"While it looks like I've known Yannie for more than a month or so, we've been together for more than a year. For the past year, Yannie had been hiding from me, thinking that she wasn't worthy of me and bore my child silently. It was also because of her and the child that I came all the way to Merchant City."You said that you're no worse than Yannie. I admit that you are much better than Yannie in many aspects, but…"Thomas walked over to Yannie, who was still in a daze, and hugged her. He said calmly, "Yannie has something that you don't."Dazed, Wendy looked at Thomas with confusion in her eyes. "What is it?"Thomas smiled and gently touched the stretch marks on Yannie's belly. "She has this."His voice was charming and sincere. "This happened because she gave birth to my child. This was proof of her sacrifice for me and my child."Thoma's words completely shattered Wendy's pride.Biting her lip, she tried to refute, to come up with an argument when all of a sudden, her phone
Yannie failed to catch Thomas' meaning. She furrowed her brow and turned to look at him with confusion.Looking at her small face, Thomas found himself softening at the sight.He sighed and reached out his hand, gently pinching her small nose. "Enough; don't think about Wendy and Joshua. We have more important things to do."Yannie furrowed her brow. "And that is?"Thomas sighed. He lowered his gaze and looked at Yannie, who was clad only in underwear in his arms.At the thought of her petite body shown to the people on the internet, he could not help but get furious. "Firstly, put on your clothes."Yannie shrieked in realization and quickly turned, burying herself under the sheets.She was so wrapped up in defending herself against Wendy and her venomous remarks that she completely forgot that she was only in lingerie!When Thomas pointed it out, she instantly blushed.She bit her lip. "I…I didn't want this to happen, but when I woke up, I realized that I was locked in your b
The pure white top and the mint green skirt only enhanced Yannie's beauty. She looked like a little fairy that had walked out of a forest.Having been in the entertainment industry for so many years, Thomas has seen all sorts of beautiful women, but at this moment, he was completely dazzled by Yannie's beauty.He was silent for a while before looking away, gently clearing his throat. "I don't know who Riley's biological mother is, but from today onward, you're her mother."From the moment he told Wendy that Yannie's child was his, he had already planned to have Yannie be Riley's mother.Despite not visiting Riley for the past month, he knew that Yannie had often gone to visit her, so he placed a camera on Yannie, wanting to see his daughter through Yannie.That way, he could see Yannie through the camera and not catch Joshua's attention.However, he never expected that Yannie would adore Riley the way she did, and her love for the infant was palpable.Since he could not find Ril
Thomas paused for a while. After a while, he raised his eyebrow and looked at Yannie. "What? Are you trying to investigate me? Have you fallen for me?"Then, he changed into a more comfortable position, crossing his arms at his chest and leaning against the door. He looked at Yannie fixedly with his deep gaze and smiled. "If you promise right now that you'd be Riley's mother, I can tell you how many women I have been with."No one knew that during that one fateful night abroad, it was Thomas' first time, too—not just for the woman.Of course, he would not tell Yannie this before she agreed to become Riley's mother. After all, he felt that if Yannie would not want to be his other half, telling her this would only give her more leverage on him in the future.However, Yannie construed his words differently.She bit her lip and, staring at the smiling Thomas, finally calmed down a little. Was he trying to use a question, such as the number of women he has been with, as a bargaining ch
Yannie felt her head buzzing as she stared at Thomas.How could that have happened? How was that possible?She bit her lip and picked her phone up like a lunatic.Sure enough, although the live stream had ended, the screenshots and comments about the live stream were all over the place. The trending topics on social media were about her, Thomas, and Wendy.Everything she was seeing and reading felt like lightning that struck her, so much so that she was petrified.She thought that Wendy was only trying to set her up, defaming her for seducing Thomas, which was why she was not that intimidated or scared for her life. She thought that as long as she went along with Thomas' act, she would be able to expose Wendy for her setup.However, when she read the discussion on the internet about them, Yannie even wanted to die."Now's not the time to be sad."Seeing through her, Thomas smiled calmly and walked over to her. He reached his arm out and hugged her shoulders."Previously in the
Thomas and Yannie arrived at the hospital, surrounded by the cameras of the reporters.They came out of the lift to see Luna, standing by the doors of the ICU ward, as well as Gwen, who was in a wheelchair, beside her.Luna had no plans to visit Riley on that day. A month ago or so, when Riley was admitted to the hospital, Luna visited Riley once every three days under the advice of the doctor.That day was only the second day from the last time Luna visited Riley. She initially did not want to come over, but after Gwen saw Thomas' and Yannie's live stream and heard that Riley was their child, Gwen insisted on going to see Riley.Gwen was not in the best of health just yet, still hurt because of Luke not long ago, so Luna could only give in and took her to see Riley.They never thought that they would run into Thomas and Yannie just as they were about to leave…as well as a group of reporters."Luna." Yannie's eyes twinkled with mirth upon seeing Luna. "You're here to see Riley to
Joshua knew that Riley was Thomas' daughter. He knew that it would not be easy for a person like Thomas to enter the ICU, yet he refused to transfer Riley to a normal ward.Since they were always afraid of him coming to visit Riley, he decided to bring a group of people along.One was to let everyone know that Riley was his and Yannie's child, to put pressure on Joshua so that Joshua and Luna would quickly return Riley to them.Secondly, it was to tell Joshua that he had seen through their dirty tricks.However, Thomas' words convinced Luna even more that Thomas was not a competent father to Riley.She narrowed her eyes. "I was the one who didn't allow the transfer. A child's body is still unstable. Even if she has gotten better in a short while, if her sickness relapses in the general ward, she'll have to be sent to the ICU again, so I decided to not let her go through the torture."Luna sneered. "Do you think it's inappropriate, Mr. Howard?""It's a pity," Luna said while cros
Thomas sneered upon hearing Gwen's words. "There was never any misunderstanding between me and them."After all of what Joshua and Luna did to Riley, what misunderstanding could there be? In the first place, Joshua and Luna lost their baby, so they deliberately took the newborn baby from the hospital and pretended that she was theirs. The newborn baby was Riley!Thomas would not have hated them so badly had they taken care of Riley and treated her as their own, but what happened? They failed to protect Riley. Malcolm had to take Riley from them, and Riley was nearly dead because of Quentin!Quentin was captured in the end, and Riley was once more back with Joshua and Luna. However, they did not feel the bond with Riley when they reunited with her.They continuously searched for their biological baby and neglected to accompany and take care of Riley. If it were not for them, Riley would not have ended in such a pitiful, sickly state!Joshua and Luna were to blame for all the misfor
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