Scarlett took his arm and rested her head on his shoulder, and said, “Skyler, there is one thing you need to remember, my home is also yours. Don’t feel like you don’t belong here. The relationship between you and I, brother and sister, will never change, no matter what happens. I’m always here for you.” Scarlett looked up at Skyler and said. She realized that her little brother had turned into a man overnight. He was gentle, kind, and full of wisdom and experience. She felt deeply proud of him and started feeling emotional all over again.
Skyler smiled and said, “Sis, do you still remember the days that you took me to collect the bottles after school and exchanged them for money? You saved up money for months to make sure we ate well! But there you were, practically on the verge of fainting from exhaustion, with not even a bite of food in your stomach to keep you going….”
My sincere apology for copy-pasting the wrong chapter from my google docs. Bear with me, and I already pasted the right one after someone sent me a message on my social media account. Please do remove this book and re-add it again after a couple of hours once my editor confirmed it to see the newest content. I was so worn out the other day, I didn't bother to check my latest update on the mobile version.
After finishing up his morning shower, Skyler stood in the doorway, watching the various helpers at the villa working meticulously. They looked like they were taking care not to be too noisy, probably because they didn’t want to wake Scarlett up. Seeing everything happening in front of his eyes, Skyler smiled at himself. All of a sudden, the sound of Carlos crying floated to Skyler’s ears. Skyler bounded towards Carlos’s room, opened the door, and saw Grace was dressing Carlos with great difficulty as he bawled. She was sweating and obviously stressed out. “Be good, my sweet boy! Your mother will be very happy to see you all dressed up! Come on now.” She coaxed him gently. “What’s wrong? Are you being naughty, Carlos?” Skyler said from behind. Grace turned arou
“Claire? Does she still have contact with Scarlett?” Anna was surprised. “It’s not what you thought! She just happened to run into them. My aunt must know the president of the Sandler Company!” She explained. Anna’s eyes brightened. The president of Sandler Company must be filthy rich. Scarlett didn’t have many close relatives, and she hated her father, so Anna figured that Scarlett might invite her to attend the wedding. “Caroline, go and ask about it! How are they doing? Are they going to have a huge wedding?” Anna patted Caroline’s shoulder excitedly and asked. “Why are you so excited about this, mum? There is no way that she will repay us, okay? We’d better hope that she doesn’t hate us or decides to take revenge.” Caroline said.
Skyler chuckled. “Don’t be silly, Scarlett. It’ll be fun. I’ve heard the food there is delicious. To die for!” Scarlett sighed and said nothing. “What kinds of places did you guys go to when you were dating? Fancy places? Or some sloppy fast food joint every now and then, eh?” Skyler asked. He was curious to know more about the relationship between Francis and Scarlett. He still hadn’t gotten a good read on Francis, and he hadn’t figured out what had allowed their relationship to survive this long, considering the fact that they came from such different worlds. Scarlett began recollecting the early days of her romance with Francis. Back then, she had been optimistic and cheery. She had had a positive outlook on life despite all the hardships she had faced, just trying to keep herself and Skyler afloat. She would
When the four of them went out to eat dinner, Scarlett was still unhappy even though hours had passed since her conversation with Skyler. She ordered her favorite dish off the menu– fettuccini doused in black truffle and garlic aioli– but found that even those beloved flavors could do nothing to drive her bad mood away.“What’s wrong with your sister?” Francis asked Skyler when he saw Scarlett twirling her pasta around her fork absent-mindedly.“Well, it might be that the pregnancy made her silly!” Skyler answered as he fed Carlos a spoonful of chocolate-banana pudding.When Scarlett heard that, she just stared at him and said, “What do you know about being pregnant anyway, Skyler? Just let me be.”“Francis, you
“You are so stupid! Why do you forgive people so easily?” He said.“Hey, I’m just being kind!” She said as she angrily chased Chuck after giving him three flicks on his forehead in succession.“What’s going on?” An angry voice interrupted from behind.It was Francis. When Francis was done with his business partners, he turned around and saw Scarlett and Skyler chasing each other, so he was not happy. As everyone knew, Francis was very jealous of the other men who had a good relationship with Scarlett, especially Chuck. What did Chuck have that he didn’t? He didn't know how to deal with his emotions and feeling jealousy in a positive way.Scarlett and Skyler turned around to find Francis standing behind them.
