They were three days away from the last day of the year. And yet… Julian wasn’t by her side.Diana was slightly disappointed. She showed him all the things she bought over a video call. “I bought a couple toothbrush set, and I specifically bought this pair of towels with our initials on it! I spent a long time selecting them.And this, they’re the viral glass utensils! This one, pasting these little red flower stickers on the glass will definitely be beautiful!”Still, Julian didn’t seem very interested. He didn’t even look up, and simply hummed away perfunctorily.Diana was getting angry. “Julian!”She had been sharing with him the things she’d bought, so why didn’t he even bother looking at them?She even suspected that he didn’t even hear a single word she said! She was about to flare up when she saw Julian’s brows furrow.His voice was laced with fatigue as he put on a piteous look on his face. “In order to earn money to feed you, not only did I skip dinner last night,
Julian naturally had a way to bring the plummeted stocks back up. But who exactly was the person behind the scenes causing trouble, and how far did this troublemaker's reach extend in Fulcher Inc.?-With the year-end approaching, Diana hadn't received many orders so the studio was relatively idle. Julian wasn’t at home as well. With nothing to do, she decided to have the driver and the bodyguard take her to the mall for a bit of shopping.The last time she went out, she had forgotten to buy lucky charm decorations.She told herself that this year, she needed to buy more lucky charms to place around the house in hopes they would ward off the year's misfortune.Holding up the lucky charm decorations, she sensed she could foresee a future of happiness. The thought brought a joyful smile to her face. Today, Diana was wearing a single-velvet long coat and pants. It was loose in style but not bulky, instead accentuating her gentle and slender figure. She looked as if she had stepped
Diana turned around and confirmed her suspicion. Simon had indeed brought seven or eight people with him. Compared to them, she had no chance of winning with only one bodyguard by her side. As for the driver, Simon's men had already forced him to leave the hotel with the car earlier on.Without realizing it, she was already isolated and at Simon's mercy.Diana couldn't help but feel frustrated at the situation she was in. "What exactly do you want, Simon?""I told you, I want you to be my guest." The persistence in his eyes was akin to a pesky wad of chewing gum that couldn't be shaken off no matter how hard you tried.Luckily, Diana still had her phone with her.She quickly took it out and dialed Oliver's number, threatening him, "I'm going to tell your brother!"Her tone was fierce, but it only made Simon chuckle. "Go ahead, tell him."His real brother was still away on a business trip.With that thought, a shadow crossed his eyes.Diana, who was focused on making the call,
With this thought, Simon's previous actions seemed less significant. However, he certainly couldn’t be considered a good person. For now, Diana had no way to escape his grasp. "I'm turning twenty-two soon," she suddenly blurted out, hoping to reduce her fear of him in this way. "As long as you don't touch me, I'll go along with you." She simply couldn't accept any man aside from Julian touching her. That awful feeling was like getting bitten by ants; it wasn’t deadly, but her whole body tingled with disgust. The sensation gave her goosebumps, and she felt as if her skin was being peeled off."When?" Simon asked. "Huh?" Diana had already gotten into Simon's car and was putting some distance between them; that made her a bit more relieved. And with that, she was less afraid of Simon. "Your birthday." Simon's hand was still on his nose, and he was looking absentmindedly at her. "When is it?" Diana paused; she had no idea what this man was up to now. There hadn't been a si
For a moment, it was obvious Simon was holding in his laughter. However, that quickly disappeared.Nevertheless, Diana caught a glimpse of it. In the end, it still bothered him that she had mentioned the hospital earlier. "I'll throw whatever I want, and I’ll hit whoever I want. Who are you to interfere?!" he snapped.Oddly enough, his arrogant tone and expression... At this moment, they resembled Julian even more.Diana's heart skipped a beat, and she warned herself not to overthink, but her uneasiness deepened.Thinking about the torn lucky charm, she remained silent throughout the journey. Due to the long journey and her prolonged thoughts about Julian last night, she dozed off, her body swaying back and forth. It wasn't until the car stopped that she slowly opened her eyes—only to be greeted by Simon's gloomy face."Get out!" he yelled. Diana was startled by his attitude. She noticed that despite Simon’s fierce manner of speech and sinister grins, it was hard to distinguis
Now that Diana was here, she could do nothing about it. All she could do was hope that Julian would return to Richburgh as quickly as possible. Just the thought of him being so far away dimmed her heart. Even her eyes had lost their light.Simon sensed it. He found the long silence uncomfortable, and muttered, "Don't worry. No one will hurt you."Diana shot him an unexpected look, which annoyed him. "What are you looking at?! If you keep looking, I'll tear off your eyes!"His sudden aggressiveness took Diana aback. She truly couldn't understand the twisted thought process of this little freak. Still, it seemed he had no intention of hurting her. With that in mind, she followed him inside.After the incident with Luke, the Pabian family moved away. They were undoubtedly too afraid to linger under Julian's watchful eye, so they took the initiative to move to the outskirts, far away from the city center of Richburgh. The area was more spacious, precisely because it was remote.Ho
