Caden and Aiden were left entirely speechless. Their entire group was struck speechless. Sherry continued stirring drama. “As for you, Ada, you’re not an employee at Sager Corporation and you’re not a part of our family either. What are you supposed to be? Stop barking at me, would you?” Ada’s complexion went white. "Sherry, you… you..." Sherry cocked an eyebrow. “What? What about me?” Ada did not know what to say so she continued stammering for words like a fool. All she could do was glare at Sherry and was entirely harmless otherwise. Sherry was done squabbling with them. She turned to Aiden and Caden, both of them did not seem to be in a much better mood either, and bid them farewell crossly. “Alright, Master Sagers, we're getting hungry so we’ll be heading in.” With that, she gave her group a look and signaled for them to enter the restaurant with her. They marched into the restaurant with her, all of them wearing bright smiles. The interior of the res
The second floor was very spacious and offered a good view of the coast. Everyone was already seated and preparing to order. Sherry found a random seat for herself and tried to calm her restless beating heart. There was a great tension threatening to implode within her. Her mind was racing and recalled the image of John and Caprice looking at her downstairs. She noticed how genuinely excited Caprice was to finally see her. She must have hurt Caprice by choosing to ignore her, her heart was weighed with remorse. Her heart throbbed. Even her employees noticed something off with her and expressed concern. “What’s wrong, President Sherry? Is everything okay?” Sherry quickly composed herself and made up an excuse. “I haven’t been feeling very well recently, but it's nothing to worry about. Go on, order something to eat, don’t mind me.” “Alright, we just wanted to make sure that you’re okay. Are you still upset about what Miss Ada and the other two Sagers said about y
Sherry observed the sullen look on Caprice’s face and greeted her rather rigidly. It had been a while since her sudden disappearance. “Hey, Caprice. It’s Mommy.” Caprice answered stiffly, “I know.” Sherry explained, “I’m sorry about just now, it wasn’t intentional.” Caprice's eyes quivered. "Okay.” She seemed appeased, even if just mildly. Sherry wanted to take Caprice into her arms but was very reluctant because John was holding her. It was uncomfortable enough for her just to be in John’s presence. She could not stomach having to get another inch closer to the man. She frowned and looked at Caprice longingly. She tried to pluck whatever courage she had left in her to approach John to take Caprice when suddenly, John himself released Caprice. He ruffled the child’s head and urged her, “Go on, go to Mommy.” He said this as he looked at Sherry. There was something different about him now. Sherry frowned and averted her gaze as she turned to Caprice. A
Sherry frowned and looked at him warily, her voice was brittle and icy. “Yes.” Coastrock was essentially her territory. Since John had brought Caprice here and handed her over on a silver platter, she would be foolish to not seize the opportunity. John observed her intently. Sherry peered behind him to ensure that he had no bodyguards accompanying him. Without warning, she lifted Caprice off her feet and prepared to run away. It was now or ever, she was taking Caprice. “Sure,” John said suddenly. Sherry was caught off-guard by this. She did a double take and questioned her hearing for a second, "What did you say?" "I said okay, you can keep Caprice here." John confirmed that she had not misheard. Sherry was not expecting this so she looked at John skeptically. Why would he be so gracious? Even if Madam Stockton had woken up and revealed to him that everything that happened was perpetrated by Julie, this was an unreasonable maneuver. Even if he realized
Caprice pouted softly. “Okay.” Sherry took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She ignored John entirely and proceeded to sit on the sand again as if nothing had happened. Caprice lay quietly in her arms and looked at her with her large, pearly eyes, then she cast a glance at John who was standing nearby. He was not up to anything at all. He only stood motionlessly and stared at Sherry’s figure from behind. Caprice frowned. She did not know what went wrong between her parents. She asked Sherry directly, "Mommy, did you fight with Daddy?” Sherry seemed affected by this question and answered with a faint smile, “No, we didn't fight.” This only filled Caprice with more questions. "Then why were you so angry at Daddy?” Sherry wanted to tell her that things were more complicated than a simple fight. He tried to kill her. She knew better than to blurt out something that would cause her to worry and said, “You wouldn’t understand even if Mommy told you. One day
Ding! Sherry was building blocks of sand with Caprice when the phone in her pocket rang. It was one of her employees calling her, they were probably wondering where she had been this entire time. Caprice heard the phone ring as well and promptly stopped playing as she cast a ruminative look at her mother. She did not want them to part just yet. Sherry wanted to prolong their time together as much as she could as well. She picked up the call and promptly informed, “Hey, something urgent came up so I’m going to have to leave early, no need to wait for me.” Her employees were understandably disappointed to hear this and expressed, “But President Sherry, we haven't even got the chance to drink with you yet." Sherry smiled faintly and said, “Sorry, I’m not feeling well today. I don’t think I’d be able to drink with you all even if I didn’t have to leave early.” “Alright then, be careful and make sure you get home early and get a good rest.” “Sure, have fun and rem
