“I asked where you went. I’m in your office. It’s working hours, but you’re neither in the office nor the building. Where have you gone? Don’t tell me you went to business meetings. Your secretary is still here.“Did you go looking for Liberty again? How many times have I told you? Liberty is not suitable for you. She’s a divorced woman with a three-year-old child. That child is even a son. You may be willing to raise a son for someone else, but I don’t want to be that child’s grandmother!“Besides raising someone else’s son, you’ll have to buy a house and car and get a wife for him. His father won’t contribute anything and will laugh at you for being a doormat. Duncan, there are so many young, pretty ladies in Wiltspoon. Any one of them will be better than Liberty.”Mrs. Lewis was about to be angered to death by her son. He would not listen to her at all. Mrs. Lewis’s words grew increasingly harsh. Duncan said in a deep voice, “You don’t have to worry about my matters. I’ll t
Sonny asked in confusion, “Why do we have to move, Mom?”He had lived there for half a year with his mom and had gotten used to it. Liberty lied. She said, “You’ll start preschool in September. Your preschool is quite far from here. We can move to a place closer to it so it’s convenient for me to send you to school.”What opinions could a three-year-old child possibly have?With Liberty’s explanation, Sonny nodded his head. Therefore, she called a real estate agent, told the agent her requirements for renting a place, and asked for recommendations. She was not in a rush to buy a house. She could look around and only decide after finding a suitable place. Moreover, her priority was to pay for her son’s education. Sonny was enrolled in Wiltspoon’s best preschool. The annual school fee was about a hundred thousand to two hundred thousand dollars. She had gotten some money from Hank when they got divorced. She used a portion of that money and invested in All You Can Eat. Alt
“Mom!”“I’ll be frank here. If you can break all ties with me, I won’t bother with who you like or pursue anymore.”After speaking, Mrs. Lewis turned and left angrily. Duncan was exasperated by his mother too. He did not understand. His mother did not hate Liberty. Why was she being stubborn and refused to let him be with Liberty?He had not even succeeded in wooing Liberty. With his mother making such a big fuss, it would do nothing but hinder him. Liberty, who did not love him from the start, would be scared of his mother and dared not like him or accept his feelings. Duncan raised his head and took a look around. He did not return to Liberty’s apartment but walked toward his car. After getting in, he called Zachary and Josh to invite them out for a drink. He hung up after speaking, disregarding whether they agreed to it, and started the car. Meanwhile, in the Buchams’ residence, Josh looked at the ended call on the phone. After a moment, he scolded, “I’m still on my m
Zachary remained silent too.Josh meant they knew Duncan well after having known him for so many years.Duncan appeared rough and carefree, seeming as if he did not care about anything.However, he was actually stubborn when it came to relationships.If Liberty chose not to remarry for the rest of her life, he would also not marry anyone for her sake.He was the kind of person who would rather be single forever if he could not marry the woman he wanted.“If you’re busy, I’ll go and drink with him.” Zachary was considerate of Josh, who was still on his marriage leave. With Jasmine pregnant, Josh would surely not be in the mood to do anything else too. Josh said, “Jasmine’s in the bookstore. I assigned bodyguards to protect her. I don’t have much to do anyway. Let’s go together.”Zachary hummed in agreement. After ending the call, Zachary looked toward his beloved wife, who was sitting on the sofa and reading magazines. Serenity did not pay attention to Zachary and Josh’s ca
Duncan had always gone to All You Can Eat for breakfast before eight o’clock. If she avoided that timing, she could avoid meeting him. Liberty asked Serenity for help. After reading her sister’s message, Serenity sighed. Her sister was finally forced to run away. If not for Serenity marrying Zachary and living in Wiltspoon because the York family was here, Liberty might have really left Wiltspoon with Sonny secretly and distanced herself from Duncan as Mrs. Lewis wished. Even if Duncan could find Liberty no matter what it took, he would still require time to do so. Serenity replied to her sister that she would respect and aid in every decision she made. “Is it a message from your sister?”Zachary guessed it was his sister-in-law. Serenity replied in the affirmative. “What did she say? Your expression looks serious.”“My sister is moving now. She found a new house to rent in a hurry and would be relocating to East Hill neighborhood. It’s a high-end area with excell
Liberty thanked Zachary. Zachary said, “We’re family, Liberty. You don’t have to be so courteous.”He even feared that she would not accept his help. Luckily, she was rushing to move places and took up his offer. With her brother-in-law’s assistance, Liberty moved out of her apartment quickly while Zachary left work to accompany Duncan for drinks. Aside from Zachary and Serenity, no one knew Liberty’s new address. She did not inform Aunt Audrey either. Meanwhile, in a hotel’s private room, a table was filled with dishes Duncan ordered along with many bottles of strong liquor. At that moment, Zachary and Josh were by his side, watching him down one glass of alcohol after another. “Eat something, Duncan.”Zachary took some salad for him. Maybe he felt guilty toward his best friend because he had taken his sister-in-law’s side. He wished he could help Duncan, but his sister-in-law did not love Duncan at all. Moreover, Mrs. Lewis was stubborn in opposing the relationship.
