“If I can't do it without bringing my personal feelings to work, how can I ask my employees not to play favorites?”Luna bit her lip. She understood Joshua's insistence, but it was just...Luna turned to look at him. “Mr. Lynch, if I said that I don’t wish for Joseph Gibson to be in prison for too long, will you think I’m being unreasonable?”Joshua raised his eyes and looked in front. His voice was flat as he remarked, “Joseph Gibson has two daughters. One of them was Aura, who almost killed you and the children a few times. The other is my wife, Alice, who always had a problem with you.”He turned and glanced at Luna coldly, examining Luna’s face. “All that, and you’re extremely tolerant of Joseph and Natasha. You won’t resist no matter how they scold you. “If you didn’t install hidden cameras before this incident, your future in the jewelry design industry would be completely destroyed.”Joshua squinted. His gaze was so sharp that he could penetrate through all her pretense,
Luna closed her eyes.She had reasons to suspect that Alice was probably the one that posted the video online.Alice was deliberately attempting to put Luna in a dilemma.On one hand was her career, which she has worked hard for many years and wanted to continue doing so for the rest of her life.On the other hand were her biological parents, who raised her for the past 20 years.Both were equally important to Luna.Luna secretly clenched her fists tightly. She had been too naive. She was so engrossed in her work for the past half a month that she almost forgot Alice, a ticking time bomb, was near her.After a long while, the car stopped.Joshua’s voice rang in her ears. “Get down.”Only then did Luna open her eyes.She opened the car door and realized that Joshua had sent her back to Swan Lake Residences.“Thank you,” she thanked him and left.“Luna.” The moment she turned around, Joshua called after her gently.She furrowed her brows and turned back subconsciously. “Is t
Still at the back seat, Joshua’s gaze darkened. “Don’t you think that you’ve crossed the line with Luna?”Lucas was stunned.Crossed the line? Had...he?Seeing how dazed Lucas was, Joshua turned around and looked out of the window.“Your excessive concerns with her. Also, just now at the police station, you were whispering closely into Luna’s ears.”Lucas was stunned.His slow brain spun quickly. Lucas finally knew the problem.Was his boss…jealous? Lucas cleared his throat and said, “Okay. I’ll pay more attention to this in the future.”Joshua responded flatly and looked up at the apartment building.The light in Luna’s apartment had been switched on.“Let’s go.”…Luna walked out of the elevator and had just taken out her keys when she noticed light coming from under the door.She subconsciously furrowed her brows.Was someone in her house? Was it Anne? She did give her a set of spare keys when she just moved into the apartment, after all.The video online was spread
Anne did not notice the changes in Luna’s expressions. She went to pour herself a glass of water, remarking as she drank, “Actually I feel that Joshua is very hard to read sometimes. After the video was posted online and it gained traction, Lynch Group immediately sent out an announcement at first notice that the video is misleading. “Not long after the notice, Joshua contacted me and told me about the incident. He said that you must be in a bad mood and told me to cheer you up.”Anne could not help but scoff, “If I didn’t know that he was the scumbag that hurt you so much, I would’ve thought that he’s a good person.”Luna secretly clenched her fists.After a while, she got up and rushed to the balcony.The place where the Maserati once stopped was already empty. Luna slapped her forehead in annoyance.Joshua must have thought that she was nuts. He prepared a surprise for her, yet she refused to invite him up.It was quite cold on the balcony.In the cold night breeze, Luna to
Anne pushed her into the bedroom. “You should do nothing and think nothing. Just have a good sleep!”Luna was helpless. She wanted to say that she could help with the dishes, but John quickly pulled Anne into his arms. “I want to be lovey-dovey with Anne, doing dishes together in your kitchen. Don’t be our third wheel.”While Luna was still stunned, John immediately took Anne and left.It was only until the two of them vanished from sight did Neil smilingly remark, “Mommy, stop looking.”Luna paused a little and subconsciously lowered her head. Neil and Nellie had already changed into their pajamas, and each hugged a small pillow as they stood by the door to the room. “We want to sleep together with you tonight, Mommy.”Nellie yawned. “We haven’t slept together in such a long time! I missed it!”Neil smiled a little. “Yes. You’ve been so busy that you don’t chat with us anymore. It’s nice that you can return the favor tonight!”Luna’s heartstrings were tugged as she heard the tw
That night, Luna slept exceptionally soundly.Neil was on her left while Nellie was on her right. Nigel’s light breathing came from the necklace that hung by the head of the bed.In a way, her three most important persons were next to her.She hugged Neil and Nellie tightly, and all of a sudden, her problems no longer seemed like problems.As long as her loved ones were next to her, everything could be resolved.The next morning, Anne’s knocks on the door woke her up from her dreams.“Luna, open up! Luna, wake up! Good news!”Luna groggily opened her eyes while rubbing her aching head. She got off the bed and opened the door.“Be quiet. Neil and Nellie are still sleeping.”Anne paused a little and looked a little apologetically into the room. The two kids on the bed were still sleeping soundly, undisturbed by her pestering.Luna closed the room door. She yawned and pulled Anne toward the sofa and sat down.“What good news?”“This!”Anne passed her the newspaper of that day
Anne’s mouth gaped wide open.Luna rubbed the middle of her brows. She sighed heavily. “I never would’ve thought that things would be resolved so easily.”She thought she would need a day or two to come up with a plan. She never expected that everything would change overnight.Nigel pursed his lips. “I’ve told you to have a good sleep and when you wake up, everything will be solved. I wasn’t lying, right?”Luna chuckled. After a while, she exhaled. “I’m just curious—how did you make Mo Sam listen to you?”“Nothing much.” Nigel laughed gently. “I hacked into his computer and took away everything on his hard disk, including his diaries of wetting the bed when he was young and how he failed to pursue the girl that he has a crush on. Also…“Also, evidence of other designers’ drafts.”Luna paused for a while before slowly saying, “So, his identity as a talented designer…”“Mmh,” Nigel responded, “it’s all fake. He’s only a person that loves jewelry design a lot, but he only likes th
Luna’s hand that held her phone stiffened instantly.“Mr. Lynch, he…”“He knows some hacking skills, too.”On the other end of the line, Lucas scratched his head rather confusedly. “Technically, with his busy schedule, Mr. Lynch wouldn’t have the time to cultivate a hobby, but he’s a pretty skillful hacker. He said that he studied it many years ago when he was bored.”Lucas then added, albeit emotionally, “Mr. Lynch truly is the smartest man I know. Hacking is such a challenging skill, yet he could learn it when he was bored! How amazing!”Luna’s hands shuddered a little.If she remembered correctly, when she just married Joshua back then, she remembered she once told Joshua that she thought men who knew how to hack were very cool.She even naively asked him whether he had any hacking skills.However, Joshua swept her a cold glance. “Hackers are only smarter programmers. Why don’t you like programmers, then?”From then onward, Luna no longer mentioned how she liked hackers t
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