After having their lunch, Luna and Joshua rushed to Samuel's church, located on the outskirts of the city.After an entire morning of avid discussion, they agreed that Samuel must have been the sole witness of Lucy's death, apart from the murderers.Therefore, as long as they found Samuel, they would be able to find out the truth of Lucy's death.Was she killed by the men ordered to torment her?Had she been killed by Larry?Perhaps…it was the man named Star, whom Joshua and Luna were still unable to discern his relationship with the Quinn family.Soon, the car arrived at Samuel's private quarters located behind his church. However, when they arrived, they bumped into a surprise guest.A row of cars zipped past them and screeched to a halt in front of the house.The door of the car at the front was pushed open, and a man in his mid-forties, dressed in a white suit, stepped out of the car elegantly and strode toward the house, smiling.After more than 20 years of being a priest
Joshua was right; Malcolm could not possibly leave Merchant City on his own at this point.Therefore, instead of trying desperately to escape but inevitably being captured by Quentin, it was better for him to seek out his father.After all, both Granny Quinn and Quentin were religious people, and surely they would not dare to disturb the peace of such a holy sanctuary.As soon as she thought of this, Luna could not help lamenting, "I never thought Malcolm would be this smart.""It wasn't him; it was me." Joshua curled his lips into a smirk, pulled Luna into his arms, and said impassively, "I was the one who gave him this idea."Luna froze for a moment, then frowned. "Why did you help him?"She had already been clear with Malcolm the day before about her refusal to help him, so why did Joshua secretly help him and even gave him the idea of seeking refuge with his father?Truth be told, Luna could not wait to see Malcolm get caught by the Quinn family.She wanted to watch his loy
Luna was not fond of Quentin at all. She furrowed her brows and shot him a cold glance. "The Landry family won't show me mercy even if I keep my distance from Joshua."She curled her lips into a smirk and asked, "I wonder what you're doing here, Mr. Simms? Are you here to pray for a loved one too?""Pray?" Quentin narrowed his eyes and glanced, sneering at Joshua and Luna. "You're telling me the two of you have come here in search of my brother to pray?""What's wrong with that?" Joshua reached out to pull Luna into his arms and lifted his head to meet Quentin's gaze. "Father Samuel is one of the most renowned priests in Merchant City, so what's wrong with us coming here to request that he pray for my late aunt and Luna's late uncle?"Quentin narrowed his eyes upon hearing this.A split second later, he suddenly recalled something and burst into laughter. "Since the both of you are here to pray, I think I should do the same."Luna furrowed her brows. "Who're you going to pray for
A split second later, Samuel smiled and replied, "I would've forgotten about this if you hadn't brought it up. Yes, you still owe me one."Quentin smiled in return. "I know this slipped your mind probably due to your busy schedule, but I've never forgotten about it at all."With that, he took off the cross that had been hanging around his neck and placed it on the table between them. "Since you intend to use this favor to protect Malcolm, I'll do as you wish."Here. You can take this back."He was just about to stand up when he suddenly paused as though he recalled something. Then, he took out a stack of cash from his pocket and placed it on the table.Samuel glanced at it, frowning. "What's this?""A reward for helping me pray for deceased souls." Quentin pointed at Joshua and Luna, both sitting on the bench outside, and explained, "One of them wants to pray for Lucy, and the other, Colin Landry. As for me, I don't have anyone I want to pray for, so please help me pray for Quent
Luna did not notice the change in Samuel's face. Instead, she exhaled and continued, "We saw the people inside the video, so we wanted to ask you how you got your hands on these videos and…who the man named Star is."Luna had lived at Quinn Mansion for six years and, at one point, been close to Malcolm, but despite that, she never heard of anyone who went by the name Star.According to the video, Star would have been in his mid-forties at present day, and he appeared to have been the mastermind of Lucy's torture and death.Even though the man in the video who looked identical to Christopher had tormented Lucy cruelly, he turned submissive and obedient as soon as Star appeared.That man was Rosalyn's classmate and Christopher's father, Larry.If Rosalyn had awoken from her coma, they would be able to find out Star's true identity.However, since Rosalyn was unable to answer their doubts, Luna had no choice but to seek the answers from Samuel.Samuel furrowed his brows when he hea
"The person I owe the most ever since I left home is Malcolm. Despite being his father, I've never shown him the love he deserves, but now, I finally have an opportunity to do so."Therefore, to protect my son's safety, I'll never say another word about the incident that happened in the past."I apologize for making you come all this way for nothing."With that, Samuel took out two copies of The Bible from a nearby cabinet and placed them in front of Luna. "I hear that you recently lost a daughter, so these are for you."Praying for your deceased loved ones will allow them to pass on to Heaven."Joshua, who had been silent all this while, could not help snickering when he heard this. "Do you think just by praying, you'll be able to make up for your past mistakes, Father?"As he said this, Joshua inched closer to Samuel and whispered coldly, "Why are you so unwilling to talk about the past, Father? You claim that it's to protect Malcolm, but the thing is, the people who are threat
Charles had told Luna before that Lucy was not a sociable person and therefore did not know many people.The last time she and Gwen came to find Samuel, Samuel had also mentioned that at one point, he had almost become the third wheel between Lucy and Charles.This was because he and Charles had been best friends in the past, and before that, Lucy had mistaken everything that Charles had done for her as Samuel's doing, which led to her nearly ending up being with Samuel.If one had to pinpoint the person Lucy had most likely cheated on Charles with…it was Samuel.As soon as she thought of this, Luna felt her head hurt even more. She turned to look at Joshua. "Still, Samuel doesn't want to give us more information now, and on top of that, we can't confirm the identity of this person named Star. The only thing we know about him is that he was my mother and Larry's classmate…"Rosalyn's teacher had passed away a long time ago. To top that off, Larry had already gone insane, whereas R
Luna returned to Joshua's house with many thoughts swirling in her mind.As soon as they entered the house, Luna smelled the fragrant scent of home-cooked food.She followed the smell into the kitchen and discovered that Bonnie and Theo had prepared an entire table full of dishes.Luna froze when she saw this.Had Bonnie not been in a bad mood that day?She had been crying ever since Christopher and Jim came to visit this morning, so how had she recovered so quickly that she was able to cook and make such a hearty feast?"Come help us." Theo, who was bringing steaming plates of food out of the kitchen, caught sight of Luna staring at Bonnie in bafflement. He quickly summoned her into the kitchen to help them.Luna took off her coat, frowning, shoved it into Joshua's hands, and strode into the kitchen.She asked in a low voice as she took another plate from Theo, "What's going on with Bonnie? Is she trying to distract herself from the pain?"Theo furrowed his brows, but before
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