A few minutes later, Serenity mumbled to herself, “Do you think I want to go into your room? If one day you were to beg me, I wouldn’t set foot inside at all.” Having realized that she also had the habit of locking her bedroom door, Serenity stopped rambling. Ultimately, this was the aftereffect of marrying at first sight. After guzzling down the hangover cure Zachary made for her, Serenity returned to her room and turned in for the night. It was a quiet night throughout. The following day, Serenity woke up to the sun shining on her face. She felt around the nightstand for her phone and looked at the time. It was past seven o’clock. Even as an early riser, Serenity barely got up at this hour today. She was usually awake by six in the morning. This was the result of having one glass of wine last night. It was a good thing she did not wake up with a headache. She was hungry though. Serenity felt bad for her sister last night and that resulted in her not much eating at h
“I’m not saying that you can’t stand up for your sister, but there’s no turning back once your sister and your brother-in-law have a falling out. I definitely am on your side with you sorting it out with your brother-in-law.” Serenity grimly ate her mushroom and replied, “You have a point. I will control my temper and refrain from hitting anyone, but I’ll still leave him a warning. I don’t want the Browns to think they can pick on my sister just because she doesn’t have a family.” Seeing that she took his advice, Zachary left the conversation at that. After filling their bellies, they sat for a little while before heading out together. Knowing that Serenity was worried about her sister, Zachary took a detour to Liberty’s place so Serenity could check on her sister before dropping her off at the shop.Serenity was touched by his thoughtfulness. She had cautioned herself against hitting on Zachary last night, but his kindness led her to throw that decision out the window. J
“Mr. York, can you stop flaunting your relationship? I have no plans on getting married now.” Now that Zachary bade his single life goodbye, he should not drag Josh into a married life. For Zachary to persistently show off the perks of having a wife, he was trying to persuade Josh to ditch his wonderful singlehood too. “Huh? Why did you pick this outfit today?” Josh’s keen eyes picked up on Zachary not wearing his usual suit label. He asked out of curiosity, “Why the change of brands?” Zachary was a stubborn man. He would stick to the same brand for years once he had a penchant for a certain brand. He was not one to switch between labels. With Zachary’s taste, the price of the suits he wore were exorbitant. However, the one he had on today did not cost more than a few hundred bucks. This was so unlike Zachary. Following Zachary’s footsteps, Josh asked with concern, “Mr. York, is our company facing a financial crisis? Are you wearing clothes from the outlet store to save
Serenity nearly burst into an outrage when Chelsea said that in her face. Still, Serenity had class and did not slam the table in front of Chelsea. She unhurriedly went behind the cash register and sat down before looking Chelsea in the eye and bombarding her with questions, “Chelsea, you mentioned my sister hit my brother-in-law? Did you witness it? Did my sister start it? Did my brother-in-law fight back? How bad was he beaten? Was he hospitalized?” Chelsea replied shamelessly, “So what if Hank started it? Your sister ought to be taught a lesson, and Hank wanted to discipline her the other day. However, he didn’t want to make your sister look bad since you came over with your husband. We even talked him out of punishing your sister. “Any man would’ve slapped their wives for all the things your sister had done. Your sister deserved a beating for her mistakes. She had the audacity to hit Hank back until he was black and blue. He couldn’t bring himself to go home. “Serenity, you
Chelsea cut in while Serenity was still talking. “We should be responsible for the children we give birth to. The parents-in-law have no obligation to look after the grandkids.” “That’s right. Children should be their parents’ responsibility. Why don’t you care for your own children then, Chelsea?”Chelsea opened her mouth and retorted, “My parents are happy to take care of my children. You could tell your sister to ask your parents to care for hers too.” Serenity picked up the glass of water in front of Chelsea and splashed it on her face. “Ah! What the hell was that, Serenity!” “I was helping you to rinse your filthy mouth.” Serenity shot an indifferent glare at the mother and daughter. Livid, Chelsea wanted to put violence into action when Mrs. Brown held her back. Mrs. Brown said to her daughter, “Your sister-in-law’s parents are gone for over a decade. You can’t blame Serenity for being angry since you made a hurtful comment.” “But she shouldn’t have splashed me wit
“Of course, I have no problem if you want to be a slave to your husband, Chelsea. However, my sister is not one. Men and women are both equals in this day and age. There should be equality between spouses. No one is better than the other.“It’s your choice to be under your husband’s thumb, but don’t force your values on my sister.“Hank struck my sister first and bashed her real bad. My sister only retaliated to stay alive. She was acting out of self-defense. There’s no way my sister will apologize, much less with gifts! You should be talking sense into Hank and get him to apologize to my sister.” Serenity reflected indifference and assertiveness on her face without fear of offending Liberty’s in-laws. She added. “You can send my sister back if you think she spends money without earning it, but don't ever use force on her. You might care about your son and brother, so do I. I cherish my sister more than anything.“And one more thing. My sister spent over a thousand bucks on clothe
