Furthermore, Zachary was only thirty years old. How did that make him old? Serenity mentioned more than once that he was a middle-aged man. Zachary had his power of meditation to thank as Serenity’s words could have stung him to the point of blowing his cover. “My boss isn’t old. He’s not a middle-aged man!” Pulling himself together, Zachary defended himself. Serenity looked at him. “I thought you never met your boss. How do you know he isn’t a middle-aged man? Do you think someone young can run a huge company like York Corporation? Although the business world is not my thing, I know what a big deal York Corporation is in Wiltspoon. York Corporation is neck to neck with that something & Co. in Annenburg.” Zachary replied after what seemed like an imaginary eyeroll, “FC & Co.”Like York Corporation, FC & Co. of Annenburg was a giant in its respective city. Behind FC & Co. was the multi-billionaire Johnson family. The present CEO, Ben Young-Johnson was a year younger than Zach
“I have a suggestion, but I’m on Ms. Stone’s side, so I can’t tell you about it.” Grabbing her plate and utensils, Serenity got up and went to the kitchen. Zachary quietly watched as her figure disappeared into the kitchen. A while later, he rose to his feet and walked over. Leaning against the kitchen door frame, he asked solemnly, “You’ve only just met Ms. Stone. Why are you on her side already?” “Ms. Stone and I might not have known each other for a long time, but I’ve never even met your boss. Whose side would you think I’ll take? Ms. Stone is my type of gal. What’s wrong with supporting her to go for Mr. York?“Your boss must be a lofty person. Wait till Ms. Stone has him wrapped around her little fingers. He’ll be all over her. Hahaha. Let’s see if he’s going to be haughty then. Isn’t it a fun storyline? I can write a book out of it.“I have a lot of free time at the shop. If the sales of my online business aren’t doing too well, I should try to write a book. That’s ano
Josh would be the first to quit and stay as far away as possible if Zachary were interested in men. Problem with his manhood? Zachary had not fallen head over heels for Serenity. Well, he would show her once he took a fancy to her and consummate the marriage! It took a while before Zachary got up and made an abrupt exit to his room. He slammed the door behind him. The loud bang was a reflection of his foul mood. Serenity waited until he closed his bedroom door before getting up. She picked up the paper, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the bin while mumbling under her breath, “It was a good thing I thought it through. Otherwise, I’d have lost to him.” The lesson today was not to make a bet before getting full intel on the opponent. There was a risk of things blowing up in her face. As for her proposal of a wager and her sudden change of heart, Serenity was not concerned at all. It was normal to back out of a deal since they had not signed a contract. While hu
The couple walked down the stairs together. Zachary went for his morning run while Serenity rode her e-bike to the market. She was mounting the bike when Zachary reminded her, “Get extra groceries to bring to your shop. You can cook your lunch. You should stop ordering takeout.” “Got it.” “I’ll have the Wiltspoon Hotel deliver meals to you every day if I catch you with another takeout.” Serenity turned her head to shoot him an angry look. “Squanderer!” Zachary made a wry face. Not too far away, the bodyguard, who pretended to pass by, nearly snickered after overhearing Serenity. Refusing to spend another minute with the squanderer, Serenity rode her bike away. “The girl doesn’t know what’s good for her!” Zachary waited until she was long gone before making that snide comment. Serenity looked around the marketplace and bought a lot of fresh vegetables and long-lasting melons to stuff the fridge. The potatoes, carrots, and onions were placed in a ventilated bag on the flo
Now things were starting to get interesting. Serenity had no idea that her man nipped another one of her headaches in the bud in those mere minutes.After the spaghetti was cooked to al dente, Serenity plated it together with the tomato sauce base. She also sprinkled diced pork belly and basil on top, but only a dash of chili powder on her plate. It was only a quick sprinkle as Serenity was worried it might be too spicy than she could take. Statistics showed that Wiltspoonians were not fond of the extra pow in their meals. “Mr. York, breakfast’s ready.” Serenity carried her plate out of the kitchen while beckoning Zachary, who was on the swing, to the dinner table. Zachary was without a word, but he left the balcony. Seeing that his breakfast was not served on the dining table, he quietly went into the kitchen and brought out his share. “You can add as much chili powder as you like. My sister loves hot spices, so she put together a bunch of hot flavors to make her own.”
