Jeremy cleared his throat after being told off by his niece. "If you can easily see something, why do you need to say it formally?"Annie said affirmatively, "Hey, it's very necessary! We girls hate ambiguous relationships the most! If you don't express your intentions but still make intimate gestures to others, girls will feel that it's irresponsible teasing and feel as if we're not respected, so of course we'll be angry!"Jeremy hesitated slightly. "She's already angry. What should I do?"Annie was stunned. Was Jeremy…actually asking her for a solution?This was a first; her all-powerful uncle had never done this before, and she felt a sense of importance."Duh, you have to make up for it as much as possible! Pick a suitable time, formally express your heart to the other party, let her know that she's the one you're dead set on, and give her enough sense of security! Pay attention! There must be a sense of ceremony! Let me emphasize this, there must be a sense of ceremony! There
After hanging up the phone, Corinne lazily leaned on the sofa and continued to watch the television as she ate her potato chips.20 minutes later, Annie hastily arrived at the Holdens estate and dragged her into the car, insisting on taking her shopping to buy Jeremy a birthday present.Corinne felt helpless. Why did she need to buy Jeremy a birthday present?She was just an extra, playing the role of his wife with zero pay, yet all of a sudden, she had to give him a gift?No matter how she looked at it, this felt unreasonable.…Downtown Commercial Street.In a famous designer store in VK Mall, Annie sat in front of a glass counter, carefully selecting the dazzling array of delicate accessories."Aunt Corinne, what kind of gift do you think Uncle Jeremy will like more?"Corinne stood aside and tried on a pair of sunglasses disinterestedly and replied casually while looking in the mirror, "I don't know."Annie frowned and turned to look at her, showing a troubled expression.
"In this world, two things can never be grasped. One is time, and the other is a human's heart. If the other person's heart is no longer with you, no matter what you do to please them, their heart will never be yours. Why, then, should you spend so much energy doing something so futile? It's better to do a good job in your own business, improve yourself, and let yourself be the one who holds the initiative."Annie was caught off-guard, and the confusion in her eyes was replaced with admiration. "Aunt Corinne, what you said is so philosophical! I want to learn from you! Don't fret about men anymore and just focus on your career!"Corinne pinched her glabella, fearing that Annie would get the wrong idea and thus patiently explained, "That's not the case. It's good to fall in love and enrich your emotional life, but remember to never surrender yourself easily, let alone entrust your future to a man, wronging yourself to please a man. Understand?"Annie nodded, feeling wholly inspired.
Lunar Century Manor.Hastily, Annie gave her car keys to the valet to park her car so she could film Corinne with her phone."Aren't you supposed to take a video of yourself to record your daily vlog?" Corinne felt rather helpless. "Why do you keep filming me instead?"Annie giggled. "That's because you're too pretty, and I just can't help myself!"She wanted to film Corinne getting out of the car, when she would then see Jeremy, and the entire process when Jeremy would confess to her. She wanted to make it into a short film that would impress everyone when she would post it on her social media account, wanting everyone to be jealous of them.Corinne was at a loss for words at Annie's behavior. She massaged her glabella to ease the tension she felt before she decided to ignore Annie and walked into the manor by herself.To enter the manor, people were required to walk past an arch embellished with Moonstones. After she walked past it, a breeze blew at her, carrying a rather fragr
Paper confetti flew and scattered on the floor as a thin, well-dressed young woman jumped out of the box with colorful butterflies. The sight was surreal and magical.The girl ran toward Jeremy excitedly and buried herself in a hug fondly. "Jeremy, I'm finally back! Thank you for preparing this for me; I like it so much. It's so touching!"Corinne froze at the sight as her expression dulled. Suddenly, the butterflies she felt earlier…felt like a joke.Anya had come back.Every pink tulip in Lunar Century Manor was blooming for her. The reason Jeremy had asked her to come here was most likely to inform her that the apple of his eye had returned. Thus, she had to behave when she was acting as his wife to avoid causing misunderstandings with the girl he loved dearly. That must be it.She understood.For a moment there, she truly believed this day was all about her. She thought Jeremy was going to confess his love to her.Hilarious. The man told her that he could provide her with an
