With that, he lifted his legs, walked to the dining table, and sat down. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper breakfast.” Especially…breakfast prepared by her.Luna smiled awkwardly and also headed to the dining table. “Then you should eat more.”“There’s something you need my help with?” He lowered his head, digging into his food as he asked casually. He knew her too well. Her cold attitude toward him last night was her true feelings. Last night she was still taunting and mocking him, and now this warm and enthusiastic treatment meant that she definitely had a favor to ask of him. Seeing as her true motives were exposed, she coughed lightly and sat down opposite him. “You’re right, I do need your help.” Since he had already guessed, there was no point in hiding any further. “I want to meet the few bodyguards that were guarding Fiona the day she was released. I would also like to watch the hospital’s CCTV recording from that day.” The bodyguards on duty that day were all
“Sir.” Lucas’ helpless voice drifted over the phone. “We got the hospital’s CCTV recording from that day, but…” He remained silent for a moment, then finally sighed, “That afternoon, the hospital’s surveillance system was attacked by a hacker, many of the hard drives were destroyed, and the portion of the recording that you wanted…was amongst one of the destroyed hard drives. Therefore…the CCTV recording from that day is now nothing but a long list of unintelligible codes.”Joshua narrowed his eyes. “Take a photo of the codes and send them to me.” “Yes, sir.” Then, Lucas took a deep breath and said, “Sir, the CCTV recordings are lost for the time being but I contacted the bodyguards who were on duty that day. Do you want them to go to Orchard Manor or Blue Bay Villa?” “They don’t need to go anywhere.” Joshua frowned, his voice sounding low and indifferent as he said, “Tell them to get back to work, I don’t need to see them anymore.”Since the other party attacked the hospital’s
“Mr. Lynch, do you know a highly-skilled hacker?” He still remembered during their face-off, how the other hacker almost destroyed all of his security systems within an hour. If he did not come up with an emergency plan in the nick of time and switch his IP address, he would have been discovered immediately! That hacker was working for Joshua! Joshua’s hand that was feeding the spoon into his mouth paused in mid-air. “Hacker?” He lifted his eyes and glanced at his son faintly. “No.” “I’m sure you do!” The little boy bit his lip, his dark, obsidian eyes stared fixedly at Joshua. “I encountered him once, he’s extremely skilled! I was no match for him! Mr. Lynch, even though I don’t know the contents of the CCTV recording that was destroyed, if you ask that hacker, he might be able to retrieve the lost recordings! Because my code did not destroy the recordings, the recordings were merely hidden!” With that, he fell silent for a while then lifted his head. “It’ll be even better if yo
At Nellie’s words, both Joshua and Nigel fell instantly silent. Judging from the CCTV recording, the bodyguards did not lie. A boy who looked exactly like Nigel appeared and signed for Fiona’s release. If this boy was indeed Neil… That proved that Neil was no longer the same boy he was. Nigel could not accept the fact that his little brother, the person who was closest to him had turned into a completely different person. So, he sucked in a deep breath and clutched Nellie’s hand tightly. “That isn’t Neil.” That could not be him, it was definitely not him! Nellie bit her lip. “But…” “No buts.” Nigel took a deep breath and stood up violently. “I’m not feeling well, I’ll be in my room.” With that, he fled upstairs. Nellie pursed her lips, glanced at her mother then shifted her gaze onto her father. Finally, she stood up and ran after her brother. “I’ll take a look at Nigel. He seems…to be in a bad mood.” Then, she too ran upstairs. Only Luna and Joshua were left in the livin
“All along, Aura hated seeing us together. From the incident six years ago when you thought I was having an affair with her, until your accident which she staged, she did all of that because she was jealous of our relationship. Later when you returned to Banyan City, she tried to harm Nellie and Neil several times, also as an attempt at tearing us apart. And now she’s helped Fiona multiple times, also to achieve the same purpose.”He lifted his head and stared fixedly at Luna’s delicate features. “She must know that you and I are far from in love. If we announce our marriage now, she will be thrown off guard. I’m sure she will make a move. Once she does make a move, we can seize the opportunity and bring Neil home.”His words were reasoned and well thought out, the logic behind them clear and impeccable. Luna bit her lip. She had to admit, his plan made a lot of sense. But…She lifted her lips in a sneer, “I will not make the same mistake twice. I cannot allow myself to be blinded
Luna never guessed that Joshua could be so bold. His rock-hard chest pressed against her, pushing her into the sofa. The distance between the two of them was so incredibly small that she could clearly feel the heat radiating off his body, his steady heartbeat, and his rhythmic breaths. Her own breathing grew ragged. Joshua looked at her delicate features with narrowed eyes, his gaze cold and deep. “Answer me, Luna.”He did not believe that someone who would exert her entire strength into pulling him up from the edge of the cliff in such a desperate situation would not have an ounce of love for him and would even go so far as to say that marrying him was an unnecessary hassle. Luna raised her eyes and met Joshua’s deep, bottomless eyes. She did not push him away nor did she struggle, just stared at him with those clear eyes of hers. "You seem to have misunderstood."Her voice was cold and her eyes were indifferent. “In that situation, even if you were a stranger, I would try m