“I think, like us, you hope Liberty and Hank’s relationship will turn out fine. You know how couples are. They might have a tiny spat every now and then, but it will pass. Don’t fuss about it too much.” Serenity uttered coldly, “Did Hank break his legs or forget his way home? Why does my sister need to bring him home?” The Browns might come down hard on her sister if Liberty went to their residence to bring Hank home. Besides, it would show that Liberty was admitting her fault. Serenity would never allow her sister to admit anything she had not done wrong. Hank was free to return home as he pleased. He could stay at his parents’ place for all she cared. Her sister could enjoy some peace and quiet in the house. “Why are you being difficult?” Mrs. Brown told Serenity off. “Hank’s not giving a dime to your sister for the living expenses so long as he’s not living at his own home. Your sister can forget ever stepping in our house if she can support herself.” With that, Mrs. B
“I’ll have a talk with my sister. This can’t go on. She’ll only be treated like dirt.” Liberty would always be at a disadvantage without a source of income. “How about we ask your sister to work at our shop? I’ll pay your sister’s wages. You don’t have to fork out the money. Liberty would be able to take care of Sonny too. That’s an added bonus.” Jasmine had Liberty’s interest at heart. Serenity sighed. “My sister won’t come. She believes our business is not doing well because I run an online business for additional income.” As a matter of fact, the shop was making a bit of profit. However, Liberty refused to make money out of Serenity, and no amount of words could persuade Liberty otherwise. “Liberty used to work in finance. I’ll ask Shawn if Lowe Enterprise is hiring at the moment. It’d be great to get Liberty into my uncle’s company. Although the company can’t compare to York Corporation and Stone Group, it’s a big business. The employees’ perks and welfare aren’t to
Adrian and his brothers finally heard footsteps. They instinctively turned their heads, only to see a group of people, who were already very close, approaching.“Police! Hands up, don’t move!”Upon realizing they had been spotted, the officer leading the charge immediately shouted, drawing his gun and pointing it at Adrian and the others.The police had learned from the Dott brothers that the kidnappers were armed.The officers following Darren were from an armed unit and carried guns.Jason’s mind went blank. He could not form a single coherent thought.How had the police caught up?They had scouted the location beforehand, ensuring it was remote and quiet. It was somewhere no one would come even during the day, let alone at night.Adrian reacted the fastest. He immediately bent down to pick up the kitchen knife, intending to kill Caroline.All he could think then was that even if he died, he wanted to take Caroline with him. As long as Caroline died, he would consider it wor
Justin, seeing his eldest brother approach with the kitchen knife, hesitated and asked, “Adrian, are we really going to do this?”“What, are you having second thoughts at this stage, like Jason? Justin, we didn’t even cover our faces. She knows it’s us. If we let her go now, we’re the ones who will die.“Think about it. How much have we suffered ever since she came back? How much have we lost? Even Mom’s dead now.”When their mother was alive, the three brothers lived carefree and comfortable lives. Now that she was gone, they were nothing.Hearing this, Justin quickly said, “Adrian, I’m not having second thoughts. It’s just… We don’t have to use the knife. We can just throw her into the sea. With her hands and feet tied, she won’t be able to escape.“The deep sea is full of fish. She’ll be eaten by a big fish soon, which will leave no trace. That’s better than us using the knife.”The main reason was that none of them had killed anyone before. Although they had done other bad th
Her indifference, as if she did not care whether they killed her or not, infuriated her three brothers.Adrian stood up, turned around, and walked to the back of the car. He opened the trunk.Inside the trunk were two sharpened kitchen knives.“Adrian.” Jason walked over, his voice trembling slightly. It was his first time committing murder, and killing his own sister at that. Jason was a bit scared.“Adrian, are we really going to… chop her up?”Adrian picked up one of the kitchen knives and glared at Jason. “What? Are you having second thoughts? Or are you scared?”“Well… It’s my first time killing someone. I am a bit scared. Carol is our sister, after all. I... I can’t bring myself to do it.”Adrian snorted coldly. “You think of her as a sister, but she doesn’t see us as brothers. Look at what she’s done—every single thing has been a stab in the back for us.“When it comes to using a knife, once you make the first cut, the second one won’t be so hard.”Adrian handed the kit
