“Mom, Sonny has a toy, and he’s not letting me play with it. I want a toy, Mom! I want Sonny’s toy!” Lucas took quick paces to his mother and tugged on Chelsea’s clothes, demanding Sonny’s toy. Chelsea always thought the world of her children while other people’s children could suck it. Putting her hand out at Sonny, she said, “Sonny, hand over your toy.” “This is mine!” Sonny latched onto the Lego box like glue. Chelsea went ahead to pull the toy off of Sonny when Liberty grabbed a kitchen utensil and slapped it on Chelsea’s wrist. The pain caused Chelsea to recoil her arm. “What are you doing, Liberty?” Liberty put on a sour face. “I should be asking you that. That is Sonny’s toy. He can decide whether he wants to share it with Lucas. Why are you taking the toy from a child?” Chelsea was lost for words. With a scowl, Mr. Brown gave his daughter a dressing down. Once Chelsea pulled her son to a corner, Mr. Brown apologetically said, “Liberty, it’s fine if Sonny doesn
Serenity took a ride in her man’s Roll Royce to the shop. She had just collected the craft goods from the crafters she hired. After examining the quality, Serenity complimented her employees on a good job and paid them based on the agreed rate. “Serenity, it’s good money since we’re only working on crafts when we take a break from caring for the kids. Our families are pretty supportive. You know what? My mother-in-law stopped giving me an attitude.” “Me too. My mother-in-law is now looking after my child for me. I was shocked that she was happy to do it for me. Serenity, you can accept more orders. We are more than able to finish the task.” They ventured into the world of crafting together. Although there had not been a lot of contact among the ladies, they had always kept in touch. The ladies were well aware of Serenity’s position in society now too. Of course, they were envious. However, Serenity gave them a job and paid every time they handed in the crafts. It was a lucr
Sure, Jessica’s mother only lost a chunk of hair, but it was enough to scare the hell out of Jessica. It would not take much for these people to come after her family’s lives. Although Jessica was not on good terms with her family due to the bridal gift, this was her family. She could not allow anything to happen to her family just to save an outsider like Sonny. Today looked most promising to carry out the plan. Serenity asked, “Is your mom going?” “Yeah. Mom’s going. Are you going, Aunt Ser?” After much thought, Serenity replied, “What time are you leaving? I’ll see if I can make the time.” “Mom said we can leave in about half an hour. Aunt Ser, please go with us. I want to see the tigers in the zoo.” Sonny had been wanting to go to the zoo since the last time. However, it did not happen because the boy later chose to go out with his aunt. The zoo was still a magical place for the boy. Now that he had the chance today, he really, really wanted to go. “Alright then
Elisa looked at Liberty. Once she was sure that the Browns were here to go on a family trip with Liberty and Sonny, Elisa’s straight face softened into a smile. The smile was for Sonny, not for the Brown family. The sight of the Browns made Elisa sick to her stomach. “Since you want to go to the zoo, I’ll go with you, Sonny.” Elisa readily said yes to her nephew’s invitation. It had not registered in Sonny’s head that his parents were divorced. Liberty had a heart of gold. She never spoke ill about Hank in Sonny’s presence despite her grievance with her in-laws. No matter what, Sonny and Hank were father and son. It would not do Sonny any good to hate his father. On the contrary, it would impede Sonny’s mental growth. Half an hour later, Serenity, Liberty, and Sonny took a ride in Elisa’s car as they set out for the zoo. Serenity’s two bodyguards took another car and tagged behind. The Browns were split into two cars, and they drove behind the bodyguards. Jessica na
Serenity had to chase after the little guy. It was crowded in the zoo, and children like Sonny were everywhere. Not in the mood to appreciate the scenery, Serenity was exhausted just running after Sonny. Sonny had been watching the shop with his mother day in and day out, and his mother would take him home for a rest after work. Liberty did not have time to take him out to play. Now that he was at the zoo, Sonny unleashed the unruly nature of children. It was a good thing Serenity had the habit of working out. At least, she could keep up with the child’s activeness. Since Liberty had been jogging to lose weight, her stamina was at an optimum level. Only, Ms. Stone rarely engaged in such an activity. The long walk hurt her feet. As for the Browns, God knew where they were. Sonny had a great time at the playground, going several rounds at the age-appropriate facilities until he was sweating all over. His aunt then picked him up to see the animals. The zoo was a huge place