Serenity did not say a word. Among the people around her, only Jasmine’s relationship was smooth sailing without a hitch. Josh and Jasmine tied the knot very quickly. Elisa’s love and her sister’s second chance at love had many obstacles. Serenity was considered lucky. Although she and Zachary had conflicts, silent treatments, and even almost got divorced, they understood, respected, and trusted each other in the end. They had been living a blissful life since then. Serenity cherished everything she had at the moment. Zachary regulated his emotions quickly. He said softly, “Sleep, honey. Don’t overthink. Let’s go with the flow.”Serenity hummed in agreement. They slept in each other’s embrace soundly throughout the night. Duncan woke up the next afternoon. He slept long enough that he did not have a bad headache but just hunger after waking up. When he realized it was already noon, he got up immediately and showered. After changing into clean clothes, he went downsta
It was not Mrs. Lewis who had rear-ended the car in front of hers, but Duncan who hit a lorry from behind. Although the vehicle behind Duncan slammed on the brakes, it still rear-ended Duncan’s car. Mrs. Lewis was not involved in the collision as she stepped on the brakes in time. After parking her car, Mrs. Lewis immediately unfastened her seat belt and opened the door to get out. Mr. Lewis had not registered what transpired. He had been trying to persuade his wife to stop chasing after their son. “Honey.”“Duncan’s car rear-ended another vehicle.”Mrs. Lewis dropped the bomb on her husband and ran forward. She passed the sedan in front of her. That car collided with Duncan’s car, and its bumper was damaged. The person in the car was motionless, probably due to shock. The condition of Duncan’s car was far worse. Almost the entire hood of his car was buried under the lorry due to the collision, and only the trunk was left visible from the outside. Duncan was hurt and unco
Sonny asked Liberty, “Mom, is it okay? I want to stay at Grandaunt’s house for one night. Tomorrow, you can come pick me up and take me to Dad’s house.”After receiving a call from her former mother-in-law, Liberty had already asked Sonny after he woke up that morning if he wanted to stay with the Brown family for a couple of days, to spend time with his grandparents. Tomorrow, she would take him to the Browns.Liberty smiled, “You can stay the night if you want. Tomorrow, I’ll come pick you up and take you to your dad’s house for lunch.”She planned to call Hank soon and let him know that she was not taking Sonny there early in the morning, so the Browns would not have to get up early to wait.Sonny jumped up happily and said to Audrey, “Grandaunt Audrey, my mom agreed! I’m going to stay here tonight and play with Elias."With that, he rushed upstairs. Elias was getting cuter. When he talked to him, the baby would respond with cooing sounds, which was really fun.“Aunt Audrey, I
After a long while, Jessica finally asked, “You have swollen eyes because Liberty is getting remarried? You’ve lost your chance to remarry her.”“Jessica, I’ve never thought about remarrying Liberty. That’s impossible. I’ll wait for you to be released. No matter how many years it takes, I will wait for you,” Hank quickly explained. “It’s true that I’m upset that Liberty is remarried, but it’s mainly because of my son.“In the future, Sonny will call someone else ‘Dad’, and I’m not around him often. I’m afraid that one day, he’ll only end up closer to his other dad and not me, his biological father.”Jessica quietly looked at him for a moment before coldly replied, “If you have time, you should spend more time with Sonny. Even a biological father and son need to nurture their relationship.”“Who did Liberty marry?” Jessica asked. “Is it Duncan Lewis?”“Who else could it be? It’s Duncan. He kept Liberty close, never letting anyone else near her. Whenever any other man got close to L
Why was he crying? He knew the reason deep down but could not bring himself to say it out loud. Instead, he simply slumped over the steering wheel and cried his heart out. After he was done crying, he finally started the car and left the city hall, heading to the prison to visit Jessica.When Jessica saw him, she noticed his eyes were red and swollen. Thinking something bad had happened in his family, she immediately grabbed the phone and asked, “Hank, why are you crying? Your eyes are all swollen. Did something happen to your parents?”She still harbored hatred toward Olivia and Chelsea, hoping something would happen to that mother-daughter pair. Ideally, she wanted the old woman to face judgment in hell.Back when she stabbed Hank and Chelsea came to the rescue, Jessica felt she should have made sure to stab Chelsea to death. It was because of Chelsea’s incitement that she and Hank ended up like this. The two women had torn apart Hank and Liberty’s marriage, and now that Liberty’s
Liberty did not need them to push her husband. She continued to push Duncan toward the car, and only then did the bodyguards help him into the vehicle. Soon, the luxurious car carrying the family of three drove away from the city hall and merged into the street traffic, gradually disappearing into the distance.It was not until the car was out of sight that the car parked not far from the city hall slowly began to move.The driver was Hank.He would not stop Liberty and Duncan from registering their marriage and neither did he have the right nor the standing to do so. He had intended to take customers but had not received any orders, and without any particular destination in mind, he ended up at the city hall by chance, arriving before Liberty and Duncan.However, his car was parked farther away, and many other cars were occupying spaces near the city hall. After the divorce, Liberty no longer paid much attention to him and did not notice that Hank’s car was already there, waiting.