Scarlett smiled wryly and said, “I really just want us to be left alone. I want him to stop hovering around and waltzing into our lives whenever he pleases. I’m not the kind of person who cares about revenge. All I want is for him to disappear. I want him and the rest of those people just to go away and let us live our lives. But they just won’t let me have that. They just won’t….”“Scarlett, whose idea do you think it was in the first place?” Skyler asked, glancing at Jennifer angrily from the corner of her eyes. Jennifer had, after all, ruined their mother’s life. Skyler would never forget what grave damage she had caused their little family.“Who else could it be?” Scarlett sneered. She turned around and said, “Let’s go and meet our stepmother.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer had been listening to their conversation. Her ears perked up. She raised her eyebrows, contemplating a new idea.“Do you like cars, Jeremy? If you can get into a good college, I’ll make sure to get you the ride you want.”Jeremy grew excited upon hearing this. He rushed to Jennifer’s side and said, “Really? Do you mean that? You’re not just messing around with me, are you?”“Would I ever lie to you? Have I ever promised something to you and then not come through? No, right?” Jennifer said as she gently stroked his head.***Right then, Caroline came out wearing different clothes. She was wearing an outfit that Scarlett had never worn befor
Over the weekend, Francis decided to take Scarlett to the stables despite her lukewarm reaction during their conversation earlier.“Wait, what? What are we doing here anyway? I thought I already told you that I don’t want to ride any horses.” Scarlett said angrily. She looked at Francis with a death stare, her hands deep inside her pockets. She was wearing grey joggers and a form-fitting black shirt. As always, she looked lovely. Her hair was tied up, so, from a distance, one could easily mistake her for a charming young man.“Go and change your clothes!” Francis hollered at her.Scarlett angrily stomped and yelled out, “Why the hell did you ask me to ride here so early in the morning? Why can’t you just leave me alone and sleep in on the weekends for once? I don’t wan
When Scarlett woke up, it was eight o’clock in the morning. She rolled around in bed for a few moments before sitting up. Her head felt heavy.“You’re awake!” Francis said as he walked into the bedroom from the balcony. He smiled at her. “I thought you’d be out for hours. Aren’t you jetlagged? How long was the flight from Lisbon to Irving anyway? And didn’t you have a stopover in Dallas?”Scarlett rested her head on Francis’s shoulder and said, “Well, I wanted to go to bed early last night. No thanks to you, we ended up staying up so late! I barely got enough sleep. You’re exhausting me, Francis!”“Oh? Am I? I’m so sorry, Scarlett.” Francis teased. He kissed her neck and tousled her hair.
