Zachary furrowed his brows. "You didn't understand what I meant, or…""I understood." Jane interrupted him. "You used Nina to protect me.""But I don’t need that. Nina made a mistake. She should bear the consequences of her actions. But she has no obligation to be my shield. And I don't need her to be a shield for me. If I were to be with you, I'd naturally be prepared for everything that’s coming at me. But Zachary, we’ve broken up now."After saying that, Jane tried to get up from his lap.Zachary tightened his large hand around her slender waist. "I never wanted to break up with you. I agreed because I didn't want you to be unhappy. But if you want to be with Michael, then I can't go along with it."When they were in love, communication didn't seem difficult.At Jane’s house, they had spent sweet and happy times together.But after suggesting the break up, Jane realized many problems.It wasn't something that could be solved with just saying "I love you."To be honest, she
"You don't need to be with Michael, I won't keep you trapped."Wasn't that still a demand?She had to do what he said to gain freedom.Jane shook her head.Zachary felt like his head was going to explode.After giving it some thought, the conversation returned to the original question."What's the reason you wanted to break up with me? Did you fall in love with Michael?"Jane had been flying back and forth on planes these past couple of days and she was really tired.She had originally planned to rest for a bit in the lounge chair when she arrived at Madam Hall's little courtyard.The food on the plane wasn't tasty, and Michael had sent her a message when she landed, saying that Madam Hall had specially prepared dinner for her.There was also roasted potato.But instead, Zachary had restrained her, and she hadn't had the chance to rest. She was still hungry.She had no patience to argue with him any longer."Yes."As soon as she finished speaking, she went from sitting to
Jane smiled, "Thank you, Madam Hall.""No need to thank me."Michael brought the food to the table. "Let’s dig in."Jane was truly hungry. She first drank a glass of orange juice to get her stomach started, then began eating heartily.It wasn't fully dark yet. The mountains in the distance were bathed in an orange glow.The sunset was beautiful, and the small courtyard was very comfortable.Jane's stomach was round from eating, and she let out a satisfied burp.It was perfect.Meanwhile, at the hotel.Ross glanced at the dining table. Not a single bite of food had been touched.Since arriving at the hotel room, Zachary had taken a cold shower and then sat by the window smoking.He never expected Zachary, someone who was so talented, to stumble when it came to love.Though Roy was currently keeping an eye on Michael's place, he didn't dare report anything.Ross, hiding in the shadowy corner, also made sure not to breathe too loudly.Finally, Zachary spoke up. "Has he arriv
The truth was that Jane had fallen for Zachary and was hurt.But luckily, she hadn’t lost all hopes in life.Three days later, Charlotte arrived at Michael's house with her child and Yasmin.Just as they arrived, Jane, wearing a straw hat, rolling up her pants, and covered in mud, was coming back.Charlotte's eyes widened. "For someone who always puts on makeup even to take out the trash, what happened to you? Have you become stupid after falling in love?"Jane shot her a glance. "Can’t you think of something good?"Charlotte laughed. "I do want to, but this—this really shocks me.""It looks good to me," said Yasmin. "The most comfortable state is the most beautiful."Jane looked at Yasmin, who had a peach-blossom glow on her face, and said, "Ms. Jackson seems to be enjoying the benefits of love. You seem to have changed.""Stop teasing me.""Why isn't Jason here?""He'll be here in the evening. He had a shoot that couldn't be postponed."Jane ushered them inside and introd
"What are you doing?" Michael immediately stepped forward, pulling the two apart and shielding Jane behind him. Frank pulled Zachary back. Zachary, who had originally wanted to pull Jane back, stopped. Michael, who usually appeared gentle and obedient, now glared at Zachary with burning eyes and shouted, "This is my house. Get out!" Zachary calmly wiped away the water on the corner of his lips with his thumb. His gaze toward Jane, however, was intense and burning. "Jane, come with me." At that moment, Jane just wanted to beat him up. "Michael, call the police." Michael immediately followed the order without hesitation. Zachary attempted to move forward again but was pulled back by Frank. Charlotte stood in front of Jane to protect her. "Mr. Collins, you two have already broken up. If you force her again, I'll have to tell your elders and let them handle you." "I didn't agree to the break up." Zachary's eyebrows narrowed as he spoke. "Jane, if you wan
Zachary watched their interaction, his gaze growing cold. "I'll marry you." Jane replied, "You dare come with me to get our marriage certificate now?" "What's there to be afraid of?" Jane paused for a moment. "After we’re married, I won't have any contact with your family. I don't like them. I won't attend any social events as your wife, and I won't care about your affairs, much less cook for you..." "You don't need to. I'll cook. If I'm not around, I’ll arrange for someone to deliver the food from the Summit." Zachary’s eyes softened a little. "Any other demands?" Jane gritted her teeth. "I want 200 million dollars as wedding gift." "Okay." Jane regretted her words a little. "Uh, but your family is definitely going to come make things difficult for me..." "They won't. I’ll prevent them from doing so." Jane looked to Charlotte for help. Charlotte didn't expect Jane to put herself in such a situation so quickly. She looked at Frank. Frank smirked. "Ho
