“Mommy is sorry! It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you back to Banyan City with me…” Luna’s weeps echoed through the cemetery.Staring at Luna’s scrawny build, Gwen helplessly sniffed and turned around to wipe away her tears.To present such bad news to Luna as soon as she woke up from her coma was too cruel.However… Gwen knew that if they did not tell her, it would complicate things in the future, since…After all, Nigel and Nellie were not doing too well either.The rain started to grow heavier, so Joshua opened his umbrella and held it above Luna’s head, continuing to watch her weep in silence.Luna cried from afternoon till evening until she eventually got tired, her voice hoarse in the aftermath. She finally slumped onto the ground, totally and utterly exhausted.Despite that, however, she still clung to Neil’s tombstone in desperation, as though holding onto it would prevent Neil from actually leaving this world.“Luna.” Joshua sighed and threw his umbrella asi
When Luna woke up once again, it was already the next morning.Gwen, who had been watching over her the entire night, was forcefully taken away by Luke. At that moment, it was Anne who sat at her bedside.Anne sighed helplessly as she saw Luna stirred from slumber, standing up to gently tuck her in. “Gwen and Joshua are too reckless. You’ve been unconscious for almost a month, yet they passed on such a miserable piece of news to you the moment you wake up, and even took you to the cemetery under the rain. I truly wonder if they have any brains at all!”Anne calmly sighed before casting Luna a considerate gaze. “How are you right now? Are you feeling better? I know—you’ve lost a son. You won’t be able to recover from the grief so soon, but…”Anne took a deep breath. “Luna, although you’ve lost two children, you have another two waiting for you. You need to buck up, get well, and live for them. If you can’t get well, how do you expect Nigel and Nellie…to do the same?”Luna low
“Then, take me to see Nigel.”Compared to Nellie, Nigel was more understanding. He was easier to comfort.Anne nodded and gently helped Luna get down from the bed.They had just reached the entrance when they heard a commotion coming from outside.From a distance, Luna heard an angry middle-aged woman’s voice. “Isn’t she awake already? I heard that she went to the cemetery to see her son yesterday. What about my son? Has she gone to see my son? The two of us are already so old. We only have one son! He is a talented artist. The things that he could create are priceless! He lost his life all because of that woman…”Luna vaguely heard the noises coming from outside, and her brows scrunched a little.This voice was rather familiar.“Here we go again.”Anne had already opened the door, but when she heard that voice, she could not help but sigh and close the door once more.She helped Luna back to her bed. “This will go on for quite some time. We’ll wait for a while before going.
“You b*tch! You finally dare come see me?”Celeste rushed toward Luna in a fit of rage the moment she saw her.However, before she could rush over, Celeste was blocked by the bodyguard keeping watch by the entrance, much to Celeste’s fury.“Let me go! If I don’t slap this b*tch today, I won’t be able to relieve myself of any hatred in my heart!”“Let her go.”Standing by the entrance, the emaciated Luna smiled bitterly. “If hitting me could let Mrs. Allen feel less sorrow, let her do it.”“Luna…” Anne furrowed her brows and held onto Luna. “Your body can’t take it…”“I owe it to them.”Seeing out the bodyguards had no intention of letting Celeste go, Luna sighed. She immediately carried herself and slowly approached Celeste.“I understand how painful it is to lose a son.”Neil was only six years old. Besides Neil, she still had her other two children.However, Neil’s death was a huge blow to her, let alone for Celeste, who only had Theo as her son, who she had for more than
Joshua furrowed his brows and looked at Luna who was kneeling on the ground, with Anne supporting her. “She had Theo help look after her children because she treated Theo as a friend.“Theo also treats her as his friend. That’s why he was willing to go abroad to look after her children. Luna didn’t expect such an accident to happen as well.”Joshua sighed. “She has lost two children due to this incident. Her sorrow is no less than yours. As victims, stop making things difficult for each other.”Celeste shut her eyes. Tears fell from her face.It was not as if she did not understand what Joshua said. When Theo went abroad to look after the two kids, he even called her.“Mom, Luna is finally going to finish the things she wanted to do. She won’t have anything to do with Joshua anymore after this! I’m here, looking after her two kids. When she finishes her things on her hand, I’ll meet up with her. Don’t worry. I’ll try my best to get such an exceptional jewelry designer to marry me!
“This is moral coercion!”Anne angrily looked at Celeste. “It’s true that your son likes Luna, but Luna has made it clear to him that she wouldn’t marry him. She wouldn’t be together with him either. They could only be friends.“Theo likes Luna and even sacrificed his life for Luna’s children in the end, and while everyone feels sad about this, you can’t use this as a condition to get Luna to marry a dead person, living the life of a widower her entire life, right?”Celeste sneered as she ignored Anne’s words. Celeste lowered her head and looked at Luna mockingly. “I’m asking you, Luna: are you willing to do it or not?”Luna, who was kneeling on the ground, closed her eyes depressingly.“I’m sorry.”Celeste’s eyes were instantly filled with anger at Luna’s response.“Our Theo sacrificed his life for you! I’m only asking you to marry him, to not have any other men for the rest of your life! Would it kill you to not have any men?”Celeste angrily turned to look at Joshua. “You st
Upon getting Luna’s word, Nathan sighed once again before taking Celeste and left.Once both of them entered the elevator, Anne sighed and helped Luna up, slowly taking Luna back to her room.“They said that they didn’t want to morally coerce you, but they still did it anyway.”Luna pursed her lips. “It’s fine.”Even if Nathan did not say it, she still would not forget Theo when she paid a tribute to Neil. She would not even have a grand wedding, not when Neil’s remains still could not be found.Their request was also what she wanted to do.Anne pursed her lips and sent Luna back to her room. She wanted to say something, but she noticed Joshua standing by the entrance when she looked back.Anne paused for a while. In the end, she still got up, cautiously left, and shut the door behind her.The atmosphere in the room was so quiet that it was suffocating.After a long while, Joshua smiled bitterly. He walked over to Luna’s bed and sat down by the side.“You really agreed to Mal
The room was in silence for a few seconds.Joshua lifted his head and looked at Luna. “Jason has nothing to do with me.”Luna laughed. Did he still intend to keep up with the pretense, even at this stage?Nothing to do with him, he said?“If he had nothing to do with you, how did he get out of the mental asylum?”Luna looked at Joshua coldly, her smile drenched in mockery.“Don’t tell me that a person whom you locked up could come out from the mental asylum without your approval!”Joshua furrowed his brows. “He might’ve escaped.”It has been a month since that dark day.Luna had been unconscious that whole time. Once Joshua made sure that Luna was no longer in danger, he started getting busy with the three children.He dealt with Neil’s funeral, helped Nellie get a psychologist for therapy sessions, then went to Malcolm to see Nigel and brought him back to Banyan City. He got all the best specialists in the world to treat Nigel.He never cared to deal with an unimportant per
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