The eldest son of the York family had never suffered from such a painful pinch in his life.It hurt!“Is Nana up?” Serenity asked as she turned over to get out of bed.She wanted to slip back into her room before Grandma May woke up.“She’s up.”“So early?”Serenity, who was ready to run, stopped in her tracks. “Nana will see me if I go out like this.”“We’re husband and wife.”Zachary did not like her sneaking around.Serenity grinned. “You’re right, we’re husband and wife. There’s nothing to hide. Nana will only be happy if she sees us like this. She knows that we’ve been sleeping in separate rooms since we got married and has always urged me to do all sorts of things to you.”Zachary looked at her without a word.He was also feeling utterly helpless with his nana.Of course, he was mostly grateful now. If not for her nagging, he would not have married Serenity.“I’m going back to my room to change. What do you want to eat today? I’ll cook for you.”“I went and got take
“I made you hot cocoa. I’ll put it in the insulation cup for you since you don’t have time to enjoy it now. Take it with you to your shop.” Serenity looked at Zachary in surprise. To think Zachary would make her hot cocoa. Zachary cleaned the insulation cup before pouring the hot cocoa into it. He then put the lid on and packed the insulation cup in a bag before handing it to Serenity. “Don’t forget to drink it.” Serenity took the bag and looked deeply into his eyes. She said, “See you.” She then took off. Standing there, Zachary watched her head out the door. Grandma May told him off, “Can’t you walk with her?” “She knows where the exit is.” Grandma May was speechless. She was about to praise his progress when reality gave her another slap in the face. This punk… left her with no words. “Nana, by the way Serenity was looking at me just now, I think she would’ve kissed me if you weren’t around.” She was stumped for words. With Zachary regrettably returning
Shawn uttered in agony. “Seren, I know you’re married, but it’s just a marriage of convenience. You’ll divorce. I like you, Serenity, and I’ve fallen for you a long time ago.“I know you can’t accept me now. I tried to keep my distance from you, but I couldn’t do it. All I can think about is you the first chance I get. Serenity, I want you to know that I love you.” Presenting Serenity with the bouquet once more, he looked her straight in the eye. “Serenity, would you give me a chance to go after you?” Jasmine had a talk with him and warned him against it. However, Shawn could not simply drop his feelings and give up. He really loved Serenity. Shawn regretted not confessing his feelings to Serenity the moment he fell in love with her. Serenity might wait until he was older rather than marry a stranger if he had come clean about his feelings. Serenity reached out and snatched the flowers before walking past Shawn to throw the bouquet into the bin at the door. Turning her
“Shawn, I’m someone else’s wife now. My husband and I have gotten a marriage license. Although we married right away, we’re developing feelings for each other. I won’t betray my husband. “If you’re hell-bent on getting in between my husband and I, starting troubles and rumors, you’re depleting what’s left of our relationship. I’ll be forced to hate you and see you as an enemy.” With paleness overtaking Shawn’s complexion, Serenity sighed, wondering when she ever sent out the wrong message. As she would put it, she would rather die than be nice to Shawn had she known it would give Shawn the wrong idea. Serenity was long-time friends with Jasmine, so she knew Shawn through Jasmine. As she was older than Shawn, Serenity had always played the part of an older sister to him. It never crossed her mind that… “Shawn.” Relaxing her tensed facial muscles, Serenity said, “You’re a nice and cheerful boy, Shawn, but you and I don’t go together. Stay away from me. I can promise to keep
It was because Serenity and Zachary got into the marriage without any feelings for each other in the beginning. It took a lot of care for them to come this far. Serenity drove away. Shawn wanted to take his car and gain up on her, but seeing that no one was watching Serenity’s shop, he gave up the chase and stayed to watch over the shop. Serenity ran into Elisa at the corner turning into the school. Their cars nearly collided right before both parties jammed on the brakes. Elisa rolled down her window to give the other party a piece of her mind when she realized that it was Serenity’s car. She shouted, “Where are you going, Serenity?” Serenity was surprised to see that it was Elisa. Noticing the beautiful middle-aged woman sitting on the passenger’s seat next to Elisa, Serenity guessed it must be Mrs. Stone. She nodded at the mother and daughter and said, “I have an urgent matter to attend to, Elisa.“Jas is in the hospital for a cold and fever. No one’s looking after the
To everybody’s surprise, Zachary grimacingly ignored Josh and stormed past him. The only thing Josh heard was Zachary callously telling Mr. Chaplin, “Notify all senior-level executives for a meeting now.” Josh wondered if the earth was about to shake. “Duly noted.” Mr. Chaplin was ahead of Josh in responding as Josh was taken aback by his best friend’s sour face. Zachary made a beeline to his office, only to stomp back out in less than two minutes to head to the meeting room. Josh went with him this time. There was no one in the meeting room. No meeting was scheduled today, to begin with. Yet, Zachary told Mr. Chaplin to notify higher management to attend a last-minute meeting. The man was on a warpath! Zachary entered the meeting room and took a seat at his place while waiting for the arrival of his executives with a stoic face. Josh paused before making his way to Zachary. He pulled a chair out and sat next to Zachary. “What’s going on with you, Zachary? Who g
Zachary fell silent. “You should let it all out to me before the others arrive. Don’t bottle everything up inside. You’re not just harming yourself by doing that but everybody in the company too.” Zachary’s rage brought forth hellfire! Josh was trying his best to keep the better days alive in the entire office building. “I saw Serenity with Shawn when I was delivering her a coat.”Josh was rendered speechless. With his jaw wide open, Josh had a hard time finding the words before finally saying, “It’s a misunderstanding. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. Sometimes, what you see isn’t the whole truth, Zachary. Don’t sulk as you did before. You have to give the missus a chance to explain.” “Shawn confessed his feelings to her.” Josh paused and replied, “Shawn is my idol. He’s bold and courageous. Mr. Lowe taught him well to be his successor.” Zachary gave Josh the stank eye. Josh rubbed his nose and said with a smile, “Zachary, maybe I should get Mr. Chaplin to buy you
The senior executives entered the meeting room in droves by then. Seeing the two biggest bosses waiting in the room, the senior executives were startled and got a bad feeling about the meeting being called at the last minute.Zachary still had his poker face on. Some looked at Callum, hoping to seek comfort from him. The least he could do was tell them what the sudden meeting was about. Although Callum appeared calm, he was looking at Josh. Sure, Callum was from the same family as Zack, but Josh was closest to Zack. Josh got up.“I’m going to the men’s,” he said while tipping Callum the wink. Getting the hint, Callum got to his feet and followed behind Josh before all attendance was accounted for. Despite knowing what was going on, Zachary did not stop them. Zachary stared at the senior executives who were in the meeting room. Josh mentioned that he would drive his employees up the wall when he went mad. Zachary was interested to see how so. Everybody was at a loss
“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