved—at least he wasn’t blaming her for teaching the kids bad habits.
They spent the whole afternoon playing and finally headed back.
Raymond installed the new car seat in the back and put the borrowed one from his colleague in the trunk—he planned to return it tomorrow.
This was Emma’s first time having her own car seat. It was brand new, and pink—and she’d watched Mr. Raymond buy it for her with her own eyes.
Emma wore a huge smile the entire ride home, constantly looking down at the pink seat, absolutely thrilled.
Jolene couldn’t help glancing at the man in the driver’s seat. He wasn’t bad with kids at all—he was doing just fine.
When they got home, Ben immediately went to find Giovanni and told him he wanted Buzz Lightyear cake rolls for his Monday lunch box.
Giovanni: “…”
Ben even brought out his Buzz Lightyear toy for Giovanni to reference. The Italian chef had no choice but to start figuring out how to make a cake look like Buzz Lightyear.
He was a real chef, after all—after a little experimenting, he dyed the flour with purple ingredients and created a Buzz Lightyear cake roll: purple on the outside, pink on the inside, with green decorations on the bottom.
It actually looked pretty convincing.
Ben was over the moon. Everyone had a taste of the cake, and Ben planned to bring it as his lunch on Monday, along with plenty of fruit and his homemade lemonade.
Jolene hadn’t realized that kids needed to bring their own lunch to school—it only occurred to her now, because of Ben’s bullying situation.
Kids really did love comparing these little things. When they saw someone with a fancy lunch box, they’d get envious. And a kid like George, who loved showing off in front of Ben, would definitely go home and pester his parents for the same.
Ben was in a fantastic mood. That evening, he even took $150 from Jolene—saying he wanted to return the $100 principal and give the $50 he’d earned to his brother.
Jolene did as he asked, counted out $150, and handed it to Ben.
So Ben went running to his brother, full of excitement, and handed over the $150.
Jolene peeked through the crack in the door, a little eager to see Raymond’s reaction to being moved by his little brother.
If it were her, and Emma came to her with money she’d earned herself, she’d definitely cry.
But Raymond and Ben had gone into the room, and Jolene couldn’t see their expressions. She felt a little disappointed.
Emma saw her mom open the door a crack and didn’t know what she was spying on, so she crouched down beside her and peeked out too.
Mother and daughter watched for a long time, but nothing happened.
Before long, Raymond and Ben walked out of the room on the right.
Before Jolene could pull her gaze away, the mother-daughter pair’s sneaky behavior was caught red-handed by the two brothers.
Jolene: “…”
And Emma even piped up, “Brother, what were you two talking about in the room?”
Jolene felt utterly defeated. This little Emma sure didn’t know how to be discreet about snooping.
Her expression must have been too obvious, because Raymond actually cracked a smile.
“We were just about to come find you. Ben and I agreed—I’m going to invest in his business. This $100 is my investment, and the $50 is what Ben earned himself. I told him to decide what to do with it.”
The mother-daughter pair rubbed their numb legs and stood up.
Ben, standing off to the side, clearly wasn’t too happy. Kids his age weren’t really interested in money. To them, what mattered more was having their brother around. They didn’t lack for food and didn’t need to support a family—even if you gave them piles of money, it still wouldn’t be as fun as having their brother play with them.
“So, did Ben agree?” Jolene looked down at Ben, who was pouting, and asked.
Ben looked up at his brother beside him. “My brother said he doesn’t want the money I earned. I can spend it however I want.”
“Oh, so what are you planning to spend it on?” Jolene probed.
“I want to give it to my brother, so he doesn’t have to work so much and can play with me,” Ben said, head lowered.
Jolene looked up and exchanged a glance with Raymond.
It was clear that Ben had already expressed his thoughts to his brother, but Raymond hadn’t quite understood.
Jolene walked over, ruffled Ben’s hair, and said to her employer, “Your idea is great—letting kids spend their own money freely teaches them self-reliance. That’s wonderful. But Ben’s original goal in earning money was to get you to spend time with him. So how about this: Ben uses his $150 to buy one hour of your time every day to play with him? What do you think?”
Ben’s head shot up, looking at Jolene, then turning to his brother with wide eyes—as if it had never occurred to him that you could buy time with money.
Raymond suddenly realized he’d misunderstood his brother’s intentions. He nodded. “Alright. I’ll set aside one hour every day to play with Ben. But you should still hold onto the money for him—help him learn to be independent.”
Jolene stepped forward, took the money, and crouched down to look Ben in the eyes. “Do you want me to keep it safe for you? Maybe next time, you can use it to buy your brother a gift?”
“Really?” Ben’s eyes lit up for a moment.
Jolene nodded. “Your brother said this money is yours. And he already agreed to play with you, didn’t he?”
The child understood, and a smile finally spread across his face, with two shallow dimples appearing.
With the deal settled between the brothers, Raymond suddenly looked troubled. “So… what are we supposed to play?”
Jolene burst out laughing, turned around, and pulled Emma inside, barely managing to keep herself from laughing too loudly in front of Raymond.
Still, it was clear the two brothers really didn’t know how to interact—no wonder Raymond seemed a little intimidated by Ben.
“How about you two play Gomoku?” Jolene suggested. Ben probably didn’t know many board games, and Gomoku was the simplest—easy to learn, playable even without pieces, and it could easily fill an hour.
“Gomoku?” Raymond nodded.
So the brothers turned and headed back inside to play.
“Mommy, what’s Gomoku?” Emma looked up and asked.
Jolene realized she’d never played it with Emma either. So she sat down on the floor with her daughter, drew a grid on paper, and used circles and triangles—two different shapes—as their pieces.
It was a little tough for a young kid, and Emma kept losing. But Jolene knew better than to underestimate her—after all, when playing with friends, she was usually the one who lost more often, no matter the game.
So in one room, it was mother-daughter playing Gomoku; in the other, two brothers playing the same game.
Random House moved pretty quickly. Two days later, Jolene received the contract from Brian in the mail. She gave it a rough read—it was a standard boilerplate contract, pretty much the same as what other publishers used. The main things to watch were the copyright ownership and the royalty figures.
Jolene checked carefully and found no major discrepancies, so she signed it. She also sent all the completed manuscript—about 100,000 words total—which she’d written quickly, especially the revenge arc in the latter half.
Of course, what she mailed was a copy, not her original handwritten draft.
Early that morning, after dropping the kids off at school, Jolene mailed the manuscript and the original contract via registered mail, keeping the receipt and recording the mailing date as evidence.
She also kept a complete copy of the contract in case she ever needed to protect her rights.
Usually, there wouldn’t be any issues—but just in case, Jolene wanted to be careful.
With the contract taken care of, all that was left was to wait for publication and the sales report from the new-book period.
With one major task out of the way, Jolene went book browsing again, looking for ideas for her next novel. She flipped through a few books and the morning slipped by quickly.
In the afternoon, when Jolene went to pick up the kids, Emma and Ben came running toward her hand in hand.
“Jolene! Today George saw my Buzz Lightyear cake roll, and I told him he’d never tried it. He said he had—that his mom had made it for him, hahaha!” Ben opened his mouth wide and laughed exaggeratedly. “So I said I didn’t believe him—unless he got his mom to make it tomorrow and bring it to school!”
Emma was laughing too. The three of them exchanged glances, and Jolene held out both hands. “High five!”
Both kids slapped her palms. It felt like their little conspiracy had succeeded—they’d gotten back at that annoying George together.
“Hahaha, so what did George say?” Jolene asked, walking ahead with the kids.
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