NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52 - 49: Her Ex-Husband, Was He a Gigolo Who Relied on Her Support?
Chapter 52: Chapter 49: Her Ex-Husband, Was He a Gigolo Who Relied on Her Support?
Translator: 549690339
It was mid-March, and everything was brimming with life.
Richelie Dunn parked the car on the gravel outside the grassy area, and as soon as the children got out, they scampered like little ducklings released from a cage, moving towards the meadow by the stream.
The sprawling meadow was covered with newly grown, fluffy, green leaves. Willow branches swayed in the breeze, and clusters of red and yellow wildflowers unknown to the eye bloomed by the stream. Trees and bushes in close proximity painted the entire landscape in lush green.
It was the first time all three children were on an outing together. They played endlessly and needed no adults to lead them.
Richelle chased after the excited children, caught them, and seriously taught them some safety precautions. Then, with Mrs. Walker’s help, she set everything up, sat on the grass, took occasional photos and videos of the children, and chatted now and then.
Richelle multitasked, her eyes on the frolicking children while she thought about work.
Generally speaking, people who took on tasks were only responsible for carrying them out and providing the required information to the requester. They had no knowledge of what the information would be used for.
However, Richelle had been in this line of work for years, and judging from the extensive and difficult information the requester sought this time, they must be a very powerful entity. She also had a rough guess about the purpose of the information.
Therefore, she hadn’t even considered the possibility of the client adding a deposit as a token of appreciation for her casual remark.
But, on the other hand, given the difficulty of this task, no one would be willing to do it without the client spending big money.
Just the hurdle of the Dunn Group alone, ordinary people would find it too challenging.
Even though Richelle harbored deep hatred towards Jayden Dunn and his wife, she had to admit that it wasn’t easy for them to maintain the prosperity of the Dunn Group, which they snatched from her parents.
Other than Jayden having the business acumen inherited from the Dunn family, his cautious and defensive character plays a part as well.
It had been rumored in the industry for a long time that the Dunn Group’s commercial defense system was as formidable as the Federation’s, both impregnable.
A few years ago, she tried to break through the Dunn Group’s iron wall but failed.
Even though her skills have improved significantly since then, breaching the iron wall of the Dunn Group would still require some thought.
“Mommy, this tastes so good, did you make it?”
Richelle, engrossed in her thoughts, didn’t even notice when Timothy came over for a sip of syrup after getting tired from playing.
Her son’s voice brought her back to reality. She looked down at the small bowl he was holding, which was Mrs. Walker’s pear and honey syrup.
“Yes, if you like it, have more. You were coughing this morning, and this will help with that.”
Upon hearing this, Timothy looked up, shouting to Timmy who was playing by the stream, “Big brother, you were coughing too. Come and drink this syrup; it’s good for your lungs.”
Timmy, panting from playing, led his sister over and sat down next to Richelle. Timothy cast an upward glance at her while enjoying his syrup.
Then, he put the bowl on the small table and asked Richelle with a worried expression.
“Mommy, have you been having trouble sleeping lately?”
Richelle slept well and replied, “No…”
Timothy stood up, reached out, and touched the dark circles under her eyes.
“Your dark circles are really bad, like a panda…”
Richelle had been working overtime for the past couple of days, and she didn’t go to bed early last night. Today, she didn’t take a nap at home either, as she had to rush to finish her work.
“All, this…,” Richelle touched under her eyes, trying to brush it off, “I put on a smoky makeup look today.”
Timothy pursed his lips and rolled his eyes, “Liar. You didn’t wear any makeup today. These are obviously dark circles.”
Timmy and Tifanny, who had walked over to Richelle, immediately became concerned upon hearing Timothy’s words. Tifanny tenderly touched Richelle’s face with a sympathetic hand.
“Mommy, how come you have dark circles?”
Timmy stood in front of Richelle, silently looking at her for a few moments before walking away and dialing his father’s number on his wristwatch phone.
