“You’re here too, Zachary.” Seeing that her brother-in-law was around, Liberty smiled at Zachary before picking up her son. Liberty smooched her son’s cheeks a few times until the little man was tickled pink. “Liberty,” Zachary greeted his sister-in-law.“Huh? Where did these cats and a dog come from? They’re so cute!” Liberty noticed the new members in the shop after kissing her son. “Zachary gave them to me. Liberty, did you find a job?” It had been quite some time since Serenity saw Liberty so elated as she did when she came in. Liberty first praised the pets Zachary bought before answering her sister, “I got a job. It was unexpected. I didn’t think I’d bump into someone I know. Seren, do you know where I’ll be working?“It’s Lewis & Co.” Serenity did not pay much attention to the major corporations in town. She only recognized York Corporation, the most well-known company in the city because her best friend would not stop talking about the heir. She became more famili
Zachary turned his head back and looked at Serenity who was focused on carrying two dishes. Zachary quickly glanced at the food. It was a plate of greens and another plate of seafood. This was the seafood Elisa gave Serenity. He took large strides over and grabbed the plates from Serenity’s hands. “Since I’m here, I’ll take the dishes out. You won’t have to travel back and forth.” “Thank you, Mr. York.” Instead of leaving, Zachary stopped in his tracks and looked back at her. “What’s the matter?” Serenity picked up another two dishes after Zachary took over the first two. With his dark eyes staring straight at her, Serenity was puzzled and lowered her gaze to her clothes to see if they were stained. “Can you… not call me Mr. York?” Zachary voiced his displeasure. It was best to come clean with Serenity about his thoughts as Serenity was in no mood nor did she have the time to guess what was on his mind. She abided by the agreement. “What should I call you then?”
With Zachary putting it out there, Liberty did not argue and helped her son put on the disposable gloves. After lunch, Zachary helped his wife to clear the dirty dishes and brought them to the kitchen to wash. Liberty could not stop singing praises of her brother-in-law in her sister’s presence. Liberty urged Serenity to be nice to Zachary. She was utterly afraid that her failed marriage would discourage her sister from believing marriages could work. Hank was a cheating b*stard, but that did not mean all men were the same. Good husbands still existed in the world. Liberty was not lucky enough to meet the right guy. Serenity replied helplessly, “Got it, Liberty. You don’t have to constantly put in the good word for him. I’m going to help him with the dishes.” She then slipped into the kitchen before her sister could start nagging about Zachary’s greatness again. Liberty told her to treat Zachary right as if she had been bullying and torturing him. Jasmine secretly l
Zachary sat outside for a while before getting ready to go back to work. Serenity came out of the kitchen after washing the dishes. Seeing that he needed to go, Serenity walked with him to his car. Keeping to himself, Zachary grabbed the envelope from his car and turned around to hand it to Serenity. He said in a husky voice, “It’s all in here.” Serenity took the evidence of Hank’s infidelity, intending to thank him once more. Looking into his dark and profound eyes, Serenity looked around and gave up on the thought when she saw people around them. “Watch out on the road. Send me a text message when you’re at the office, so I know you got there safely.” Zachary pressed his lips together before acknowledging gruffly that he heard her. After getting into the car, he gave her a lingering look and drove off. Serenity stood there and watched as his car accelerated away while feeling something had changed between them It felt a bit like love. Perhaps she should not hide in he
Liberty bit her lips, refusing to let herself shed another tear. She had cried for Hank. Liberty did not want to waste any more tears on him. Her tears would not gain her his affection in return, so why should she cry her eyes out? “I’m okay.” Liberty inserted the documents back into the envelope while putting on a brave face and saying, “I’m so over it. It’s not like I’m only finding out now that he’s cheating on me.“Seren.” Liberty handed the envelope to her sister. “Keep the evidence for me. Hank might try to transfer away the assets and whatnot if he finds this at home. It won’t be good for me.” “Okay.” Serenity grabbed the envelope. Liberty uttered calmly, “I’ll pretend I don’t know anything and bring up divorce when I hold down the job as you said. I’ll fight for what’s mine. No way am I going to let them have it!” While she might have stopped working after getting married, she had sacrificed a lot for the family. Hank’s income was the couple’s joint asset a
“My sister doesn’t owe you. Why should my sister fork out the money to ease your mom and sister’s craving for seafood? Hank, I might not have worked and contributed financially to the family in the three-odd years we have been married, I have sacrificed a lot for the family. Without me behind you, do you think you’d find success in your career without any worries?“I won’t buy the seafood if you don’t give me the money. Don’t forget to pay for the labor cost too. You said it yourself. We’re going halves. I have no obligation to cook for your mom and sister, but if you insist, you should pay for the manual labor. “Since we’ve been married for three years, I’ll only charge you two hundred bucks for it.” Hank yelled on the phone. “All you know is spend money and eat. You'll eat yourself to death! What did you do for the family? I have seen no sacrifice on your part. I got to where I am today because of my hard work. Don’t try to take credit for it.“What do you mean labor cost? Isn’
Chelsea hung up the phone in fury, unable to get Liberty to come home now despite rushing the latter twice. Chelsea said to her mother, “Mom, Liberty is at her sister’s shop. She said something about Sonny being asleep and will only head home when Sonny’s awake. She told us to collect the keys from her.” Furrowing her brows, Mrs. Brown replied peevishly, “You can carry Sonny home if he’s asleep. Serenity owns a car. She can drive them home, and it won’t take up a lot of her time.” Mrs. Brown believed her daughter-in-law was deliberately making them wait at the door. “She must be doing it on purpose. She’s making us wait here for her.” Chelsea shared the same sentiment about her sister-in-law. “Mom, you’ve forgotten to bring your keys before, and Liberty was not home either. She would rush home to unlock the door whenever we called her. She never left us waiting for a long time, unlike now. Mom, I think Liberty has changed since her fight with Hank.”Mrs. Brown replied, “Yeah
Chelsea had her parents’ help to look after the children and do the school run while Liberty had to become a full-time housewife without any help. Liberty’s dependency on Hank’s income gave the Browns an excuse to put the screws on her. Mrs. Brown and Chelsea waited for a while before Liberty returned with Sonny. Serenity emerged behind the mother and son. Serenity was carrying a bag of seafood bought from the market. Mrs. Brown and Chelsea wanted to have a go at Liberty when she arrived, but the sight of Serenity at the back made them hold their tongues. After the domestic violence incident, Mrs. Brown and Chelsea went to look for Serenity but had to flee from Serenity’s harsh tirade. Since then, they were haunted by Serenity’s presence. “Sonny.” Mrs. Brown quickly put on a smiling face as she went forth to pick Sonny up from his stroller. “Oh, Sonny. I miss you so much.” Holding her grandson up, Mrs. Brown planted kisses on both sides of his cheeks. “Gwanma.” Sonn
“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