The man murmured a quick apology before slipping a note into Jessica’s hand.Jessica clutched onto the note, not having the nerve to open it in public. She looked around and saw the sign for the nearest toilet. Following the signpost, she went into the ladies’ room and opened the note for a look. The note wrote, “We will cause a distraction during an aquarium show and take the child amid the chaos. Your task is to lure them to the aquarium.” Jessica shredded the note and flushed the pieces down the toilet. She thought those people would not carry on with the mission since a large group of the family came along. Plus, Serenity brought two bodyguards to the trip. It never occurred to Jessica that they had no intentions of giving up. They planned to strike during a show at the aquarium. Would they succeed? Jessica was not with the Brown family now, much less Serenity and her sister. Coming out of the ladies’ room, Jessica gave Hank a call. She told Hank to send his loca
Liberty clung tightly to her son. Jessica knew the plan would fail when Liberty held Sonny, and the York family’s bodyguards escorted the group out of the aquarium. “Lucas! Lucas!” Chelsea’s shrieks snapped Jessica out of her thoughts. A big man grabbed Lucas and made a run for it. Jessica was dumbfounded. Did they grab the wrong child? “Honey! Hank! Go after them! That person took Lucas!” With no time to watch the fight, Chelsea tried to pursue the man who took Lucas while calling her husband and brother for help. Realizing that Lucas was kidnapped, the Browns tried to go in pursuit, but they could not get past the crowd. “A kidnapper! My child was kidnapped! It’s that tall man there. That’s him! He took my child!” Chelsea went pale in panic. Unable to elbow her way through the crowd, she cried out loud. Hearing a kidnapping was taking place, all the parents, who were here for the show with their kids, stuck with their children and ran out of the aquarium. It o
Liberty would have lost her son to the kidnapper if she had loosened her grip even by a tiny bit. Now that they were inside Elisa’s car, Liberty continued to clutch onto her son. Color drained from her face. The lingering fear had not left Serenity. Elisa called her brother and the moment her brother picked up, she said, “Clive, send all our bodyguards to fetch us from Wiltspoon Zoo. There’s a kidnapper on the loose. Sonny was nearly taken.“I don’t think I can drive now. What if someone stops the car and kidnaps Sonny?” This was Elisa’s first encounter with such a chaotic and dangerous situation. Sure, she was cocky and acted as if nothing scared her, but her legs went weak when Sonny was almost taken. It would be hard to catch up to the kidnapper amid the chaos if Sonny was really taken… The thought of it drained the color from her complexion. Her limbs were still shaking as she could not settle down. She was not in a position to drive right now. The last thing she wan
The night went by peacefully. The next morning, Liberty could hear her gates opening when she stirred in her bed. Soon, she heard her housekeeper talking. “You’re early, Mrs. York.”“Mm. My sister is getting married today. I couldn’t go back to sleep after I woke up, so I decided to come over.”While Serenity could not help Liberty and Zachary out with anything, she was excited to the point she could not sleep. It took Zachary a lot of effort to persuade her to sleep. However, she woke up at dawn after having a dream about her parents. She could not go back to sleep afterward and insisted on going to her sister’s place. Zachary thought he could sleep in since he was on break, but his wife just could not fall asleep. There was no helping it. The doting husband accompanied his wife to her sister’s house early in the morning. The housekeeper smiled. “Ms. Hunt isn’t awake yet.”“It’s okay. I won’t wake my sister.”Serenity finally felt at ease when she was at Liberty’s ho
After a pause, she said, “Let’s meet at nine in the morning. Seren and Zachary will come over to my place. They’ll be looking after Sonny for me. I’ll head out after they arrive. You can wait for me at the City Hall’s entrance.”“No. I want to go to the City Hall with you.”Duncan did not want to wait for her at the City Hall. He wanted to go together.“Bring Sonny along.“We’ll be a family of three from tomorrow onward. We should bring him along.”He would officially become Sonny’s father tomorrow. It did not matter that he was a stepfather. It was Duncan’s first time adoring a child that much, and he did not expect that he would later become that child’s father.After giving it some thought, Liberty said, “Okay. Let’s take Sonny with us.“By the way, Sonny won’t change his surname after we get married. That was Hank’s condition when we got divorced. Since I promised him, I’ll keep to my word.”Sonny would still be the grandson of the Browns. He would not become a Lewis.