Roy Lewis seldom received calls from his son. Therefore, even though he was in an important meeting with senior executives in his office, he answered the call immediately.
“Timmy, are you coming back?”
As he asked, he gestured for his subordinates to pause and walked into the lounge with the phone.
“Daddy, give Dr. Dunn a raise!”
Roy Lewis frowned when his son blurted out such a request out of nowhere, and his first instinct was to blame it on Richelle Dunn.
“Did Dr. Dunn tell you to say that?”
Is Richelle really that desperate for money? She even instigated his son to ask for a raise on her behalf?
Didn’t he tell her that she would be paid for both teaching his son and taking care of him, together with her medical fees?
Can’t she wait for a few more days?
“No, but she has to spend a lot of money, lots and lots, to raise Timothy and Tifanny.”
Before, the young master had no concept of money. But when he saw how the small house his mommy and her siblings lived in wasn’t even as big as his bedroom, and how old and worn it was, and how they would carefully calculate the cost of every item when shopping at an ordinary supermarket, he realized how hard it was for his mommy to raise two children on her own.
Roy Lewis believed his son’s words and his frown eased.
“Raising children does indeed require a lot of money, but don’t worry, Dr. Dunn charges a lot!”
The fees Roy Lewis paid to Master Seaton were in the millions of dollars. Although Richelle Dunn’s fees were lower since she was only his disciple, they were still in the range of a million dollars.
It’s just raising children, not building rockets. With her millions in income, how could she not afford it?
“Oh, you just don’t understand!”, the young master became anxious and his tone gradually became like Tifanny’s, “Anyway, she has to spend a lot of money every day. If you give her a higher salary, she’ll have more motivation to teach me!”
The young master’s last words hit the nail on the head.
Roy Lewis had also found it strange that with Richelle’s fees and workload, even if she had to raise two children, she shouldn’t have been living in such a dilapidated old house.
His son said she needed to spend a lot of money. Could it be that her ex-husband was actually a gigolo that she had to support?
“Alright, I’ll think about it.”
Roy Lewis hung up the phone, hesitated a moment, and finally called Mr. Chapman.
“Master Lewis? What’s the matter?”
“Did you know that Richelle Dunn has two children?”
Technically, Richelle was just his personal doctor, akin to a subordinate, and he shouldn’t be bothered about her private affairs.
But since his son cared so much, he needed to know the whole situation.
There would be trouble if her feud with her ex-husband involved his precious son.
“Yes, she mentioned it to me when she first started working here. When she initially came over as a visiting expert and I was discussing her salary with her, she said she didn’t mind a lower salary as long as we could accommodate her schedule. She has a son and a daughter to take care of, so she only works half-day shifts, unless it’s a special emergency for a major patient.”
It seemed that Richelle was fair and honest, revealing her situation from the beginning.
“Have you ever heard her mention her ex-husband, or has anyone suspicious come to the hospital to look for her?”
He had thought her ex-husband was just inconsiderate, but now it seemed he might be a scumbag?
“I haven’t heard anything about that, and no one has come looking for her.
She’s from South Asia and has only been in Kindur for over a month. Her social connections here are very simple.”
Roy Lewis couldn’t get any useful information from Mr. Chapman and didn’t know how to proceed, but he still had to fulfill the promise he made to his son.
“How much is her salary from the hospital?”
“US$ 13,700, with additional fees for emergency surgeries.”
Roy Lewis considered for a moment; US$ 13,700 was not a small sum for ordinary people, but for someone at her level, it seemed a bit low.
Moreover, he only found out recently that Richelle occasionally helped with training courses at the hospital, and even guided hospital doctors during surgery – she seemed quite dedicated and hardworking.
“I heard she also gives training courses to the hospital doctors. In that case, let’s promote her to vice-president level. We won’t lose out!”
Master Lewis rarely intervened in hospital affairs, but this time, he was actually stuffing money into someone’s pocket!
Moreover, he had just asked about Dr.. Dunn’s ex-husband and her children; could it be that there was an affair between the two?