But… Right from the start till now, Luna did not spare his trench coat an extra glance. He lifted his lips in a self-deprecating smirk and turned to leave, placing the trench coat over his arm instead of putting it on. When he reached the doorway, he paused. “Luna, you can come to me anytime you regret your decision.” With that, he strode away. Luna sat on the sofa, watching the man’s retreating back, a cold smile appearing on her lips. Regret? What would she regret? Regret not marrying him? He had gotten ahead of himself. Why would she fling herself into the same pit of fire twice? Upstairs. Nellie lay on the windowsill, watched her father’s car driving away into the distance, and sighed deeply. It seemed like Daddy’s effort…had failed. She wondered whether he would persevere or give up this time.At this thought, she turned and glanced at her brother who was busy tapping away at his laptop. Once again, the little girl sighed helplessly. Her brother was telling his online
“So you rejected Joshua’s suggestion…”In the evening, Anne sat before the floor-to-ceiling window of the coffee shop, stirring the coffee in her hands, as she sighed and glanced at the woman in front of her. “So now all you can do is wait for Aura to make a move?” With that, she sighed and took a sip of her coffee. “Actually I think pretending to marry Joshua is a pretty good idea. See, it’s been quite some time since Aura returned to the city. Even though Fiona was around previously, Fiona would never obey her every command. Even so, Aura remained calm and collected. Both Joshua’s and Bonnie’s men conducted a city-wide search for her but still failed to find her…”She lifted her eyes and looked at Luna. “Maybe marrying Joshua would really throw her off her feet.” Luna curled her lips and rolled her eyes at Anne helplessly. “Firstly, Joshua suggested marriage, not pretending to be married. Secondly, even if it’s just pretending to be married…I wouldn’t do it either.” Her life
At that, he looked at Gwen. "Actually…"Steven found himself unable to finish his sentence. After a long while, he shook his head and smiled. "Forget about it.""Steven…" Gwen looked at him, and her tears fell.Her heart was not made of stone. How could she not know Steven's feelings toward her?She was silent for a long while. In the end, she stood up and slowly walked over to Steven with arms opened wide. "Give me a hug."Steven hesitated for a while, but he still stood up.They hugged."Gwen." Steven hugged her thin figure. "I have to meet you earlier in the next life so I can compete fairly with my brother."Gwen nodded with tears streaming down her face. "Okay."They thus hugged once more. Minutes later…"He's gone," said Stefan.Tears kept falling.They hugged for a while longer before pulling apart. Gwen looked at Stefan with her tear-stricken face. He had tears on his face as well.She bit her lips and reached out to wipe his tears. "A—Are these tears…yours or his?
The next day, Rachel flew from Merchant City to Sharnwick City to diagnose Anne's condition. Theo tagged along as well because he had another identity, Rachel's boyfriend."According to the report, Anne's condition is slowly recuperating." Rachel was relieved after assessing the report. "Although she is very weak, she is going to get better with lots of rest."There is nothing wrong with her vocal cords too. It could be a psychological thing that makes her lose her voice. A knot in her heart that causes it." She looked at Luna, then at John. "Considering all factors, I think that knot is Luna."Rachel continued, "John, I know Luna is the root cause of all these bad things. Being away from Luna, Joshua, and other people is going to guarantee a safer life for you and your family. But have you thought about it from Anne's point of view? Other than you and Sammie, she has her own life and her circle of friends. Never has she blamed Luna for what happened, yet you forced her to leave Lun
It was almost a miracle for Anne to willingly leave the house just to visit him!Robyn, meanwhile, sobbed at the sight.The nurse who accompanied Anne to the ward was puzzled. What was going on with these people?She snuck her phone out of her pocket and took a photo of this surreptitiously. Then, she sent it into the nurse's group chat with the caption, [What a strange family I met today.]The nurses in the group chat began gossiping about this. One of them tagged a fellow nurse named Daisy and said, [Hey, isn't this the guy who saved the old man you're looking after? What a hero!]Daisy was, at this moment, walking into Andy's room to help him change his wound dressing. She saw the message but was not able to type on her keyboard to respond, so she recorded a voice message instead. "Yes, that's the man. What's wrong with his family? What are you guys talking about?"As soon as she finished her sentence, she lifted her head and finally realized that Andy was not there.Instead,
