The waiter served the food and politely greeted them before leaving. Deanna tugged on Zorion. "Zorion, do you like that?" "I do." Zorion's gaze was fixated Raeleigh when he spoke. He thought that would elicit some reaction out of Raeleigh, but she just lowered her head and began to eat. Scarlette also tucked into the food. Matters seemed to be getting more and more complicated. Scarlette was of the mind to report the matter to Jepherson. "Raeleigh, Zorion likes it that way," Deanna informed her proudly. Raeleigh did not answer. After eating, she took in their surroundings. She liked observing. Without observation, one would never notice anything. Only with observation could one find inspiration. Zorion did not eat much. He took a trip to the restroom after he was done eating. When he came back, Raeleigh was hanging around at the spiral staircase, looking at the crowd below. Scarlette and Deanna were examining their phones. Zorion walked toward Raelei
Raeleigh did not know when Zorion had sat down beside her. She had been off with her thoughts alone for quite a while. She did not know how long Zorion had been there. He was just there when she came to her senses. Raeleigh raised her head, seeing Zorion there. It caught her by surprise and she did not react for a while. By the time she regained her composure enough to react, Zorion had already turned to look elsewhere. Raeleigh was engrossed in her stupor for so long, it was as if she had lost her mind! After staring agape for quite some time, Raeleigh finally asked, "Why are you sitting in silence?" "Should I be in high spirits?" Zorion retorted immediately. Raeleigh had never offended him, yet Zorion made it a point to antagonize her from the start. Raeleigh looked away and decided not to speak further. Otherwise, he would say something that would make her want to crawl into a hole somewhere. "Let's date." What Zorion said caught Raeleigh off guar
Raeleigh got up from the bed and put her phone under the pillow. Although Deanna had given her a new phone, she did not use it and kept it aside. She continued using her own phone. For the past few days, every night, Jepherson would send her a text message. It was the weekend. Jepherson had mentioned that he went to visit Novalie. Raeleigh was waiting for a text back. Raeleigh put down her phone and sat up, taking the water. "Thank you." "You're welcome." Zorion pulled a chair and sat face to face with her. There were four people in the ward. The other two seemed to be asleep, but in fact, they were all feigning it. No one was sleeping. They were just pretending to be asleep. Holding the cup, Raeleigh drank the water. Zorion leaned against the wall and asked, "You get text messages every day. Who is it?" "A friend." Raeleigh took a look at Deanna, who seemed to be sleeping. She would have to turn her phone off, or Deanna would find out about it the n
Zorion only left Deanna's side when she had fallen asleep. He went back to his bed and lay down. He sent a text to Raeleigh, which read, "Sleep early." Raeleigh took a look at the message, but she did not reply. She was worried that it would land her in trouble. At three o'clock in the morning, Raeleigh's phone suddenly rang. Raeleigh picked it up right away and sat up under the quilt. From the other end of the line came Jepherson's elegant and deep voice. "Your grandmother has something to say to you." Then, Novalie's voice chimed in from over the line, "Raeleigh, is your hand better? Why didn't you tell me the truth? When will you change your habit of keeping silent about major matters, even though you willingly admit to minor issues? Always reporting good news but not the bad news. Do you want me to worry about you?" "Grandma, it's late. Why are you still awake?" Raeleigh was ticked off, but she did not blame Jepherson for it. She had actually wanted to
"It's already the evening," Raeleigh said, giggling like a child. "I forgot." "Is there something else that you've forgotten? How's your hand?" Novalie looked at Jepherson, then focused on chatting with Raeleigh. As usual, Raeleigh only told her the good news while leaving out the bad news. Of course, Novalie did not believe it for a second. However, since matters had already transpired, what she said wouldn't change anything. She will only be able to find out what really happened after Raeleigh returns. For now, she could only ask cursorily over the phone. "My hand is fine now. I'll be back in a few days." "You're abroad now, so I can't help you with anything. You have to take care of yourself, don't put yourself down. I know how you are. You're now an adult, and I trust you a lot. I'm just worried because you always avoid the important matters and only face the trivial ones. Patience is a virtue, but there is also a limit to that." Novalie was the one wh
Raeleigh finally nodded. Pleased, Deanna smiled and said, "So, it's me who owes you, Raeleigh. We'll be good friends. I'll make it up to you and treat you well. Okay?" "All right." "Then, let's rest." Deanna was about to hop onto Raeleigh's bed when Scarlette stopped her. "Don't. I don't like you coming here. It's already a tight squeeze for both of us, so don't even think about joining in." "Raeleigh, why don't you just sleep in my bed?" Deanna said, tugging on Raeleigh's arm. Raeleigh couldn't refuse Deanna, so she said, "How about I sleep in my own bed? Scarlette, it's dawn already, so you should be able to sleep now." Raeleigh wrested her quilt from Deanna and she went to lie down on her own bed. At first, Deanna remained silent, but her eyes glittered with a calculative look. Raeleigh lay down on her bed. Scarlette thought that Raeleigh would get some rest since she stayed up all night. Anyone would feel tired after staying up all night. Scarlet