Liberty was his wife now.Sonny was completely confused. He had come here with his mother and Dunc. Everyone here was so friendly and smiled at them as they congratulated Liberty and Duncan. Why, though, did they not congratulate him?“Mom, Dunc is smiling so brightly. What’s so special about that paper? Mom, can I see it?” Sonny asked, looking up at Liberty, curious about what was so interesting about the marriage license that made Dunc smile so widely.Liberty glanced at Duncan and teased him, “Duncan, the corners of your mouth are almost reaching your ears.”“I’m happy. Very happy,” Duncan responded with an even brighter smile.The weather today was cloudy, though occasionally, the sun took a peek while sometimes it became overcast. Still, the power of the sun today certainly could not compare to the beam of Duncan’s smile.Liberty handed the marriage license to Sonny to view.Sonny eagerly took it and started reading it. Some of the words he recognized, but overall, he did n
“That brat is already at that age and still doesn’t think about settling down. Every time we pressure him, he hides away.” When Audrey talked about Anthony, who did not want to get married, she could not help but feel a headache coming. Out of her three children, the one who worried her the most was Anthony.Serenity walked over to Audrey and affectionately linked arms with her, smiling, “Aunt Audrey, you don’t need to worry. Anthony’s a good man. When the right person comes along, he’ll get married.”“Let’s hope so—he’s not young anymore. Children are always a worry, aren’t they? There’s always something to be concerned about. What about Sonny? Why didn’t he come along?” Audrey asked. “Didn’t you come from your sister’s place?” “Sonny went with my sister and Duncan to the city hall. They said they wanted to go as a family of three,” Serenity replied.Audrey laughed, “Duncan doesn’t mind bringing along a little third wheel, huh? Well, that’s fine. They’re going to be a family, aft
Zachary said those words, but in his heart, he was thinking that he had to keep an eye on the younger generations of the major families in Wiltspoon, particularly those who stood out. He would make note of any promising boys, so that when he had a daughter, he could arrange for that boy to grow up alongside her. If they became childhood sweethearts, she would not have to marry far away. Of course, once he had a daughter, he would not want her to get married too early. He would still be fine even if she was unmarried at thirty.Zachary drove his beloved wife to the Stone residence. Audrey was walking in the yard with Patrick. The weather was nice today, and the temperature had risen a few degrees. Patrick had been ordered by Audrey to stay inside and avoid the cold wind, but he was now finally able to get out and walk around.Elisa had gone to Annenburg with Remy to celebrate Christmas. Anthony, afraid of his parents’ constant nagging to settle down, had bought a plane ticket abroad
“Duncan is a good man. Being with him, you will definitely be happy, Liberty. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness, growing old together, and may you have children soon.” After a pause, Hank added, “Or maybe don't have children, I'm afraid that if you have your own kids, you might not love Sonny as much.”He was still quite selfish. He hoped that Sonny would be Liberty’s only child. As long as Liberty and Duncan did not have children, the fortune and empire Duncan built would eventually become his son's legacy. Then again, thinking about Liberty’s current status, Hank sighed quietly, knowing that his selfish prayer would never come true. Liberty would definitely have another child. She would need a daughter to take her place and eventually take over the Fisher matriarchy in Jensburg.What if Duncan had a biological child? Would he still treat Sonny well?Hank was actually quite worried that if Duncan had his own child, he might not treat Sonny well. That was why, when he last s
“Go cook some food. It's rare for Hank to be resting at home, so don't say those unpleasant things in front of him. Honestly, if he hadn’t gone after Jessica, she wouldn't have ended up like this. As a married man, Hank shouldn't have pursued a young, innocent girl in the first place. Everything that happened to him is his own fault—it’s all self-inflicted.”Ever since Hank divorced Liberty, and after seeing how Liberty had turned her life around and was living a better life, Luke had changed a lot because of regret. It made him realize many things and change a lot.Olivia opened her mouth as if to say something, but said nothing in the end. After a heavy sigh, she stood up and went to the kitchen to prepare food for her husband and son.In the past, when Liberty was still part of the Brown family, every time Olivia came to her son’s house, she never had to cook. She only had to mention what she wanted to eat, and Liberty would prepare it for her. All she had to do was eat and still