After Jin Liwei’s subordinates left, Wei Lan and René Alejandro opened the envelopes and read the invitations. Each of them received slightly different ones but both were handwritten. Based on the elegant and feminine penmanship, they must have been written by Iris herself.
On Wei Lan’s invitation, it said:
“Dear Mother,
“We invite you to celebrate Christmas with us at our home at Dragon Palace Home #10 on the 24th and 25th of December. It will be a gathering of family and close friends only. Please confirm if you’re able to come.
“Sincerely,
“Liwei and Xiulan”
René Alejandro’s invitation was written in Spanish, impressing him. It said:
“Dear René Alejandro,
“We invite you to join us for a Christmas celebration with family and friends at our home at Dragon Palace Home #10 on the 24th and 25th of December. We are looking forward to finally meeting you in person. Please call us if you are able to come or if you have any questions about the Christmas gathering.
“Sincerely,
“Liam and Iris”
The corners of his mouth curved up. His dimples on both cheeks charmed everyone, especially Randy who kept on batting his false eyelashes at him. Nobody noticed the glint in René Alejandro’s eyes.
“Fiiiiiiinally!” Wei Lan exclaimed while waving the handwritten invitation. “It has been a looooooong time since I last saw deeeeaaaar Liwei and Xiulan! I’ve been wanting to introduce yooooouuuuu, René Alejandro, for sooooooo looooooong. Now you can fiiiiiiiiinally meet your sister!”
“I’m glad that Iris and Liam extended an invitation to me even before meeting me,” René Alejandro said. “This is a gathering for family and close friends only, yes?”
“Of cooooooouuuurse, they should invite you! You’re faaaaaaamily too, René Alejandro. Even if they didn’t invite you, don’t wooooooorry, my dear, I would’ve still brought you with meeeeee. It’s about time that my daughter meets her new broooooooother! Oooooh, I can’t wait! Raaaaaandy doll, help me chooooose my outfit for the Christmas party. And oh, you’re coming with meeeeeee!”
Randy shimmied in excitement. “Yay! We’re going to look so fab!”
Wei Lan handed him her invitation. “You keep it, Raaaaandy doll. I might looooose it.”
“No problem, Vizcondesa.”
Wei Lan crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m just soooooo confused why my son-in-law and daughter would make a biiiiiig deal and celebrate Christmas like thiiiiiiis!”
“Oh, I know the reason, Vizcondesa. When I was still holding Zumba classes for Miss Xiulan and the others, Dom mentioned to me that it’s because of him that Miss Xiulan started celebrating Filipino-style Christmas. I heard that Christmas is a big deal in the Philippines. Miss Xiulan liked the first time she tried celebrating Christmas so much that she decided to make it into a yearly tradition at home.”
“Is that sooooooo?” Wei Lan raised an eyebrow.
“Spanish people also love Christmas,” René Alejandro interjected. “Mamá, forgive Papá for not celebrating Christmas properly with you last year, yes? We were all so busy with work back then that we barely had any time to spend time with each other after Papá and Mamá married. I hope that we can also begin a wonderful Christmas tradition together as a family after Papá joins us here at our new home.”
Wei Lan fished out a lace handkerchief from her expensive handbag and wiped her nonexistent tears. “That’s such a sweeeeeeet idea, my deeeaaaar! Of coooooouuurse, we’re going to do that! We’re faaaaamily after all! Ooooooh! How I miss your dad sooooooo much!”
“I’m sure that Papá misses you so much too, Mamá.” He smiled again, flashing his charming dimples and almost causing the macho Zumba instructor to swoon.
René Alejandro chatted a bit more with his stepmom and her best friend before excusing himself to return to the guest house. He smiled and nodded at the passing movers. When he finally reached the guest house, the smile on his face disappeared replaced by a predatory look. He clutched the invitation in his hand and headed to where his brothers gathered.
They had just finished setting up all of their computers and other hacking gears in what should have been the massive entertainment room. The pool table, mah-jong table, arcade machines, and video game stations were all pushed to one corner.
Everything was still disorganized but the former entertainment room was now starting to look more like a mission control centre. Although the guest house wasn’t as large as the main mansion, it was still very spacious. They had more than enough room to fit all of their computers and gears.
“Staying in a luxury suite at a five-star hotel is cool and all but it’s still better to have our own place,” a brother commented. “I’m so glad that we can finally set up a more permanent base. It’s so tiring to always drag our computers to different places.”
“So true. And we don’t have to worry about privacy and security here. We’ve already checked the entire place and secured it. Ah, so comfy!”
René Alejandro arrived. “Settled in, my brothers?”
“Not quite but almost.”
He nodded and sat on a lounge chair. Then he waved the invitation in front of his brothers. They looked at him with questioning eyes. He tossed it to his nearest brother. The others crowded to read the contents of the invitation together.
“Yes! Finally!”
“We’ll finally enter the next stage of our plans.”
“Good luck, brother! I heard that Liam Jin is a tough nut to crack but I know that you can charm him.”
René Alejandro raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “If he’s really a tough nut to crack then it’ll just be a big waste of time trying to get close to him, no?”
“But you have to befriend him. That’s the plan.”
“I know.” He smirked. “You know the key to get close to Liam Jin?”
Some of his brothers looked confused while the others appeared to know the answer.
“Befriend the wife and the husband will follow,” he said with flourish.
“Ah.”
“Makes sense.”
One of them, however, was doubtful. “Will that really work? What if Liam gets jealous and think that you’re stealing his wife?”
“That’ll depend on my ability, no?”
René Alejandro didn’t look worried at all. He was already looking forward to the Christmas gathering at Dragon Palace.
This was a mission that he couldn’t afford to fail. He was determined to succeed no matter what or suffer the consequences.