When that happened, Sherry would no longer have the dignity to continue the engagement with Carl. Lisa would probably dislike her when she found out, and so would Carl. Caden said, “Yeah. Aiden, let’s tell Dad, Mom, and Grandma!” He was eager to see Sherry embarrass herself in public. Aiden, however, went silent. A moment later, he said, “These pictures alone can’t prove that the girl is her daughter, and it also can’t prove that the man is her ex-husband.” Caden asked, “Why not?” Ada looked at him as well. Aiden explained, “Sherry has been keeping her distance from her ex-husband, and it’s quite the distance I must say. Even though she held her daughter, we don’t have a video of them talking. She could simply say the man was her friend or relative, and that the girl is her niece or someone else.” Caden tightened his brows. Annoyed, Ada cursed, “That bitch is really cunning.” Aiden, however, smiled. “She’s having the engagement with Carl in a week. I believe her ex-
Jason then pulled his phone out and tapped on the video he got from the bodyguard assigned to follow Sherry. He handed John the phone. John took it and watched with his brows furrowed. Jason added, “When our men found them, one of them was taking videos of you and Ms. Fowler. They only stopped when you and Ms. Fowler separated.” The video clearly showed the group watching him and Sherry and one of them was clearly taking videos of him interacting with Sherry and Caprice. The video of the group was taken from a distance, hence their blurry faces, but it was enough for John to recognize them. The men were Aiden and Caden, the first and second sons of the Sagers. The woman in the glamorous dress might be the father’s niece, Ada, who had been living with them and had a crush on Carl. They were having dinner at the restaurant when Sherry embarrassed them at the table. They must have found out when Sherry came down to see him and Caprice. His gaze shifted after the video ended,
She was her usual self in every aspect. She put her heart into her job and never started trouble so long as nobody tried to start trouble with her. The crew cycled through their locations during their shoot. The constant travel made her skin break out slightly, but there were no other concerns otherwise. The shoot progressed very smoothly and within three months, they managed to wrap up everything at the mountainous region previously mentioned. It was nearly evening when they wrapped up the shoot. Holding a bouquet in hand, she took a group picture with the crew and celebrated with everyone. After that, she planned to hitch a ride with another crew member and leave for home. To their demise, some men in uniform who claimed to be the road maintenance technicians showed up to break the bad news to them. They mentioned that they had to repair some of the roads urgently and so the way home was temporarily obstructed. The director took his phone and called the city hotline fo
He remembered his first meeting with Isabel. She was sitting all by herself on the floor, in the middle of nowhere. Her vulnerable expression only made her more endearing. So, he managed to get her to go to his place and installed her in his home. He fell for her and paid careful attention to all her needs. It did not take long before Isabel caught feelings for him as well. The two of them got together in no time. Their days were plain and ordinary, but also very fulfilling, that was until he met Clarice. With the help of his father, his power struggle with Roland had reached a tipping point. It was at that opportune moment when Clarice’s father saw something in Roland and planned to wed his daughter Clarice to him to join up their families, which was a cause for alarm for Decker. He stressed over it for an entire night before approaching Clarice himself the very next day. Clarice quickly caught feelings for him as well. Furthermore, Roland had been foolish enough to reject
Decker was smiling quite earnestly at Isabel. Isabel threw a deeply suspicious look at him, then she glanced at the stack of documents laid out on top of the table in front of her. “Transferal of Shares.” She was dumbfounded. "I've gone through the contract, it’s safe to sign so go ahead.” Roland picked up a pen and handed it to her. "Roland, I..." "Sign it first, I’ll explain when we get home.” Isabel frowned and tried to protest. "I—" "Don't make me have to beg." Isabel did not know how to respond. Fine. She briefly scanned through the contract. The contract stated Decker’s agreement to transfer the remaining forty percent of his shares in Rockwell Corporation to her. Roland must have talked to the shareholders of Rockwell Corporation about this as well. They all regarded Isabel with polite smiles. Isabel had flipped through the final page of the document. She signed her name on one of the marked-out sections. She proceeded to sign all thr
