“I’ll be right there. I’m sorry, Liberty.” Hank apologized on behalf of his mother and sister before ending the call. Picking up his car keys, he told his father, “Dad, Mom and Chelsea made a fool of themselves at Liberty’s diner again. Come with me to bring them back.” Black in the face, Mr. Brown took a moment to swallow the news and said, “They have nothing better to do.” They had a nice thing going on as a family, and it had all come to an end. It took Hank to get a new wife for Mrs. Brown and Chelsea to appreciate Liberty. Now the ladies would not stop harassing Liberty, and it was embarrassing. “I’ll take your mom back to our hometown after your wedding. We won’t come to the city unless necessary.” Mr. Brown believed taking his wife and daughter back home could give the newlyweds some space. The absence and distance would do them all some good. At least, the family would not be having fights every day. That way, his former daughter-in-law would be left alone too. Hank
Grandma May was lost for words. Snapping out of her trance, Liberty asked, “Mr. Lewis, h-how did you know they were here?” Duncan let go of the struggling boy. Despite giving Sonny many pinwheels, he still could not get through to the little man. Duncan believed he was a failure because he could never get the three-year-old to like him. “Grandma May called me and said your former mother-in-law and sister-in-law were stirring trouble at your place. She told me to hurry over with security, and I did because I was worried that they might scare Sonny and hurt Grandma May.“Are you all alright?” Liberty was in a daze. No wonder Duncan showed up out of the blue. It turned out Grandma May called him for help. Well, Lewis & Co. was nearby after all. It made sense why Grandma May sought Duncan for help. Without thinking much of it, Liberty said, “They have no shame, but I’m not afraid of them. I was going to splash them with water, but your arrival was perfect timing.“Thank you
Duncan replied nonplussed, “What’s your nana trying to do, Zachary? Does she think that I have feelings for Liberty? I honestly am fond of Sonny. That’s all.” Zachary believed his best friend’s eagerness to explain was a dead giveaway. His nana had a good eye for this kind of stuff. Nana would not put the feelers out to Duncan if Duncan was not interested in his sister-in-law that way. In the past, Zachary noticed that fate tended to draw Duncan and Liberty together. Wiltspoon was a bustling major city. Yet, the pair kept bumping into each other. If that was not fate, then what was it? “Hmmm… I adore Sonny too. It’s your business whether you like my sister-in-law or not. It’s not my problem either, but I hope you only take a liking to Sonny. I don’t want you hanging around the diner because of Sonny’s mother.” Since Duncan was Zachary’s best friend, Zachary knew him well. Duncan would not make a good couple with his sister-in-law, mainly because of Mrs. Lewis. Liberty w
Zachary did not have mixed feelings about it. Sure, Elisa was younger than him by a few years, but she was Serenity’s older cousin, so he should not be awkward about acknowledging Elisa as the older cousin-in-law. “Yeah, I came to pick Seren up. Did you skip work to come here?” Zachary replied in a husky voice, “I left early after finishing my work. No one will say anything.” Elisa pursed her lips. Zachary was the boss of York Corporation, so whatever he said goes. No one would say anything even if he skipped out on work for a whole month, much less the occasional early dismissals. “Mr. York is a busy, busy man, but he has nothing to do when Seren is at stake,” Elisa teased.Zachary never had time to meet Elisa in the past. Now Elisa found out that it was not that he did not have the time—he simply was not interested in her. He would make time for Elisa no matter how busy Zachary was if he truly liked her. With that registering in her mind, Elisa saw the light. Zacha
Elisa found it a shame that she could not become the love of Zachary’s life. However, she was comfortable with Zachary being her cousin-in-law and wished Serenity nothing but happiness. Judging by the shimmer in his dark eyes, Zachary was taken by surprise. He thought Elisa would take the chance to discredit him in front of Serenity. Poor Elisa. Zachary totally had her misjudged. “Is the car outside with the flat tires John’s?” “Yes.” Pulling out his phone, Zachary said, “I’ll call the traffic police to tow the car. It’s parked there, obstructing traffic.” “He secretly came by twice to check on the car. I guess he’s waiting until I’m not around to get the tow truck to come around.” There was sarcasm in Serenity’s tone. “He’s acting like a thief.” “That reminds me. I need to tell you that your cousin has made an appointment for surgery with a plastic surgeon. What looks do you think she should go by?” Serenity wickedly uttered, “She wants to resemble me and take my pla
The Hunts had moved the graves of Zachary’s parents-in-law elsewhere, and Serenity and her sister had no idea of the location. The Hunt family’s intention was to stop the sisters from visiting the graves while pushing John to pay respects to Serenity’s parents as their son. John could then inherit the property from Serenity’s parents. The mention of her parents put Serenity in low spirits. Holding her hands, Zachary soothed Serenity, “Your parents in heaven will be happy to see you and your sister doing well in life.” “I’ll take back everything that belongs to my parents!” “You got me. Go and get them. I will hire the best lawyers to fight the case. We won’t let them win!”Serenity gave a firm nod. “Ahem.” Clearing her throat, Elisa interrupted the couple. Elisa drew close as the couple watched on. “Seren, my mom called and told you to come home with me. We can start getting ourselves ready for the event.” She then turned to Zachary. “Seren made you an early dinner.
Serenity chuckled and went ahead to give Elisa a hug. She settled Elisa down, “Don’t be mad, Elisa. I won’t let you miss out on the next fun.” “Don’t hold me. Your man is glaring at me.” Nudging Serenity away, Elisa teased her before turning around to bring the food out of the kitchen. With Serenity looking at her man, Zachary answered in a stiff voice, “Even if she’s a woman, I mind that you hug her. You can hold me if you want to hold anyone.” Leaning in, Serenity quickly gave him a smooch on the face and pinched his cheek. “Alright, alright. I’ll only cuddle with you from now on. Go and wash your hands. I have to get to my aunt’s place once you’re well-fed.” Zachary whined like a man who was not getting any action. “I have nothing to do, and yet you won’t let me go with you. We have not attended an event together since we got married.” Serenity looked askance at him and asked, “And whose fault is that?” Zachary shut up right away. It was his fault and his problem. Th
Serenity thought she could just put on whatever. However, Audrey said they had to dress for the occasion. Tonight’s event was for the upper middle class. Audrey initially had no intention of attending the social meeting, but since Serenity asked for a favor, she thought it would be perfect for Serenity to start off with. Hence, she told the host that she would be attending for Serenity to ease into the circle. Since it was not an event among the upper crust, there was no need to be overly dressy. Audrey did not pick out the fanciest gown for Serenity. Serenity had a slim figure and a great face. She carried herself with grace too. Any gown would bring out her natural beauty. With Serenity coming out in the gown, Audrey complimented, “Seren, you just have that refined air about you. You have a great figure that works nicely with the dress. It would be perfect if you don’t walk too quickly.” Serenity was trained in the art of self-defense. Although she was endowed with natura
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.