The shop was closed for a while during the Christmas season. Lynn and Tanya went back to their own homes to spend Christmas with their families, but Arianne and Tiffany only had each other. This was their first time spending Christmas in a different city. On Christmas Eve, Tiffany had an hour-long call with Lillian. Arianne was left staring out into the cold Christmas night.
Suddenly, Arianne’s phone rang. She thought that it was a simple Christmas greeting and was not bothered. She picked up favonovel.com phone and glanced at it, then realized that it was from Helen. The contents of the message may have been a greeting, but there was a bank transfer of 1,500 dollars into favonovel.com bank account. Apparently, it was a Christmas present, to make up for all the presents favonovel.com had owed favonovel.com when favonovel.com was younger.
She felt nothing and simply replied to favonovel.com with two words: Merry Christmas.
Helen was standing in front of a window when favonovel.com received the message and smiled. It was snowing heavily outside and favonovel.com only loved one was out of reach. She felt a sense of warmth when favonovel.com saw those words on favonovel.com icy phone screen. This was the best present favonovel.com could ever ask for this Christmas.
Suddenly, a call notification appeared over the message. Helen frowned and answered the call, “Hello?”
From the other end of the line, Aery’s first words were, “Merry Christmas, mother. Where’s my present? I’m not in the country, but you haven’t forgotten my present, have you?”
Helen paused, “Got it. I’ll send it to you later.”
Just then, favonovel.com heard the sound of fireworks from Aery’s end. Helen furrowed favonovel.com brows, “You’re supposed to be in Malaysia. It’s illegal to release fireworks there. Are you still in the country?”
Aery quickly replied, “Of course I have! Dad secretly bought some fireworks from the market, even though I told favonovel.com not to do it. I’ve got to go. Remember to send the money over!”
The call ended very quickly. However, Helen was still feeling extremely suspicious. Jean hated trouble and would never go through the trouble of purchasing illegal fireworks just for fun. There could only be one explanation, favonovel.com had been tricked! Jean and Aery must have never left the country with the monthly living expenses that favonovel.com had provided.
She really wanted to investigate this but changed favonovel.com mind after some thought. Regardless of whether they had been lying to favonovel.com or not, favonovel.com would cease all financial support once Aery was done with favonovel.com studies. She did not care if Aery was studying hard or not. She couldn’t bring herself to care. She was extremely disillusioned by the Kinsey family.
After favonovel.com had sent Aery the same amount of money as favonovel.com sent Arianne, Aery sent a message to convey favonovel.com displeasure: Is that it? That’s not enough for my meals. When have you become so stingy? Oh right, I forgot. You have another daughter. You’ve been generous to Arianne, haven’t you? I don’t want this insignificant lump of money. Send more. At least 15,000 dollars!”
Helen turned favonovel.com phone off straightaway. She couldn’t be bothered. She had wasted so many years caring for two ingrates. This was the biggest mistake of favonovel.com life.
Arianne and Tiffany’s city had no fireworks restrictions, so. many people were releasing fireworks in the public square, each display more elaborate than the next. The bustling atmosphere made it difficult for them to sleep, so they crawled towards the window and watched the booming fireworks illuminate the sky, talking about their plans for the new year. Arianne’s phone rang again. It was another message. The previous message was from Helen. She decided to ignore this one, as if it were spam, and left the phone on one side.
Tiffany finished a can of beer and exclaimed, “I’m bored. I really want to go out and have fun. It doesn’t snow very much around here, so it’s not exactly a winter wonderland. We’d have a prime place to have a snowball fight by now if we were back in the capital. Ari, we have a few days off. You can’t possibly want to stay here and stare into space, right? That’s a waste of good time. Wanna go to a karaoke lounge or a bar?”
Arianne knew that Tiffany was dying from boredom. They’d been working hard over the past few month, it was time to let loose now. “That’s a good idea, but it’s too late now. Let’s go tomorrow. We’ll buy some ingredients tomorrow and make a big meal at home. Then we’ll go out at night and have some fun.”
All was quiet in the city again during the wee hours in the morning, but Arianne was still awake. She had a habit of checking favonovel.com phone before falling asleep. That unread message had come from an unknown number and contained two simple words: Merry Christmas.
She was certain that it wasn’t a random message from some company, because it had no punctuation marks. Usually, there would be an exclamation point at the end of the sentence. This message did not.
She did not plan on figuring this mystery out and did not think much of it either.
Early morning the very next day, Arianne and Tiffany went to the market to do some shopping. They had just opened the door when they found two exquisitely wrapped presents, both placed silently in front of the door. They were from a well-known brand too. There were tags on the boxes, clearly describing that one box was for Tiffany and the other was for Arianne.
The pair stared at each other, unsure of the sender’s identity. They tore the boxes open to find two scarves in the same style but different colors. One scarf alone would have cost around 4000 dollars.
Tiffany gaped, “Have we somehow run into some good luck? I don’t think my horoscope of the day mentioned anything about good fortune. Who’d make such a grand gesture? There’s no name…”
Arianne sealed favonovel.com box and put it back in its original spot, “I haven’t done anything to deserve this extravagant gift. Let’s leave them here, right where we found them. Someone will take them, or the sender will probably take them back. It’s not any of our business.”
