After a moment of silence, Liberty said, “Zachary gave a villa to us as a present. It’s a huge and pretty house, like the one Aunt Ser is living in now. I haven’t accepted it until now.“I’m working hard to earn more money to pay for your education and improve your living conditions. I want to become someone Serenity can rely on too. I feel like I’ll burden her if I keep accepting Zachary’s kindness.“People will think that we’re taking advantage of the Yorks just because Serenity has married into a wealthy family. If I work hard to earn money, I believe we can move into a villa with our abilities.“Dunc and Uncle Jul have a house in that neighborhood too. If we accept Serenity’s offer and move there, it’ll definitely be much safer than our current place. I’m also in a dilemma about whether to accept that house.“Your aunt will be worried about our safety if we tell her about the man we met earlier. Let’s not let her know, okay? She’ll get shocked if anything were to happen. She ha
It did not take long for Zachary to pour a glass of water for Liberty. He handed the glass to her. “Liberty, Seren and I will be having the wedding ahead of schedule. Please accept the villa at The Oasis. It’s a little something from me and Seren.” The Oasis would be a second home to Serenity because that would be where Liberty lived. Liberty took the glass and replied with a smile, “That's what I wanted to talk to you about today, Zachary.” Zachary was ecstatic. He returned to his desk and took out a bunch of keys from one of the drawers. He then approached Liberty and put the keys in front of her. “Liberty, I have kept the keys to the house here for you, available whenever you feel comfortable accepting the villa.”Liberty took a sip and glanced at the keys, feeling touched by his thoughtful gesture. Her sister and brother-in-law always had her best interest in mind. Despite being an heir to a wealthy family, Zachary never treated Liberty with disdain. In fact, he treate
Liberty understood that Zachary needed time to think the matter through. Hence, she smiled and said, “Alright. Talk to Seren when you get home. Go ahead with your work. I’m going to check on the restaurant.” “You’re leaving so soon?” “I got to get going. You have a lot of work, and time is tight. I don’t want to take up too much of your time.” Since Serenity was pregnant, Zachary canceled their honeymoon trip. However, he did not withdraw his marriage leave. Instead, he planned to spend some quality time with his beloved wife for the whole month. They could take a drive around Wiltspoon or have walks. Wiltspoon was a huge city. They had not explored every nook and cranny of the city yet. Zachary had been busy, taking extra shifts and sorting out the important stuff so he could take his marriage leave in peace. “I’ll walk you out.” Zachary did not insist that Liberty stay. He escorted her out of his office and walked her to the elevator. Once Liberty was in the elevator, h
“Don’t worry, Boss. We’ll hold the fort.” The diner was relatively empty at this hour. Barely any customers came in after ten for breakfast but the early morning rush could be quite busy.Of course, the servers hoped the business did well as their livelihoods depended on it. All You Can Eat was located near Lewis & Co, a commercial space Liberty rented from Duncan.Mrs. Lewis was strongly against Duncan and Liberty being together when Duncan first confessed his feelings to Liberty. Liberty once thought about moving the diner elsewhere to avoid Duncan. In the end, Liberty decided to take the bull by the horns. Liberty drove to Lewis & Co., reaching the office building in mere minutes. The security personnel of Lewis & Co. immediately opened the gate for Liberty and watched with a smile as she drove past the gate into the compound. The security guard then shut the gate and returned to his post to say to his colleague, "Liberty just joined the company when I started working