“Don’t you miss me?” Scarlett laughed on the other side. Her hair was wet, and she was wearing a champagne-colored nightgown. She looked as pretty as ever.“Of course I miss you, but I can’t do anything about it, right? I can’t cry on daddy’s shoulder as Brittany did.” Francis said. He came to the balcony and lit up a cigarette and felt a little relaxed.“Brittany cried?” Scarlett asked in surprise.“Yep, she cried for over an hour,” he said as he breathed out a plume of thick smoke.Upon hearing that, Scarlett felt kind of guilty. Was she selfish? Was she a bad mother, a bad wife?“Francis, do you resent me?” Scarlett asked as she Skyped with
As Carlos grew up, he learned the fact that his father was very powerful. But he couldn’t tell his mother what to do.“I gotta fly to Portugal for business... I’ll be gone for a month,” Scarlett said one evening.“Why do you have to be gone for such a long time? Can’t you just get one of your associates to go instead? What’s going to happen to us while you’re gone? At least try to see if you can come back sooner….” Francis moaned unhappily. He hated being away from his wife.“Carlos will take care of his sisters, and besides, Brittany and Shannon are very good kids.” Scarlett comforted gently. “You don’t have to worry about anything.”“I’m not talking about them. I&rsqu
Francis suddenly grabbed Scarlett in the crowd, who walked next to Eve and then tightened his grip around her waist. He pinned her against the pillar and gazed at her without looking away.“What are you doing?” she blushed as she noticed that he was staring at her.Francis moved his hand from her hip to her waist. He was turned on by her sexy figure– as always.After that, he kissed her fiercely– just like he was kissing her for the very first time in his life.Scarlett was taken by surprise and kissed him back passionately as the fireworks blazed on.They parted breathlessly and stared at each other with lust in their eyes.“I hope you’re glad
Scarlett looked up at Skyler. He smiled at her and said, “I’m very relieved that you’re gonna get married to Francis. So now you don’t need to worry about anything in the world.”“You’d better be quick. I will open the door now!” Eve said with her hand on the handrail.Scarlett and Skyler smiled at each other and felt that there was indeed nothing to be scared of anymore. They had, after all, suffered deeply for two decades. Now that was all over. They couldn’t dwell on the past; it was time to step into the future and embrace happiness.“Go ahead, I’m ready!” she smiled, readying herself for the walk down the aisle.As the door opened, Scarlett walked out with Skyler gripping her arm. He was smiling
There was a minute of silence over the phone– Francis and Scarlett said nothing to one another. Scarlett pouted and asked, “Wait a minute… are you laughing at me? You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”“No, I’m the same as you. I feel nervous,” he said in a low voice.“What?” Scarlett asked curiously.Francis was standing in front of the window of his study room with his hands in his pocket, looking out at the vast, blue sea outside.He took a deep breath and smiled, “I said, I’m much more nervous than you are. I’m sure of it. You have no idea how nervous I’m feeling right now.”Scarlett laughed gleefully. Hearing that Francis was
Scarlett was about to drink up from her can of beer, but on the command of Eve, she was made to down an entire bottle of whiskey instead.“For our lovely and beautiful bride!” Eve said.With that, they blasted some tunes and began dancing wildly. Eve approached Scarlett and said something in her ear.“Say it again! I can’t hear you!” Scarlett shouted loudly.“I’m saying, don’t be a housewife! Live for yourself now and forever.” Eve shouted loudly.Scarlett just laughed and had a drink with her.“Cheers!” she said.The party didn’t come to a close until 4 am the fol
At this moment, Carlos took Shannon by the hand and walked in slowly, and said, “Brittany, mommy is tired. Please go play by yourself.”But Brittany just ignored him and took Scarlett to jump on the balcony. She was excited about the big blue swimming pool in front of them and said, “Mommy, I want to swim. Mommy, please go swimming with me.”The setting sun shone on the swimming pool; it was very quiet.“My sweetheart, could you ask daddy to go swimming with you a while later?” Scarlett said as she touched her head.Though Brittany was unhappy about this, she was not a stubborn kid; after that, she turned around to go look for Francis. Carlos was a little worried about her, so he instantly followed her.
Eve was pissed off and almost fainted from how angry and frustrated she was feeling right then.Damon immediately held her around her waist and said smilingly, “It’s our wedding day, Eve! I know you’re stressed out and panicking about this whole pregnancy thing, but this is actually good. You’re not pregnant! We’re in the clear! So let’s just try to enjoy this day now, why don’t we? What do you think?”As the guests left, Eve and Damon checked into the presidential suite at the hotel. When they got in the room, Damon suddenly realized that Eve was on the first night of her period. She may not be interested in having sex with him.“You know I don’t mind that you’re bleeding down there at all, right? A real man braves the red tide.”