Liberty looked at Duncan. Duncan knew that she was overthinking it again. The woman was rather distrustful of him. He explained, “My point is, don’t leave your son home alone while you come down to take the things if there’s no one else in the house. It’s not safe.” Her son looked to be around two or three years old. Kids that age tended to be active and cheeky, intrigued to touch and play with anything and everything. There was no turning back if something happened to the kid for fooling around with something dangerous. “Thank you for your advice, Mr. Lewis. I’ll head upstairs now.” Liberty carried the packs of diapers and thanked Duncan before hurrying back upstairs. She thought to herself that Duncan might not look the part of a nice guy since he was big, strong, and had a terrifying scar on his face, but he was a considerate and attentive man. It was a reminder never to judge a book by its cover. Duncan waited until Liberty was gone before returning to his car and
Grandma May must have her reasons to take a shine to Serenity. Zachary fell silent for a while before replying, “What’s there to see? She has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth just like everyone else.” “Haha.” Duncan burst out laughing. He got the hint that his best friend had no intentions to let them meet with Serenity. Josh probably had met Serenity and knew her well because Josh was nosy and had an information network to get all the info on her.Duncan left the conversation at that. Knowing that his best friend was busy, he quickly hung up the call. Time passed quickly. It was soon dead into the night. Sitting inside the Rolls Royce, Zachary knitted between his brows as the weariness began to take its effect. He must be in over his head in the last few days for trying to cram three days of work into one. Of course, he was tired. “Sir, should I drive to Regent Residences?” The chauffeur asked. Slumping against the seat, Zachary closed his eyes and took his time
Zachary picked up the maneki-neko once more as his wife said, “I made your maneki-neko bigger than the one I gave Ms. Stone. I put a lot of effort into it. What do you think? Doesn’t it look lifelike?” The mention that his was bigger than Ms. Stone’s made Zachary feel good. However, he did not show it on his face and simply hummed faintly, “Yes.” Serenity grinned. “I’m glad you like them.” She put her car keys on the coffee table and turned around to head to the kitchen. “I’m making pasta for supper. Do you want any?” She then answered on her own before Zachary could reply, “Oh, I forgot. You don’t have the habit of eating supper because it adds pounds.” Zachary thought to himself, ‘… What more can I say? You said it all.’Nevertheless, he was not hungry. Serenity was boiling a pot of pasta in the kitchen. Zachary stood there for a moment before making his way to the kitchen door. Instead of stepping into the kitchen, he stood by the door and watched as Serenity sliced the
Josh was able to figure it was Shawn mainly because the latter attended the business event at the hotel tonight. Shawn might only hold a small position at Lowe Enterprise, but he was the predetermined successor of the company. His title as the heir of the Lowes would put him like a duck to water at the center of flattery and snow jobs at social events. Zachary’s silence was all the answer Josh needed. “How about I deliver the file to you now? Are you staying at Brynfield?” Josh knew that his best friend kept the marriage under wraps and bought a furnished place at Brynfield to put Serenity’s character to the test. “No need for that. Just give it to me tomorrow. It’s late. You should rest. I’m going to wash up and head to bed.” Although Josh had front-row seat to the progress of Zachary and Serenity’s relationship, Zachary was not in the mood to go into detail with Josh about it. Zachary quickly hung up the phone. Josh murmured under his breath, “Can you sleep well tonight?
While feasting on her pasta, Serenity sent a text message to her sister, asking if the latter was asleep. Instead of writing back, Liberty immediately rang Serenity. Since typing took a lot of time, Liberty would rather communicate directly on the phone. “Seren, I’m awake. Did you just return home?” Liberty had a clear idea of her sister’s routine. Back when Serenity was living in Liberty’s place, Serenity was the last to sleep but the first to wake up. Liberty was aware that to appease her husband, Serenity would get up first thing in the morning to prepare breakfast and manage some house chores. Her sister had done so much for the family, and yet Hank kicked up a fuss about Serenity mooching off him. Serenity had, in fact, chipped in on the household expenses… Judging by his cold and empty side of the bed, it did not matter to Liberty anymore. All she cared about was her sister. “Yeah. I’m having supper. Liberty, Shawn said he ran into my brother-in-law with a beau