Although Sonny was backed by a few wealthy families and would be well-supported even if he was incompetent, they still hoped he would turn out to be an outstanding individual. That way, he could be independent and achieve his goals without much help. Duncan had not thought about Sonny’s education plan. However, he knew Liberty had high hopes for Sonny. Even Serenity had never neglected Sonny’s nurturing. Despite only being in preschool, Sonny had started various hobby classes. It was to build a solid foundation and develop his interest in certain hobbies while still young. The only time he could fully enjoy playing was during winter and summer vacations. Liberty and Serenity had similar philosophies when it came to children’s education. They believed children had to study hard and play hard. Liberty nodded and said, “Sonny can have all the fun he wants when he’s young. Once the situation in Jensburg is stable, he’ll have to study and live there.“I wonder if he’ll be willing
Although Corey’s daughters-in-law were not her biological children, she would love them as if they were. After all, they had married into the family and gave birth to the family’s future generation. The jewelry she gave them would be passed down to her grandchildren anyway. Her daughters-in-law came from wealthy families themselves and had many assets to their names. They had more than enough jewelry. Nevertheless, they still happily accepted their mother-in-law’s gift and promised to pass it down to their future daughters-in-law.Of course, they would also gather sufficient wealth and jewelry to be given to their daughters. Anyway, the Lewises treated boys and girls equally in the family. There was no gender discrimination. However, Corey preferred having granddaughters. She had only given birth to four sons and no daughters. After her sons got married, their first children were all sons. She had been afraid that men would outnumber the women in the Lewis family, just like how it
After Corey scolded Ezra, she looked toward Duncan and Liberty. She said gently, “When are you two planning to get your marriage license? Tomorrow?“The City Hall will be closed at the end of the year. It’s best to get the procedure done within these few days.”Getting their marriage license soon would also reassure Duncan. The wedding could be held later. Once they got their marriage license and became legitimate husband and wife, Duncan would no longer have to be alone. He and Liberty could love each other as a married couple. There was also a chance that Liberty might already be pregnant with Corey’s grandchild by the time the wedding was held. Corey wished Liberty could give birth to a child for Duncan. The gender did not matter so long as the baby was Duncan’s biological child. If Liberty truly did not want to get pregnant again, Sonny would probably take care of Duncan in his old age. Duncan had always treated Sonny well, and Sonny was a reasonable child. Sonny would no
Liberty looked at him again. To be honest, she had not known that Duncan had already arranged for a tailor to custom-make a wedding dress for her. As for her size, well, Duncan probably knew.He had sharp eyes and could probably estimate her measurements just by looking at her, not to mention how many times he had hugged her. He could also have asked her sister for her clothing size and preference.As for her preference, he probably had not needed to ask. They had known each other for two years, and Duncan knew very well what she liked and did not like. Serenity had not mentioned anything about the dress to her, so it seemed like they were keeping it from her as a surprise.Duncan met her gaze and softly explained, “After you agreed to register our marriage before Christmas, I immediately contacted the fashion designer Zachary and Josh recommended me. I asked Serenity about your clothing size, and I also secretly took your measurements myself to make sure there wouldn’t be mistakes
Liberty had looked over the dates Corey had chosen. The closest was in less than half a month. The timing for that one was a bit tight, while the farthest was in the early fall of the next year. Liberty actually wanted to choose this one because by then, her sister would have already given birth and could attend her wedding. Things in Jensburg would also be settled, and she would be able to take the time to handle her own wedding, but she decided to let Duncan take a look first and see how he would choose.After looking at the dates, Duncan turned to his parents and said, “Dad, Mom, I think the early fall date is better. Let’s go with that one.”Liberty gave him a slightly surprised look. She thought he would be eager to have the wedding right away. However, she soon realized why. Duncan had mentioned before that he wanted to fully recover before the wedding, not wanting to be in a wheelchair. By early fall, he believed he would be able to walk normally.He was already recovering
For a four-year-old child to write like this was quite impressive.Liberty also noticed her son’s handwriting and said, “Sonny mentioned that at FC Manor, he copied books and practiced writing with Laurence every day, so his handwriting has become neater and prettier.”She did not expect her son to be able to write a lot at his age. He was still young, and she was worried that excessive writing might deform his fingers. However, since Sonny liked writing and drawing, she did not stop him. Plus, at the age of four, he could not sit still for long. After writing for a while, he would go off to play. The time he spent writing was not long enough to worry about his fingers becoming misshapen.They had stayed at FC Manor for about half a month. In that time, he had not spent very long actually writing with Laurence, but perhaps just with Laurence accompanying him, Sonny had improved. After copying medicinal books for a few days, his handwriting had become much neater compared to before.
Isaac addressed Liberty as “aunt” and at first, she felt a little embarrassed, but she quickly regained her composure and responded. Then, she said to the two children, “Sonny, you need to listen to Isaac. Isaac, keep an eye on Sonny.”“Don’t worry, Aunt Liberty. I’ll take good care of Sonny,” Isaac reassured her. Duncan also gave a few instructions before letting them go.“Liberty.”“Duncan’s back.”Everyone wore smiles when they saw the two of them walk inside. Looking at how close and affectionate the two were now, the Lewises could not help but feel a wave of emotions. They had once thought that Duncan would never marry and would stay a bachelor for life, but unexpectedly, he fell in love with his good friend's sister-in-law, Liberty, who was a divorcee.At first, the elders in the family strongly opposed the relationship, but he did not give up, determined to be with Liberty. With his persistence and after going through hardships, the two of them finally made it to this point