Despite her unease, she couldn’t resist when she saw the sweet desserts. She indulged herself.However, as she ate, her eyes remained fixed on Morgan, clearly still waiting for him to clarify Lucy’s claims.“You want to know if you’re a child bride, right?” Morgan began.Renee nodded.“Do you know what a child bride is?” he asked.She blinked. She had a vague idea, but not enough for her to articulate it.“To put it simply, a child bride is a girl raised by a boy's family. The girl will marry the boy when she comes of age. In the old days, some families were too poor to raise their daughters, so they would sell their daughters to become child brides for richer families,” Morgan explained.Renee blinked. “But my parents aren’t poor, and I'm raised by them, not by other people. That means I’m not a child bride, right?”“Correct, you are not,” Morgan affirmed.She breathed a sigh of relief, and a bright smile spread across her face. “I knew it! My parents would never sell me! The
“……” Morgan suddenly found himself unable to retort. She... wasn't wrong. “But when you play house, you can pretend to be parents with one person today and another person tomorrow. Real marriage is different; you can’t choose someone else.”Renee widened her eyes, listening intently.“The only person you can choose is me. Do you understand, Renee?” he continued.She nodded vigorously. “I understand!”“Do you really?” Morgan asked, a little skeptical. He was already fifteen, so he could grasp the concept of marriage, but she was only eight. Could she truly comprehend it?“So, in the future, I can only marry Morgan and be your bride, right? I can't be someone else's bride, right?” she asked. “I don’t want to marry other boys anyway. I like you the most, Morgan. Of course I’ll only be your bride!” she happily declared, her worries fading away.So she could be Morgan's bride when she grew up! That's great!After finishing another piece of snack, Renee thought of something. She put o
Her emaciated body was ruthlessly pinned to the ground, her hands stained with blood."Look at you," she heard a voice full of contempt say from above her. "The former most promising up-and-coming lawyer is now nothing but a worthless pile of dirt!"Serenity Lewis raised her head with great effort and stared at the cold, exquisite face in front of her. Who would have thought that the most popular star in the entertainment industry who was as pure and innocent as white snow in the public's eye could be so vicious in real life?"Jenny Hall," she spoke with a weak and trembling voice. "Why?""Why?" Jenny sneered. Her lips curled up in biting scorn as her sinister eyes glinted. "You killed my sister, and you dare to ask me why?!""It wasn't me!" Serenity denied, frantically shaking her head. "I was wrongly accused!"She laboriously tried to get up on her feet, and her eyes were fixed on the man standing next to Jenny Hall.That man... was her boyfriend! That was the man who had prom
What Serenity had said at the time was, "If you keep beating him up like that, he'll die!""So what?" Jackson peered down at the man who was laboriously struggling to get up from the ground, his gaze piercingly cold.Serenity was taken aback. It was only then that she had a good look at the man's face. He had a flawlessly handsome face with a straight nose and lips that were thin but shapely. His facial features were delicate, but there was not a trace of emotion in his expressions. One could even say that his eyes were dead calm, almost as if human lives meant nothing to him at all, and he had no qualms about either taking someone else's life or even his own life!Serenity took a deep breath and told him, "It's not worth losing your freedom to a scum like him."The man stared straight at her for a while before releasing his grip on Travis. Knowing that he had just narrowly escaped, Travis hurried away with a face smeared with his own blood and quickly got into his car with his
"I'm sorry," Serenity's face suddenly turned red. "I... I was just... If... If you've got nowhere to go, you can stay with me here."She blurted those words out nervously at first, but now that she had gotten it off her chest, she was filled with a sense of relief.The man's obsidian-like eyes were fixed on her flushed red face, and a look of surprise seemed to have flashed across his face."If you don't want to stay here," she said, biting her lips, "it's fine. Just pretend that I never said anything."His thin lips finally parted as he asked, "Do you want me to stay here?"His voice was as cold as a winter spring, and the silence of the room made it sound even more crystal clear.Had those words come from another man's lips, it would have sounded like flirting. However, this man's voice made it sound as if it was a factual question that demanded a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. There was simply no room for ambiguity or mystery in his tone, even his eyes were perfectly calm.Se
Aria's countenance changed abruptly. Grayson, on the other hand, had already slapped Serenity hard across her face."How dare you speak like that?!" Grayson berated. "You're the one who killed someone and got thrown into prison! Do you know how much trouble this family got into because of you?! You have no future left, so now you want to drag your sister down with you?!"His eyes were filled with disgust for this daughter of his. He recalled how impressed his friends had been back when they had gained a connection with the Shaw family, and he was then reminded of how humiliated he had felt after that when Serenity had gotten into trouble!One side of Serenity's face was burning with pain, yet her eyes remained perfectly still and unperturbed, almost as if none of what had just happened mattered to her."I only came here to pay my respects to my mother's ashes, but now I think I'd better get my mother's urn out of here. She doesn't have to be here anymore, and I will never set foot
"Because..." Serenity swallowed the last bite of her bun which tasted mediocre, at best. In the past, she would have disliked it, but now, taste had become secondary to her. What was more important was to have enough food to fill her belly."I guess it's because we're the same kind of people," she continued. "We've both been tossed aside by society, and we're just trying to survive at the bottom rung. No one wants people like us, and nobody cares about us, but at least we can hug each other for warmth, and I can cherish you, and you can cherish me, right?"She smiled gently. It was a smile full of hope, longing, and even nervousness."Is that so?" he murmured. "Sounds like we really are very similar..."His gaze was that of a hunter who had just seen his prey falling into his trap. Perhaps life had been too easy for him lately. So easy that it had become boring. Anything he wanted, he merely had to stretch out his arm, and it would be there for him to reach it. As time went by, thi
"I don't need your favors," Serenity said.Heiden was drunk, and he rushed to Serenity, slapping her hard. "I told you to drink, so drink. You're just a poor woman now, so how dare you refuse me?!"As Heiden spoke, he took the bottle and poured the liquid into Serenity's mouth.Serenity tried to push him away, but she was unable to. A man's strength was much stronger than a woman's. Besides, Heiden had Aria helping him.Heiden was pleased by Aria's help. "Oh, Aria, you're smart. I'll talk to the director about adding more screen time for you later."Naturally, this made Aria work harder as Heiden's accomplice. "Thanks, Heiden. My sister isn't behaving, so I'm really sorry about that."Serenity did not know how much alcohol she had been given. She was not a very good drinker, and she was already feeling a little drunk, so she struggled to control her remaining consciousness. "I-I want to go home...""Yeah. I'll take you back later." Heiden took Serenity into his arms.Heiden did