"Hey, don't drag me into your business. I am quite happy that she is not nagging me for the moment!" To be honest, Nathan was still traumatized about last night. Her constant badgering about their son made his ears hurt! He wondered how a middle-aged woman could be this energetic, talking about the same old thing over and over again. He was bored to tears by her nagging. By the end of the day, she sounded like a broken record. Nathan shook his head slowly, a bittersweet smile on his face.

  "Dad, how can you ignore my feelings? The moment my brother came home, you started to favor him over me. I feel so neglected by you." Claire pouted and grabbed her father's arms. Like a little girl, she pulled his sleeves and shook his arms constantly.

  "All right, honey, stop bugging your father now. He needs to attend to some business later on. He is in a hurry. You shouldn't waste his time and energy like that. And now that you are up, why don't you join us to the dining room for some breakfast? What about your Miss Ye? Has she gotten up yet?" Shannon walked up to the foot of the staircase and looked behind Claire. She was not sure if her daughter's guest would join them for breakfast.

  "What are you on about? Mom, she is my guest, okay? Why can't you be nicer to her? She is afraid of you already. This is not a nice way to treat my friend!" Claire raised her voice and glared at her mother unpleasantly. She was quite mad at Shannon for her hostile attitude toward Louisa. It seemed to her that her mother clearly held something against her friend, since she tried to avoid Louisa on most occasions.

  "What are you talking about? Did she actually say to you that I have been harsh to her? I know very well that she is your guest. That is why I have been polite to her all this time. What is so wrong with my attitude?" Shannon said, giving her daughter a stern look. It was true that she didn't like Louisa at all. However, s

  that close to her, to be honest with you. I find it quite odd to call her that. After all, I don't know her so well." Shannon shook her head and sighed helplessly. She made it quite clear that she refused to build an intimate relationship with this Louisa. She would rather refer to her as Miss Ye. Deep down, she wanted Louisa to know her stance: she didn't like her at all. Shannon only tolerated her because of this persistence from her daughter. Certain boundaries needed to be put up clearly. Shannon personally didn't want her in the house at all. Hopefully, Louisa would get her message and back off.

  "Why can't you just call her by her first name? For crying out loud, you call Leena by her first name even though you just got to know her a few days ago! Why do you treat them so differently? What is wrong with you?" At this stage, Claire was genuinely cross at her mother. In her opinion, Shannon was unbelievably stubborn. Claire got up so early so she could have a good chat with her regarding the way she treated her friend. However, things just turned out nasty. Her mother was being unreasonable and hard to please. Claire really hated to communicate with people who were this headstrong. All her words were in vain. It seemed like her mother had made up her mind already.