But at this moment, Julian wasn't thinking about her. Rather, he was fully engrossed in his work, and his eyebrows were furrowed deeply. Upon investigating the shorted stock market, he also discovered two major parasites within Fulcher Inc.. The problem was, these parasites were cunning enough to give birth to numerous smaller parasites. They were like ants, devouring everything slowly but surely in their attempts to hollow out Fulcher Inc.More interestingly…These parasites were the Channing and Pabian family.Julian looked at the documents Noel had just compiled, his eyes filled with shock. In an instant, Oliver's evasiveness towards Diana and the force the man used to press his chest in the hospital room flashed before his eyes like a clear movie.So that was it!The Channing and the Pabian families had actually joined forces.And Oliver... He had abandoned his legitimate career as a doctor and returned to the Channing family. He did those things as preparations to take o
To think Clifford dared attack her so openly!Diana immediately suspected that he probably held one of Julian's weaknesses. Otherwise, he wouldn't have the guts to treat her like this.With that thought in mind, she decided not to resist.When she was by Julian's side, she was a petite woman who needed to be pampered and comforted. Once he wasn't around, she was a strong and independent woman.Diana furrowed her brows slightly, her gaze appearing particularly sharp. She made an effort to calm herself down. "Sure."If she agreed to Clifford's demands, Julian wouldn't be threatened no matter what cards Clifford held. All she had to do was wait for Julian to come back. He had promised to return before the new year, and now, there were only two days left until New Year's Eve.She could endure for two more days. Julian would surely take her away from here.As the night fell, however, Diana became less composed. When Clifford mentioned accompanying Luke, he meant accompanying his me
“Life is all about reconciliation.” Decades passed in the blink of an eye. Diana’s children had all grown up.Kate and Isaac had both passed away. Even Diana’s old friends, Fanny and Oliver, had left the world too.Fanny was never able to get pregnant again after that rainy night. She had gradually let go of her desire to get pregnant under Oliver’s persuasion.They stayed relentlessly by each other’s side, albeit childless. Over the years, having experienced all that life had to offer and being each other’s best friend, Oliver died on a peaceful night, never awaking again.Fanny held his hand while sending him off, and closed her eyes forever as well.Diana had seen too many people off in her lifetime.She had grown old herself, too. She could see her life slowly ebbing away.“Julian, I’m so happy to have lived my life with you.” She had transformed from a disgraced young woman to Mrs. Fulcher, respected by all in Richburgh. Julian even took care of her in person when she
He blurted those words instinctively.He had been waiting so long for a pair of daughters, yet when the doctor came over, he saw a pair of sons instead.Diana thought the hospital must have made a mistake and kicked up a fuss, insisting that she had a pair of daughters. She insisted for them to check the footage from the surveillance camera to see if there was a mix-up. The culprit, Julian, could only stand guiltily at a corner and mumble, “Actually…sons are fine too.”As long as it was their children, it didn’t matter whether they were girls or boys. Either way, Diana was the only woman he loved his entire life. Even his love for his only daughter Betty didn’t match up to that.After witnessing Diana giving birth, Julian’s love for Diana went up a notch, to the point of paranoia.For the rest of their lives, he made sure to never let her worry or touch cold water.He took great care of her.Kate finally appeared two years after Diana gave birth.When the mother and daughter
Nina mentioned the Jenningses. “The Jennings family is gone overnight, just like that.”Diana wasn’t shocked.She guessed that Julian had wanted to do that for a while. Not just for her and to seek justice for the Lemmington family, but also for Simon.Although Julian never allowed Simon to call him his brother, he had wanted to annihilate everything that was involved with the Hughes family since Simon’s death.Him making his move on the Jenningses indicated that the time had come.“Congratulations,” Diana said to Nina. “Has Vans come back to you?”“No,” Nina said with a shake of her head. “Lina Jennings isn’t the only thing standing in between us. We have problems of our own to overcome.”Diana sighed. “I think Marcus is pretty good.”She felt relaxed and comfortable around him.Even if Vans came round and worked with Julian to bring down the Jenningses, and had no feelings whatsoever for Lina, Diana wasn’t exactly eager to be with him.As if they had telepathy with each oth
“He doesn’t need to be jailed,” Fanny said, confused. “One word from him, and his lawyers will be able to exonerate him. I just don’t understand why he’d rather go to jail.”“He wants to pay for his father’s sins,” Diana said with a sigh.Fanny didn’t know what to think of that. Was Oliver innocent, or not? He even went to such great lengths to stop her.Yet, the moment she declared that she would never compromise and would rather be under the protection of Diana than to be involved with Oliver, he clearly looked like he was in a daze.Diana noticed that Fanny hardly smiled over the past few days, and rubbed her hand comfortingly. “He just wants a clean start with you.”Fanny’s heart shook. She couldn’t sleep the entire night.The next morning, she told Diana, “Today’s the day of his trial and sentencing. I want to see him.”Diana asked Julian to send a few bodyguards with Fanny on her trip there.When she returned, she looked as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoul
Fanny bet that he wouldn’t dare.That was equivalent to eliminating all chances he stood with Diana.Julian witnessed the scene unfolding before him. Instead of getting frustrated, he stood quietly there, ready to protect Diana, as he watched Fanny and Oliver fight it out with each other.Oliver was confused. “Why not?”He glanced at Diana, and went on, “I did like Diana in the past, but I have since given up on those feelings for her. Fanny Smith, is your heart made of stone? Can’t you tell who the woman I like is after all this time?”Fanny was stunned, feeling suffocated as if something was stuck in her throat. “Don’t tell me it’s me.”Oliver was dumbfounded. Who else could he be talking about? The stars in the sky?Fanny felt indignant under his glare. “If you like me, why did you say that I’m just a child-bearing tool for you?”“If I didn’t say that, would I be able to keep you confined in the villa? Would I be able to dash all your hopes and make you feel hopeless?”
