Even the air seemed to freeze when Luna's blade sank into Jacqueline's abdomen.Just a few moments ago, everyone in the hall was stunned by the video shown on screen of Anne's death, but everyone's attention was gripped by the fact that Luna had stabbed another woman right in front of them!Even Jacqueline was stunned by this. She widened her eyes in horror, staring at Luna.How could this be? How did Luna dare to hurt her in front of everyone?She slowly lowered her head.The blade was entrenched deep in her abdomen, and bright red blood was seeping along the edge of the dagger, finally dripping onto the ground and staining the white floors a jarring shade of scarlet.The shock dissipated from her eyes as she stared at the blood. Then, finally, Jacqueline lifted her head to stare at Luna, a triumphant sneer on her face."Luna," she muttered, trying to stifle the excruciating pain as she sneered at the woman before her. "You're dead." The reason she had gone to such great leng
Joshua was stunned by what Luna said.After a while, he reached out his hand to hold Luna's hand tightly. "I know you're having a bad moment now, and I also understand how important Anne is to you, but think about just how many people are watching now, Luna. You can't…""Take my life, then! At least that way I can be with Anne!" Luna exclaimed.She looked up. Her eyes were filled with anger and guilt.That look of hers ached Joshua's heart. He could tell Luna was serious about what she said. It was not something she blurted out because of impulsiveness.He paused for a while. Just when he successfully gathered his words to console her, Jacqueline laughed. "Luna, I thought you were going to take revenge for your friend by killing me?"Do it!" Jacqueline pressured Luna.Blood stained Jacqueline's white wedding gown red color, but the smile on her face was even more arrogant and sinister than before. "What's wrong? You don't dare to do it, don't you? Backing out like a coward? So t
Joshua's words shook Luna to the core. She dazedly looked at the man in front of her. "I…should help Anne take care of Sammie?""Yes!" Joshua grasped her chin and wound his free arm around her slim waist. He solemnly said, "If you think you owe Anne, and if you believe you were the reason why Anne is dead, make it up to her. Since you're the reason Sammie won't have a mother in her life anymore, take up the responsibility to be her mother! Look after Sammie so she'll be able to grow up happily."Would you be daring enough to seek forgiveness from Anne when you meet her in the afterlife? Are you sure you don't want to do anything to atone for your sin before you meet her?"A glimmer of hope slowly returned to Luna's lost eyes. She bit her lip as she could not help her tears from spilling. "You're right…"She was the reason Anne was dead. She was the reason Sammie had to grow up without her mother.She needed to help Anne to give Sammie a complete life. This was not the time for her
The loud slam caught the guests by surprise as they looked over at the door.There stood a group of armed policemen. Some of them rushed to the stage. "Ms. Grace, you're under arrest for kidnapping and suspected murder. We're taking you in according to the law."Jacqueline had expected the police to arrive. She silently extended her hands out as told.Click! The police secured the woman in the wedding gown with cold handcuffs."Sir." Jacqueline looked at her injury after she was cuffed. "Please take me to the hospital."The police looked over and noticed she was bleeding. The lead, a policewoman, frowned. "How did that happen?""Ms. Luna here stabbed me," Jacqueline curled her lips and sneered. "She tried to kill me. Are you going to do anything about that?"The female police frowned as she looked at Luna, "You did this?"She recognized Luna. When Anne was kidnapped, she tapped and listened to the conversation between Vanessa and Willow. She was in the loop about Anne's death a
The news of Luna, Joshua Lynch's wife, attempting murder at a wedding spread like wildfire through the entire Banyan City.Everyone was on the edge of their seats, waiting to see just how Joshua, the most powerful man in Banyan City, would help his wife get out of this pinch."I saw the news, Daddy."Joshua received a call from Nigel not long after he returned to the villa that night. Although he was only seven, Nigel was very mature for his age and calmly explained to his father, "I saw everything about Mommy's outburst on the internet, but just to save you the trouble, I lied to Neil and Nellie about this, and I configured the internet here at Grandpa, Grandma's, and Uncle Jim's place so that none of them would be able to receive the news from Banyan City. Don't worry, I've got it under control."Joshua's heart sank when he heard this. He leaned against the wall and let out a sigh. "Like father, like son."It was unbelievable how detail-oriented Nigel was at such a young age."
The next morning, Joshua was just about to take a quick nap on the sofa after working the entire night when his phone rang.It was Jude.Joshua picked up, rubbing his eyebrows in exhaustion. "What's wrong?""Joshua!" Jude exclaimed from the other end of the line. "Where were you last night?"Joshua furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at the empty living room. "At home, of course."Before this, he and Luna had stayed in a rental unit that John helped them book so that their return to Banyan City would remain a secret, but considering that everyone in Banyan City knew that they returned and even witnessed Luna attempting murder, Joshua decided not to continue staying at the rental unit anymore and instead returned home to Blue Bay Villa.Since Blue Bay Villa had been abandoned for quite some time, he dismissed most of the servants working there, with only a couple remaining to keep the villa clean and tidy.It was five in the morning, and the cleaners had yet to arrive, so Joshua wa
"Yes, it's me."It was none other than John, who disappeared the day before with Anne's body and their daughter, Sammie. At this moment, he was standing at Joshua's door with an umbrella in the pouring rain, his eyes bloodshot. "I was the one who killed Jacqueline."John wanted to exact revenge against Jacqueline ever since finding out about Anne's death, but he never once dreamed that Luna, the person whom he blamed for Anne's death, would risk everything, including her status and future, to murder Jacqueline in front of so many people…It should have been him, and only him.Therefore, after seeing the news last night, John decided not to hide any longer and instead went to the hospital to kill Jacqueline once and for all. If it were not for the fact that Willow was already arrested, he would have killed her, too.Joshua sighed as he stared at John's sunken face. "I knew it was you."There were no records of John or Sammie leaving the city, so this meant that they had been in hi
"Okay," replied Joshua after a moment of silence."You shouldn't stay here long. The police will be on me since Jacqueline is dead. They'll be here anytime soon looking for me," he said.He gave John a name card. "This is a name card of a logistic company's owner. He owes me big time. Take this name card to him, and he'll know you're my friend. I'll keep my promise and never ask the owner your whereabouts with Sammie, ever."John paused and nodded while he tightened his fist with the name card in his palm. "Goodbye.""Take care," bade Joshua.John turned around and used the black baseball cap to hide his face while walking away with the umbrella. Just as he got to the street, a police car drove by.It was a dim morning, and it was raining to boot. The police were busy tracking where Joshua had been last night, so none of them noticed the man with the umbrella leaving.The moment John passed by the police car, he smiled ambiguously and contacted the owner of the logistics company
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