Liberty turned up right outside Duncan’s office. She knocked on the door and only entered the room once given permission. Duncan sat behind his desk while his wheelchair was parked to the side. If he needed to leave the office, Duncan could leverage the table to transfer himself to his wheelchair.His two personal bodyguards were nowhere to be found. They were probably on standby in the lobby. Duncan was back in the office to take care of business, so his bodyguards could not possibly stay by his side all the time. He had his secretary when he needed help in the office. Hearing the familiar footsteps, Duncan lifted his head and saw Liberty. He stood up with the support of the table and tried to make his way around. Liberty immediately stopped him. “Sit there. Don’t move. I don’t want you to fall.” Duncan said with a grin, “Alright. I'll stay put. My legs aren't quite cooperating yet.”Nevertheless, Duncan's recovery was progressing, and he was doing much better than whe
Liberty said, “The novelty has worn off, I guess. He has to wake up early for preschool every day and has homework after school too. He doesn’t have time to go to his aunt’s place for some fun.” “You can't cram too much into Sonny's schedule. He already has self-defense classes on weekends. Three-year-olds learn through play. We want to make sure he has a happy childhood. Putting too much pressure on him to study will take the joy out of it.”“I don’t think I’m pushing him too hard. He only has to complete a page of homework every day. I signed him up for self-defense classes before preschool started. My hope is that he plays and enjoys his childhood years. I didn’t sign him up for other classes unless he’s interested to learn.”Duncan said with a smile, “You know, kids. They can’t make up their minds about preschool. Give it time, and he’ll get used to it and stop talking about not attending.” Liberty remembered how the young Elisa refused to go to school so much that her parent
Duncan had his own selfish reason too. He wanted to bond with Sonny like father and son, and be a better father than Hank had been, even though he was already ahead of him. He wanted all Wiltspoonians to know how fond he was of Sonny. Duncan wanted to be Sonny’s stepfather. If his dream came true, he would be the father that Sonny deserved.In fact, Liberty was aware of Duncan’s little sneaky plan. Still, she did not stop him. Liberty responded, “You can pick Sonny up from preschool later if you don’t mind Sonny bugging you.” While enjoying breakfast, Duncan said, “I will never mind. Sonny might have his moments, but he’s a sensible kid. He plays with himself when the adults are at work.” Three-year-olds were curious and emotional creatures, so it was understandable that they would act up sometimes. They were still learning how to control their emotions and express their curiosity in a constructive way.Sometimes, Duncan would receive silly and strange questions from Sonny that
“Sonny’s fine, but I don’t think it’s safe to live there anymore. Don’t be mad. The drunk man didn’t do anything to me,” Liberty comforted Duncan. Duncan tensed his facial muscles. “He has targeted you.” Many men would have their eyes on Liberty since she was young, single, and beautiful. Though most people were interested in Liberty, they would back off knowing that Duncan was courting her. Only the unsuspecting others, like the drunk man, would go after Liberty. Liberty was his! Duncan had waited so long for Liberty to accept him. The last thing he wanted was for somebody to step in and take her away from him. “You should move, Liberty. You should do it right now. I’ll contact a moving company for you,” Duncan uttered. If he had his way, Liberty would move out of East Hill Apartments right away. “I told Zachary that I will buy the property off his hands, but I can’t pay in full. I don’t have a lot of available funds since I need some operating funds for my two outlets.