Anne stared at John for a long time before forcibly smiling and told him in sign language, "Robyn didn't return after so long, so I got worried and came by to check on her.""Daddy, Aunt Robyn, are you two hugging?" Sammie asked, blinking innocently as she raised her head in curiosity.John and Robyn turned pale at this.It was understandable for such a young child like Sammie to misinterpret them as hugging, but what would Anne think of this?John leaped off the bed and staggered toward Anne. "Anne, it's just a misunderstanding…"However, he was still so weak that his legs could not hold up the full weight of his body at all, and he almost crumpled to the ground.Quick-witted Robyn managed to catch him before he could fall, but this gesture appeared once again rather intimate to both Anne and Sammie. Sammie furrowed her brow and asked rather indignantly, "Are you hugging again? Daddy, how can you hug Aunt Robyn like this when you've never even hugged Mommy and me like this befor
When the nurse pushed Anne to John's ward, she overheard John and Robyn fighting from the door. The fight was about how John was anxious to return home because he was worried about Anne and Sammie.However, as someone who used to work as a nurse, Robyn knew John should not leave the hospital after being shot by a gun. At least, he needed to stay in the hospital and be observed for 24 hours to make sure that he was fine before leaving the hospital. If an infection happened, John's body would crash easily and he would become weak just like Anne.In the ward, John frowned and talked with a serious tone, "I'm really fine. Get me my clothes so I can go upstairs to thank Miss Andie and go back home immediately. If Anne knows that I'm hurt, she is going to worry. She will easily be suspicious since you haven't gone back home for a long time. What if she worries about me and brings Sammie to the hospital to look for me? Can you bear yourself even just thinking about it? She's weak and Sammie
Sammie's soft and cute babyish voice melted Stefan's heart immediately. It had been quite some time since he actually put a smile on his face. "Hi, there. What's your name and how old are you?"Sammie tilted her head to look at Stefan's handsome face and smiled sweetly, "I'm Samantha but everyone calls me Sammie."Then she did not forget to introduce Anne to Stefan too. "This is my Mommy. Her name is Anne."At this point, Stefan had given all of his attention to Sammie and did not notice Sammie mentioned that her mother's name was Anne. He pinched Sammie's cheek and said, "Your Mommy is not feeling well. You have to be a good girl and take care of her, do you understand?"Sammie nodded seriously and said, "I will.""Alright, sir. I will bring them to where they want to go," the nurse saw Anne signing to her anxiously. She smiled and said, "Don't worry. I will take good care of them."The promise from the nurse gave an assurance to Stefan that they would be well taken off. He smil
This was the first time Anne brought Sammie out. Ever since she escaped from death, she became a different person—a recluse and was afraid of the sun. This situation became even worse after she became mute.The last time she left the house was two weeks ago when she had to go for surgery.However, she worried about John. In the morning, Robyn told her John was hurt and needed to stay in the hospital to rest. However, she had a hard time believing what Robyn said.After spending so many years together with John, Anne reckoned she was the one who knew John the most. If it was a minor injury, John would never want to stay in the hospital. He cared too much about her and Sammie, so he never dared to let her worry about him. Therefore, it just did not sound reasonable if John would stay in the hospital because of a small injury.Furthermore, Robyn had not returned home since the morning, which was nearly three hours since she left the house. After much consideration, she decided to call
Tara fell silent upon hearing this. She bit her lip nervously and shot Gwen a tentative glance. "I didn't mean to offend you, Gwen…" "I know." Gwen let out an exhale and interrupted Tara before she could finish, "I know you meant no harm, but I can't deny that this is something I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around. In the future, neither of you—even you, Luna—should bring this up again." Her love life was such a mess that not even she could unravel the ties, much less expect other people to understand. Tara pursed her lips and did not reply. Luna stared at Gwen in silence for a while before finally saying, "But you have to face this eventually, Gwennie. After all that you've been through with Luke, all of us hope for nothing but the best for the two of you. Even if you avoid it now, you'll have to face the truth eventually. Otherwise, are you planning on spending the rest of your life in this complicated relationship with Luke? Can you bear the thought of not being
Stefan was mildly amused by the look on her face. He extended his arms out in a gesture of defeat and said, "I never intended on ratting you out to Joshua. You three spoke about these secrets in my presence." With that, he shot Andy a rather helpless look. "Don't you agree, sir?" Andy was surprised to be called out all of a sudden. "Of course!" Although Gwen and Luke had been together for a long time, Luke had never much cared for maintaining good relations with his future father-in-law. He always thought his relationship with Gwen did not concern anyone else outside of the two of them. Combined with the fact that Andy had done some hurtful things to Gwen in the past, Luke grew even more disdainful of his future father-in-law. Because of this, he had never given Andy as much as a second glance throughout their relationship and rarely ever addressed him directly like this. The truth was, Stefan had already called out to Andy once before, during their rescue mission the day befor