“What’s wrong with me being here to watch over Liberty? How does it affect you? Who are you to Liberty? Is it your place to influence my decision? You don’t need to care about how Liberty is doing. It’s your family—your awesome sister-in-law—that caused her to be lying there now!” Duncan said to Chelsea.“Jessica is a spiteful woman. I never considered her as my sister-in-law, and I only recognize Liberty as that.” “Hah!” Duncan said sarcastically, “Have you forgotten what you did to Liberty back then, Mrs. Repton? Liberty needs rest, and your family isn’t welcome here, so please leave now!” Duncan gestured to the Yorks’ bodyguards to shoo Chelsea, her parents, and George. The Browns were the most bizarre and outrageous people he had ever met. Chelsea did not get to see Liberty. Duncan was standing in the doorway, so she did not even have a chance to get close. The York’s bodyguards came to shoo her, so her parents pulled her away. In Duncan’s words, Liberty was lying th
How Liberty had hoped that everything bad was a dream and that when she woke up, her parents were still around and their family of four was fine. Nobody knew how much she had endured. Her sister could cry on her when she was sad, but who could she cry on when she had a hard time? “Mom, I don’t want to go. I want to be with you and Dad.” Liberty shook her head in her mother’s arms, not wanting to leave her parents. Lisa pushed her away. “Lib, think about Seren and your son, Sonny. They need you and are waiting for you to go back. Listen to me and quickly return. This isn’t the place for you. Go now!” said Lisa as she pushed her daughter away again. Liberty thought of her sister and her son. Yes, she still had to raise her son, and her sister was still there. What would happen to Sonny if she stayed with her parents? Also, if Serenity found herself in occasional quarrels with Zachary and wanted to go back to her maiden home, nobody would be there. “Lib, go back,” Sc
Liberty saw that her son was well and her sister was also present. She could not speak yet, so she mustered a smile to comfort her sister, but the tears in the corner of her eyes could not be stopped. She made the choice again. Liberty temporarily abandoned her parents and chose to come back to stay with her sister and take care of her son. “Doctor, how’s my sister-in-law doing?” Zachary asked. “The patient is awake and is out of danger. She doesn’t need to stay in the ICU anymore.” Everyone was finally relieved. Liberty was transferred to a general ward, and Zachary arranged for her to stay in a VIP ward. It was quiet and suitable for his sister-in-law to recover. Although Liberty was awake, her body was still very weak. After being pushed back into the ward, she quickly fell into a deep sleep again. Serenity sat in front of the bed with Sonny in her arms to watch over her sister. She would gently touch the end of her sister’s nose from time to time to make sure that s
Duncan stopped talking. After everyone saw Liberty, Grandma May asked his daughters-in-law to head home first and not to disturb Liberty here. Zachary and Serenity looked extremely tired as well. The Stones and the Soxes also came to visit Liberty after learning that she was out of the woods. Mrs. Stone stayed in the hospital until Liberty woke up for the second time and only then did she feel relieved. The Yorks’ bodyguards bought breakfast for everyone. After having breakfast, Zachary said to Duncan, “Duncan, you should get some rest at home first. We agreed to each keep watch for half of last night, but you stayed up the whole night by yourself.” “I’m fine. I’m neither sleepy nor tired. I’ll wait a bit more.” Duncan looked at Liberty, who was surrounded by her relatives and friends. When Liberty woke up for the second time, she still spoke weakly but was in a better spirit than when she first regained consciousness. She did not even notice Duncan, who was outside
Mrs. Lewis was silent on the other end of the line for a while before she asked, “Liberty is now awake and out of danger. When are you coming back? You must be tired after keeping watch the whole night in the hospital. Come home and rest.” “Mom, I’m not tired. I can still hold on, so you don’t have to worry about me.” Mrs. Lewis wanted to lash out at her son. Even so, she held back. She did not say anything else and silently hung up the phone. After his mom ended the call, Duncan put his phone back into his pocket and returned to the ward. He still stood outside the crowd and watched Liberty quietly. Although Liberty was no more at risk, she was still very weak. The doctor did not allow too many family members to stay in the ward as it would disturb her rest. As such, everyone had to leave one after another after seeing her. The last ones to stay in the hospital were Zachary, Serenity, and Duncan again. Liberty went back to sleep and could sleep more soundly. She was
Zachary and Serenity had a disagreement. Serenity even stayed overnight at the Soxes’ and followed her close friends back to her hometown the next day to check the progress of her investment project. That was why she was not with Liberty and her son. When something happened to Liberty yesterday, Serenity rushed back after receiving the call. The small interlude between Zachary and Serenity was captured by the paparazzi and exposed. Now, it was even trending. If Serenity saw this, she might even blame herself and think that she did not protect her sister well because of the conflict between her and Zachary. Zachary asked Josh to handle it. They had to try to hide it from Serenity and not let her know—at least not at this time. Duncan said, “Given your status, anything that has to do with you can easily become a trending topic… Especially after you got married, everyone became highly interested in your married life with Serenity. Those paparazzi are everywhere. They’re the most
