"I will try my best to negotiate. I hope I can avoid going to court.""How do you plan to settle?"Xavier was silent for a while, then gently covered her with the quilt. He slowly sat on the edge of the bed, turned his head, and stared at her lightly, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised. "It depends on whether we can find the real murderer."The real murderer...Olivia's heart tightened inexplicably.‘If Fred testified against John, he would’ve been charged with this crime, right?‘Wouldn't this allow the real murderer to get away with it?‘Who could guarantee that the real culprit will not hurt Fred?’Xavier noticed her brows were furrowed tightly. He reached out and gently loosen her brows with his fingers."Pheebs, don't worry. You and your family will be fine with me. Trust me, okay?"Olivia's body froze, and she could not recompose herself for a long time.Up until now, she could only trust him. However, how could she put the lives of her whole family in Xavie
‘Lied to him?’Olivia stared at him suspiciously. "You don't know? You didn't conspire with him to lie to me, did you?"Xavier chuckled, raised his hand, and rubbed her head. "Pheebs, why do you think so?"As he said that, he solemnly took Olivia's hand. "Pheebs, no matter when, where, or what the circumstance was, I will always take your side over everything and anyone. You don’t have to believe everything, but you must believe my words.”Olivia trembled, silently retracted her hand, lowered her head, and kept quiet."Pheebs."He called her name again, reached out to hold her face in his hands, and lifted her face. "Pheebs, look into my eyes."Olivia felt a little embarrassed and helpless when she was forced to look at him.After a while, she just shook her head. "Xavier, do you know that you have beautiful phoenix eyes?"Xavier smiled upon her praises, and his eyes became increasingly alluring.Olivia turned her head away, apprehensive to meet his gaze."Pheebs, were you p
The trials for Oliver and Wade's cases were postponed a month later due to John being in a coma. This left Fred with another month of free time.Apart from taking care of Olivia daily, he had been sending the two children to and from school. Perhaps he felt that he had gone too far before, hence he tried to make up for it. Olivia saw all this, but she was still quietly worried about him."Freddy, what happened the night you were released on bail?"Fred was helping her peel apples. His hand stopped abruptly when he heard this, causing the knife to accidentally cut his finger. Blood flowed.Olivia was taken aback. She quickly used her clothes to apply pressure on his wound. "Be careful, Freddy! Why have you cut yourself?""Oh, it's okay. It doesn't hurt."Fred retracted his hand, sanitized his finger with alcohol, and wrapped it in a band-aid."Liv, it's just a tiny cut. You don't have to worry so much. What is this compared to what you’re going through?"‘These days, it's not
Emergency room.When the two rushed to the emergency room, they saw Lyla’s homeroom teacher, Ms. York standing in the corridor, all flustered and worried.The moment she saw Olivia and Fred, she felt a shudder. She pulled herself together and walked forward."Ms. James, Lyla is still inside. The doctor said it was food poisoning, but..."Before she could finish speaking, Olivia said, "Is Lyla the only person who fell ill?"Ms. York froze for a moment, then nodded. "Well, yes, but I didn't give Lyla anything strange. I don't know what happened, the food is the same, I..."Olivia stretched out her hand to stop her from talking, gave her a cold look, and then turned her head to look behind the curtain."Ms. York, no need to talk about this. Let's check on Lyla first."She would not believe what the teacher said.The teacher did not protect Lyla when there was an accident last time, so she did not think that the teacher was reliable.However, from experience, she thought of Hera
Olivia looked up quickly upon hearing that voice. She saw Lyla looking at her weakly. The moment Lyla saw her face, the little girl’s eyes suddenly lit up."Mommy! It's really you!"Then, Lyla’s bottom lip started to tremble as she began to cry aggrievedly. "Mommy, I miss you so much. Do you not want me anymore?"Olivia's heart twitched violently, and she hurriedly pulled her small body into her arms."Silly girl, why would Mommy not want you? Mommy can’t wait to give all my love to you, why would I not want Lyla?""But… Mommy, you haven’t been home for a long time, and you wouldn’t video call with me. I think Mommy doesn't want me anymore..."Lyla's every word pierced deeply like a thousand needles into Olivia's heart as she clenched her hands tightly."Mommy won't do this again. I will never do this again."With that said Olivia let go of Lyla and wiped away her daughter’s tears. "Lyla, does it still hurt?"Lyla shook her head. "With Mommy here, I’m not afraid of pain.""
Olivia's mind was in chaos. She was clueless on what else she could do, or what she should do next.Bad things befell Lyla one after another since she came to Ocean City. Olivia felt both guilty and frustrated.Her frustration was almost all related to John.However, John is lying in the ICU now, so what could she blame him for?The famous richest man in Ocean City ended up like this. His power and status seemed to be spent only on torturing her, but he is nothing when it comes to protecting her and Lyla.So what if Olivia’s angry? What else can she do?In the end, the only thing she can be angry with was herself.She hammered her thigh hard. "Why am I so useless? Why can't I do anything well? Why am I just a pawn in other people’s games? Why?"Fred frowned, stepped forward, and hugged her. "Liv, it has nothing to do with you. This is not your fault.""They're all targeting Lyla. This time it's just food poisoning, maybe the next time it will be..."As she spoke, Olivia tugge
After Ms. York left, Olivia leaned back on the wheelchair with downcast eyes and let out a long sigh.‘Could it be Hera again?‘I haven't heard from Hera for a long time since the last time we met on the street.‘Is she pacified now because John is in custody? Or is she just waiting in the shadows?’"Freddy, I'm a little hungry. Could you please help me buy something to eat? Could you buy some for Lyla as well?""Okay, stay right here and wait for me to come back."Olivia nodded obediently. "Well, I’ll stay here. I won’t go anywhere."As soon as Fred was out the door, Olivia took out her mobile phone, found Hera's number, and dialed it.To her surprise, the number she called turned out to be invalid.‘Invalid? How could it be an invalid number?’Then, she called Aaron Summers instead, but his phone was turned off...The last time she tried, she could not find Aaron, and now the numbers she had dialed were either invalid or turned off. This made her panic.‘Is something wron
Originally, Olivia planned to wait for Lyla to wake up before asking her to confirm the details. Unexpectedly, she received another call before Lyla woke up.Moreover, this time it was from the police station."Hello, are you Sam Ginger's guardian?"Olivia was startled and quickly responded. "Yes, I am his mother. What happened?""You need to come to the police station. Sam smashed several teachers' cars.""What? Smashed the teachers’ car? Is this a mistake?""We’ve checked the surveillance footage. There’s no mistake."Olivia delayed no further after the police said so. She hung up and immediately called Fred asking him to take her to the police station."Liv, I'll go. You stay here with Lyla.""I called Mrs. Simmons. She will be here soon, no worries."Olivia could not help but feel a little nervous about Lyla getting food poisoning and Sam in police custody all in one afternoon. She had to be there in person.She understood Sam's personality well. He would never smash the