"Yes, that’s right." Jane nodded like mad. "You really do know me." Charlotte patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, you won't be able to get your marriage certificate that easily." Jane asked, "Why do you say that?" Charlotte said, "Don’t you know what kind of status Zachary’s father has? If he casually makes a call, who would dare to enter your details into the system at the Civil Affairs Bureau?" "That's true." Jane had just been blinded by anger earlier. Now, she wasn't worried at all. Michael also breathed a sigh of relief, but he still apologized to Jane. Jane waved her hand. "Let's not talk about this anymore." However, she still apologized to Madam Hall. "Sorry for scene." Madam Hall smiled and said, "I'm old enough to have seen many things. This little scene won't scare me. I'll go prepare the bed for you. I have a room with a big bed, enough to fit all of you. It will be more convenient for you to talk there." Jane went to help. Michael p
Frank looked at Zachary’s expression.The latter’s face didn't show much change, he was always composed. Even when he smiled, it was fainter than most people's.Frank understood and guessed Zachary emotional changes."She promised to marry me, so shouldn't you be happy and toasting with me to celebrate this moment? What's with sad look on your face?"Zachary crushed the cigarette butt in the ashtray.He stood up, grabbed the entire bottle of liquor, filled his glass, and drank it all in one go.Frank pulled over a chair and sat down opposite him.Nonchalantly swirling his wine glass, he said, "You'd better slow down with the drinking. If you throw up, I won't take care of you.""No need," Zachary replied coldly, and then went straight to drinking from the bottle.Frank raised a hand to scratch his head. He then continued, "By the time you're throwing up and completely drunk, I'll call over a female staff to give you a bath and change your clothes. Then I'll take a few pictures
Westley thought back to the times before their marriage.From the moment Jordan came to the Howard family, he was the one who brought her milk every night.He took care of her meticulously in every aspect of her life—planting pear trees, picking pears, standing up for her.He even accompanied her in the childish games of playing house, which he used to disdain.He thought that Jordan had fallen for him because of these things.But these were things that anyone could have done.If someone else had become her older brother, they could have done the same.So he believed that Jordan was too young to truly understand what love meant.Yet, he never expected that she truly understood her feelings—that her love for him was not because of his care, not because he was her "brother."It was because she saw him as a man.And because of that, she now hated him to the extreme.Because she had once loved him to the extreme."Jordy, if I let you tie me up this time, can it erase my mistake
Before Jordan could react, Westley said, "Hurry, take a picture."She looked toward the water. Gentle ripples spread outward, shimmering under the light. Overjoyed, she quickly adjusted her camera and began shooting.Under the blue sky and white clouds, a pink dolphin swam playfully in the golden sunlight.This area was completely quiet—just the two of them.She could even hear the dolphin’s ethereal calls, soothing and pure.Just moments ago, she had been upset with Westley, but now, all of that frustration faded away.Her lips curved into a smile as the camera shutter clicked repeatedly—she didn’t want to miss a single frame.Pink dolphins were incredibly rare.Back when they had tried to photograph rainbow fish, they had also hoped to capture pink dolphins.But Oliver had almost died, and they had to abandon the shoot.Afterward, life had been too busy, and she never had another chance to come back.This time, though she had been brought here against her will by Westley,
"How lucky? If I catch one, will you stop pestering me for good?"Westley replied calmly, "You can try."Jordan didn’t know how to fish. When she cast the line, it got tangled.After struggling to get the hook in the water, she suddenly heard Westley chuckle beside her.It was a mocking laugh.It was only then that she realized—she hadn’t put any bait on the hook."You did that on purpose!" Jordan couldn’t hold back. "You knew I didn’t know how, so you set me up with this trick!"Westley neither confirmed nor denied it.Frustrated, Jordan reeled the hook back, properly put on some bait, and lowered it into the water again.Westley pulled a chair over and placed it behind her. "Have a seat. Take your time. There’s no rush."Jordan shot him a glare.Westley didn’t mind and walked away to make a phone call.Jordan sat there, waiting all the way until noon, as the sun rose high in the sky.She never even saw a rainbow fish.She was convinced Westley was messing with her."Ti
