''Walk in a few.'' Reba pondered on Rudy''s words before he suddenly vanished.


    "What did he mean? Maybe he didn''t want to enter the house simultaneously?" Reba looked at her wristwatch and muttered, "I will walk in once the second''s hand reaches 12."


    Reba patiently waited for a minute to pass, but then she remembered she was still wearing Eleanor''s sunsses and hat.


    ''I think I should take them off. I have no need to wear them inside the house.''


    Once a minute had passed, Reba moved her hand to open the door.


    ''Wait… Jessica and Lilim stayed the night here. And Joe returned from his trip too. I was out all night, so I don''t know what they didst night. Joe went to sleep as he was tired, but Rudy and the girls were awake.


    Keeping Lucy aside… What if Lilim and Jessica… no, they are already indulged in an intimate rtionship with Rudy, so there shouldn''t be an ''if'' involved. They definitely fuckedst night.''


    Reba suddenly gasped in realization and covered her mouth with her hand.


    ''Is that why Rudy asked me to wait for a few minutes before entering the house? He wanted to erase all the evidence! No, you won''t! I will catch you red-handed!''


    Once again, Reba had opened the door of her judging-nation and alreadye to a conclusion without even knowing a fragment of the story.


    She hurriedly opened the door and walked in, only to see Rudy lying half-naked on the couch with Lucy on top of him.


    Rudy smiled a little and closed his eyes, seemingly, he had epted his fate.


    Lucy was so focused on taking the remote back from Rudy that she hadn''t noticed Reba.


    "What''s going on here?" Reba asked with a furious look on her face.


    "Reba! Look! He is teasing me!"


    "You are on top of him. How is he teasing you?"


    "I was watching TV, and he suddenly turned it off! I am trying to get the remote from him!"


    Reba scanned Rudy''s hands with her eyes to look for the remote.


    "There are other proper ways to get the remote back. You didn''t have to get so close to him. Even if he is your brother, he is a boy with no blood rtion to you. As a girl, you should be careful about all that," Reba exined calmly but with an angry face.


    "And why are you half-naked?!" She then shifted her anger to Rudy.


    ''I just wanted to hurry and get out of the bathroom because mom could enter at any minute. But… I improvised my n, and then there was a minor unexpected turn of events.''


    Of course, Rudy could say that.


    "I just came out of the bathroom."


    Reba squinted her eyes but didn''t ask more questions to Rudy.


    "Mom! Please tell Rudy to give me the remote back!"


    "Rudy, give her—" Reba suddenly stopped and turned to Lucy. "Did you just call me mom?"


    "Yes…" Lucy meekly nodded. "Is it okay if I call you that? Because calling you Reba feels weird when Rudy is around. And I don''t want to call you aunty or something. I consider that disrespectful."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    ''I am pretty sure calling someone by their name is more disrespectful, but that''s my opinion,'' Rudy uttered inwardly.


    "No, no. I am fine with that. You can call me ''mom'' if you want to. In fact, I would rather prefer you call me that all the time, not just when Rudy is around. I think of you as my daughter, so nothing makes me happier than you calling me mom."


    Reba repeatedly shot nces at Rudy while saying that.


    "..."


    "And Rudy thinks of you as his sister, so feel free to call him brother if you want," she shortly added.


    ''I saw thating. I knew she wouldn''t miss the chance to slip that in.''


    Lucy looked at Rudy from the corner of her eyes and said, "I would call him brother if he calls me sister."


    "Okay, lil sis."


    "Don''t add lil!"


    "But you are younger than me, so technically, logically, naturally, legally, practically, and whatever -ally has left— you should be called my lil sis."


    "Then I will call you little brother," she said while licking her lips.


    ''Oh, man. How did she turn out like this? Is she on some medication that turns on her switch?''


    "Enough of this. Rudy give her the remote. Why would you turn it off in the first ce?"


    ''Because she was watching a really questionable movie. But if I tell that to mom, Lucy will realize that I was faking my interest in the movie and already knew everything about it.


    And then she would say, ''If you have watched it, why can''t I?''


    I know Lucy''s character very well. After all, she was the first girl to get close to Rudy in the other timeline. Well, anyway, I honestly can''t let Lucy watch that movie.''


    "Lucy said she is going out with her friends—without telling either of us, by the way— but now she is watching a movie. I will handle the breakfast, but she has yet to bathe.


    Not to mention, the movie just started five minutes ago, and it will run for… I don''t know, maybe two hours. Now, I think that''s enough reason to turn off the TV."


    "But I wasn''t going to watch the entire movie in one go! I was going to watch until breakfast was ready."


    "You could have taken a bath in the meantime," Reba suggested.


    "But Rudy was bathing."


    "And I finished. After which, I turned off the TV because you weren''t behaving."


    "Argh! Fine!" Lucy got up from the couch and red at Rudy. "I will remember this! You better watch out!"


    "..."


    After saying that, she went to Reba''s room to get her clothes and then entered the bathroom.


    ''Thest time she said that in the other world line, Rudy had to sleep at Eric''s house for a week. But… that''s not bad in this world. I would dly spend a week with Elena.''