Luna's mind was filled with questions when she noticed this stark contrast between Joshua's current attitude and just hours ago.That afternoon, Joshua had expressed repulse and disgust toward Yannie, so why had he changed his mind about her in just a few hours?"Daddy must've noticed how pretty Aunt Yannie is, so he wants to keep her by Mommy's side." Neil, who had been eating his dinner in silence all this while, pursed his lips when he sensed Luna's puzzlement. "All men are the same! Even someone like Daddy has gotten tired of staring at Mommy for such a long time!"He let out a sigh and added, "We're so disappointed in you, Daddy. Even if you thought Aunt Yannie was pretty, you shouldn't try to find excuses to keep her by Mommy's side."If you visit Mommy at her work in the future, there's no way to explain whether you're there to visit Mommy or Aunt Yannie!"Joshua's expression darkened upon hearing this. "What nonsense is this?"What was this boy talking about?He turned t
Neil could not help laughing when he saw how frightened Nellie looked.He was just about to say something when Nigel, too, shot him a cold glare. "You, too. Some things are meant to be joked about!"I know that Daddy and Mommy are in love with each other and won't be affected by your jokes, but what will happen if an outsider overhears this? What will other people think of Daddy and Mommy?"What if Aunt Yannie found out about this? Do you think she'll be able to work for Daddy and Mommy in peace after she finds out? Not only that, but have you considered Mrs. Flores' feelings?"If Aunt Yannie were to quit her job because of your 'harmless' joke, Mrs. Flores would do the same. Is that what the two of you want?"Nigel's words were sharp but struck like a hammer on a nail.Neil and Nellie instinctively exchanged glances, then sighed and clamped their mouths shut in unison.A split second later, Neil put down his cutlery and declared, "I'm sorry, Mommy, Daddy."Then, he turned and
Luna was still a little puzzled by this. "Why have you been searching for a woman who lost her two-month-old child?"As soon as she finished her sentence, however, her mind connected the dots.She lifted her head to gaze intently at Joshua. "Are you…searching for Riley's mother?"Joshua nodded. "I've been investigating this for a while now. Malcolm and Heather must've planned to take our daughter away from us a long time ago so they could use her to threaten us."However, something unexpected must've happened in this process, which led to Riley winding up in Malcolm and Heather's hands."The day you went into labor, Malcolm and Heather chose to pretend that Heather had done the same to make the story more believable. Therefore, on the day our daughter got kidnapped, both Heather and Malcolm had been in the hospital."I managed to get my hands on the surveillance tape, which showed that Heather had been in the delivery suite the moment your water broke, while Malcolm, on the other
"I guess you're still the thoughtful one in this relationship."Luna used to think that since Riley was separated from her birth parents, her only obligation was to treat the poor child like her own, but after hearing Joshua's explanation, she could not help thinking he was right.The two of them had been frantically searching for their daughter after finding out about her, and Riley's parents must be doing the same.Helping bring Riley back to her parents would be a more noble thing to do than keeping her by their side.Luna had to admit that at certain times, Joshua was much more thoughtful and detail-oriented than she was.At the thought of this, she turned to look at him. "So, have you…found any clues as to who Riley's parents might be?"Joshua shook his head.This was the only thing that baffled him: no matter how hard he looked, he could not seem to find any trace of a couple that had lost their two-month-old daughter.Hunter had even offered him the location of the hospi
"Ma—Ma'am."The next morning, after Luna got up and was heading downstairs, she ran into none other than Mrs. Flores, who was heading in the opposite direction.She was holding three presents in her hands, meant for Nellie, Neil, and Nigel.Mrs. Flores did not expect to run into Luna on her way up, so she appeared flustered as she stammered, "Why are you up so early, Ma'am?"Luna's gaze fell onto the presents she was holding.At this moment, Mrs. Flores was holding three gift bags with ribbons, one in pink—Nellie's favorite color—and the other two in blue and dark lilac, which were Neil and Nigel's favorite colors, respectively.It was clear that she had prepared these for the three children.Luna furrowed her brows in confusion. "What are these for, Mrs. Flores?"Mrs. Flores was a little startled by the look in her eyes. She let out a cough and said, trying to hide the sheepishness in her tone, "I…I'm planning on quitting this job soon, but I truly am going to miss Princess Ne
Mrs. Flores sighed and lowered her head. "I'm the one who wanted to quit this job."Truth be told, she never wanted to quit this job, either.Her bosses, Joshua and Luna, were both kind and accepting people, and all the children in the house, including Shelly and Riley, were obedient, easygoing children.Because everyone in the family loved her so much, Lucas offered her attractive pay with decent employee benefits.Before this, Mrs. Flores had wanted to stay at this job for as long as she could, but after her meeting with Samuel the night before, she had a long discussion with Yannie and decided that it was best to listen to her old friend's advice.After all, Samuel had not been in touch with her for almost a year, and when he was about to leave Merchant City, the first thing he decided to do was meet her one last time to warn her to stay away from the Landry and Lynch families and the man named 'Howard'.After careful consideration, Mrs. Flores decided it was probably better t
"Why are you here at my house?" Luna grabbed her phone tightly as she furrowed her brows. "I remembered only promising to work together on business terms only, nothing more than that. Why are you here, then, coming to my house early in the morning?"Luna never liked Thomas to begin with. He disconcerted her to the very core, too. It was one thing that he had bribed Joey Charles to pursue her, but he even said he liked Nellie. When Luna did not agree with his offer, he forced Luna to sign the contract by threatening her with Sean and Kate's safety after he kidnapped them!After all those incidents, no one would blame Luna for having a bad impression of Thomas, especially when the man showed up at her doorsteps so early in the morning when she had just signed the contract yesterday. This disgusted Luna even more."Do you think I want to be here?" Thomas sneered from the other side of the phone.He changed his posture and took off his sunglasses while leaning into the car seat. Then,
However, Samuel decided to look for this maid who was over her fifties! Thomas' instinct told him that Mrs. Flores had to be related to the woman from a year ago.Secondly, he wanted to go into the house to check out the situation. After all…Thomas squinted, and his eyes faintly gleamed with coldness.After all, Joshua and Luna were the ones responsible for causing his daughter to be kept in the ICU, monitored at all times.He wanted to get to know the other children in their house so he knew which one to capture when the time comes. He wanted to let Joshua and Luna understand the feeling to know their children being tortured by a stranger."Sir." Thomas' assistant wiped off the sweat on his forehead silently. "I don't mean to mind your business, but—ah!"Before he could finish, however, Thomas' assistant screamed in pain, causing Thomas to furrow his eyebrow and turned toward him."I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" A girl dressed in casualwear got down from her motorcycle and quickly sto
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