Chapter fifty-eight: "Coco"

"You do?" he sounded so surprised by my reaction
He did all of this by himself, what kind of girl wouldn't be this happy?

I kissed him again with more passion "I do, I really do" I whisper in his ear as my arms hugged him tightly

He sighed in relief "I was worried that you wouldn't like it"

My head turned around and admired the cabin that he built by himself "What's there not I love about this place? Everything we need is here!"

A gentle smile appeared on his face "I know but..." he looks down on me "Usually girls like a place like a mansion or a palace with the money my family has"

With a dead look on my face, I said "You gotta pay me to live there because the last thing I would want to do is to live in a ginormous palace that would take me 14 minutes to go from place to place"

He chuckled "Do you hate the manor that much?"

"It's not that I hate it but my legs hurt so much just get myself a glass of water from the kitchen then walk back to the living room which is miles away" I groaned and leaned myself back as Cloud held my waist so I won't fall

"You're over-exaggerating"

"Say's the one who grew up in such an environment, you have legs made to live in the manor"

Cloud could only shrug at me with a sheepish grin plastered over his handsome face as I rolled my eyes at his reaction. I walked around the living room to check out all the furniture he bought, a while I was busy, Cloud went outside somewhere for a moment

I soon heard the sliding door slide open and there entered a puppy, it was a golden retriever whose fur was cream-colored. Its tail started to wag when it saw me in the living room and then ran in my direction like it was excited to see me

The puppy ran around me and started barking happily before he tried to pat his paw on my feet waiting to be picked up

"Oh my!" I knelt down and happily picked up the pup with both hands "Where did you come from?"

The puppy barked at m like it was trying to answer my question

Cloud ran immediately to the living room with his hair a bit messy due to the strong wind outside while holding a dog leash in his right hand "Thank God, I thought it ran to the woods again"

He walked up to me holding the dog and put a leash on the puppy "There"

I petted the puppy's head "Who's this little fella Cloud?". He lets the puppy lick the back of his hand

He grinned "It's our dog, we did agree that we would have a bunny and a dog"
That was supposed to be our topic for you to sleep, I didn't exactly mean it that he bought a golden retriever

"Cloud I love that we now have a dog but...Bun-bun is too much work already, that bunny poops as much as it eats"

"We could switch roles in taking care of them" he suggested

He did go and took care of my favorite animal so taking care of his is only fair, plus, it's a charm point to me

"Ok, I agree, maybe we can find a way to take care of this puppy. So is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a girl"

"What should we name her?"

Cloud thought for a moment "I did name bunny as Bun-bun for a temporary name but in the end, you made it permanent, how about you do it?"

I nodded and checked the puppy who was smiling at me with its tongue out "How about...Coco"

"Like chocolate?"

"No, like a coconut"

"And here I thought I was bad in giving names" he joked and I lightly punched him in the arm

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Cloud gave me a tour around the outside of the cabin before we walked back to the car so he could drive us to the twins' penthouse

During the drive, Coco was asleep in my arms while me and Cloud listened to soothing music played on the radio

"Cloud"

"Hm?"

"I love you"
I don't know why but I just felt the need to say it, sometimes I get the feeling like I wanted to say "I love you" to Cloud at random times

"I love you too Angel"

Cloud also says "I love you" to me at the most random of times, for example, while I was busy cleaning the kitchen and Cloud entered the penthouse with the groceries he would say "I love you" to me while putting the groceries away

"Whatever my clan says to you, I beg of you to never listen to them" he suggested to me with worry in his eyes

I know it is weird that people would look at their parents' grade history but they were different. Everybody looks up to the Marshalls as prodigies or geniuses
Nobody would be a billionaire with just pure luck, their riches all came from being a genius and strategic

Being rich and a genius is one of the things that makes the Marshalls famous and the thing that damns their entire generation of kids in stress

So someone like Arthur is something like a sore in the eyes of the entire clan

I pitied the man who had already passed, his kids and family outcasted him except for his wife which was the kindhearted Ava

Ava told me that he was good at chess and knows a lot about doing archery and horseback riding, but that doesn't mean his family would still look at him. He was never the type to know much about academics and his views were enormously different from his family

He said that he wanted to throw away the Marshall status of being a billionaire and just become a normal person with an average life, the family as you know it, did not agree with him and only made him more outcasted than before

So how did he manage the family's riches you ask?
Well, that duty fell to the hands of Ava. She was happily married to him and knows quite a lot about the finances because she was an accountant before becoming a Marshall

The admiration and respect of the entire clan that was supposed to be going to Arthur, went to Ava instead. They felt that Ava was someone like a hero that saved their clan's reputation from falling because of Arthur

Arthur didn't hold any hatred for his wife but only supported her and even pushed her further for becoming head of the family. In my view, Arthur just wanted his family to let go of the statues and enjoy their life
But as they say, it is greed that makes the person wicked and unhappy

My chest tightened due to the worry and stress that I have to put my hand over my heart to feel if it was even beating at all
My existence is going to be something like an annoying fly to them

I know Cloud, his brothers, Sophia, and Ava would protect me. But what about his Dad? The aunts? The uncles? The cousins that I would soon meet at the wedding?

They say ignorance is bliss but I wasn't ignorant anymore. After everything that happened to me, my eyes and ear were now wide open which gave me awareness

"I'm not gonna end up like Arthur, I refuse to be alienated again"

"And you won't be because me and everybody who cares would be beside you"