There were still traces of blood at the corners of her mouth and under her nose.Justin and Jason worked together to pull Caroline out, and Adrian immediately tied her legs together before binding her hands behind her back.“Are you going to feed me to the fish, Adrian?”Hearing the sound of the waves and feeling the cold sea breeze, Caroline shivered.She did not stand up and remained lying on the ground.Adrian kicked her several times, venting his pent-up anger.Caroline silently endured it.After kicking her a few times, Adrian squatted, gripping Caroline's chin forcefully with one hand, and said coldly, “Caroline, there’s nothing more to say between us.“Don’t blame us for being heartless. You’re the one who pushed us to this point.“You only have yourself to blame.“Where are the passwords and keys to Mom's private assets? Tell us, and we’ll make it quick for you, so you won’t suffer too much.“If you don’t, we have plenty of time to slowly cut you piece by piece and m
“We can’t just keep giving them money, now can we?”Adrian replied, “That’s not a priority for now. We can burn that bridge when we come to it. If they do dare blackmail us, we’ll just send them on to meet their maker.“The only thing is they both have families. If we kill them, we have to kill their families too. That way, there’ll be no one who’ll report it to the police.“And it’s best to make it seem like an accident too, or else it’ll seem suspicious.”Justin and Jason both felt Adrian was right. If they were going to kill the Dott brothers, they might as well kill their families too.Caroline internally cursed how merciless they were. The Dott brothers thought they could earn some money from Adrian to live a better life but little did they know, it would bring destruction upon themselves and their families.What the Clark brothers did not know was that the Dotts were forced to say what they did earlier.It was not that they had not left yet. Rather, they could not, because
Belinda had done everything other mothers would have. She loved them, yet the three of them had gotten a smaller portion of her wealth than their own children did. Indeed, Belinda left her grandchildren with more money.After all, her grandchildren still had a long life ahead of them.Therefore, she distributed more wealth to them. The Clark brothers loved spending lavishly and kept losing money whenever they tried to establish businesses. They also had many mistresses and never hesitated to spend money on them. Belinda was partial toward her sons about their affairs and also persuaded her daughters-in-law not to get a divorce. In truth, she resented her three sons for being promiscuous and inheriting their father’s flirtatious traits. While Hunter may have been interested in other girls, he dared not cheat on Belinda because she was strict. However, he still had an affair the moment he spotted an opportunity.Later, Belinda chased the Clark brothers’ mistresses out of
Celine, whom they had cared for all long, was not their biological sister but the daughter of the previous butler. Celine’s father was ambitious. He tried making his daughter the Fisher family’s successor. Justin was speechless.“Free me, Jason. I’m already in your hands. Are you still scared that I’ll escape? Let me out. It’s too stuffy in the sack. I feel terrible.”Caroline made a request. Jason seemed to be the one with some lingering feelings for his sibling. Well, that was not really the case.If he truly had even a sliver of sibling love for Caroline, he would have stopped Adrian and Justin from kidnapping her instead of joining the plan. If Caroline had been fortunate, she could have had five brothers doting on her. Sadly, she was unlucky. None of the five brothers had cared for her. They all wanted her dead. Was she a failure as a person, or were they too cruel?Jason said, “Just stay put, Caroline. We’ll let you out when we arrive.”They could not release Car
Caroline could not beat them. Then, her mouth was gagged with a cloth, and her head was covered with a sack. Someone forced her into a car. She heard Adrian saying to his brothers, “Let’s go.“Tell Celine’s brothers to follow us. Assign a few people to clean up and leave quickly.”After that, Caroline heard the sound of an engine starting. The car moved. She could not see what was happening. While she was shoved into the backseat, her arms and legs were unbound. She removed the cloth from her mouth but not the sack from her head.Someone held the sack tightly and started hitting and kicking her. “Tie the sack, Justin,” said Jason in a hurry. The person beating her up was Justin. “I know it’s you guys, Justin and Jason. What are you doing? Let me go. Mmph…”Caroline grunted in pain. She suffered a punch from Justin. She held her head tightly to prevent any injury to it. Many blows landed on her body. “It’s fine even if you know it’s us, Caroline. You better stay
“Ms. Caroline.”The bodyguards looked toward Caroline. Caroline opened her eyes and said calmly, “Stop the car, but don’t get out. Only get out when the situation gets out of hand. Remember to protect yourselves.”“Ms. Caroline…”“I’ll keep myself safe. Don’t worry. I treasure my life. There’s still a long life ahead of me. I haven’t even started enjoying good days. I won’t want to die.”Caroline chuckled, but her smile did not reach her eyes. There was sorrow in those eyes. In the end, she and her brothers could not coexist. It made her realize how bad her luck was with families. She was switched at birth and mistreated by her adoptive family. She thought her biological parents would treat her well after returning to them, but it turned out to be the opposite. Caroline had many family members, yet somehow, she was still alone. The people who truly cared about her were Darren, Liberty, and some others. Caroline’s bodyguards knew she had been waiting for that moment.