“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
Trenton was relieved that Dalton was indebted to Camryn. That was why Dalton had been loyal to Newman Enterprise.If Newman Enterprise did not fall into Camryn’s hands, there was no doubt that Dalton would leave the company. If that happened, the company was doomed.When his parents went to prison, he was merely 18, and Carrie only knew how to spend money. Not only that, their relatives were hungry to get a share of the Newman family’s assets. He and Carrie could not have protected their family’s wealth alone.After Camryn regained her sight, she still could not strain her eyes for long hours. Therefore, Dalton remained in charge of the company.Luckily, they had Callum as well. Even if anything were to happen, Callum would not leave Newman Enterprise to fall because many of the Newman family’s assets belonged to Camryn.He would not let Camryn lose anything.“You’ve been brainwashed by Dalton after working with him. Our dad treated him well and trusted him, yet Dalton betrayed
Camryn said, “She’s just using her lack of money as an excuse to start a fight with me.“Do you really think she has no money?”Carrie had somehow become Mrs. Longbottom yet she was still hiding her identity. Camryn had not understood the entire situation yet.Nevertheless, she was certain that Carrie did not need money.After she spoke, a familiar car arrived.It was the car Carrie had always used in the past.When she returned to the Newman family’s villa after getting out of prison, she only drove that car. She could not take other cars. The cars were still parked in the garage. “Come out, Camryn.”Carrie had gotten out of the car and started shouting for Camryn.When the York family’s bodyguards saw her, they simply glanced at her and did not stop her from entering the store. They knew Camryn had always been lenient with her younger sister.Since Camryn did not give any orders to stop Carrie from entering, the bodyguards simply kept an eye on Carrie to ensure that sh
“I want to go to Spring Blossoms as Carrie,” she told the bodyguard who was driving. “Your sister’s people are keeping an eye on your apartment. She’ll get suspicious again if you head over in your outfit. Everything Mr. Longbottom arranged will go to waste,” the bodyguard reminded her.Carrie thought it over. “Okay. Let’s head home first. I’ll change my clothes and remove my makeup before heading over.”She would also check if her stand-in had damaged any of her stuff.If she did, Carrie would tell the stand-in to compensate her.The bodyguard remained silent.Once they arrived at Longbottom Villa, Carrie took off her hyper-realistic mask and removed her makeup. After changing her clothes, she returned to being Carrie and went out with her bag.Her two bodyguards did not stop her from leaving.She could do anything as long as it would not rouse Camryn and other people’s suspicions.Besides, Carrie had just gotten scolded by their boss on the phone. Although Mr. Longbottom
Mr. Longbottom thought he was not so inferior to men younger than him.More accurately, he was far superior. He had status, money, and power.Which of the younger men could be on par with him unless they came from a wealthy family?Many sons of wealthy families could not compete with him.“I can’t go over because I’m busy these days. But I do miss you too.“It’s more difficult because of the festive season. There are many events, and I have to accompany my family. My wife doesn't care about me, but her request is that I be with her during the holidays because we have to meet our friends and families. Do you understand?”Mr. Longbottom had a wife and children. Carrie knew about it. He had never hid that fact.Carrie did not know if he was close to his wife. Although he said they no longer had feelings for each other, Carrie dared not believe him because he had never let other women take his wife’s place.He also never allowed other women to become pregnant with his children.Mr
Carrie thought she had matured since she could figure out that much. In the past, she would not have understood a thing. Love was about accepting everything about someone. Most people could tolerate their partner’s shortcomings when they were deeply in love. However, without love, even a person’s strength would seem like a fault. Carrie smiled. “Mr. York is a workaholic. Serenity must’ve gotten the habit from him and turned into one herself. I can’t believe she’s working so hard even though she’s pregnant.”“She’s still in the early stages of pregnancy. Going to work is fine.”“Do you need anything else, Mrs. Longbottom?” Jasmine asked.“No. I shall take my leave now, Mrs. Bucham.”Jasmine was on guard and unwilling to reveal much about Serenity. Therefore, it would be better for Carrie to leave. She was not close to Serenity and her friends yet. “Bye, Mrs. Longbottom.”Jasmine saw Carrie out and watched as she got into her car.Once Carrie got far enough from the booksto
Mr. Longbottom had been surprised by her question. He told her coldly that she should refrain from asking unnecessary questions.One who knew too much would not live long. Carrie got intimidated and dared not ask another question. Although she got more curious, she did not try to gather more information for fear Mr. Longbottom would choke her again if he found out. “Nothing. I just asked because I haven’t seen her in a while.”Of course, Carrie could not reveal that she was looking for Serenity. Jasmine would get suspicious if she did. No one around Serenity was a fool. “Seren is busy with work. I rarely see her these days,” Jasmine said.Carrie knew it was a lie. She was aware that Serenity's closest friends did not trust her yet. It made her feel defeated. It had been months since Mr. Longbottom found her and asked her to approach Serenity. Despite her efforts, she still had not obtained Serenity’s trust, let alone become her friend.However, Jasmine and Serenity go