They ended the call shortly after that. Isabel glanced at Martha and was hesitating if she should break the news right away. Martha seemed to have sensed her staring and suddenly turned to her with a flash of concern. "Isabel, what's wrong?" Isabel took a deep breath and broke the news. "Auntie, Master Rockwell just passed away." Martha's eyes widened. After a lengthy silence that lasted more than ten seconds, she started to break out in tears. She covered her face with her hands and expressed amid bouts of tears mixed with laughter, “Wonderful! About time! I hope he enjoys life in the underworld. God knows that someone like him will never deserve a spot in heaven!” Isabel did not know whether she should celebrate with Martha or console her. Soon, Martha began to collect herself. She briefly wiped away her tears and joyfully took Isabel's hand. "Isabel, let’s go shopping! I’m in such a good mood today, I’m going to go on a shopping spree!” "Okay. But Roland w
Isabel held onto Roland's hand firmly during the entire drive home after leaving the hospital. It was because Roland’s hands were cold and rigid. Isabel sat with him and tirelessly rubbed his hand to keep them warm. After one hand was warm, she would shift her attention to the other. By the time she managed to warm the other hand, the original hand would turn cold again. She decided it was easier to take both of his hands and caress them with the warmth of her palms. Roland looked at her with a gentle glow deep within his eyes. “Thank you, Isabel,” he said softly. Thank you for loving him, and for sticking by his side all this time despite circumstances. Isabel smiled. “I’m just warming your hands, it's no big deal. Still, you’re welcome." Roland smiled faintly and left it at that. Soon, his hands began to warm up off of the heat of Isabel’s palms. When Isabel felt that his hands were no longer freezing, she prepared to pull her hand away. That was when
Decker looked nothing like his usual self. The pompous, arrogant man who held himself far above others and who expected everyone around him to kiss up to him because he was superior to them all. It was as if he had been plunged not only to Earth but a pile of swamp. He had completely lost his usual grace. Isabel said crossly, "Decker, have you gone mental? Is everything going on too much for you?” “Yeah, could you help me?” he said with a coy smile, “Just one hug should be enough to take care of it all.” Isabel rolled her eyes. Without warning, he suddenly braced himself and lunged right at Isabel, stepping past Brandon who was caught off guard by this sudden attack. Isabel barely had time to react. Just when it seemed like his hand was about to graze Isabel, a long pair of arms seized Isabel from behind and jerked her backward. It was swiftly followed by a long, muscular leg shooting outward right next to Isabel. Thump! Decker was kicked to the ground.
"How did you and Roland meet?" Decker suddenly asked. Isabel turned away, fully intent on ignoring him. "Did you meet each other at Carter Corporation? Or did you meet him outside of work and gradually fell in love with him, then you decided to set him up with a position at Carter Corporation?” What did he mean by that? Was he insinuating that Roland was relying on her to snake his way into Carter Corporation? She threw a sideways, belittling look at him. "Do you think Roland is anything like you? He wouldn’t latch on another woman to further his goals.” Decker was not upset by this as he continued with a smug smile. "Oh? Then how did he get into Carter Corporation?" “He proved his worth.” Isabel realized that she had been roped in by Decker again. Nevertheless, she continued, “He passed the interviews himself. I was one of the interviewers and initially planned to dismiss him, but he managed to leave a very good impression on my father and the rest was history.” "
"I never meant to kill him! Roland, you have to believe me. Why would I still try to deceive you when I’m in this state?” “In that case, you can go ahead and explain things to him in the afterlife.” Master Rockwell was taken aback by this, his demeanor tightened. "You...you..." Roland looked at him calmly. "Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. It was Grandma and my parents who raised me. They instilled morals and virtue into me and made sure I’d grow into a decent man.” Master Rockwell was briefly relieved to hear this, but before he could rid himself of his trepidation, Roland continued in a dark voice, "But I won’t forget about you and Decker bribing all those media outlets to defame Isabel. I know you manipulated the stock prices to try to kick me out of the corporation. I’ll make sure to settle our score through the legal system.” If convicted guilty, they would have to rot in prison. “Roland… listen to me, Roland. Decker is your uncle. If you want revenge, you can come
Master Rockwell must have heard their shifting movements and opened his eyes. When he recognized the faces of Roland and Isabel, there was a brief glow in his murky eyes. He motioned to the nurse to have her help him sit up from the bed. After he managed to position himself seated up against the head of the bed, he asked the nurse to leave. Then he cast a loving, tender smile on Roland and Isabel. “Roland, Isabel, please have a seat.” Roland said disinterestedly, "We have things to get to, just hurry up and tell us what you have to say." Isabel stayed silent. A look flashed in Master Rockwell's eyes. Then, he turned to Isabel and expressed regretfully, "Isabel, I’m a foolish old man, it was me who told Decker to leak pictures of you two. He had no choice because I forced him to do so. If you have to blame someone, blame me!” Isabel frowned. She was somewhat impressed by how smoothly the old man switched his mask from one to another. From a forlorn and sad state t