The ride to her home felt like it took much longer than the one she had taken in the morning.
Although she tried to rest by taking a nap, Liz constantly kept waking up as she felt very uncomfortable.
"Miss, we are here. I've been informed about your paid leave tomorrow. I'll see you the day after, then."
Hearing Rao's voice. Liz nodded and said "Thanks," before getting off.
Yet, as soon as she set her foot on the pavement, she froze with shock.
A man wearing a uniform of some sort was awkwardly carrying the 4-foot tall doll given by Luke that she always looked at at least once before going to sleep.
Seeing him almost drop it while carrying other familiar things from her house in his hands, she ran forward and snatched it before screaming, "THIEF!"
As the scream resounded across the street, she looked around and realized that there were others wearing the same uniforms carrying stuff into a truck parked to the side.
Oh.
"MOM, SIS IS HERE! SHE JUST CALLED THE PORTER A THIEF! SHE'S ABSENT MINDED AGAIN!"
As the silence was broken by Derek's scream, Liz, who had realized the same fact and had been planning to slink away without anyone noticing, blushed fiercely.
Running to her little brother who was taking a deep breath to shout again, she forcefully closed his mouth with her hands and said, "A misunderstanding. Please carry on."
As the porter shrugged and walked to the truck, Liz set the doll to the side and snatched her brother before carrying him upstairs.
The chuckling that she heard from those behind her only served to make her blush further.
Hearing the shout, Mary had come out of the house.
Smiling at her daughter, she said admonishingly to Derek, "At least don't shout stuff like this in our new home. We don't want the neighbors knowing about the time when your sister tackled me when I was going to her bathroom because the faucet broke in mine."
As Derek started to laugh uncontrollably in her hands, Liz groaned at them both before carrying him inside and throwing him on the sofa.
Seeing her roll up her sleeves threateningly, Derek was just about to stop laughing when she launched forward again and started tickling him on his little feet.
"You mess with your sista, you get the Ticksta! The notorious killer who kills cute little kids like you by tickling them!"
Finally putting all the negative feelings to the side, Liz laughed menacingly while continuously tickling her little brother despite his protests.
The comfort that came from family and home was truly something else, she thought, while her brother started to beg her to stop because his sides were starting to hurt because of laughing too much.
Watching the happy sight, Mary smiled briefly before getting back to packing stuff up.
It was time for the Redmaine family to move into a new home.
------
A few hours later, the trio stood outside a massive villa while gaping at it with their eyes wide open.
"Sis, are we still in...in New York?"
As Derek voiced the question that all of them were asking themselves in their minds, Liz shook her head and said, "I don't know. It doesn't feel like it, at least."
Of course, they had good reasons for being so shocked.
New York was a city of sprawling skyscrapers and crowded buildings. With one of the highest average rent amount in the world, the entire city was filled with multi-storeyed buildings which emphasized quantity of houses over quality.
At least, that was what they had thought until they had been driven to this location.
It was a sheltered grove packed away in the middle of the city that had somehow avoided the fate of always being in the shadow of a skyscraper. Although there were buildings present around the Villa, they were only 3 or 4 storeyed, making it so that no one got the feel of living in a packed metropolis.
Although it looked like a two-storeyed building at first glance, the wide open balcony on the second floor established the fact that it was a Villa.
In total, the area was at least 600 sq yards, with the house occupying two-thirds of the plot. On the three sides that were visible from the front, beautiful gardens had been planted.
"THERE'S A POOL!!!!"
As Derek let out a scream of excitement and ran inside on seeing the hint of blue water to one side, the spell was broken on the other two.
"Liz, are we at the right address?"
"I think so, mum."
"But you said you were a P.A! What are you doing that is so valuable that they gave you this house and are paying that much money?"
This question stymied Liz too, who was thinking along the same lines.
Shaking her head, she said, "I don't know yet, Mom, but I think I'll find out."