Rowan was speechless.Serenity chuckled, “It’ll be the same no matter when you see him. Affection is something that’s cultivated. After the baby is born, you’ll have time to hold him, play with him, and the bond will grow—then it’ll feel like you’re close to him.”She could already foresee that after her baby was born, he would become the family’s little darling. The members of the York family were numerous but hers would be the only baby, so everyone would dote on him immensely.Rowan pitifully said, “Nothing good ever makes its way to me because I’m the youngest.”Zachary responded, “Once you get married and have your own kids, you’ll be able to make sure that your child sees you first when he’s born, but you can forget about that for your nephew.”Rowan said, “I’m still so young—it’ll be at least another eleven or twelve years before I get married and have kids. In fact, it might take a little longer, like fourteen or fifteen years. Aren’t you only just becoming a father at thi
Serenity replied mildly, “Nana’s arranged for a driver to pick us up, so we didn’t need to call a cab. Sonny fell asleep on the plane. Are you here to pick up a customer?”She glanced at the car Hank had parked not far away.“Yes, my customer is returning from out of town for Christmas. They pre-booked a cab, and I picked up the order. I’ve been waiting here for quite a while to meet them.”“Sonny, Sonny,” Hank softly called out to his son.After the winter break started, Sonny went with Serenity to stay with the Johnsons. Hank had originally wanted to bring his son home to stay for a while so that his parents could enjoy some family time, but in the end, Sonny went with Serenity instead.Unable to bring his son back for a visit, his parents complained about it, saying that he did not visit Sonny and did not bring him home to stay often enough. Then, Sonny would forget all about his real father and paternal grandparents if he did not spend more time with them. After all, Liberty a
After, he added, “Dunc went to see Mom. He didn’t wait for me to come back and went ahead, but luckily, they’re coming back soon. He said he bought me a lot of new clothes and toys. Dad, Mom and Dunc are getting married, I heard it from Aunt Ser. He’s going to be my new dad. Dad, I’ll have two dads from now on,” Sonny said with a happy smile. He even held up two fingers to Hank and added, “Other kids only have one dad, but I have two dads.”When Hank heard that Duncan had gone to visit Liberty and that the two were getting married soon, he felt bitterness in his heart, but he could not say anything.Back then, he was the one who let go of Liberty first. He was the one who had gone back on his vows and turned his back on their marriage first.No matter how bitter he felt, he could only wish Liberty and Duncan happiness and joy. Even though he did not want to admit it, Hank knew that Duncan was a much better man than he was, and not just career-wise because even in relationships, Du
Sonny nodded but still repeated, “Dunc won't stop liking me.”However, the part about Mom not having enough time for him was true, as was the case for the past few months. Since she had not had the time for him, he had been living with Aunt Ser and Uncle Zak.After a brief silence, Hank said softly, “If your mom and Duncan have another baby, they’ll favor their own child, and they might not love you as much.”“That won't happen, Dad, it won’t happen! Mom said that even if she has a baby with Dunc, she will still love me the most. Aunt Ser also said the same thing.” Sonny immediately refuted his father's words.“I’m just saying it might—it won’t necessarily end up that way. Anyway, remember to stay close to your Aunt Serenity, she won’t be biased.”Serenity was purely just an aunt, and all of Liberty’s children would be her nieces and nephews regardless. She would probably be able to treat everyone equally. However, if Liberty and Duncan had another child in the future, they might
Hank knew the last time Olivia had taken money from him to give to his sister, Chelsea, she went out to eat with her husband, children, and in-laws, without even inviting their parents. When she saw Serenity was dining at the same restaurant, she wanted Serenity to pay for her party’s meal.Serenity refused, so Chelsea called Olivia and asked for money to cover the expense. Did his sister have no money? No—she did have money. In the past, their parents' pension and the allowance he gave them were all used to support his sister's family. Chelsea and her husband saved the entirety of their incomes and probably had up to several million in savings. He used to earn a lot and did not care about money, but now that he was relying on ride-hailing hires to make a living, times had gotten tough, and he had started to care more about money. Although he was very touched that Chelsea saved him and even got hurt in the process when Jessica attacked him back then, it did not mean she could keep t
“Bye, Sonny.” “Bye, Dad.” Sonny waved his little hand. Hank turned around and walked back to his car. He first apologized to his customer for the long wait, then got into the car and quickly drove away. Soon, Zachary and Serenity, along with their bodyguards, got into the car that had come to pick them up. After the car started moving, Serenity gently smoothed a hand over Sonny’s hair as he sulked in Zachary's arms. “Aunt Ser.” Sonny reached out his arms, wanting to be held by Serenity. Serenity took him from Zachary and held him close. “Why are you unhappy, Sonny? Did your dad say something to you again?” Sometimes, Serenity did not like letting her nephew visit Hank because Hank was jealous of Liberty and Duncan, and often spoke ill of Duncan in front of Sonny. However, Sonny and Duncan had developed a strong father-son-like bond, and whenever Hank badmouthed Duncan, it upset Sonny. “Aunt Ser, after Mom and Dunc get married, will they have a little sibling for me?” Son