Serenity pushed Zachary’s money away. “I didn’t know that you don’t eat food that's greasy, but I won’t put it on your plate next time. Put away your money. Can you stop flashing your cash? Do you think you’re made of money?” Zachary should dish out several million in cash by the way he was flaunting his money. She could then count the money and admit that he was made of money. “Why didn’t you say anything when I was cooking the pork? What’s the point of having a mouth? Well, that’s a waste of one of your five senses if you don’t know how to speak up…” A wad of notes was placed on her empty plate. Serenity’s rambling came to a screeching halt. Without giving her a chance to return the money, Zachary turned on his heel and left. Serenity took a glance at the money on the plate and moved the gaze to the man on the run. The man already had one foot out the door by then. “Zachary, do I look like a beggar to you?” The door slamming shut was his response. Now that the door
Liberty was downstairs waiting for her sister. She carried her son while a diaper bag and a rucksack hung off each arm. Liberty looked around, failing to notice a new car driving by. More accurately, she was not on the lookout for a four-wheeled vehicle as her sister often rode an e-bike. Serenity pulled up in front of her sister and rolled down the window. “Liberty.” Taken aback at first, Liberty ensued with a smile. “I thought you were riding your bike today.” She knew that her brother-in-law bought her sister a car, but Serenity rarely used it. This was the first time Serenity drove here with the new car. Serenity got out of the car and grabbed the diaper bag from Liberty. She opened the door to the back seat and put the diaper bag in. She asked, “Is everything in there, Liberty? The formula is the most important thing.” “It’s all there.” Liberty handed her son over to her sister. With Serenity carrying Sonny, Liberty drew close to kiss her son on the cheek and urged h
Serenity drove to the shop and saw a familiar car parked out the front. It was Shawn. Shawn came by to deliver food to his cousin again. Instead of breakfast, he brought along some pastries made by his family’s personal chef. His excuse was that the pastries were too much for the family to finish, so he came to share them with his cousin. Jasmine did not read too much into his excuse as she and Serenity would not say no to food. Plus, Jasmine knew that all the pastries at the Lowes were baked fresh every day. Since Shawn brought them over, Jasmine helped herself to quite a bit. Shawn was worried his cousin would finish the pastries before Serenity made it to the shop. Looking out the shop, Shawn asked, “Jas, is Serenity coming today?” “She will but a little later.” Jasmine answered, unconcerned. As Jasmine lived rather close to the shop, she usually set up the shop and took care of business in the morning. Serenity was in charge of watching the shop at night. “There’s a
Camryn smiled, “You spoil me too much. You’ll turn me into an absolute sloth who only waits around for you to take care of me, and it might tire you out.”“That won’t happen. I enjoy taking care of you,” Callum assured as he reached to help her with the snacks, but she would not let him feed her anymore. Callum had no choice but to hand her the snacks.“Although Trenton is young, he has mettle. When we put his parents away, it was hard for him to accept, but in the end, he did. As long as he has the right values, even the hardest things can be accepted over time and he won’t resent anyone else for it either.”Camryn pushed the snack box closer to her husband, indicating that he should have some too. “If Trenton didn’t have the right values, I wouldn’t care for him so much. Given the hurt and pain I suffered during the twenty-odd years under his parents, if I hated them, they’d have nothing to say in defense.“Because Trenton has treated me well since he was little, respects me as
Just now, Carrie came here and made a scene, and he had given her fifty thousand dollars. Although he had not spent much time with her, they were siblings. He could at the very least still recognize her. However, when Camryn asked him that, Trenton's heart started to race, not daring to confidently say that the lady really was Carrie.As for the young lady beside her? He had watched the video a few times but had not paid much attention to her. All he could see was a beautiful, young woman dressed in luxurious attire. In the video, he heard Camryn refer to her as Mrs. Longbottom, so her husband’s family name had to be Longbottom.Mrs. Longbottom had a good attitude toward Camryn and even supported her. He was not familiar with Mrs. Longbottom at all, though. Why did Camryn ask him that? Should he know her? Trenton watched the video two more times but could not find anything unusual about her. It was just that he was not acquainted with Mrs. Longbottom. If he had not seen the video,
The young couple looked at Trenton, then exchanged smiles.“How much did you give Carrie?” Camryn asked her brother gently. Camryn could harden her heart to completely ignore Carrie and not give her a single cent, but Trenton could not be as ruthless as she was, mainly because while Carrie had not been particularly kind to Trenton, she also had not bullied him outright. She had treated Camryn very poorly though and had never shown her any respect at all, so their sisterly bond had deteriorated to the extreme. It was already generous of Camryn not to completely destroy Carrie after taking charge, which was probably out of consideration for the fact that they shared a mother.“I-I gave her fifty thousand. She said it was almost Christmas, and she wanted to buy gifts and new clothes, so I-I gave her fifty thousand.” Trenton looked down as he spoke, not daring to look at Camryn, afraid she would scold him.Camryn gave her brother a long look but did not scold him. Instead, she took o