Wiping away her tears, Liberty got a grip on herself and tried to sound normal. “I figured, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.” Despite having an affair, Hank kept it from Liberty and had not brought up a divorce. If her guess was right, it was because of Sonny. Sonny was young and could not deal with separation anxiety. Liberty’s parents-in-law were helping Chelsea to look after her kids and cook while Hank only had eyes for his family. Even Hank put his sister as his priority over her. He did not think there was anything wrong with his parents assisting only his sister. Once they were divorced, the Browns would certainly fight for Sonny’s custody. However, Hank would feel sorry to put the burden of child-raising on his parents unless Sonny was already in kindergarten. Hank was probably waiting for Sonny to start attending kindergarten before asking for a divorce. The only thing he could do now was to go passive-aggressive on her. “Liberty, you might want to keep
Liberty cried for a long time and only put away the tears when Hank came home. She pretended to be asleep, but her ears were pricked up for the noise outside. Ever since the domestic abuse, the couple had slept in separate rooms. Hank must be scared Liberty might cut him up in the middle of his sleep. The bedroom door was pushed open, but Hank did not enter. Instead, he looked in from the door. Seeing that his wife and child were asleep, he closed the door and went to the bedroom next door. With the door shut, he phoned Jessica. “Mr. Brown.” “We’re not in the office. Call me Hank.” Hank spoke in a hushed tone so his wife could not hear him from the next room. “Are you home, Hank? I was so worried about you. You drove home even though you had a lot to drink. I was worried sick. Don’t do that again. It’s dangerous to drink and drive. You’ll be in trouble if the traffic officer catches you driving under the influence.” Jessica expressed her concern for Hank over the phone
“You had a lot to drink. You reek of alcohol. Go and shower.” Disgusted by the stench, Liberty kicked Hank. Now that she had found out that he was cheating on her, Liberty was going to take her sister’s advice and refrain from spooking him. She would carry on with life like nothing ever happened while collecting evidence of his infidelity behind the scenes, so he could not talk his way out of it.As for whether Hank would do something to her, Liberty believed that he was not that cruel. Besides, the police could easily crack a murder case with today’s technology. His misdeed would not go undetected if he ever lay his hands on her. He would not throw away his future in exchange for her life. Amid all his swearing, Hank still went to take a shower. After coming out of the bathroom, Hank lay down next to his son again, but in less than two minutes, he sat up and crawled near his son’s feet to slither his hand onto Liberty’s thigh. He made his intention abundantly clear. Altho
“He will get better soon now that he’s taken the medicine. Don’t worry too much. When you're taking care of him, make sure you wear a mask so you don’t catch it from him. You’re pregnant, and if you catch a cold, it’ll be more troublesome.” Liberty was relieved, but she then reminded Serenity to take extra care of herself, worried that her son’s cold might spread to her.Pregnant women had limited options for medication, and many pregnant women endured mild colds without taking medicine out of caution.“I'm fine, really,” Serenity reassured her.“When Sonny is sick, he's especially vulnerable and relies on me. If I don't take care of him, I won’t feel at ease, and neither will he.”Zachary was busier than she was, so Serenity did not want to trouble him with such minor matters.“Don’t you worry, Liberty. Once Sonny is better, I'll send you a message. Even if Sonny begs me, I won’t let him eat anything too greasy from now on, to avoid aggravating his condition.”“Children are bo
Sonny weakly protested, “The medicine will be really bitter.”“Yes, but good medicine tastes bitter because it helps cure the illness,” Serenity comforted him.Under her coaxing, Sonny took the medicine, drank a glass of water, and went to the bathroom. He came back and fell into a deep sleep in his aunt's arms.Serenity wanted to carry him upstairs.“Let me carry him—you’re pregnant,” Lilian said considerately.Sam immediately interjected, “Dr. Carden, Missus, allow me to carry Mr. Sonny upstairs.”Dr. Carden was a distinguished guest of the family. How could he allow her to carry Sonny upstairs? Sam stepped forward and carefully took Sonny from Serenity's arms before carrying him back to his room.Serenity followed them upstairs.Lilian did not follow.To her, Sonny's common cold was not serious. She only personally took care of him because she quite liked Sonny.Serenity sat down on the edge of the bed and told Sam, “I can’t do it myself right now, so please make sure to t
After New Year’s celebration, Liberty left for Jensburg and told the teachers that if anything happened to Sonny, they should contact Serenity, which explained the teacher's call coming through to Serenity.“I’ll go pick him up right away. Thank you, Ms. Penny.”Sonny’s teacher Ms. Penny replied, "Alright, please come and take him to see a doctor. Recently, a lot of kids have been catching colds."After hanging up, Serenity said, “Jas, I can't stay here and chat with you. I need to go fetch Sonny from preschool. He's got a fever. Lately, he keeps kicking his blanket off at night.” Though she and Zachary often helped cover Sonny back up, they could not always catch it every time he kicked off the blanket, so he had probably caught a cold.“The temperature has been rising these days, so it's a bit hot sometimes. Look, I don’t even need to wear a coat now.” The temperature was around 68°F during the day. When the sun was out, it was really warm, and there was no need for a coat.
