"Are you in…Kingsland’s city area?" Lily asked cautiously."No," Alexander answered her with certainty."Got it." She had already guessed that he would not be near the city. After all, if he had contracted the disease, it would be better to recuperate in a place far away from people. That was just a question to confirm her assumptions."Take care of yourself. The kids and I are fine. Don't worry!" Lily urged. She did not want to nag him anymore. What he needed the most right now was rest. It was heartbreaking to hear him cough and wheeze like that.She was thankful that he was safe and that he had returned. It was a great relief for her. At least she could put her plans to fly to Burnwken to rest for the time being.However, something happened to Edward. It was hard for her not to tell Olivia about it.…In life, the more one wanted to avoid something, the more it would show up. Olivia came early the following day. She brought a big backpack with her as she stood downstairs wait
At this time, Olivia didn't want to sit down and chat. She was anxious. "Lily, did... did something happen?"Tears began to well up in her eyes as she tried to hold them back. She looked like she could break at any second."No! Nothing happened!" Seeing her like this, Lily decided not to tell her about Edward yet. Instead, she reached out to grab Olivia's hand to give her some support. "I have something to tell you, but you can't get too riled up, okay? Otherwise, I won't be able to tell you."Olivia had a bad premonition in her heart, but her trust in Lily made her nod. "Okay, I'll listen. I'll listen to whatever you say. I'll accept anything you tell me."Although Olivia's face seemed calm, Lily could feel that she was trembling unconsciously as she held onto her hand.Lily's grip tightened as she softly said, "They're back." "Who?" Olvia was taken aback for a moment but quickly realized what Lily meant. Her eyes sparkled. "Really?! They're back?! Where are they? Why didn't th
“Alex called me last night, telling me that he had come back, but he couldn’t return home yet because there were still some things he needed to settle. He told me not to worry too much about it.“As for Edward, I didn’t have the chance to speak to him. Plus, I was in a rush, and I didn’t think of asking that question. I’ll make sure to ask Alex this the next time he calls me, okay? I promise!” Lily comforted.However, she was only telling half the truth. It was true that she did not think of asking Alexander the question, but Edward was not there at the time.As Lily’s words sounded true and there was no problem with the story, Olivia did not have any doubts about it and trusted Lily naturally. Nodding, she said, “Okay! Then you must ask on my behalf the next time.“If he lost it due to his carelessness, I’ll teach him a lesson when he’s back! We promised each other to keep our rings safe when we got married. How could he lose it this way? I’m starting to doubt his combat skills no
After sending Olivia out, Lily pressed her hand on her chest and let out a long sigh. After all, she felt bad for the white lie she told earlier. The most important thing she had to do now was meet Alexander and find out about Edward’s situation.She wanted to be mentally prepared before Olivia knew about it.As for the order request from Yudonia’s royals, she did not understand why they were so persistent about wanting her to create a perfume just for them. Although she had gained some fame internationally in the past two years, there were other renowned perfumers as well. Why must it be her?While massaging her temples, which were hurting, she walked to the study and turned on the computer. She wanted to make herself a cup of coffee at first, but when her fingers touched the coffee machine, she changed her mind and got herself a glass of milk instead.When she returned to the table, the computer was already turned on. She clicked on her inbox and found many unread emails there.
Besides a few spam emails, there was an email from a name Lily had not seen for a long time—Benedict Tanner.Lily was stunned when she saw the name. Not because she needed time to recall the person’s name but because she did not expect him to reply to her email.She had sent Benedict an email when she felt something was amiss with the institute. At that time, she had destroyed all the research data, although Austin recovered it later. Austin’s words reminded her of something when they were at Dominic’s place.If a hacker could recover the data, they could hack it again.There was an encrypted database that Lily could not hack or access. The only person who had access to the database was Professor Thompson. When she asked him about it, he said it involved some internal confidential information and was not for everyone to view.As it was a highly confidential database, he could not grant Lily access and hoped she would understand him. However, he offered to retrieve all the informat
The following morning, Maria washed up and had breakfast before delicately doing her make-up. She was about to leave the house to go shopping and meet up with her friends.She had been so busy with Anastasia’s matters that she had no time to hang out with her friends. It had tempted her for a long time, and they finally agreed to hang out.‘I’m so going to have a good time today!’With that thought in mind, she picked up her bag and headed to the door. Just as she was about to leave, she heard hurried footsteps, and soon, she watched as someone quickly entered through the door.Once she looked at the person, joy flashed across her face. “Ree! You’re back!”“Yeah,” Rhea responded and ascended the stairs.“Ree, you’re not returning to the institute anymore, are you? Will you be staying home longer this time?” Maria asked. She had grown accustomed to this side of Rhea and just turned to follow her daughter upstairs.Rhea did not reply and just walked quickly.“I saw the news. Some