Oliver would never let her go. “Fanny Smith, don’t even think about leaving me in this life!”That was when Diana and Julian hurriedly made their way.Sean located Oliver very accurately. Diana saw the scene unfolding before her, and couldn’t help but recall everything that happened in Jacroaof. She hurriedly told Noel to take Sean outside and wait. She couldn’t afford to gamble on Sean’s safety. She didn’t want Sean exposed to any form of danger right under her nose.Her actions made Oliver tense. “Diana, do you think I’ve gone mad?” He grabbed Fanny’s hand, as if he was holding onto the most precious treasure in the world.Diana didn’t answer him, but she threw her bag that Julian was helping her carry toward Fanny.She was exerting so much force for a pregnant lady, looking as if she wanted to fight with Fanny.Even Julian didn’t know what Diana was trying to do, not to mention Fanny herself.By the time he snapped back to attention and wanted to stop Diana from doing s
However, Fanny must let go of her hatred and past grudges first.The mention of children made Fanny waver. The hatred in her eyes grew even more intense. “Oliver Channing! The cheek of you to mention children!” What gave him the right to say that?!“We agreed,” Oliver said. He didn’t find anything wrong with that. “Fanny, if you want to leave that villa and be free once more, you must give birth to a child of ours.”“What about the child I lost just a few days ago?” Fanny demanded. She found him unreasonable. “Over the past few days, have you ever thought of him, or felt like you let him down? We haven’t even resolved the issues between us, and you want me to get pregnant again. Are you really ready to be a father?!”“I want you to get pregnant again?” Oliver said as he drew closer to her. His eyes were dark, looking as if he wanted to crush Fanny and put her in his pocket. “Weren’t you the one who tried to seduce me by wearing a revealing dress in my house? Fanny Smith, do
Julian stopped talking to the butler, but he was already making plans in his heart.He returned to the study, and told Diana, “Fanny and Oliver have been fighting for a long time, and it might be over something that might potentially destroy their relationship.”In fact… “Fanny might no longer love Oliver right now.”However, the fact that Oliver faked her death and confined her was enough to show that he still cared for her.If he realized that Fanny no longer loved him, he might do something even crazier.“Let’s hurry up and save her, then!” Diana said.“Wait,” Julian said calmly, “I’m not done with my prediction.”“What?”“Oliver really doesn’t like you now.” Julian’s mood lifted as he arrived at his final conclusion. “We can step in to help Fanny.”Diana was dumbfounded.She had thought that Julian went to such great lengths to analyze the situation for the sake of saving another. To think that his possessiveness took over, and he prioritized figuring out Oliver’s feeli
The three of them entered the study.None of them expected to see a portrait of Diana right in the middle of the study.The portrait was most likely drawn by copying a photo. In the portrait, Diana was eating something with a smile. It looked like the day when Diana encountered a pervert on the train and Oliver stepped in to help her and treated her to a meal.Did she smile so tenderly at him at that time?“You couldn’t have smiled so happily at that time when we were fighting over Kayla.”It was a portrait, not a photo. It was likely that the owner of this portrait added his own interpretation and features when he commissioned this portrait.“He still has feelings for you,” Julian said coldly.He no longer wanted to interfere with the affairs of the Channings.However, Diana disagreed. “If he really had feelings for me, he wouldn’t hang my portrait up so boldly right here.”The fact that Oliver could display the portrait for all to see proved that his feelings for Diana were