Liberty was not at the market getting groceries. She had been looking for a job during the day and making a detour to the market while on her way home. The produce at the market tended to be cheaper at night, so she could save a bit of money this way. Although Liberty had not gotten a job and could not rely on her husband, she had not maxed out her resources. It was a good thing Liberty took her sister’s advice to save up some money back then. Her sister was against Liberty quitting her job and getting ready for pregnancy after getting married. Her sister said that women should have their own income instead of relying completely on men no matter before or after marriage. All was good if the husband was good to the wife. Once the husband fell out of love and started cheating, the wife, who was without a job or an income, would be in an unfavorable position and be sunk into oblivion. Liberty had been foolish. She trusted her relationship with Hank was solid and that Hank woul
Serenity had just gotten downstairs when she heard her man’s cries. The bodyguards, who were pretending to be strolling nearby, swiftly turned their backs against Serenity as if they did not see her when the missus emerged downstairs. They carried on with their leisure walks. It did not take long before Mr. Zachary was calling out to the missus. Stopping in her tracks, Serenity turned around and looked at Zachary. With the car keys in hand, Zachary said to Serenity, “I’ll come along.” His sister-in-law bravely fought back when Hank abused her. Liberty was a spitfire. She was not the type to back down and endure the suffering. How could Liberty tolerate her husband’s cheating? The couple might engage in another physical altercation. Zachary knew that Hank could not hurt Serenity since his wife practiced self-defense. Nevertheless, she needed a man by her side as Hank or the Browns would not think twice before acting cocky. He was her husband and her supporter. Zach
Serenity was about to say that her sister would never forgive infidelity but hummed a response on second thought. The couple did not exchange another word during the journey. Zachary did not do well at small talks while Serenity was preoccupied with her sister’s marriage to engage in conversation. It was pin-drop silence in the car. Zachary did not even put the music on. Tilting her head, Serenity looked at the scenery outside the window. She waited until they were reaching Bright Boulevard before giving her sister a call. Serenity was relieved that her sister picked up the call. “Liberty, are you and Sonny up? I made quite a lot of sandwiches, so I brought you and Sonny some.” Liberty stopped walking and stared at her son in the stroller. She said, “Sonny isn’t awake yet. Seren, I’m not at home. I took Sonny out for a stroll and somehow ended up near your bookshop. I’ll just head to your shop instead of going home.” “Oh, I see. Where are you now? Can you drop me a pin?
What should Liberty do if she failed to get custody of Sonny following the divorce? The Browns were a nasty piece of work, in the same class as Serenity’s relatives. Serenity dared not imagine Sonny’s life if he were to stay with the Brown family. The Hunt sisters had been caring for Sonny since the day he was born. Serenity loved her nephew like her own. Her heart sank at the thought that the custody of her nephew would be given to the Browns. “Liberty, if we do get there, we must fight for Sonny’s custody. Sonny will suffer and be bullied in their hands,” Serenity said softly. Biting her lip, Liberty replied in a hushed voice, “I’ll do everything I can to secure full custody.” While behind the wheel, Zachary chimed in. “You can go on with the divorce proceedings and fight for custody after you find a job. Otherwise, it’ll be easy to lose the custody battle.” Although Liberty was Sonny’s primary carer and the child was closer to his mother than his father, Liberty had n
“Sonny didn’t finish the sandwiches, so I ate his leftovers.” Liberty did not have much of an appetite. She ate after Sonny and finished the sandwiches in the lunch box. Neither hungry nor full, Liberty simply did not feel like eating. Jasmine already had her breakfast. Serenity helped herself to the plate of pasta. She slurped down her pasta and finished the whole plate in minutes. While she cleared away her dirty dishes and cleaned them in the kitchen, Jasmine came in and whispered, “Seren, did you notice your sister’s swollen eyes? Has she been crying?” Serenity quietly washed the dishes. A while later, she spoke softly, “Shawn was at a business dinner last night and saw my brother-in-law together with another woman. They were rather intimate at the event. It would be hard to believe that there’s nothing going on between them. Shawn only remembered who he was when he got home last night and told me about it. I filled my sister in on the whole thing.” “Huh?” Jasmine
“Seren, starting tomorrow, you can pick Sonny up while I jog to your shop. I want to lose weight!” Liberty was not getting into shape to save her marriage. It was for her own self-confidence.“Okay, ” Serenity replied. She had told her sister to work out before it turned into a health issue. “Seren.” Liberty suddenly put her arms around her sister and cried. In fact, she bawled out loudly. All the years she devoted to the relationship had come to this. Liberty would be lying to say it was not eating her up inside. However, she put on a brave face so her son did not see her cry. Holding her sister tightly, Serenity could not stop the tears in her eyes too. It was like fifteen years ago when she first heard her parents’ passing in an accident. Liberty went to fetch her from school to bring her home. Serenity had only walked out of the school gate when her sister held her and burst into tears. Serenity had no idea what was going on then. Her sister had only said that thei
Liberty uttered gratefully, “Seren, Zachary is a good man. You’re right about him. He’s always by your side whenever it gets tough for us. He spared no resources and effort to help us. Be a good wife to him.” Serenity replied, “I will, Liberty.” Her sister would be upset if Serenity were to tell her that her marriage with Zachary was only for six months. They were only a married couple by name. Serenity should keep it from her sister for now. “Don’t lose faith in Zachary because of my marriage. Although Zachary doesn’t talk much, he prefers action over words.” “I won’t.” Liberty was worried that her marriage might have a bad influence on her sister’s mindset and marriage. The way Liberty saw it, Zachary was a great man. He was good to her sister. Well, no one would know whether it would change in the future. Hank was good to her in the past too. Zachary got to the office and was about to get the secretary to summon Josh over when Josh knocked and entered the room.
Zachary was aware that Liberty had been job hunting for a while, but she got nothing so far. It was difficult as Liberty wanted her old job back. This was the reason she had not been able to find a job till this day. Now that she had found out Hank was cheating on her, Liberty would not be fussy with work. Zachary believed she would soon find a job. “This is easy. You could just give her a job.” “Serenity had asked me whether our company is hiring a finance director, but even the finance department is at full workforce at the moment. Besides, it’s not the best idea to hire her sister unless I want to blow my cover. I didn’t help her with that and left Liberty to find a job herself.” Zachary did not feel guilty for not assigning Liberty a post in his company.He was a boss with principles who valued talent. Liberty took a three-year-long career break, so she was rusty in the work operation. It was not easy to get into York Corporation, to begin with. Since Liberty was start
“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