Hank rarely took the initiative to help take care of Sonny. Back then, Liberty would be cooking in the kitchen and the father-and-son pair would be in the living room. If Sonny wanted some water, Hank would not get him a glass of water. Instead, he would have Liberty come out of the kitchen to feed Sonny water. What kind of father he was!Now that Liberty and Duncan had finally made their relationship public and were about to get married, Hank suddenly wanted to show off his “fatherly love”, worrying that Sonny might end up neglected. He kept saying those ridiculous things in front of Sonny, affecting the child’s mood and making him afraid of losing his mother’s love. How could Serenity not be angry? It was just that in front of Sonny, she did not want to curse anyone.“Aunt Ser.” Sonny snuggled up to Serenity’s chest. “Aunt Ser, I love you and Mommy the most.”Serenity hugged him tightly. “I love you the most too.”“Dad asked me if Mom and Dunc are getting married. Dad is worried
“You don’t have to, then. C’mere, I’ll hug you.” Zachary, concerned that his wife might be tired, took Sonny into his arms. He started chatting with the child, trying to cheer him up. Seeing Zachary patiently making Sonny laugh and answering every question seriously, no matter how small, Serenity looked at her husband with eyes full of affection and gratitude. She must have saved the world in her past life or something to get to marry Zachary in this lifetime. As she watched, Serenity felt her eyelids growing heavier and felt sleepy. Before she realized it, she had drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, she was already back at Wildridge Manor in the room she shared with Zachary. The room was quiet, so Sonny was probably not there, and neither was Zachary. Serenity sat up, noticing her phone on the nightstand. She reached for it and checked the time. It was already two in the afternoon. She had slept that long. After waking up, she felt hungry again. As her belly grew, her app
Adrian and his brothers finally heard footsteps. They instinctively turned their heads, only to see a group of people, who were already very close, approaching.“Police! Hands up, don’t move!”Upon realizing they had been spotted, the officer leading the charge immediately shouted, drawing his gun and pointing it at Adrian and the others.The police had learned from the Dott brothers that the kidnappers were armed.The officers following Darren were from an armed unit and carried guns.Jason’s mind went blank. He could not form a single coherent thought.How had the police caught up?They had scouted the location beforehand, ensuring it was remote and quiet. It was somewhere no one would come even during the day, let alone at night.Adrian reacted the fastest. He immediately bent down to pick up the kitchen knife, intending to kill Caroline.All he could think then was that even if he died, he wanted to take Caroline with him. As long as Caroline died, he would consider it wor
Justin, seeing his eldest brother approach with the kitchen knife, hesitated and asked, “Adrian, are we really going to do this?”“What, are you having second thoughts at this stage, like Jason? Justin, we didn’t even cover our faces. She knows it’s us. If we let her go now, we’re the ones who will die.“Think about it. How much have we suffered ever since she came back? How much have we lost? Even Mom’s dead now.”When their mother was alive, the three brothers lived carefree and comfortable lives. Now that she was gone, they were nothing.Hearing this, Justin quickly said, “Adrian, I’m not having second thoughts. It’s just… We don’t have to use the knife. We can just throw her into the sea. With her hands and feet tied, she won’t be able to escape.“The deep sea is full of fish. She’ll be eaten by a big fish soon, which will leave no trace. That’s better than us using the knife.”The main reason was that none of them had killed anyone before. Although they had done other bad th
Her indifference, as if she did not care whether they killed her or not, infuriated her three brothers.Adrian stood up, turned around, and walked to the back of the car. He opened the trunk.Inside the trunk were two sharpened kitchen knives.“Adrian.” Jason walked over, his voice trembling slightly. It was his first time committing murder, and killing his own sister at that. Jason was a bit scared.“Adrian, are we really going to… chop her up?”Adrian picked up one of the kitchen knives and glared at Jason. “What? Are you having second thoughts? Or are you scared?”“Well… It’s my first time killing someone. I am a bit scared. Carol is our sister, after all. I... I can’t bring myself to do it.”Adrian snorted coldly. “You think of her as a sister, but she doesn’t see us as brothers. Look at what she’s done—every single thing has been a stab in the back for us.“When it comes to using a knife, once you make the first cut, the second one won’t be so hard.”Adrian handed the kit