"Zorion, what are you doing?" Raeleigh's face was drained of color from the shock and she grabbed at Zorion's clothes, demanding an answer from him. However, he didn't even have time to answer her because his clothes were of such a loose fit that they were practically being pulled off him under her tight grip. Raeleigh caught a glimpse of Zorion's body under his clothes and let go immediately, as if she had been scalded. Zorion lowered his head to look at Raeleigh and pinched her hard. He didn't answer Raeleigh's question. Instead, he looked down at his clothes, which were nearly falling off. "Aren't you taking things too quickly?" The moment Zorion said this, Raeleigh blushed with exasperation and said hotly, "Put me down. I can walk by myself." "If I do that, you'll walk right out of here." Zorion chuckled and raised his eyebrows at her questioningly, then he looked ahead and walked straight through the door towards the hot springs. Hot steam swirled up
Raeleigh remained silent and Zorion also gradually said no more. The water temperature was kept at a constant high heat and Raeleigh quickly started feeling a little dizzy, but she knew that she couldn't fall asleep while in the bath. Soon, Deanna called out to Zorion from the other end of the bath. "Zorion, my head is spinning a little." Zorion immediately went over to Deanna, but before he went, he urged Raeleigh to go with him. "I don't think I'll go over. You can go and take a look. I'll get out of the water in a bit." Raeleigh really didn't want to dawdle in the hot springs much longer. Raeleigh's calm reply put Zorion at ease. She didn't seem like she was going to run away. Nonetheless, he said, "Don't leave. If you're dizzy, just wait outside the water." "I know," Raeleigh replied and Zorion left. Raeleigh was about to get out, but then she felt a ripple in the water. Something was approaching her. Raeleigh looked at the water around her. A small bo
Santiago went home once more to retrieve Jepherson's sperm from the sperm bank. After that, Raeleigh got pregnant through medical procedures. However, when Raeleigh was only three days pregnant, the doctor made a major discovery. He informed her that he made progress with Shaney's illness , and that he might have misdiagnosed her condition. At that time, Raeleigh had been so overjoyed that Shaney was fine, and she only remembered that she was pregnant after half a month since learning about Shaney. By the time she remembered that she was with child, she wanted to stop her pregnancy. However, Santiago persuaded her to give the baby to him. Raeleigh pondered about it for a long time before finally agreeing. ...... Time passed in a blink of an eye, and Raeleigh had never expected for things to turn out the way it did. She gave birth to her second child, and Shaney had made a full recovery. Santiago had told her that the baby was the will of God, and he
When Raeleigh got out of the car, she began staring at the Richards family's courtyard. Although the Richards family had already buried Marissa's body, Raeleigh was still unwilling to go back. However, as she gazed at Carsten's precious little face that was looking at her expectantly, she had no choice but to follow Jepherson inside. At that moment, Santigo and the other children were in the yard. When Santiago saw Raeleigh and Jepherson, he smiled and gestured at Jepherson. "What are you doing?" Raeleigh asked when she saw Santiago. "Nothing." Though Raeleigh did not believe Jepherson, she decided not to ask further. When Carsten saw Forden and Shaney, he immediately tried to break away from Jepherson's arms, wanting to get to them. The children were all gathered in the Richards family manor that day. Coupled with the four other children of the Whalen family, there were ten children altogether, and they almost occupied the entire courtyard. Ra
Raeleigh said nothing as Carsten continued sinking his teeth into Jepherson's neck. She stared in shock as blood seeped out of his wound. Jepherson raised his hand and patted Carsten gently, then walked to the bed and sat down. After a while, Carsten finally fell asleep. He closed his eyes as he dozed off in Jepherson's arms. Meanwhile, Raeleigh had rushed out of the room to ask the hotel staff to prepare disinfectants before going back into the room to help Jepherson clean his wound. Jepherson leaned against the wall, still holding Carsten in his arms and unwilling to let go. Raeleigh frowned. "What should we do?" Jepherson's voice was a little hoarse. He had been busy for the past two days entertaining guests. "He got scared because of the crowd. He thought that you didn't want him anymore since he couldn't find you, and probably thinks that I'm the one who forced him to stay there." After bandaging Jepherson's wound, Raeleigh helped wipe Carsten's mouth. Sudd
After Raeleigh and the others left, Santiago walked to Zorion's car and stopped him. Zorion casted a glance outside. "Rossie, you should go first. He won't show any mercy once I get off." "You knew he wouldn't show you mercy, so why didn't you think of that before you caused trouble?" "I was just kidding! Who knew he'd have such a bad temper? I didn't expect him to take it seriously." Rossie sighed and gave in. Glancing at Zorion, she finally understood that he was only using her as an excuse to escape whenever he got into trouble. She got out of the car and looked at Santiago who stood opposite her. "Long time no see." "Where's Zorion?" "He's so afraid of you that he doesn't even dare to come out," said Rossie. "It's too late to be scared." He walked up to Zorion's car with the rod in his hand, then raised the stick and smashed it against the car until it was completely wrecked. When he was done, he tossed the stick aside, turned to pick
After leaving the kindergarten, Raeleigh followed Santiago to the Richards family manor. It had been four years since she returned, so she was no longer familiar with the place. Santiago went in, put Carsten down and asked the children to keep themselves entertained. He then looked at Raeleigh and said, "I came back this time because Mrs. Richards is dying. She has been unconscious for a while now. I came back to see her for the last time." Raeleigh asked, "Mrs. Richards?" "Yes. Jepherson hasn't been home these couple of days because he has gone to visit her. He didn't tell you about it because Mrs. Richards doesn't want to see you. While she was still herself, she did say that she would never let you into the family, and that she didn't want to see you ever again. Jepherson went to take care of her but was worried about you. So, he asked me to come home to take a look and it was only then did I find out that Carsten is autistic. This is on your plate now."
