It was until the door to the study door closed that Joshua finally let out a sigh. He slumped to the chair by the side as if his energy was depleted.He closed his eyes. Luna's words to him kept ringing in his ears.'Thomas always had a prejudice toward you. The truth is, it's because of your mother.''Joshua, your mother didn't die in childbirth. She was killed by your father.''As for the things that happened when you were five…it's not your fault. You don't need to blame yourself.'Joshua smiled self-deprecatingly.How was that not his fault? How was he not to be blamed?Although he could not clearly remember his memories when he was five, he did remember a crazy woman rushing toward him, asking him to call her his mother.Back then, he was mature for a five-year-old. He also knew that his mother had passed away and would never return. However, everyone in the Lynch family has never shown him his mother's photo.His father said that it was unnecessary. His grandmother said
"Joshua, I know that you don't like me. You even hate me, but if I had any other choice, I wouldn't have looked for you."Adrian began to complain, "Some time back, a group called Orming Tech came to Banyan City to do business. They were looking for a partner and found me."You know how careful I am. Initially, I never thought of working with them, but I had no choice. They were great at brainwashing people. After your aunt was brainwashed, she forced me to invest with her."I had a momentary lapse of judgment, so I agreed to it and even invested all of my money in it."I initially thought I could earn from that and have a good life with your aunt, but…"Hearing Adrian's words, Joshua narrowed his gaze. He swiftly typed in his computer to search for Banyan City's recent news.He had not paid attention to things in Banyan City for a long time, but his home base was still in Banyan City, which was why anything that happened to the malls in Banyan City, someone would compile a docum
That was why at that moment, even after Rianna had passed for almost 30 years, Adrian could barely remember what she looked like. He had almost forgotten everything about her, too.Thus, after being silent for a while, in the end, he could only say once more, "She truly was a great person. It's a pity that she had such a short life."Joshua sneered listening to Adrian talking. His heart turned cold. "I have other things to do, so I'm going to end this call."Joshua took a deep breath and calmly added, "I'll get Lucas to transfer fifteen thousand to you.""Fifteen thousand?!" Adrian was instantly infuriated. "How is fifteen thousand enough for anyone? Are you joking, Joshua? You have assets worth billions, yet you're only giving your father fifteen thousand? Don't you think other people would laugh at you when they hear that?"Joshua sneered. "Mr. Adrian Lynch, if I remember correctly, the family gave you at least three million after Granny passed away. It's enough for you to live.
Thomas slept for the entire night. When he woke up, it was already the next afternoon.The moment he opened his eyes, he was greeted with the sight of the unfamiliar room he was in, and his mind was instantly blank.He reached his hand and massaged his throbbing glabella. He could not, for the life of him, remember where he was or how he got there.He pushed himself to sit up and realized that he was in a guest room with simple decorations. There was a painting on the wall, and the signature at the bottom of the painting was Theo Allen.Thomas furrowed his brow. Theo Allen? Was that not the artist who was close to Luna and Joshua?Where was this place? Why was Theo's painting here?At that moment, he registered that something was pressing against his legs. He lowered his head to see Yannie, lying next to his legs and sleeping soundly. It was her arm that was pressing against his leg.Her hair was rather messy. She looked weary too as if she had been caring for him the entire nig
That meant Thomas owed Joshua even more.At the thought of all that, Thomas' mind was a mess. He did not want to get further involved with Joshua nor did he want to see his hypocrisy."You don't have to feel uncomfortable about this."As if she could read his mind, Yannie sighed. "Mr. Lynch didn't want me to tell you all these. He said that you have high self-esteem, so you surely would reject any help. Thus, he and Luna left early in the morning, leaving only us both and their three children at home."Mr. Lynch got me to let you leave after you woke up. You can pretend that this incident has never happened before."Then, Yannie placed Thomas' clean clothes in front of him. "You can put on your clothes and leave. I'll wait for you outside."Then, without waiting for a response from him, Yannie turned and left.Thomas was leaning on the head of the bed. He looked at Yannie leaving and furrowed his brow tightly.A long time later, he lowered his gaze to see the clothes placed by
Lucas was standing by the entrance of the Lynch Group building, looking troubled as he talked to the other person on the phone. He did not notice the car nearby nor Thomas, who was in the car."Sir, it's useless to threaten me. You know much better than me what Mr. Lynch's temper is like. If an assistant like me could easily sway his decisions with a few words, he's not Joshua Lynch."Then, Lucas sighed. "Mr. Lynch has agreed to give you fifteen thousand, and I advise you to take it. Because of you, he has been misunderstood deeply by other people. He has already contacted the Moore family. You should…pray for yourself."Then, Lucas sighed and hung up the call immediately.He kept his phone. When he turned around and was about to head back into the building, he noticed the car parked nearby. He furrowed his brow and subconsciously walked over to the car as if he wanted to spot to see if there was anyone in the car.Right at that moment, the car window suddenly rolled down, reveali
Lucas looked up at Thomas seriously. "If there is anything you need my help with, tell me."Of course, he knew that Thomas had taken such a huge effort to see him. It was not purely to chat with him. He did not have the time to chat with him either.Looking at Lucas' serious face, Thomas narrowed his eyes and said slowly, "I overheard some of your conversation with Adrian Lynch a moment ago."He lowered his head and stirred the cup of coffee, calmly adding, "Does Joshua have a bad relationship with Adrian?"Before seeing Lucas that day, he did not know that Joshua had such a terrible relationship with his father.He did research it before, of course. The outside world has always said that Joshua and Adrian did not have a good relationship. He also found out that Joshua has publicly condemned Adrian before.However, when he asked Malcolm about this, Malcolm said a different story. "What we see is what Joshua wants us to see. He always told the public that he didn't have a good r
"What is Lucifer doing recently?" said Thomas into the phone as he walked out of the cafe.Lucifer Howard was the new name he gave Malcolm when they made a deal. After all, back then, Malcolm had been kicked out of Merchant City by the Quinn family, and he could not possibly stay in Merchant City with his original identity. Thus, Thomas gave him a name and a fake identity. Lucifer thus followed him and his management company team to Merchant City.That was why Thomas' subordinates had never heard of Malcolm Quinn. They only knew that he was Lucifer Howard."He hasn't returned in a long time."The driver sitting at the driver's seat drove while furrowing his brow. "Didn't you instruct us not to care about him anymore? He was initially living with us, but a month or so ago, he accepted a call, and he suddenly became rich. He treated us to a meal and said that he was going to do great things, so he left our team."Then, the driver could not help but lament, "Later on, I heard that he
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