There were still traces of blood at the corners of her mouth and under her nose.Justin and Jason worked together to pull Caroline out, and Adrian immediately tied her legs together before binding her hands behind her back.“Are you going to feed me to the fish, Adrian?”Hearing the sound of the waves and feeling the cold sea breeze, Caroline shivered.She did not stand up and remained lying on the ground.Adrian kicked her several times, venting his pent-up anger.Caroline silently endured it.After kicking her a few times, Adrian squatted, gripping Caroline's chin forcefully with one hand, and said coldly, “Caroline, there’s nothing more to say between us.“Don’t blame us for being heartless. You’re the one who pushed us to this point.“You only have yourself to blame.“Where are the passwords and keys to Mom's private assets? Tell us, and we’ll make it quick for you, so you won’t suffer too much.“If you don’t, we have plenty of time to slowly cut you piece by piece and m
“We can’t just keep giving them money, now can we?”Adrian replied, “That’s not a priority for now. We can burn that bridge when we come to it. If they do dare blackmail us, we’ll just send them on to meet their maker.“The only thing is they both have families. If we kill them, we have to kill their families too. That way, there’ll be no one who’ll report it to the police.“And it’s best to make it seem like an accident too, or else it’ll seem suspicious.”Justin and Jason both felt Adrian was right. If they were going to kill the Dott brothers, they might as well kill their families too.Caroline internally cursed how merciless they were. The Dott brothers thought they could earn some money from Adrian to live a better life but little did they know, it would bring destruction upon themselves and their families.What the Clark brothers did not know was that the Dotts were forced to say what they did earlier.It was not that they had not left yet. Rather, they could not, because
Belinda had done everything other mothers would have. She loved them, yet the three of them had gotten a smaller portion of her wealth than their own children did. Indeed, Belinda left her grandchildren with more money.After all, her grandchildren still had a long life ahead of them.Therefore, she distributed more wealth to them. The Clark brothers loved spending lavishly and kept losing money whenever they tried to establish businesses. They also had many mistresses and never hesitated to spend money on them. Belinda was partial toward her sons about their affairs and also persuaded her daughters-in-law not to get a divorce. In truth, she resented her three sons for being promiscuous and inheriting their father’s flirtatious traits. While Hunter may have been interested in other girls, he dared not cheat on Belinda because she was strict. However, he still had an affair the moment he spotted an opportunity.Later, Belinda chased the Clark brothers’ mistresses out of
Celine, whom they had cared for all long, was not their biological sister but the daughter of the previous butler. Celine’s father was ambitious. He tried making his daughter the Fisher family’s successor. Justin was speechless.“Free me, Jason. I’m already in your hands. Are you still scared that I’ll escape? Let me out. It’s too stuffy in the sack. I feel terrible.”Caroline made a request. Jason seemed to be the one with some lingering feelings for his sibling. Well, that was not really the case.If he truly had even a sliver of sibling love for Caroline, he would have stopped Adrian and Justin from kidnapping her instead of joining the plan. If Caroline had been fortunate, she could have had five brothers doting on her. Sadly, she was unlucky. None of the five brothers had cared for her. They all wanted her dead. Was she a failure as a person, or were they too cruel?Jason said, “Just stay put, Caroline. We’ll let you out when we arrive.”They could not release Car
Caroline could not beat them. Then, her mouth was gagged with a cloth, and her head was covered with a sack. Someone forced her into a car. She heard Adrian saying to his brothers, “Let’s go.“Tell Celine’s brothers to follow us. Assign a few people to clean up and leave quickly.”After that, Caroline heard the sound of an engine starting. The car moved. She could not see what was happening. While she was shoved into the backseat, her arms and legs were unbound. She removed the cloth from her mouth but not the sack from her head.Someone held the sack tightly and started hitting and kicking her. “Tie the sack, Justin,” said Jason in a hurry. The person beating her up was Justin. “I know it’s you guys, Justin and Jason. What are you doing? Let me go. Mmph…”Caroline grunted in pain. She suffered a punch from Justin. She held her head tightly to prevent any injury to it. Many blows landed on her body. “It’s fine even if you know it’s us, Caroline. You better stay
“Ms. Caroline.”The bodyguards looked toward Caroline. Caroline opened her eyes and said calmly, “Stop the car, but don’t get out. Only get out when the situation gets out of hand. Remember to protect yourselves.”“Ms. Caroline…”“I’ll keep myself safe. Don’t worry. I treasure my life. There’s still a long life ahead of me. I haven’t even started enjoying good days. I won’t want to die.”Caroline chuckled, but her smile did not reach her eyes. There was sorrow in those eyes. In the end, she and her brothers could not coexist. It made her realize how bad her luck was with families. She was switched at birth and mistreated by her adoptive family. She thought her biological parents would treat her well after returning to them, but it turned out to be the opposite. Caroline had many family members, yet somehow, she was still alone. The people who truly cared about her were Darren, Liberty, and some others. Caroline’s bodyguards knew she had been waiting for that moment.