Callum was silent for a moment before he said, “I wanted you to get familiar with the route to my office, which is why I asked you to deliver the flowers yourself.”“Did you ever think about how difficult it was for me as a blind person? It was so hard for me to walk all the way to deliver those flowers,” Camryn retorted.Callum pulled her into an embrace and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, Camryn. It was my fault for not thinking it through, which put you through a lot.”Camryn pushed him away, “We have customers constantly coming in. Don’t just hug me out of nowhere. You’re as thick-skinned as a rhinoceros, but I’m not. At that time, I was angry and silently cursed you a hundred thousand times, but your insistence actually did help me learn the way to your office and now, I can find my way there even with my eyes closed.”At that moment, Trenton returned. After Carrie left, he felt a bit down and stayed outside for a while to compose himself before coming back in. He did not wan
Just then, a customer came in wanting to buy a bouquet. Camryn first brought over some sample pictures for the customer to choose from. “No need to choose, just help me arrange a bouquet of roses. I’m going to confess my feelings,” said the young boy, a hint of shyness on his face as he spoke.Camryn smiled gently. “Alright, please wait a moment while I prepare it for you.”Callum assisted by inviting the young boy to sit down and poured him a glass of water.The boy glanced between Camryn and Callum and quietly asked, “Are you and the boss married or dating?”“We’re married. She’s my wife.”The boy expressed his envy. “You both seem very happy.”“Yeah, we are very happy. I love my wife very much, and she loves me too.”Thinking about the girl he was pursuing, the boy’s face lit up with anticipation. “I also have someone I like, and I’m going to confess to her, though I just don’t know if she feels the same. I’m a bit nervous.”Callum, drawing from his own experience, advised
“She hasn’t paid. Stop her.” Camryn was not going to let her get away with it. With a command, her two bodyguards stopped Carrie.Carrie said furiously, “Camryn, I only took a few flowers from you! You have so many flowers here. What's the big deal if I take a few? You still want me to pay? I’m your sister! Don’t you know that blood is thicker than water?!”“Blood might be thicker than water, but business is business. Anyone who buys flowers from me has to pay, including you. Besides, you’ve never treated me like an older sister. You always bring up how we’re sisters when you want to take advantage of me, but that won’t work here. My roses are freshly transported, and since you’re my sister, I’ll let you have them for twenty bucks each. You took about five stems, so just give me a hundred. I won’t rip you off.”Carrie’s expression changed in an instant. “Camryn, why don’t you just rob a bank? You’re charging twenty bucks each? You’re just a thief! Here! I don’t want them! I’d rather
“If Mom said she would create an opportunity for you to get with the king, would you really believe her? It’s just talk—nothing actually happened.” Trenton could not resist poking Carrie’s forehead a few times. “Carrie, can you please come back to earth? In your current state, forget about finding a great guy like Callum—even a regular, decent guy would be turned off by you.”Carrie swatted away her brother’s fingers, irritated and embarrassed. “Am I really that bad? I’m young, beautiful, have a great figure, and a dignified heiress. If the monarchy still existed, I could marry the king and be his queen without a problem.”“Carrie, you have sky-high ambitions, but be careful, don’t fly too close to the sun and end up like Icarus.”As soon as he said that, Trenton was met with a smack from his sister.“Is there a brother who curses his own sister like that? What do you mean by that? I’m destined to have the princess life. I’ll be fine.”However, deep down, she was still worried bec
Camryn was right—he was just too soft-hearted. If he were as ruthless as her, Carrie would have found a job long ago after running out of money.To encourage Carrie to become independent, Trenton decided that after Christmas, he would stop giving her living expenses. He would also tell their parents during his visit to prison that Carrie was truly hopeless.“Trenton, you keep siding with her, and one day you'll regret it. She’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing who has deceived who knows how many people. Do you really think she cares about you? She just wants to win your complete trust to take everything that belongs to you for herself. By driving us out of our home, she’s not only seeking revenge on Mom and Dad but also on us—especially you. She’s just pretending to be nice to you to sow discord between us siblings.”“Carrie!” Trenton said seriously, “Don’t talk about Camryn like that. She’s not that kind of person. I believe in her, one hundred percent.”Carrie was so furious she wanted
“Alright, alright, I can't win with the two of you against one,” Carrie sulked. “Give me money to spend. I'm out of money.”She reached out her hand toward Camryn, wanting her to give her money. Camryn slapped her hand away. “Even Trenton knows to take advantage of the winter break to find a part-time job and earn some pocket money. You’re perfectly capable, yet you don’t look for a job.“To put it bluntly, if you’ve gone to sweep the streets, you'd still have a source of income. I have money, but I won’t give it to you. Don’t think that just because we’re sisters—estranged, too, at that—I have an obligation to support my adult sister. I’ve said it before: if you want money to spend, earn it yourself.” With that, Camryn walked away to tend to her plants.As Christmas approached, the flower market was bustling. Every day, many people came to buy flowers, and all her employees were out delivering flowers to clients. Sometimes, when it got too busy, she even had to ask her two bodyguar