Later, he didn’t know why Westley was so determined to be with Jordan.Even now, he still didn’t understand.He had long known that Jordan’s mother’s heirloom would be auctioned, and he had put in a great deal of effort to prepare for it in advance.Before Nathan appeared, they had already known about Jordan’s background.Knowing that she and Jane were biological sisters, they began investigating.Zachary intervened to mislead the information, trying to prevent them from finding out.They simply went along with it, pretending they couldn't find anything.Westley’s attitude toward Nathan was the same—he knew he had made a mistake, and even being polite wouldn’t help anymore.This time, because of the heirloom, he had offended the entire country.The heirloom had never been put up for auction before, great effort had been made to orchestrate things so Jordan would receive them.Back then, Leanne had been waiting at the door every day for Westley, trying to solve the obstacles s
It was always going to come to this, there had to be a resolution.If Westley didn't keep his word this time and unilaterally tore up the agreement, she would have to take other measures."Can I give my sister a video call?"As soon as she asked, Roy’s phone vibrated.He handed it to Jordan.Jordan took it and pressed the answer button.Jane's face appeared on the screen."Jane.""What's wrong? Did something happen to you?"Jane moved closer to the screen. "Why are your eyes so red?"Jordan was worked up and shocked.She cried very easily."I just went to the auction..." She explained everything again. "I wasn't hurt in any way. It’s just about that estate..."Jane asked her, "So, you think he never hurt you before?"Jordan used to think Westley had stepped over the line before, but after this period of time, she felt that Westley hadn’t actually done anything wrong.He didn’t love her, and he was forced to marry her—why would he show her any kindness?If he had been ni
She didn’t dare to move.It was Westley who came over, holding her hand and signing at the bottom of the document."No, no, no!"Jordan quickly shook off Westley’s hand, repeatedly refusing."I don’t want it!"Westley chuckled. "Don’t you like money?""You can stay in this estate if you want, or you can sell it. If you sell it, it should be 20 billion dollars."Jordan’s hand that was holding the pen trembled.Her eyes widened, and she could hardly believe what she had just heard."You, you, you..."Westley forcefully held her hand and signed her name.Buck wisely left the room."What else do you want?"Jordan couldn’t say a word, her whole body frozen in the action of signing.Westley sighed softly and reached out to pat her head."Forget it, no need to say anything."Jordan bit her lip, unable to find her voice.She actually wanted to say that she didn’t need anything else.After all, the estate was enough for her to spend for several lifetimes.But for some reason,
Rhianna blinked her beautiful purple eyes and said coquettishly, "Yes, Westley, are you going to increase the bid? If you don't, the jewelry Mrs. Howard wants will belong to me. But it’s a fair competition, don’t get mad, okay?"Westley curved his lips, a strong and obvious hint of sarcasm in his expression."I could give it to you..."Jordan suddenly looked up, almost thinking she had misheard.But then she realized, Westley was someone with a deep sense of revenge.It was likely that he wasn’t increasing the bid out of desire, but to set a trap for Rhianna.Sure enough, the next words she heard were his cold, indifferent tone."400 million and 200 thousand. It’s not that I look down on you. It is possible for you to come up with 200 thousand dollars, but where are you going to get the 400 million from? Will you sell your family’s castle, or pull all the investments out of your business?"Rhianna wasn’t foolish. She sensed something was wrong and tried to get Westley to raise
"I don't like it." Jordan threw the paddle she was holding at him and stood up, intending to leave.Out of sight, out of mind.Westley grabbed her arm. "This is your mother's heirloom. You really don't want it?""What?"Jordan's head was about to explode. There had been too many shocks tonight.She still didn’t even know who her mother was.And yet, Westley knew that this was her mother’s heirloom?"Stop making things up. I don’t like this..."Westley still didn’t plan to reveal her true identity.Nathan was intentionally playing this hidden identity game.He was playing along.Besides, whether Jordan was from the Jackson family or not didn’t matter to him.As long as she was his, that was all that mattered."You’ll regret not bidding. Really, are you sure you don’t want it?" he said with a cryptic tone, guiding her subtly.He had already said that Jordan could bid on anything she liked.Yet here she was, hesitating.Jordan stared at the pear blossom jewelry on the stag
Her hand, resting on her lap, slowly clenched into a fist.Westley admired the change in her expression, silently smirking.Rhianna watched the whole scene and asked Westley in a foreign language, "Why does it feel like your wife doesn’t want to talk to you? Westley, did you intentionally arrange someone to act with you to reject me?"Westley answered indifferently, "If it were acting, wouldn’t the person I arranged cooperate with me? I made her unhappy before we came here, so it's normal for her to give me the cold shoulder. I brought her here to apologize and make her happy."Jordan couldn’t understand what they were saying and didn’t care. She was looking at the auction booklet.She was drawn to a set of pear blossom jewelry displayed in the catalog.She didn’t know why, but it felt as if there was some kind of connection.If the set wasn’t too expensive, she might try to bid on it.Her entire fortune should be enough, right?Westley’s gaze shifted over and saw her thumb ge