“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
Serenity stopped the car in front of York Corporation’s building before giving Zachary another call. While on the road, she had called Zachary no fewer than twenty times. The jealousy-ridden sourpuss refused to take her calls. It made her worried sick! Fortunately, Zachary finally accepted her call. “I’m at the entrance of your office building, Zachary. Can you take thirty minutes off work? Come out. I need to talk to you.” Jumping to his feet, Zachary approached the window in the meeting room and pulled open the curtains to look down. Since he was on a high floor and far away from the ground, Zachary could not tell if the car at the entrance belonged to Serenity. “Are you listening, Zachary? Say something.” Serenity uttered anxiously, “Come out. I’ll wait for you at the entrance until you’re off work if you don’t come out.” Zachary’s husky voice came through. “Hang on. I’ll be right out.” Closing the curtains, he turned on his heel to walk out of the meeting roo
“You’re a b*stard! You won’t even give me a chance to explain. What you see isn’t always the truth.” Serenity let go of Zachary and angrily pinched him on the arm. He scared her. She thought they were entering another phase of silent treatment. Zachary quietly took her pinching. It hurt like hell, but he did not care. All was good knowing that she cared about him. “Shawn confessed his feelings to me, but I rejected him. I’m your wife. I won’t leave you unless you decide you don’t want me anymore.” “Really?” The concealment of his identity came to mind. Would she stay by his side when she was to find out that he had been lying to her for so long? “Don’t you believe me?” Letting out a sigh, Zachary pulled her into his arms. “Serenity, I was really angry when I saw you with Shawn. My instinct told me to leave. I know that you were not to blame. Shawn was all over you.“The truth is… I’m jealous. “I’m green with envy. I’m jealous at the thought Shawn loves you and
“Although you can kickbox, you should stay away from him. Your husband is petty-minded and can’t stand to see you together with him. I’ll get jealous even though he’s the one all over you.” Zachary was feeling jealous in the past but he never admitted to it back then. It would not matter to Zachary who Serenity was with if he did not care. Now that he had feelings for Serenity, Zachary lost his head and was out for blood. “I’ll chase him away if he comes along, but I can’t cut off his legs to stop him from coming.” Zachary put on a stern look and said, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t show his face.” “What are you planning to do? Don’t do anything stupid.” Zachary pinched her cheek. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything stupid now that I have you.” He wanted to spend the rest of his days with her. Zachary had made plans to end partnerships with the Lowes and even steal from them some projects that were in talks. The Lowes would know the Yorks were putting the heat on them. Zac
Camryn smiled, “You spoil me too much. You’ll turn me into an absolute sloth who only waits around for you to take care of me, and it might tire you out.”“That won’t happen. I enjoy taking care of you,” Callum assured as he reached to help her with the snacks, but she would not let him feed her anymore. Callum had no choice but to hand her the snacks.“Although Trenton is young, he has mettle. When we put his parents away, it was hard for him to accept, but in the end, he did. As long as he has the right values, even the hardest things can be accepted over time and he won’t resent anyone else for it either.”Camryn pushed the snack box closer to her husband, indicating that he should have some too. “If Trenton didn’t have the right values, I wouldn’t care for him so much. Given the hurt and pain I suffered during the twenty-odd years under his parents, if I hated them, they’d have nothing to say in defense.“Because Trenton has treated me well since he was little, respects me as
Just now, Carrie came here and made a scene, and he had given her fifty thousand dollars. Although he had not spent much time with her, they were siblings. He could at the very least still recognize her. However, when Camryn asked him that, Trenton's heart started to race, not daring to confidently say that the lady really was Carrie.As for the young lady beside her? He had watched the video a few times but had not paid much attention to her. All he could see was a beautiful, young woman dressed in luxurious attire. In the video, he heard Camryn refer to her as Mrs. Longbottom, so her husband’s family name had to be Longbottom.Mrs. Longbottom had a good attitude toward Camryn and even supported her. He was not familiar with Mrs. Longbottom at all, though. Why did Camryn ask him that? Should he know her? Trenton watched the video two more times but could not find anything unusual about her. It was just that he was not acquainted with Mrs. Longbottom. If he had not seen the video,
The young couple looked at Trenton, then exchanged smiles.“How much did you give Carrie?” Camryn asked her brother gently. Camryn could harden her heart to completely ignore Carrie and not give her a single cent, but Trenton could not be as ruthless as she was, mainly because while Carrie had not been particularly kind to Trenton, she also had not bullied him outright. She had treated Camryn very poorly though and had never shown her any respect at all, so their sisterly bond had deteriorated to the extreme. It was already generous of Camryn not to completely destroy Carrie after taking charge, which was probably out of consideration for the fact that they shared a mother.“I-I gave her fifty thousand. She said it was almost Christmas, and she wanted to buy gifts and new clothes, so I-I gave her fifty thousand.” Trenton looked down as he spoke, not daring to look at Camryn, afraid she would scold him.Camryn gave her brother a long look but did not scold him. Instead, she took o
Callum was silent for a moment before he said, “I wanted you to get familiar with the route to my office, which is why I asked you to deliver the flowers yourself.”“Did you ever think about how difficult it was for me as a blind person? It was so hard for me to walk all the way to deliver those flowers,” Camryn retorted.Callum pulled her into an embrace and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, Camryn. It was my fault for not thinking it through, which put you through a lot.”Camryn pushed him away, “We have customers constantly coming in. Don’t just hug me out of nowhere. You’re as thick-skinned as a rhinoceros, but I’m not. At that time, I was angry and silently cursed you a hundred thousand times, but your insistence actually did help me learn the way to your office and now, I can find my way there even with my eyes closed.”At that moment, Trenton returned. After Carrie left, he felt a bit down and stayed outside for a while to compose himself before coming back in. He did not wan
Just then, a customer came in wanting to buy a bouquet. Camryn first brought over some sample pictures for the customer to choose from. “No need to choose, just help me arrange a bouquet of roses. I’m going to confess my feelings,” said the young boy, a hint of shyness on his face as he spoke.Camryn smiled gently. “Alright, please wait a moment while I prepare it for you.”Callum assisted by inviting the young boy to sit down and poured him a glass of water.The boy glanced between Camryn and Callum and quietly asked, “Are you and the boss married or dating?”“We’re married. She’s my wife.”The boy expressed his envy. “You both seem very happy.”“Yeah, we are very happy. I love my wife very much, and she loves me too.”Thinking about the girl he was pursuing, the boy’s face lit up with anticipation. “I also have someone I like, and I’m going to confess to her, though I just don’t know if she feels the same. I’m a bit nervous.”Callum, drawing from his own experience, advised
“She hasn’t paid. Stop her.” Camryn was not going to let her get away with it. With a command, her two bodyguards stopped Carrie.Carrie said furiously, “Camryn, I only took a few flowers from you! You have so many flowers here. What's the big deal if I take a few? You still want me to pay? I’m your sister! Don’t you know that blood is thicker than water?!”“Blood might be thicker than water, but business is business. Anyone who buys flowers from me has to pay, including you. Besides, you’ve never treated me like an older sister. You always bring up how we’re sisters when you want to take advantage of me, but that won’t work here. My roses are freshly transported, and since you’re my sister, I’ll let you have them for twenty bucks each. You took about five stems, so just give me a hundred. I won’t rip you off.”Carrie’s expression changed in an instant. “Camryn, why don’t you just rob a bank? You’re charging twenty bucks each? You’re just a thief! Here! I don’t want them! I’d rather
“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