Clive defended his cousin and pushed all the blame onto Zachary.Zachary wanted to ride on the radio waves to strangle Clive.“I’m telling you again, I’m fine! There’s no problem with me. Thank you for your concern!”He hung up the phone.Unexpectedly, the phone rang again.He thought it was Clive, answered it without looking, and yelled, “I told you there’s no problem with me, Clive!”“Mr. York… It’s me, Remy.”Zachary’s expression softened. “Remy?”“Yeah, it’s me. How is Ms. Hunt?”“Her life is no longer in danger. Thank you for your concern, Remy.”Remy said, “That’s a relief. Mr. York, you mentioned something about a problem? I know a miracle healer. If you need to see one, I can introduce him to you the next time I see him. He can help take a look at you.”Zachary was speechless.He took a deep breath in, breathed out, and forced himself not to get angry at Remy.“I’m fine, Remy. It was a cock-and-bull story made up by the paparazzi. My wife and I are very well. We ha
Duncan frowned when he saw his mother. He felt that his mother’s visit to the hospital was not a good thing.Mrs. Lewis saw the two men standing at the door of the ward and walked straight over.“Mrs. Lewis.”Zachary greeted her politely.Mrs. Lewis smiled gently and responded to his greeting.The way she looked at Zachary made him uncomfortable. He knew what that look meant.Even if he told Josh to take down the trending search immediately, she had most likely seen it. Those who should not see it would have probably seen it.There might be many people who took screenshots too.There was no question about it. Mrs. Lewis was looking at him in concern because she saw the trending search.Those damned paparazzi just had to expose every little thing.In the past, tabloids did not dare reveal information about his private affairs without his permission. Now that he was married and appeared softer, did they think they could appeal to Serenity for mercy and escape disaster if they e
Austin said, “He’s definitely here to discuss a potential partnership with your company.“He's just the acting head of the Longbottoms. He doesn’t truly control the family. If the real head returns, everything he’s worked for will go to someone else.“The downfall of Belinda Fisher probably gave him a wake-up call and he doesn’t want to end up like that.“He’s definitely seeking to cooperate with you regarding his personal business. He’s just using the Longbottoms’ name, since their influence in Windermere is enormous.”In terms of wealth, the O'Connors and the Longbottoms were on equal footing, but the O'Connors had fewer members and did not have the same level of influence in Windermere as the Longbottoms.Isabella said, “He’s very ambitious. A partnership would only just be the beginning. Once it’s established, he’ll start thinking about how to cheat us and steal our business.“Plus, he’s very lecherous. Nobody can put a number to how many women he’s toyed with. Some even lost
Tony was aware that whenever his wife had to play the villain, it was always to protect him. He said, “You're right, I misspoke. Your mother isn’t that kind of person.”“Manny, I’ll be leaving soon. You stay here, and I’ll leave half of my men with you. If anything comes up that you can't handle, contact me. I’ll be waiting to hear good news from you.” Tony decided to fly to Wiltspoon in the afternoon. He would only stay for two or three days before returning to Havenmill to handle business.However, as he thought about how he was working like a horse for Longbottom Corporation when many of the benefits did not even belong to him personally, Tony felt a bit disgruntled.“Got it.” Manny did not reject his father’s arrangement.As the Longbottom father and son were discussing how to deal with the O’Connors, Austin entered Isabella’s office.Isabella was busy, so Austin did not disturb her. He quietly sat at the tea table and made some tea.“It seems you’ve learned the art of tea-
Manny had never been to Wiltspoon, but he knew from his father that several prominent families in Wiltspoon had close ties with the Johnsons from Annenburg. It was possible that the child adopted by the Johnsons’ young missus was Laurence. Unfortunately, he could not meet that child, so he could not be a hundred percent certain. The child was currently out of sight and well-protected, hidden so effectively that even the Longbottoms’ information network could not find anything. The other prominent families in Wiltspoon were also helping to keep the child hidden, so Manny deeply disliked the people from these families. Even though they were thousands of miles away, they were still an obstacle to him and his father in their pursuit of becoming the true head of the family.“That's right. If we can conquer the O’Connors, we’ll have a backup plan,” his father said. “You must put your all into it, son. If you need help, just let me know, though this is also an opportunity for you to ge
