Jasmine had always had Shawn’s back through thick and thin. His cousin was in the position to give him the upper hand at getting the woman of his dreams. However, not only was Jasmine not supportive, but she was against it for the first time ever. She stopped him and even yelled at him. Shawn was in agony, unable to obtain the woman he loved. The fact that his closest cousin did not support him only added to the pain. “I’m all ears if you want to talk to me about your work. You can call me or go to my place. I’m not working tomorrow since it’s the weekend. What do you want to talk about? I can give you the whole day to pour out your feelings.“I mean, of course, things aren’t going well for you at work. Is your focus on your work? All you think about is pestering Serenity. I told you a million times. Serenity’s married and doesn’t have that kind of feelings for you. What’s the point of getting all over her face? “You’re only chipping away what’s left of your friendship with he
Jasmine dashed all the way to Shawn’s family home. After pulling up, she sent a text message, asking Serenity to wait for her at the shop. She would be back in half an hour. [Sure.] Serenity replied with a meme. Mrs. Lowe was about to leave home for a social gathering. Her nights were either filled with game nights, social events, or accompanying her husband to business dinners. Seeing that her son’s ride was parked outside the house, Mrs. Lowe was taken aback by her niece getting out of the car. She smiled. “Jasmine, what brings you here with Shawn?” Mrs. Lowe then said to her son who had stepped out of the car. “Your dad said that you disappeared right after work. Shawn, your father’s busier than ever. You should be helping him.” Her husband mentioned that the companies under Lowe Enterprise that had partnerships with York Corporation previously were discontinued for some reason. York Corporation ended these partnerships on their accord. Out of the few projects under ta
“Why isn’t my uncle back yet?” “He’s at a business dinner. He won’t be back until midnight.” Shawn’s younger sister was still in college. Now that it was winter break, she went traveling with her friends and would be back before the new year. There was no one else at the house. The aunt and niece took a seat on the sofa while Shawn sat beside the pair. He nervously stared at his mother. “What do you want to talk to me about, Jas?” “Aunt Rachel, I want to first put it out there that this is not Serenity’s fault. Please listen to what I have to say before getting mad. You can be mad at your son, but don’t take it out on Serenity.” Jasmine had to first give her aunt a fair warning and assure Serenity’s safety. “I won’t come over to your place if you take it out on Serenity, Aunt Rachel.” Mrs. Lowe replied with a smile, “What is it? You make it sound so somber. Why would I take it out on Serenity? Serenity has been friends with you for years. I watched her grow up. She’s
“Aunt Rachel, I didn’t drive and took Shawn’s car here. It’d be great if you could arrange for the chauffeur to drive me back to the shop.” Holding back her anger, Mrs. Lowe summoned a maid to arrange the ride for Jasmine with the chauffeur. Once Jasmine was gone, Mrs. Lowe slapped her son and lashed out, “Shawn, are you trying to infuriate me? Serenity is three years older than you. She doesn’t come from a good family. Are you blind to fall for her?” “Aren’t you fond of Serenity, Mom?“So what if she’s older? It’s not like she’s thirty years older than I am. How is it that she doesn’t come from a good family? Her family isn’t involved in the mafia. She comes from a family of farmers, not criminals.” Mrs. Lowe grimaced. “I like her and see her as another niece of mine because of Jasmine. I’m only fond of her on the condition that she doesn’t get involved with you.“I wouldn’t have allowed you two to spend time together had I known what was going on in your head.“You better
There were certain things that although Shawn was unwilling to face, he was aware of them. Serenity did not have an influential figure to lean on, but his mother was Mrs. Lowe. The Lowes were considerably wealthier and more powerful than Serenity. There was no way Serenity could survive against his mother’s tactics. The only thing left to do would be to leave Wiltspoon. “I don’t want you to try. You must let go of your feelings for her!” Mrs. Lowe ordered. Keeping to her word, Mrs. Lowe summoned two bodyguards and instructed them, “You are to follow Shawn wherever he goes from now on. Report to me if he ever goes near Wiltspoon School.” Shawn turned ashen. Meanwhile, the Lowes’ chauffeur drove Jasmine to the shop. Serenity had moved all the display racks into the shops and packed up her crafting tools and materials. She even cleared the unfinished groceries out of the fridge and bagged them along with the snacks. She was ready to bring them all back to her house. The sh
Zachary, who was dubbed the petty guy by Serenity, took a few hours of sleep at the office before waking up. He opened his eyes and found a thick jacket draped over him. Removing the jacket, he looked at the time. “It’s nine at night,” Zachary cried, unable to believe that he slept that long. There were a few thermal lunch boxes on his desk. It must be the dinner brought by the manager of the subsidiary company. The manager must have seen him asleep and did not want to wake him. The thick jacket over Zachary must be from the manager too. Straightening his back, Zachary sat in silence for a while before heading to the bathroom to freshen himself up with a good splash of cold water to his face. He walked out of the bathroom several minutes later. Having returned to his seat, he opened the food containers. The food was still warm. He sat behind his desk and dug in. Zachary pulled out his phone and checked his messages. Other than the messages from his senior executives about
