Chapter 490
To keep anyone from bothering her, Claire put her phone on silent. She had no idea she’d just missed a small avalanche of calls from the Latham family.
Latham was almost bursting with pride after hearing that Claire had won the gold medal. He even watched her interviews online, beaming like he’d won himself. He just wanted her to come home for a nice dinner to celebrate.
But when Claire didn’t pick up his call, his mood turned dark. He convinced himself she was getting too full of herself now, ignoring him on purpose. He asked Octavia and Lance to give it a try too, but neither of them had any luck. No answer.
Latham’s face went from disappointed to downright furious.
Octavia tried to calm him down. “Latham, you can’t take it personally. She’s not really our daughter anymore. Of course she isn’t going to come running just because you say so p>
“She won a gold medal. Let her be proud for a change. She deserves it p>
Latham frowned, not buying it. Did a medal suddenly turn her into someone arrogant? “She’s gotten awards all her life and never acted like this p>
The girl who used to be so obedient had changed. But who was really to blame?
“She was our child back then,” Octavia said quietly. “Now, she isn’t. It’s just not the same p>
“She’s got her own family now. Maybe she wants to celebrate with them. I really think you should try not to overthink. She’ll call you back when she can p>
Still fuming, Latham canceled their restaurant reservation and told the chef at home to hurry up with dinner. What more could he do? Claire had grown up. She had her own opinions, her own life. He couldn’t control her anymore.
He let out a bitter breath. “This is all because of you and what you did before. Claire’s probably still hurt. Otherwise she’d never just ignore everyone like this p>
In his head, the problem was Octavia and Cindy, and now he was stuck dealing with the fallout.
Octavia rolled her eyes when he wasn’t looking. “Claire’s not the type to hold a grudge. That whole thing is ancient history p>
“It’s more likely she thinks we’re after her recommendation for college p>
She hesitated but brought it up anyway.
“What do you mean?” Latham was puzzled.
“Lance and I thought, if Claire was going to take the entrance exams, she wouldn’t need her guaranteed admission spot anymore. We wondered if she might give that slot to Cindy p>
“We raised her like our own, but the truth is Claire and Cindy had totally different childhoods. Cindy’s always had so much pressure to succeed p>
“I only meant that a recommendation would relieve a lot of that stress for Cindy p>
“If Claire doesn’t want to do it, forget it. We aren’t going to force her p>
Latham looked like he’d swallowed a lemon. His voice got sharper. “Are you serious? You can’t just hand off something like a college recommendation to someone else p>
Octavia stiffened a little. It seemed
like Latham had been snapping at her more and more lately, and most of the time, it was about Claire. In a way, Claire felt like a curse on everything they used to have Their
marriage was time before all this if it
weren’t for Claire, maybe things
wouldn’t be so tense.
Latham shook
his head in disbelief.
“You’re missing the point. I know you want to make up to Cindy now that she’s your real daughter, but claire’s just as much a victim in all this? Why do you act like she owes Cindy anything p>
“If anybody owes something, it’s us. We were the ones who didn’t realize the babies
got switched. If we’d figured it out sooner, we could have fixed things p>
Claire had always been an
outstanding kid. Everyone knew that. Maybe that’s why it never occurred to anyone that she wasn’t their.
biological daughter.
1.n
The truth was
Latham thought, he and Octavia had
just been too clueless to see what was right in front of them.