A short while later, some of the employees brought Fiona away with them. The remaining people soon dispersed after realizing there was nothing else to watch. “What a drama queen,” Samson scoffed as he watched Fiona leave with the rest of the people, and his lips twisted into a smirk. “Doesn’t she know not to use the same trick twice? She tried to frame Arianna with hot coffee before, and now she’s using the exact tactic again.”Luna furrowed her brows. She could not help feeling that there was something about the way Fiona acted.All of a sudden, she recalled the design sketch she had left on the desk.Luna immediately turned to look in the direction of her desk.She was right.The desk was empty.“Someone stole our design sketch!” Samson, too, noticed the missing sketch. “I knew Fiona was up to something! She deliberately caused a commotion so someone could steal the folder from right under our noses!”Samson was outraged by this discovery, and on the other hand, Zayne got
When Joshua finally arrived at the hospital, the doctor was in the middle of cleaning and bandaging Fiona’s wound. He could not stop himself from complaining to his assistant, who was watching from the side, “Why didn’t you tell me to come earlier, knowing how serious her wound was? You’re useless!”The assistant bit down on her lip and answered in a slightly sheepish tone, “She looked perfectly fine, and she even said she was fine. She was just scalded by a cup of coffee, so I didn’t take much notice of her. I didn’t know that…”She did not know how serious this patient’s burn was!At this moment, Joshua strode into the room.The first thing he saw when he entered was the string of blisters on Fiona’s abdomen, as tightly strung as a chain of pearls. As soon as he saw this, Joshua furrowed his brows. “What happened?”Fiona bit down on her lip and answered in a low voice, “Nothing. It was my fault. I accidentally spilled coffee on myself.”“What do you mean, it was an accident
“Was she the one who scalded Ms. Blake with her coffee?”“Yes. I heard that Ms. Blake’s burns were so severe that her abdomen was covered entirely in blisters. How terrifying! Despite that, Ms. Blake didn’t blame her for anything.”“Not only did Ms. Blake forgive her, but she even asked President Lynch not to reprimand Luna for this. Apparently, she didn’t want to cause any conflict or rifts between them because of the upcoming jewelry design contest.”“Do you think President Lynch will chew her out after the competition is over?”“Who knows? Even though she’s a talented designer, she’s not a good person at all…”…That night, while Luna and the rest were eating dinner at the company cafeteria, they overheard the murmurs and whispers of employees all around them.Samson immediately furrowed his brows upon hearing this. He slammed his fork down on the table forcefully and growled, “How dare they spread lies like this!”Luna, on the other end, frowned slightly and reached out her
Joshua’s words instantly disheartened Luna.She never expected Joshua would question her right away if she did it on purpose when it was such an obvious accident.Luna smiled and met Joshua’s cold gaze.“Mr. Lynch, if you think I did it on purpose, then I did it on purpose.”Luna did not need to explain herself. No matter how she explained herself, he never listened to her.Looking at Luna’s reaction, Joshua exhaled. He furrowed his brows tightly.“Luna, I understand that you’re under a huge amount of pressure recently in preparation for the competition, but this isn’t a reason for you to bully Fiona.”Then, Joshua sighed. “Apologize to Fiona, including this afternoon’s incident.”Joshua still remembered clearly how badly Luna burnt Fiona that afternoon.Although at that moment, there were no burnt marks, Luna still soiled Fiona’s clothes.Two incidents in a day. It was hard to convince others that Luna did not do it on purpose.No matter what, Luna should apologize.“I spi
Fiona bit her lip pitifully.“Ms. Luna, don’t bother them. They’re talking nonsense. I…wasn’t burned.”Then, she turned around and fled. Looking at Fiona leaving, Joshua furrowed his brows and looked at Luna.“You’re really getting more and more cold-blooded.”With that, Joshua left immediately.Luna was rooted where she stood, and she slowly clenched her fists tightly by her sides.Was she cold-blooded? Just because she did not apologize to his darling Ms. Blake, she was cold-blooded.Just because she questioned whether his beloved Ms. Blake was faking her illness or not, she was cold-blooded.If that was the case, just let her be cold-blooded then.Up to that point, she no longer needed to be a gentle and kind-hearted person in front of Joshua.“Director Luna.”Samson, Arianna, and Zayne caught up with Luna.“Are you alright?”Luna shook her head and let out a long breath.“Let’s go back and continue working.”It was three days before the competition. One day later
Fiona’s burns were terrifying.Also, to amplify the effect of the burns that she was about to show that day, Fiona deliberately took off the bandage that wrapped them that morning, completely showing off the layer of blisters to the crowd.The entire meeting room was in silence.Everyone looked at Fiona’s burns in shock. They were so shocked that no one thought of helping her up.Luna was also stunned by the scene before her.After a while, Luna was the first to react. She walked over and helped Fiona up.“How did you get them?”Although she loathed Fiona, looking at her burns, Luna could not help but soften her tone.However, she did not expect that what Fiona said next would place Luna in an unfavorable position.Fiona bit her lips and carefully covered the burns on her stomach.“I’m fine, Ms. Luna. Although you were the one that caused this, I don’t blame you. I blame myself for insisting to send you coffee, and that was why I got burned…”Fiona smilingly continued, “Alth
“But…”It was not that she did not let Fiona partake in it. She gave Fiona some work in embellishing tiny details, but Fiona’s skill was terrible. She could not even do it properly.Luna could only let her run some simple errands.“There’s no need to explain.” President Calvin sighed. “I’ll contact Mr. Lynch of Lynch Group on this matter. We’ll investigate your team’s problem. If it was like what they said, that Ms. Blake didn’t join in any of the core work, we’ll cancel your right to participate in the competition.”Then, he turned and left.The others looked at Luna condescendingly while packing up and leaving.Luna remained in the same spot. She felt something explode in her mind.All this while, she had been confused why Fiona—who had been prepared to ruin the competition—would be so obedient recently, other than heading to her office the day before.Luna truly thought that it was because Fiona wanted her to earn the money for Joshua and leave as soon as possible.However,
Luna did not know how Zayne and Samson sent her home.When she reached Blue Bay Villa, she sat on the sofa and looked at the comments and videos repeatedly, miserably.Zayne and Samson said nothing the entire journey while sending her back.However, Luna knew that both of them felt just as terrible. After all, this was their first competition after getting to work.All this while, they were like Luna—working busily without any sleep.If they were disqualified from competing because of Luna…Luna closed her eyes. She was so dejected and suddenly did not know what she should do.Fiona’s schemes were meticulously thought-out.It started from the video half a month ago.Luna even had reason to suspect that Fiona intentionally let Charmaine know she intended to cause trouble during the competition so that Charmaine would warn Arianna before leaving, to get Luna to be more guarded against Fiona.It was because of her guard against Fiona that Fiona had the space to twist the facts.
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