Maria did not expect Rhea to resent them so much. “Ree, I told you this before. Toward Anastasia, I’m only…”“Only using her to get on her father’s good side!” Rhea impatiently completed Maria’s sentence. “I’ve heard that way too many times. Could you be more creative? Also, where the f*ck is my pen holder?”“I…” Maria wiped her tears, not wanting to waste her time explaining herself anymore. “I have no idea.”“You’re at home all day! How could you not know?” Rhea did not believe Maria’s words. “Did you come into my room and touch my things? Did you clean my room?”Maria stayed silent, slightly guilty over this. Rhea had repeatedly told her mother not to enter her room, but she was not home most of the time. Maria thought that her things would get dusty if she just let them be, so she would use her spare key to enter Rhea’s room and clean it up from time to time.However, she could swear she had not seen any pen holder. She did not touch any of Rhea’s things and would not have the
Rhea did not reply to her mother and just walked away quickly in big steps, causing her to almost run into Fabian, who had just returned home. “Why are you being so impetuous?” Fabian had a dark expression, obviously in a foul mood. “Rhea! Stop right there!”Rhea just threw him a glance, but she continued walking in the direction of the door. “Rhea! Are you deaf? Can’t you hear that I’m talking to you? Where are your f*cking manners?” Fabian was furious and was about to pull Rhea back, but Maria managed to stop him first. “Hey, calm down. What’s with the both of you today? You can only meet each other a few times a year! Why can’t the both of you behave nicely?” “It’s your fault for spoiling her!” Fabian rebuked. Seeing that Rhea had already entered her car and he could not chase after her anymore, he just retracted his hand angrily as he scolded, “All of them are ungrateful punks!”Maria was stunned. “Who are you calling ungrateful punks?”“Your daughter, that b*tch Anastas
Lily tilted her head up to fight back her tears, saying, “There’s something I find strange.”“What is it?” Mike asked after comforting his son.“Instead of detaining Prince Ross, Her Majesty has sent him back to Yudonia. If so, why couldn’t we reach him?”After some thought, Mike answered, “There are two possibilities. It’s probably due to poor signals, or he doesn’t want us to contact him.”The two shared a look, knowing what each other was wondering.‘Why can’t we contact Ross? Is he planning something?’…Three days later, Lily inserted the last needle into the queen’s leg and looked up at her, saying, “You should start feeling your legs tomorrow. Still, it’ll take some time before you can stand.”Suddenly, Lily chuckled.“Why are you laughing?” Yasmin touched her legs. She had begun to regain sensation in her legs over the last two days. She then began to believe that she could get up. However, the queen was hesitant when the queen heard Lily chuckle.Lily shook her head
Lily straightened up and said without resentment, “Of course, you wouldn’t.”“That’s… quite a pity,” the queen murmured thoughtfully.“Well, there’s a price to pay for everything. That’s how the world balances itself,” Lily continued, “I can’t stop you if you must carry on with R10. Still, I won’t witness whether or not it succeeds. I just wish the outcome isn’t something you’ll regret.”Lily smiled and turned to head out the door.Rick heard their conversation as he stood guard outside. After exchanging looks with Lily as she brushed past him, he entered the room and saw the needles in Yasmin’s legs. “Your Majesty, those needles—”The queen waved dismissively. “It’s okay. Lily will remove them later.”Even so, Rick was wary. “You’re being too careless, Your Majesty. What if that woman—”“She wouldn’t,” Yasmin interjected, shaking her head."Why do you trust her so much?" Rick asked despite himself. The queen fell silent. If Rick had not asked her that, she would not have rea
Lily took out a cloth and unfolded it, revealing a row of silver needles inside. Yasmin was surprised she carried the needles with her.“Tell me. What do you want?” The queen took a deep breath to calm herself. She then reminded herself that she could always say no to Lily’s request. Still, Yasmin was cautious about Lily trying to trick her.Lily casually said, "I left because Prince Ross wanted to help me. I hope you don’t punish him.""That's it?" Yasmin thought she had misheard Lily. 'Is she trying to talk terms with me just so that I won't punish my son?' she wondered in disbelief."Ross is my son. I won't harm him. Don't you think you've wasted an opportunity by making such a request?" The queen shook her head. "I wasn’t sure if you’d blame him, but he did rescue me once. If I don't do anything, it would be ungrateful of me," Lily said gently, "Also, didn’t you already lock him up?"Yasmin was puzzled. "No, I only sent him back to Yudonia. He kept trying to get me to sto