Josh had no words. He commented, “What’s up with you two? You were getting along just fine and giving us front-row seats to your public display of affection, but now another fight broke out. No wonder Serenity went to a bar. It was all because of you.” Zachary replied, “Look into where they are right now and how long they’ve been there. Are they drunk? Give me a reply if you hear anything back.” “Alright. I’ll get right to it.” Josh swiftly hung up the call and dove into investigating the girls’ whereabouts. While waiting for an answer, Zachary contacted his private plane crew and instructed them, “Prepare to fly back. I want to return to Wiltspoon in a few minutes.” He did not want Serenity to drop him off at the airport when he needed to go away for business. One reason was he had to return to the office, and the second was he did not have a plane ticket ready. Zachary took a private plane abroad. Following Zachary’s last-minute notice, the crew started flight preparati
Zachary gave up on dialing Serenity’s number. A call from Josh could not come at a better time. “Where are they drinking, Josh?” Zachary went right to the question the moment the call was connected. Hearing the anxiousness in his tone, Josh took the chance to tease Zachary. “Feeling desperate? Do you have ants in your pants? Can’t wait to get back here?” “Josh!” This was the worst possible time to make fun of him. Zachary was so desperate, he wished he had wings to fly all the way back to Wiltspoon. Josh chuckled. “I couldn’t pass up on the chance. Only Serenity can bring the anxiousness out of you.” Zachary had always remained stoic in the face of adversity. To get Zachary restless was not something Josh could see every day. “They’re at Neon Nights. They arrived half an hour ago. Jasmine and her young brother are with Serenity.” Zachary frowned. “How old is Jasmine’s brother?” Why did Jasmine have so many brothers? Although Shawn was her cousin, they shared
The day ended peacefully. The following day, Zachary ate breakfast and had Kevin drive him and his bodyguards to the airport. They were taking an airplane to Annenburg. Before boarding, Zachary texted Serenity to tell her he would soon arrive in Annenburg. Serenity would be returning from the Murphys’ place. On the other hand, Liberty brought Duncan to Queen Manor to visit Mr. Donald. They would soon become related to each other. Since Duncan was in the city, it was only proper that he visited the Queens. Meanwhile, in Wiltspoon, Jasmine had returned to the bookstore despite it being the winter holidays. She found it rather dull being at home all the time. At the bookstore, even when there were no customers, she could chat with the owners of the nearby stores. While some had closed their stores to celebrate the festive season, many chose to stay open. Jasmine was a month further into her pregnancy than Serenity. Her bump was huge. Luckily, it did not restrict her moveme
After half an hour, Liberty and Duncan finally arrived at the hotel. They bumped into Zachary and Kevin, who had also just returned.“You’re here, Duncan.”Zachary walked toward them. “Hi, Liberty.”Kevin walked over as well. “I told Zachary that you’d be here in no time. Being apart from your girlfriend isn’t easy, right?” Kevin teased.“You’ve experienced it yourself,” replied Duncan as he laughed. Kevin did not respond. He did miss Hayden a lot in the early stages of their relationship. “You two bought so many things.” Kevin saw the items in Duncan’s arms and on his thighs. They were all toys. “Sonny’s getting new toys again, eh?” “Yeah. We bought him some new clothes and toys. I’ve been giving him windmills all the time. It’s time to change it up.”Even Duncan found it slightly ridiculous. He thought Sonny loved windmills just because he saw Sonny playing with them once. That was why he kept getting more windmills for Sonny.Sonny used to be scared of him, but
She would wear light make-up for work to accentuate her beauty. Sometimes, she could not believe the glowing, confident woman looking back at her in the mirror was herself. She had changed a lot after her divorce two years ago. “I’m letting myself enjoy tonight because I’m with you. I won’t have late-night snacks anymore. Going on a diet is too difficult. I don’t want to do it again.”If she gained too much weight, it would be difficult to get fit again because she was happy and did not lack money. In addition, she had Duncan spoiling her. Since she no longer wanted to go on a weight loss journey, she had no choice but to control her appetite and exercise daily to maintain her figure. “I heard the others saying that you have many admirers here. Although they’ve not said anything, even a fool can tell that they’ve fallen for you just from their gazes.”The men who had a crush on Liberty knew she had a fiance who was the young master of the Lewises from Wiltspoon. While they
