When Austin returned to his room, one of the bodyguards was showering while the other was watching the television. He gave them a simple greeting and entered his room right away. Since he did not have to follow Isabella around after arriving in Clearfield, he had already settled in. He simply had to wait for his turn to use the bathroom. It was already midnight. Austin sent a message to his family group chat: [Are you guys still awake? Come chat with me.]Soon, Zachary replied: [Let’s chat in private instead of this group. Don’t disturb our parents.]He also did not want to disturb Serenity. She was usually asleep by ten at night. Therefore, Austin messaged Zachary directly. He sent a voice message because he knew Zachary disliked typing as it was time-consuming. “You haven’t slept?” Austin asked, concerned. “Did your business dinner end late again?”“Aren’t you awake too? Are you on standby to prepare supper for your lady?”Zachary continued speaking softly, “W
Austin said, “Nana has chosen someone for me. Unlike Dylan, I don’t have someone else I love. Since Isabella will be my wife, it’s only natural that I protect her.“Didn’t Nana choose a picky eater as my wife because I like cooking? We’re a good match because she enjoys eating too. Besides, how can I improve my cooking skills if no one critiques my food?”Zachary chuckled. “You’re right. That was exactly what Nana thought when she selected a picky woman for you. Since Isabella brought you along on her business trip, it means she trusts you. If you take good care of her and let her notice your strengths, it should be easier for you to court her.”“I’m not in charge of anything aside from her meals. There’s no need to rush. We’ve only known each other for a few days. I haven’t even developed feelings for her.”There was no love at first sight for Austin with Isabella. After learning that she was the candidate Nana had selected for him, he unconsciously viewed her as his wife and ac
It rained the next day as well. It was not heavy and more of a drizzle.The temperature in Wiltspoon hit an unprecedented low for the year at 40° Fahrenheit.On that cold winter morning, a few strangers arrived at the Stone family’s doorstep.When the doorbell rang, Gabe the butler could not help but mutter, “Who’s here this early in the morning?”Even the employees at the manor had not started working.Due to the cold and rain, the employees assigned to work in the garden would only start at eight o’clock.Gabe gave them a day off yesterday because the rain was too heavy. He thought it was Remy who lived next door that was pressing on the doorbell. Remy was the future son-in-law of the Stone family. He often came over before sunrise to have breakfast with Ms. Elisa. When Gabe walked to the gates with an umbrella in hand, he saw five elderly men standing in a row. One of them looked sickly, but the rest looked like transcendent beings. Gabe was shocked and thought he was
“I’m fine.”The man who coughed said softly, “I think I’m exhausted from all the traveling.”“Hey, boy. Open the gates and let us in now. Can’t you see our eldest friend is about to collapse? Why do you care who we are? Do the Stones not know how to treat their guests properly?”The man who said he could demolish the door was loud. He was impatient too.He glared at Gabe and urged him to open the gates. He would have taken the gates down without his companions keeping him in check.“Dan,” one of them scolded him. Dan immediately went silent.“Boy, this man here is the person your missus has been looking for. Don’t worry. We aren’t bad people.“Please open the door and let us have a glass of water. He has a weak body.”The youngest among the five elderly men was the one who checked the sick man’s pulse. He was Dr. Carden’s teacher, the legendary doctor.The legendary doctor had already brought Laurence back to FC Manor and took care of baby Oliver there. Later, he found out
Patrick’s attempts to return and avenge Tiara had been stopped by the legendary doctor and the rest.They said there was no one to be the next matriarch even if his revenge was successful, unless he could find Tiara’s daughters. Thanks to Silver, Patrick finally received information about Tiara’s daughter.After discovering Audrey’s location, Patrick had wanted to rush over to find her. However, he was unable to do so due to his weak constitution.The legendary doctor had spent a lot of time improving his health. Patrick wanted to meet Audrey, the Fisher family's youngest miss back then, as soon as possible due to his old age. He wished to tell her everything he knew and pass on some evidence he had to her.He felt regretful for not being able to avenge Tiara.Therefore, he had to hand over this responsibility to Audrey.From what his friends told him, one of Tiara’s daughters had died in a car accident over ten years ago and she left behind two daughters. Her in-laws were crue
Clive’s son, Elias, was crying. Clive walked around the room with Elias in his arms to calm him.Alice did not even open her eyes. She asked, “Is he hungry? Or did he poop?”“I think he’s hungry. You can continue sleeping, love. I’ll coax him and give him some formula. He’ll be asleep until about nine after drinking the formula.”Alice hummed in agreement. She turned around and went back to sleep.Although they had a nanny, the nanny could only carry Elias when he was asleep. If she tried carrying him when he was awake, he would start crying within minutes.It was because he needed to smell his mother’s scent.Therefore, Alice would look after Elias during most of the day. Luckily, he was a good boy too whenever Audrey and Elisa helped out. Otherwise, Alice would have died from exhaustion.Elisa often praised Elias for knowing how to differentiate family from other people. He never cried when his family members carried him.However, he would break into tears immediately in his
“Dear, who was it?” Alice rolled over when she heard the phone ring and sat up too, leaning toward her crying son to pick him up.“Don’t pick him up, love. If you do, he won’t want to drink the formula I made for him.” Clive hurriedly stopped his wife. “The kiddo’s really fussy. Once he smells you, he’ll refuse to drink his formula.”Alice saw that Clive had already started preparing the formula, so she did not pick their son up. It was fine for him to cry a little.“Gabe called and said a few elderly men came by looking for Mom. Apparently, they’re the ones Mom’s been looking for all this while,” Clive said as he made up a bottle of formula. “I don’t know if it’s true, but I asked Gabe to receive them first. Once I’ve fed Elias, I’ll head downstairs to take a look.” “Is the person Mom’s been looking for that really capable guy who assisted your grandmother back in the day?” Alice knew all about Audrey’s family background and the grudge against the Fisher family. She also knew tha
Elias quickly became full. Clive carefully handed him over to Alice to carry before calling Julian to see if he had any news of that old assistant’s whereabouts.Julian replied a little sheepishly, “We still have nothing even after searching for so long. Mr. Stone, I suspect the person you guys are looking for isn’t among the living anymore.”There were plenty of old people in their seventies or eighties, but old people in their nineties were much rarer. The person Audrey was looking for was almost a hundred years old, which was why Julian thought he might be dead.Very little information could be found on him also because all of this had happened decades ago. This made it very difficult for them to find him. Audrey did not even remember what that person was called anymore. All she remembered was whenever she saw him as a kid, she would call him “uncle”.She did not even know his surname. How was Julian supposed to find him? The Buchams had a powerful information network, but they