Tony Longbottom was the only person who would put on such a parade. The big shots in Satbury usually had entourages of their own, but none would put on a spectacle as big as Tony would.As they departed in their car, Tony’s gracious demeanor utterly shattered.His face twisted into an ugly, cruel expression as he said, “I’ve never been treated like this before, even when the legitimate branch of the family still lived, and those two ignorant little girls actually refused to see me multiple times.”Manny was very angry too and he said, “Pops, since they refuse to go about this the easy way, we’ll have to show them the hard way. We can approach it from other angles, and once they’re completely out of business and they have nowhere else to turn to, they’ll be at our mercy.“Won’t they have to do as we please then? I want to marry them, they’ll have to marry me, and if I don’t, I’ll just make them my mistresses. Don’t the O’Connors have plenty of daughters? I’ll fuck every one of them
“Isabella O’Connor is so outstanding, so why are you asking me to go for Tati O’Connor instead?” Manny said under his breath in puzzlement.He had seen photos of the two ladies and Isabella’s appearance was more striking. She had a cold and aloof aura that easily triggered his desire to conquer her, and after just a few glances, he was captivated.If it were up to him, Manny would choose Isabella.Tony looked at his son, smiled, and said, “You can’t control her. Of course, if you manage to make her fall for you, we can talk about switching. But for now, focus on Tati O’Connor.”Tati was also beautiful. However, she did not have Isabella’s cold demeanor. She seemed much gentler, like she smiled often.“Marrying Tati O’Connor would be a big advantage for both you and our family.”Manny thought for a moment and then nodded in understanding. “Got it, Dad.”Manny’s good looks, wealth, honeyed tongue, and generosity toward girls made him good at winning them over. Pursuing a rich youn
After testing the O’Connor sisters and realizing they were not like other women, Mr. Longbottom thought of having his son marry Tati.He knew that his son would not be able to handle or control Isabella, so he set his sights on Tati. Tati probably did not realize she was considered an easy target. Most people underestimated her because she had always kept a low profile.At that moment, a young man got out from the other side of the Rolls-Royce. He resembled Mr. Longbottom. Indeed, he was Mr. Longbotton’s eldest son, Manny.“Dad.”Manny went to his father’s side and glanced at the building before him. He asked, “Aren’t we driving inside?”In Havenmill, Manny could do whatever he wished because his father was the interim head of the Longbottom family. While he had no respect for ordinary people at all, he was clever enough not to offend people he should not.He never parked his car outside the places he wanted to go and simply drove his car through the gates. However, Manny
Meanwhile in Satbury, a few luxury cars stopped at the entrance of Costa Corporation. The door of the first car, a Rolls-Royce, opened. A bodyguard came out of the car.He waited for his boss, who was sitting in the backseat to exit.Mr. Longbottom got out of the car. Although he was over fifty years old, he looked like he was in his forties as he maintained his appearance well.He wore a white tailored suit with a tie, which made him look more youthful.The bodyguards in the other cars alighted as well.They quickly stood behind Mr. Longbottom to protect him. It was also his display of power.A few bodyguards grabbed many gift boxes from the trunks. Mr. Longbottom stood in front of the company and raised his head to look at the sixty-eight-storey office building. It was a symbol of the O’Connor family’s abilities.Costa Corporation was not the family’s only business. They were involved in many industries and were successful in all of them.The O’Connors were wealthy and powe
Jasmine added, “In some cases, the divorced women can get married to a better man, while the divorced men can’t even find a new wife. There are many single men now.“Isn’t there a saying nowadays that men who have wives are extremely lucky?”When Jasmine was at the bookstore, she would also visit the neighboring stores to listen to juicy gossip. Many of the store owners were not locals and they had many stories to tell. Someone said there was an evil mother-in-law in a rural area who looked down on her daughter-in-law. She would egg her son on to abuse his wife and get a divorce. She would also tell her son that she could find a better and younger wife for him. However, once the divorce went through, news of the mother-in-law’s evil deeds and the son’s domestic abuse spread far and wide. Who would dare marry off their daughters to a man like that?Besides, holding another wedding would require a lot of money. The cost of a wedding had increased a lot compared to the past.Whe
“Sonny’s fine. He has recovered. You want to get Sonny from school?”After thinking about it, Serenity agreed and said, “Okay. I’ll message Sonny’s teacher later to tell her you’ll be taking him.”“Okay, Serenity. Thank you.”Hank was thankful that Serenity did not make things difficult for him. Serenity and Liberty had great character. Liberty had a new relationship and already let go of her resentment for Hank. She could coexist with him peacefully. On the other hand, Serenity still held grudges against Hank. However, since he and Liberty had divorced, he could no longer hurt her. He was also Sonny’s father. Serenity was willing to tolerate him for Sonny’s sake. Therefore, she always said yes whenever Hank requested to meet his son. “You’ll be taking Sonny out to eat after picking him up, right? Remember not to let him eat too much fried food, especially fried chicken and fries. He’ll get a sore throat.“He got a fever that day due to a throat inflammation.”“Got it. I’ll