When the time came, Raeleigh enrolled Carsten into a kindergarten. On the first day of school, Carsten was bullied. Raeleigh felt sorry for him as she gently touched his swollen face. He had been beaten because he could not speak. She wanted to confront the bully, but Jepherson stopped her. He told her that Carsten should resolve this matter by himself. That year, Raeleigh could not sleep well at night. Hair loss became an issue, and she was exhausted all the time. But after half a month, the children stopped bullying Carsten. Instead, their parents came to Raeleigh's home. "Just take a look at your child..." The parents pointed to their child, and Raeleigh was confused when she saw a boy about the same height as Carsten. The boy seemed to have taken a serious beating, but when Carsten had gotten beaten up like this, Raeleigh hadn't gone to look for trouble with the bully's parents, did she? Raeleigh retorted, "And? It's normal for
The snow was falling heavily. Jepherson put away the phone and took Raeleigh back into the house. The two stood inside and watched the snow. Meanwhile, Hadrian and Scarlette were busy in the kitchen, not daring to make a sound. The Richards family manor remained quiet when winter was approaching. None of the family members returned even on New Year's Day. Raeleigh went to the yard and waited for them in advance, but no one came back. After New Year's Day, Raeleigh returned to her home with Jepherson. Her family members were all surprised to see her pregnant when she got home. They did not expect Raeleigh to be pregnant after being missing for several months. Moreover, she was almost due. Everyone in the Osteen family knew that Raeleigh stayed because of the baby inside her belly. Undoubtedly, the baby was Jepherson's. However, they wondered where Santiago went. Since Raeleigh said nothing, no one dared to ask about it. They all ignored the incident and sil
Raeleigh was stopped by Jepherson's men at the entrance of the village. 'I knew it wouldn't be easy for me to run away.' "Madam Raeleigh, Mr. Richards is waiting for you." Raeleigh had no choice but to go back with them. At the same time, Jepherson sat on his wheelchair outside the village with a blanket on his lap and upon seeing Raeleigh, he breathed a sigh of relief. Raeleigh walked up to him, "Don't be complacent. I'll leave one day." Shifting his gaze to Raeleigh's belly, Jepherson stretched out his hand and pulled her to him. Despite being too weak to walk, he had a firm grip. Raeleigh lost her balance and fell onto his lap. She tried to escape, but he said immediately, "Don't move." Although his voice sounded terrifying to others, he was trying to negotiate. Everyone turned around to look at them, and Raeleigh blushed. Jepherson covered her body with the blanket, then placed his hand onto her belly. Raeleigh tensed up immediately. She ra
Raeleigh had been depressed for a while after Santiago's departure. After a few days, she finally calmed down a little. Jepherson's health had not improved during this period of time. Whenever he was free, he would stare at Shaney's photo in a daze. Deanna and Jacky had helped take care of Jepherson when Raeleigh fell ill. After Raeleigh recovered, she returned to taking care of him herself. However, Jepherson had been in such poor health that he couldn't even go downstairs. It took Raeleigh a lot of effort to help him get down, especially when he was unwilling to go downstairs. "Autumn is coming. I don't want to go down." He was saying that it was cold downstairs. Raeleigh replied, "I can't take care of you all the time. Are you going to exhaust me to death? Your parents left you alone and ignored you. Santiago abandoned you too. What do you want me to do? I have to work. I also have to take care of you..." "Then stop working. Take care of me." Rael