Unfortunately, because Moon had officially retired, all her jewelry pieces had been marked up to exorbitant prices. It was almost impossible to get her hands on any of them since they were so expensive.Theo claimed that the woman standing in front of her was Moon herself. Naturally, Granny Lynch could not believe that.“Why is it impossible?” The corner of Theo’s lips turned up into a smirk. “Why would a famous artist such as myself be friends with her if I didn’t know she was Moon?”Granny Lynch’s face turned an even paler shade of white. She glanced at Theo and said, her voice trembling, “Then…the drawing I tore…”“That sketch is worth millions, at least.”The blood drained from Granny Lynch’s face. Seeing that Joshua did not deny anything, she could confirm that Theo was indeed telling the truth. Joshua glanced at his grandmother’s stricken face and picked up the phone. He dialed a number and said to the person on the other line, “Come into my office and send Granny home.”
“Sir, I have good news. Someone is involved in the promotion of that news article,” Lucas’ voice rang out through the phone. Joshua frowned at the report. “Did you manage to find out who it was?”“I can’t seem to track him down. The spammers were hired by a foreign company, and some Andrew Walter owns it, but there’s no information about this person at all. I think it might be an alias.”Joshua’s brows furrowed even tighter together. “Keep looking.” Joshua hung up the phone, and his grip on the steering wheel grew tighter. How much had Alice changed within the last six years? Was there anything else about her that he had yet to find out? The car soon arrived at Blue Bay Villa.“Joshua!” Alice had been waiting at the front door, and as soon as Joshua’s car stopped, she approached him with a smile and draped a coat over his shoulders. “It’s a bit chilly outside, isn’t it?”Joshua glanced at her. “Yes, it is. Autumn is coming.”“I’ll go out tomorrow to buy you some warmer cloth
This was Alice and Joshua’s first meal together alone. Alice could not hide her excitement and kept offering Joshua more food during their meal. Joshua had wanted to talk to her about what happened on this day, but seeing how enthusiastic she was, he could not bear to bring it up.After he finished his food, Joshua set down his cutlery. “Alice, I have something to tell you.”Alice was in the middle of clearing the table as she handed the dirty plates to a servant and smiled at him. “Can’t it wait? What’s so urgent that you have to bring it up right here?”“There was a surveillance camera in the art gallery that day.” Joshua gave her a meaningful look. “The painting Luna ruined was a fake one. However, there was a pinhole camera embedded in the painting.”Alice’s hands stiffened at that. Then, after a moment, she let out a strained laugh. “How’s that possible…”Theo was there on the day Luna ruined the painting. If he did have surveillance footage of the entire incident, why did he
“You?”Luna said nothing else when she realized it was Joshua who entered.She shut the door to the room and leaned against the door. She looked at him coldly. “It’s late. What are you doing here instead of being with the missus, Mr. Lynch?”It did not faze her that Joshua managed to locate her. After all, with his power in Banyan City, locating her whereabouts was a piece of cake.Joshua leaned back on the sofa and was rather pleased.He saw how she reacted. When Luna did not recognize who it was that entered, she thought it was Theo instead and got angry.However, when Luna realized it was Joshua, her hostility immediately vanished. She was even quite relieved.Her reaction proved that he was a trustworthy person in her heart.Far more than Theo, at least.“I’m here to apologize.”Apologize? Luna furrowed her brows. “About how your grandmother destroyed my design sketches?”She took a deep breath. “You’ve already repaid me with a two-day grace period.”Then, she coldly
“You’re the arrogant one right now!”Luna gritted her teeth and glared at him. “You intrude into my house while I’m not paying attention. What right do you have to call me arrogant?”Her detest and hostility toward him were written all over her face.Joshua hated Luna like that.He hated the mockery and indifference in her eyes. He hated that she did not have any regard for him.He could not help but constrict his grip on her neck even tighter. “I wanted to properly apologize to you today and also discuss Neil and Nellie.”Neil and Nellie. Luna’s heart lurched as Joshua mentioned those two names.She closed her eyes as her voice trembled, “Don’t you dare mention Neil and Nellie. You’re not worthy of them.”He clutched Luna even tighter.Joshua was strong; so strong that he could have snapped Luna’s neck in two.Luna bore through the pain. She forced herself to breathe and continued, “I received Nellie’s call tonight. She cried on the phone, sobbing at how uncomfortable her
Luna lifted her head and looked at Joshua. She sneered, “How pretentious. They’ve already gone to bed after medication. What’s the use of you going back now? Are you going to wake them up and then reprimand them for telling me this? It’s true. You’ve long said to not let Neil and Nellie contact me. You don’t want me to be in touch with them! However, you also said that you’d take good care of them. Is this how you take good care of them?” Every word was like a sharp blade that stabbed into Joshua.He furrowed his brows and tried his best to explain himself. “I knew nothing of this! When I’m home, they told me that they didn’t want any dinner. I didn’t know what happened to them!” he said with helplessness and anger. “You don’t have to push all the blame to me and get angry with me!” He then lowered his head and looked at Luna as he tried to remain calm. “First, I don’t know if this is true or not; the kids might be exaggerating. Alice is their mother, and she wouldn’t treat them t
Forget about that.Luna closed her eyes and told herself to take it all in as a mere dream. In her dream, he was still the Joshua she was once head over heels for. She told herself to treat it as facing adversity for Nigel’s sake.Luna mocked, “You already have Mrs. Lynch. Isn’t that enough?”Joshua’s eyes darkened. Flustered yet enraged, he bit her lower lip harshly. “I was busy for the past few days, and she’s been unavailable these few days. Are you happy with the answer?”Luna chuckled in his ear. “So you only came to find me because she’s unavailable?”Joshua’s eyes darkened. Wordlessly, he hugged her tightly and buried his head in her neck tiredly. He had no answer to that question. Perhaps he was no longer that close to Alice anymore during their six years apart. Perhaps he only loved the version of Luna Gibson six years ago, not the present Alice.No matter what, his reasoning told him that he had to be close to Alice sexually whenever he faced her, but his body a
Joshua rubbed the middle of his brows as a splitting headache tormented him.He did not have any alcohol the night before, but he felt dizzy as if it was a hangover.Alice panicked when Joshua said not a word to her. “Joshua, are you still angry at me? I genuinely know what I did wrong. Jealousy blinded me. I saw how Luna could work together with you at Lynch Group, so I became resentful and jealous. I’ve been reflecting after leaving with you last night, and I was wrong. I shouldn’t have hired a PR company to further boost the news just because someone broke the news. I already got them to stop around eight. You must’ve seen it too, but around ten, someone posted the surveillance footage of that day anonymously. The video is making rounds now, and more and more people are rebuking me. What should I do?”Joshua furrowed his brows. “I’ll check on it.”“Hmm.” Alice sniffled a little as she croaked, “Let me know how it goes. If it’s Luna, I’ll be willing to apologize to her in person.
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