204 The Apology 2 (1/2)
Xu Jing's lips fell open and shock was apparent on his face. He expected to see his wife behind the door and definitely not his own mother.
”Mother... Why?” Xu Jing struggled to ask. If his mother had been inside the room the whole time, why wouldn't she just open the door?
Xu Jing leaned his body to the side and looked behind his mother. He caught Joann in their bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed with her shoulders slumped. Her long hair fell over the face as she shook her head and gave out a long sigh but at least she didn't look like she had just cried. Xu Jing wanted to call out Joann's name to get her attention when the door slammed close in his face.
Xu Jing looked up and saw his mother has the doorknob in her hand. It was Mrs. Xu who closed the door.
Similar to before, Xu Jing blurted out asking, ”Mother, why?”
”Why?!” Mrs. Xu repeated with incredulity. There was an emotion in her mother's tone that Xu Jing hadn't heard her use in his presence before. It sounded like disappointment and it stung. What Mrs. Xu said next only push the pain in deeper. ”You know very well why.”
”Mother, what have you heard?” Xu Jing tried to argue. Since his mother just walked out from his wife's room, it meant that they had been talking. Since Joann refused to converse with him, then Xu Jing could use his mother as a bridge to explain himself to his wife... that is if he could get his mother to see his perspective. ”Mother, I swear it's just a mistake, a drunken mistake at that. Mother, I don't know what you've been told but I assure you it was blown out of proportion.”
”Really?” Mrs. Xu asked. Xu Jing wanted to say, 'yes' but the way his mother phrased that question worried him. Xu Jing was clever to hold his tongue because Mrs. Xu continued to deliver this fatal blow, ”Your daughter told me you had an extra-marital affair. Are you trying to tell me Sylvia has exaggerated? Or she was trying to frame you?”
Indeed, it Sylvia who went to Mrs. Xu with the news. Her father's affair was nobody's business and was under a need-to-know basis but her grandmother was definitely one of the people who needed to know. After all, this was something that could rock the foundation of the Xu family to its core. As the eldest member of the household, Mrs. Xu had every right to know about something of this scale.
When Mrs. Xu first heard the news, her reaction was similar to Joann, it was one of utter disbelief. However, she came to the terms with it faster than Joann. She thanked Sylvia for talking to her, for including her in the conversation. After all, this was between her son and her daughter-in-law.
The first thing Mrs. Xu did after sending Sylvia away was to seek Joann out. This was before Xu Jing even got home. In other words, when Xu Jing was threatening to take the bedroom door down, Mrs. Xu was actually in the room conversing with Joann.