A Husband For Killer Mom

“Match in pairs? It’s interesting.” Stanley nodded in agreement with his daughter’s proposal. “Who should go first?

“Richie-Anxia versus Rei-Michele. I will be the referee.”

“Eh? I can’t play volleyball.” a soft, worried voice escaped Michele’s mouth.

“Don’t worry. Rei will help you.” Moni pretended not to notice Michele’s anxiety and Anxia’s discomfort and insisted on carrying out her proposal.

Raymond squinted at his sister suspiciously, then whispered to his older twin. “Why do I feel our sister is planning something?”

“Tell me about it. I bet she wants to improve our wives’ relationship.”

“We should have come here to please her and not her worrying about our wife’s problems.”

“Take a look at her now. Without us needing to do anything, the girl can entertain herself.”

.....

Raymond also looked at his little sister and smiled when he heard his sister’s bird-like laughter.

“You are right. I haven’t heard her laugh in a long time.”

“Maybe, she needs a new environment. If she wants to arrange our family functions and improve the relationship between our two wives, why don’t we just let her? It spared us to worry about this family vacation.”

Raymond chuckled at his brother’s last words and humorously smacked Richard on the shoulder. You’re too lazy to think about complicated things.”

Richard grinned broadly and walked over to the table for his bottle of drink. As he sipped his drink, he felt something tug at his sleeve, making him turn around and see his wife standing next to him.

“What is it?”

“Should I come along? You can play alone.” Anxia doesn’t like to do strenuous activities if it’s not for training to hone her fighting skills. Especially this summer, the sun was shining so hot that it made her feel lazy to play. Plus, before this, she had played casually with Moni, so Anxia didn’t want to play anymore.

Anxia just wanted to be with her daughter and sit in this relaxing area with a canopy to protect them from the scorching sun.

“Only a few minutes. Don’t you want to play with me?”

Of course, Anxia wanted to―she wanted to do everything with her husband, but… Anxia still felt reluctant if she had to play with Michele.

Anxia still remembered Michelle’s threat last night. Like it or not, Anxia felt anxious about making a mistake, making Michele irritated and exposing everything to the other family members.

“Xia Xia, calm down. I am by your side.” Richard wrapped his arms around Anxia’s waist closer and planted his lips on the top of her head.

It seemed that the two of them had forgotten that they were not alone, and many pairs of eyes were looking at them with interest.

“I never expected you to have this kind of side. Since when?” Raymond’s teasing caused Anxia’s face to be as red as a tomato, and she hid her red face in her husband’s chest while Richard’s hands wrapped around Anxia’s waist tightened even more.

“Of course, since he laid his eyes on Anxia.”

Richard rolled his eyes indifferently at Harmonie’s response to Raymond’s question.

Seeing them succeed in taunting Richard, Raymond and Harmonie gave each other high fives while smiling in amusement.

On the other hand, Michelle just sighed in resignation and didn’t comment anything.

Now she understood that Richard loved Anxia very much and would protect her no matter what. She glanced at Raymond and remembered the man also did everything to protect her. The man’s persistence in infiltrating her heart and making her fall in love with him again made Michele decide not to think about her revenge anymore.

Many people say that Richard and Raymond have very different mindsets and characters. But the truth is, their perspective was the same, and their personalities were similar. What differs is how long the two of them hold back their emotions.

Raymond was more able to hold back and bottle up his emotions and always showed a kind and gentle face in dealing with anyone. While the other―when Richard’s patience ran out, he would openly show his displeasure.

But both didn’t like getting ‘no’ for an answer and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted. In the past, Raymond had opened the close-tight heart of Michele―then it wouldn’t be impossible that Richard had succeeded in melting Anxia’s cold, devil-like heart. That was what Michele believed based on what she had seen today.

Now Michelle regretted that she had let her hatred blind her again and cornered Anxia last night, and she had even ruined good relations with Richard.

Since they gathered in the dining room to enjoy breakfast, Richard no longer struck up a conversation or even just said hello. When they accidentally met eyes, the man only smiled faintly to greet her as family.

Somehow, Michele felt like she had become a terrible person who was planning to cause rifts in this family.

A gentle pat on the top of her head broke her trance, and instantly her heart felt warm when she saw her husband looking at her with a loving smile.

“What are you thinking? Let’s play.” Raymond took her hand and walked towards the field, followed by Richard and Anxia, who walked to the opposite side, facing Raymond-Michelle.

Before this, Michelle had played volleyball with her husband while they were on their honeymoon in Hawaii. But at that time, they played casually, and Raymond’s strokes were too light to match Michele’s capacities because Michele had never played volleyball before.

Likewise, Anxia had never played volleyball before, let alone volleyball; she had never played basketball or ping-pong. The only sport that caught her attention was archery, and Anxia rarely missed her aim every time she released an arrow from her bow.

One had played volleyball before and was used to batting thanks to her husband’s teachings, while the other had never played volleyball, but there was no doubt that her shots would be much more robust than the other one.

The party who first had a turn to throw the ball was Richard. He threw the ball up, then jumped high and hit the ball hard at Raymond. Raymond greeted him well and was about to return the favor with an equally hard punch to his brother. But he remembered that they were playing with their wives at this time, so he hit the ball with a moderate stroke and aimed it near Anxia.

For several minutes, Richard and Raymond deliberately set the ball’s direction so the game would not falter, forcing them to take the ball. They also involve their partners so that they all enjoy the game. After warming up and throwing the ball several times, Richard and Raymond targeted their opponent’s blind spot to score.

The longer they played, the more competitive the atmosphere was, and Anxia and Michele started to relax and enjoy this game.

Lori and Harmonie whistled, cheering for them with Eugene’s unique shouting sound, which made the others laugh. Anxia and Richard exchanged high-fives when they scored, while Raymond hugged Michelle tenderly when they scored.

Stanley smiled, seeing the scene on the volleyball court. Even though he appeared ignorant and focused his attention on his two grandchildren, Stanley knew very well what his three children were planning, especially the purpose behind his youngest daughter’s suggestion.

‘My kids had grown up.’ Stanley couldn’t be more proud than he was now, and he felt blessed to be the kids’ father.

Stanley embraced his wife and let Meisya’s head rest on his shoulder while watching his children and grandchildren enjoy the day. Everyone thought that the volleyball game between the Calvin brothers would go well.

Alas, something unexpected happened.

Like a machine getting more ready to go, Stanley’s daughters-in-law were getting more excited about scoring as much as possible. When it was Michele’s turn to receive the ball from her husband to smash it into her opponent’s empty point, Michele only focused her hands on the ball and smashed it to a random spot, which she believed was her opponent’s blank spot.

Little did she expect that Anxia had already prepared in that blank spot and wasn’t ready to receive a close-range smash from Michelle. Anxia could have dodged, but her body didn’t want to avoid it because she wanted to counter the smash and score herself. But before she could move her hand to receive Michele’s smash hit, the ball had already hit her head, causing Anxia to shriek in surprise.

Richard immediately approached his wife while rubbing her head which was hit by a volleyball.

“Are you okay?”

Anxia was a little dizzy, but after waiting a few seconds, the dizziness disappeared, and her state recovered.

“I am alright.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were there.” Strange enough, Michele’s words rang a bell in Anxia’s head.

Did Michelle hit her head with the ball on purpose to get back at her? Anxia couldn’t help but suspect Michele.