Sari was waiting nervously for her aunt inside.

When she heard those words from her aunt, she was relieved. It looks like her aunt did not object to Rex at all.

Her relief didn't last long as she saw the frown on her aunt's face.

"Why did you not tell us about this Rex boy?" her aunt asked, now turning her interrogation towards her niece.

Zals had been wondering about the changes she saw in her niece for the past couple of months, and looks like this Rex boy was the reason.

When her husband, Rahim, told her of his intention to raise his niece after the death of his brother and sister-in-law, she had not been keen.

It wasn't because she hated Sari.

On the contrary, she was just scared. She had been unable to have children, and she had been convinced that the reason for that was due to her being unsuitable to raise children.

She believed in the old-wives tale, that when you are physically unable to bear children, it is due to the fact that you would not have been a good parent. She was raised with such thinking, thus she was scared to death of destroying this young life.

As such, she kept her distance.

She didn't want to cause such a poor, young child to be tainted by her. She never made any move to get close to her but she did her best to make sure Sari was well fed and had everything (in terms of basic necessities) that they could afford to give her.

She had seen this girl who was kind, and hard working, never complaining girl grow up. Even though she was a good girl and did not cause any problem, she was like a lifeless doll.

However, she became much more animated and 'alive' lately … and it turned out to be due to this Rex person.

Zals had no objections to this, even though both of them were very young.

Rex had impressed her earlier. Despite her constant interrogation, he stood his ground. His answers were also good and he did not appear to be hiding anything. The last thing she wanted was for her niece to fall for a degenerate person without a future.

Rex gave her a very mature feeling, so she felt that he could be a good influence on Sari.

Sari's eyes went wide open at her aunt's question.

"I … I …" she began, unable to know how to explain.

"What? Are you ashamed of him?"

"No!" Sari denied immediately, "He's the nicest, sweetest, kindest and most hardworking person I know. He's always mindful of me and takes care of me very well. He …"

Zals put up her hand to stop Sari.

She had a feeling if she did not do so, her extremely besotted niece would have gone on and on about it.

Seeing this, she couldn't help but laugh a bit.

Sari stopped upon seeing that hand go up, but was absolutely shocked to hear her aunt laugh.

Did she laugh?

She really did laugh, didn't she?

She hadn't heard wrongly, did she?

Zals shook her head, and taking a deep breath, she said, "Even if we are not your real parents, you should still inform us of these things. You are our responsibility until you get married. Then, you'll be your husband's responsibility."

Sari stood there, listening intently.

This was the first time her aunt was talking to her about something other than school, and chores.

"He seems like an okay boy," Zals said finally, "But remember. You still have your studies. Never rely on a man 100%. You need to be able to rely on yourself. Okay?"

Sari nodded like a robot, her eyes still wide open in surprise. Zals found this to be utterly cute, but she still kept her face stern. She needed to get her point across.

Satisfied at Sari's response, Zals left, leaving a very dazed Sari in the living room.

✿.✿.✿.✿.

Kyle was busy talking to Kitty all the way home.

"Your mummy definitely wants to go to the prom, right baby?" Kyle mused, "Shall we make her dream come true?"

"Meowww," Kitty answered.

"Hmmmm," Kyle replied, "You're right. I still have to be low key, right? Mummy will certainly have a heart attack if I turn up like Kyle Smith, right?"

Purrrrrrrr

"You're so clever, Baby," Kyle said with a chuckle, "Even as Rex, I can dress up, right? Just not be too sloppy."

"Now how shall we go about this without letting her know? Oh, we have a lot of things to do now. Get the tickets, make sure she is free, get her dress …" Kyle rambled on while Kitty just lay down in the sling, falling asleep.

Her Daddy was so silly sometimes. Okay, make that all the time.

But he was a good Daddy. His voice lulled her to sleep and she snuggled closer, hearing his heartbeat.

✿.✿.✿.✿.

Kyle found planning for the surprise to be more exciting than anything he had ever done.

Getting the tickets had been relatively easy. All that it involved was getting them. The tickets were for sale, so all he had to do was buy them from the person selling it.

Clothes?

He browsed the popular online shopping portals of Country M: Zalaro, Lasada and Shopi. Getting Sari's measurements were easy enough as … well, not to sound too perverted, but his training was such that he could gauge it from sight.

Of course, he had to double-check everything?

So, he took ample opportunity to hug her in order to make sure her waist size ... and certain other body parts ... were correct.

It was all for making sure the dress size would fit, okay.

*cough*

His own clothes were pretty simple. Just dark pants and a white shirt. It was a size bigger, so that his body shape could not be easily discernable. He just wanted to look decent, not hot.

After all, the prom was about Sari, not him.