Liberty smiled. “We don’t have to have that many things. We can simply get our marriage license and choose a suitable date for a wedding.“I’m fine with just getting a marriage license. But, as it’s your first marriage, I don’t want you to miss out on anything, so let’s have a wedding.”Duncan did not want Liberty to feel slighted while at the same time, Liberty did not want Duncan to miss out on a wedding celebration.Liberty was about to get married for the second time while it was Duncan’s first. He was also a young master of the Lewises. Not holding a wedding for his first marriage seemed inappropriate. Duncan raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. His eyes were filled with affection as he said, “Let’s not let each other miss out on anything. We’ll have everything every other couple has and more.“I’ve said that I’d make sure you are the envy of everyone.”Liberty laughed. “I’m already envied by many. They’re saying that my luck is out of this world because I’m able to m
Now, everything was fine.However, this time, he was still unable to be by Liberty’s side. Even though it should have been much safer than when Sonny was kidnapped because he had arranged for people to protect her, he was still worried.He was afraid, feeling paralyzed as all he could do was just wait for news of her.Fortunately, everything went smoothly. No, it was more like there were scares but no real danger. When Belinda wanted to capture someone as a hostage, the first person she thought of was Liberty. First, Liberty did not know any martial arts. Second, she was the successor that Audrey had put forward, making her Caroline’s competitor. Moreover, Liberty was very significant to Audrey. If she were captured, the members of the York, Lewis, and Stone families would not dare act recklessly.Thanks to Dr. Carden’s quick actions, Liberty was pulled back, and she did not fall into Belinda’s hands as a hostage. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.After
“It’s just that when I saw you, I was so happy that I forgot everything else. I even forgot that I’m still disabled,” Duncan said.As he spoke, he pressed her hand against his lips.Liberty looked at him disapprovingly. “Don’t say you’re disabled again. You’re just temporarily impaired, and you will get better.”Duncan smiled. “Okay, okay, from now on, I won’t say I’m disabled. I’ll get better for you. I’ll stand up again.”“You already have—you just can’t walk very far yet,” Liberty said as she supported him. “Should we head back to my office first?”“Are you done with work?” Duncan looked up at the darkening sky. “It’s almost completely dark.”“It’s only five o’clock. It just gets dark quickly in winter, plus today was a cloudy day. It feels gloomy even before six. Anyway, I’m done with work.”“If that’s the case, let’s get something to eat. I’m hungry,” Duncan said.He did not want to go into her office because if he did, he might end up staying for a while. He thought it wo
However, if there really was a good woman out there, meeting up and getting to know her would not be a bad idea.Liberty returned to the office and finally felt in the mood to work. After a while, as evening approached, she received a message from Duncan telling her he would arrive at her office in two minutes.Liberty tidied up and went downstairs to meet him. At the same time, she called her aunt to let her know not to wait for her to return for dinner, as she would be eating out. She also informed her aunt that Duncan was in town.When Audrey received the update, she laughed. “Duncan is so eager! Okay, I understand. You two enjoy your time together.”Duncan must have been missing her niece like crazy.As Liberty walked out of the office building, she spotted a car parked at the entrance. Duncan got out of the car and stood aside, waiting for the bodyguard to unload the suitcase and wheelchair from the vehicle. He was able to stand for a while now and should probably be ab
Liberty nodded. “How could they compare to Elisa? She has such a strong moral compass. Zachary was still unattached when she liked him but when he announced his marriage, even though Elisa was upset, she gave up on pursuing him. The other women are more like Ms. Daniels.”In truth, Liberty knew about Ms. Daniels. She believed that Serenity and Zachary could handle things on their own, so she kept silent, but even though they eventually resolved it, it also proved that despite Zachary being married, there would still be people who harbored inappropriate thoughts about him. They were hopeful about replacing Serenity all because they felt that her pedigree did not match Zachary’s.Liberty wanted to be her sister’s support, to provide her with a confidence boost. That was why when Audrey suggested she come to Jensburg to compete for the position of family head with Caroline, she did not refuse. If she took control of the Fisher family, she would be the head, and even if most of the
Liberty asked.“Yeah, I’m on my way out now. You know what—you don’t need to come pick us up. It’ll take over an hour by car for you. I’ll just take a taxi over.” That way, he would not have to wait too long at the airport.Liberty laughed. “I wasn’t planning to come pick you up anyway. If you had told me in advance, I would have come for sure. But since you didn’t say anything… “I could still come to pick you up, but you’d have to wait at the airport for a while so it makes more sense for you to take a taxi.”It would be easier for everyone that way.“I’m on my way back to the office now. Just come straight here and text me when you’re nearby. I’ll come out to get you.”Duncan chuckled in response. “Okay, we’ll take a taxi. I’ll text you when I get there. Where did you just now?”“I went to Fisher Enterprise to check on Caroline. She’s a good person.”Duncan pursed his lips and asked, “She doesn’t blame you guys, does she?”“Not at all. Based on what she says and does, it’s