Serenity agreed empathetically, “You can offend anyone, but don't ever offend Nana. Luckily, she's my nana.”Out of all her in-laws, Grandma May was Serenity’s favorite because the old lady treated her the best. Whenever she had conflicts with Zachary, Grandma May would always stand by her side first. Only when she was ready to listen would Grandma May try to reason with her and speak up for Zachary. Even though Grandma May was Zachary’s grandmother, she treated Serenity like her own granddaughter; more so than Serenity's biological grandmother.“Are you going to help Dylan?” Jasmine asked.“How? He’s wooing his future wife. No one can help with that,” Serenity replied. “Zachary never meddles in his brothers' private matters. As long as they don’t ask him for help, he doesn’t care about anything.”In Zachary's words, he only wanted to take care of her. In his world, she was his priority.“True. Let’s just watch for now, unless Dylan comes to you asking you to speak well of him
“Now he's suddenly trying to pursue Imogen again? Did something happen to him? Or was it that his beloved turned him down, and then when he saw everyone else all coupled up, plus Grandma May’s pressuring him to get married, he decided to try to win Imogen back?“Who does he think Imogen is? Does he think he can just have her when he wants to, and throw her aside when he doesn't?”Even though Dylan was Serenity's cousin-in-law, Jasmine could not bring herself to take his side. Back then, when Imogen followed him from Huntington to Wiltspoon and even asked Serenity for help, all she ended up getting was an apology from Dylan that he could never love her. He even mentioned that he was in love with someone else, a woman he called Fox. How could a vixen be any good? Was she better than Imogen?Jasmine thought Dylan was out of his mind, but that was someone else's business. She was just a bystander. Even Serenity did not interfere much since she was only a cousin-in-law. After all,
Without a second thought, Leticia replied to her daughter.[Of course you should. As long as you can win that boy over, you'll be happy in the future. I’ve met so many young men, but I still think he’s the most suitable for you.]Despite her earlier anger, Leticia still hoped her daughter could win Dylan’s heart. She had always regarded him as a potential son-in-law, after all.Imogen smiled and left it at that. She had already made up her mind.In truth, when Dylan rejected her, she was not all that upset because the person he loved was still her. It was just that she had kept Dylan in the dark. One could say that he had been made to dance in her palm.However, when he realized that he could not love Imogen, he was honest with her and decisively left without bothering her further, not wanting her to fall even deeper when the situation was hopeless. In this aspect, she appreciated him.Now that she knew she was the one Dylan’s grandmother had chosen for him, Imogen was curious ab
When Dylan overheard Imogen’s phone conversation with Leticia, he realized that Leticia was trying to match her with someone named Kade. Now, he had a rival.Even though he was being asked to leave, Dylan did not get angry, nor did he shamelessly insist on staying. He stood up and said, “I’m sorry for disturbing you, Ms. Doyle. I know you’re Imogen Doyle. I also know what I’m doing, and I won’t make the same mistake again.“Ms. Doyle, you were on the nose earlier. Yes, I do want to pursue you again. Starting today, I will try to win your heart once more. No matter what your attitude is toward me, I’ll accept it.”The first time, she had offered her heart, but he did not accept it. That was his fault.This time, it was his turn to offer his heart. If it took more time to win her over, he was willing to be patient.“My nana isn’t forcing me.” He continued, “When it came to our generation, she only pushed Zachary to marry Serenity.”Zachary had been a special case. For the rest of
Imogen felt a surge of satisfaction when she saw Dylan was rendered speechless by what she said. She deliberately leaned closer to him, her beautiful face coming right up to his, and their gazes met.They were so close that Dylan could smell a faint, delicate fragrance on her. It was a little familiar, but it was not the same as Chameleon Fox’s scent, because she never used fragrance when she appeared—probably to avoid being recognized by scent.It was the scent he smelled on Imogen back when he was initially pursuing her—it was Sugar’s. Imogen smelled the same as Sugar, a scent he remembered when he was in close proximity to Sugar.Imogen was Sugar.Dylan was now sure of this, but he did not bring it up. Even if he asked, Imogen would not admit it anyway.Besides, he no longer needed her to confirm it. As Zachary had said, he only needed to trust his nana; she would not mislead him when it came to marriage. His nana knew very well that he loved Chameleon Fox, and yet still aske
Unexpectedly, Kade had to return to the country due to a work transfer and would be staying in Huntington long-term.Leticia’s best friend Jade immediately called her again to bring up the idea of a marriage match. Leticia then thought about it and decided to arrange for her daughter to fetch him from the airport.“Mrs. Doyle, the person Imogen likes is me, so please stop trying to match her with someone else.” Dylan boldly interjected.Imogen glanced at him but did not say anything.On the other side of the line, Leticia asked Imogen when she heard Dylan’s voice, “Jen, has that York scoundrel gone to look for you again? He came by once a few days ago, but you weren’t home. We didn’t even let him past the gate.“He didn’t show up again after that, so we thought he left, but he actually went to your office to look for you. Jen, what does he mean by this? Is he trying to pursue you once more? If that’s really the case, all the more you have to give Kade a chance—to make Dylan York