"Three days," Lily replied.“That’s it?!” Yasmin was in disbelief. She thought Lily would try to buy some more time and suspected she would say the process would take several months or even years.‘I haven’t felt my legs for over a decade. I wouldn’t mind waiting for three more days.’“Are you sure I can get up and walk in just three days?” Yasmin pressed her legs hard but felt nothing. She would have treated her legs long ago if it were that easy.The queen had visited many famous doctors from various countries, but they could only stop her legs from getting weaker. However, Lily confidently told Yasmin that she could fix her legs so quickly.Yasmin wanted to believe it.After some consideration, Lily said, “I can’t guarantee that you’ll walk as fast as you once could. After all, you haven’t used your legs for a long time, and your muscles have atrophied. Still, you’ll recover slowly.”Yasmin nodded repeatedly, thinking it was good enough. She never dreamed of walking as well a
“Because only our opinions matter." Lily thought of something and said, "Unless you choose to believe Rhea.""I… don't trust anyone." Yasmin’s expression stiffened as she turned her wheelchair away."Your Majesty, I know you're dedicated to the experiment, but there are other things in life. Have you ever considered letting go of your burden to sightsee? You’ve done enough as a queen over the last few decades. Aren’t you tired of living a lonely life?”Lily gently spoke as she gazed at Yasmin’s back.The older woman caressed her knees with both hands and stared down at her legs, murmuring, “Sightsee, huh? I’ve forgotten what that’s like.”Yasmin had not used her legs for many years. Initially, she could still stand up and sometimes took a few steps. However, she could no longer get to her feet.She had grown accustomed to sitting in a wheelchair, but she felt a pang of sorrow after hearing Lily’s suggestion.Lily asked, “What if I can help you stand again? What if you can walk a
"Yes, I returned not just for him but also for you," Lily said, "I'm sure you were anxious for my return, weren't you?"Yasmin scoffed dismissively. "Why would I be? I have my bargaining chip. Besides, did you honestly think I couldn’t bring you back?""Bargaining chip? Do you mean Nick?" Lily shook her head with a smile. "Don't forget that he's not my son. Do you think he'll be much of a bargaining chip to you if I choose to ignore him for my three children?"She did not wait for Yasmin to reply and continued, "Besides, Nick still has a father who’s willing to die for him. If Mike decides to take drastic action against you— Yes, you're a queen, and you don't care much about an insignificant businessman.“However, don't forget that his business spans worldwide. There's no guarantee what he might do. Who knows, he might spread information that can affect Your Majesty and Yudonia's reputation?""You…" The queen was exasperated but could not retort.Lily noticed it and casually said
Rick could only remain silent at that moment.Yasmin then turned her wheelchair around and blandly said, “Bring Lily over. I’d like to see what excuses that sly woman can come up with.”"Your Majesty?" Rick was puzzled. "You know she'll just lie to you. Why must you—"Yasmin interjected, "I'd like to hear what she has to say."Rick had no choice but to leave and do as she said.As Lily was about to doze off, she heard noises from outside and opened her eyes. Immediately after, the door opened, and Rick appeared. He glared at her and spoke coldly, “Her Majesty wants to see you.”Lily glanced at Rick calmly and stood up as if she had expected his appearance. On the other hand, Mike rose before her and headed out.However, Rick stopped him as he reached the door. “You stay.”"But we came together!" Mike glanced over his shoulder at Lily, signaling her to persuade the man. Rick added, "The queen doesn’t wish to see you. Just stay here!"Lily patted Mike's shoulder and said gentl
Everyone was shocked when Lily returned to the embassy with Mike. One of the staff members quickly left to report the news to Queen Yasmin.Meanwhile, Lily saw people peering at her and Mike from the corner. Afterward, several guarded-looking men appeared. Lilt recognized them as the queen’s attendants. They brought Mike and Lily inside and then gave the duo a thorough search.The men only relaxed after finding nothing suspicious about the duo. Even so, Lily could not see the queen as the men told her to wait in an innermost room instead.After returning to the embassy, Lily felt a sense of strange familiarity. Although she knew the place well, her mindset had changed.She previously hated the embassy and simply wanted to escape. However, she had returned with a critical mission. Not only did she have to complete it, but she also needed to leave the place in one piece.While she was calm, Mike was somewhat anxious. He clasped his hands on his knees and glanced around as he sat dow
"I promise I'll do anything you want, okay?" Mike begged. He was desperate to see his son, so he decided to follow Lily when she insisted on returning to the embassy.Mike continued, “If any of you go with her, they might stop or suspect you. They won’t do that to me. It’s natural for me to want to see and rescue my son. I’m the best candidate because it makes sense for me to sacrifice myself for him.”After a short silence, Lily said, “You’re right.” She then looked at Alexander, who pondered before slowly raising his head and saying, “Me too.”Dominic tapped the table. "So do I."Cameron thought for a moment before saying, "I've no objections."Seeing this, Austin spread his arms and said, "Since you all agree, what else can I say? Let's do it!"It did not matter whether or not he agreed, but he just wanted to support Mike. The latter nodded and became emotional, saying, “Thanks, you guys!”"Why are you thanking us? Just be careful, and don’t be rash like you promised," Aust