On the other side of the sky, a bright full moon hung in the sky as if the lively confessions had nothing to do with it.Corinne took out her phone and took a photo of the moon to post it to her social media.[The moon is so beautiful tonight.]Just a few seconds after it was posted, a friend with the nickname An liked the post. She even commented on the post, [Yeah. I think so, too.]Corinne never recalled having an acquaintance with that name in her account, so she clicked the profile.It was a girl smiling peacefully and cheerfully at the camera.She continued to look at the post the girl posted. From there, she concluded that this was Anya Rivera and her social media account.It was only then Corinne realized she was using Jeremy's phone, and the social media account logged into the phone was Jeremy's. She actually posted to Jeremy's social media account instead of hers.She did not think twice when she posted that and did not notice that was not her account.'Ugh, forget
Corinne's words did not comfort the blind elderly man, alas."Even if they have urgent matters to attend to, it's still wrong to park the car on the tactile paving. Nowadays, people are only concerned with their own conveniences and refuse to think if their actions will trouble others!"The blind elderly man did have a point.Corinne sighed and wanted to assist the blind elderly man to walk past the SUV when all of a sudden, someone shrieked, "Hey! What did you guys do?!"Corinne looked in the direction of the voice and spotted a young girl with purple hair running toward them angrily, holding a selfie stick.The girl saw the shattered window and immediately snapped crassly, "What the f*ck? The heck, you two! Why did you smash my car?"Corinne had seen this purple-haired girl when she sat at the embankment of Yonder River, and she figured the girl was an influencer.The purple-haired girl used the lavish confessions at Yonder River as a way to attract viewers by broadcasting the
"I'm not moving it! What are you going to do?" The purple-haired girl scanned Corinne arrogantly. It was then she realized Corinne was…very beautiful, and that only made her angrier.Nevertheless, she reckoned Corinne was not her match as she looked weak and timid.All of a sudden, she came out with an idea.She unlocked the phone on her selfie stick and went live, switching up so swiftly and portraying herself as an innocent victim while she complained to her viewers."Someone, please help me! I'm in danger! This old man and this girl here smashed my car without any reason, and now, this old man is lying on the ground, trying to scam me. You guys, look at how they're trying to bully me! Hic, hic…"She deliberately lowered the selfie stick so the angle was at a place where the viewers could not see her car was blocking the tactile paving.Corinne remained silent while the influencer refused to admit she was wrong. Anyhow, she helped the blind elderly man up and brought him to som
Sherman could not help but feel fearful when he recalled the incident.Rita gently smoothed his furrowed brow. "I knew you'd come to rescue me, just like all the times you did. I love you, Sherman."Previously, Rita confessed her love to him when she was groggy. At this moment, however, she was clearly awake, even sporting a faint smile on her face as she confessed.Sherman immediately blushed. "I love you, too."Rita did not stay long in the hospital; she quickly returned to the Parr family's mansion. Just as Sherman's grandparents had said, Rita did not have any major injuries, so there was no need for her to stay in the hospital that long. In fact, she might even recover faster emotionally under the care at home.Not once did Sherman bring up Rita's job, but she surprisingly resigned from New Capital Times on her own accord. It would be difficult for her to investigate cases with her current condition; not to mention Sherman had handed over the evidence to the police. The polic
"Sherman, I like you. I love you," Rita finally confessed.Sherman, deeply pained, pulled Rita into his arms. "This is all my fault. I should've looked for you quicker. I've never blamed you. All I want is to see you smile. It's enough for me as long as you're willing to let me stay by your side."You don't have to confess to me. I know it's hard for you to do that because of your family. I've seen the way they've treated you, and…"The bodyguards who had barged in with Sherman felt a bit awkward to see their company president in tears. However, the priority was to get Rita to the hospital for a check-up. Being tied up for hours could cause circulation issues, and it could be dangerous if her limbs did not regain feelings soon.In the end, they got the bravest among them to convince Sherman to let them take Rita to the hospital. Instead of letting them do it, Sherman wiped away his tears and, with ease, lifted Rita as if she was as light as a feather.Fortunately, after the hospit
With that, Karen left without looking back. She was carrying Vince's baby in her womb, so how could she pin all her hopes on Sadie? Since Sadie was obviously unruly, she would have to rely on her son.'Sadie can spend the rest of her life with Esmond since she likes him so much. God knows it had been exhausting enough to raise her. Plus, it's only fair for Esmond to take care of her since I've done my part taking care of her until now,' thought Karen.Meanwhile, the only consolation for Sherman was that Esmond did not try to put up a fight. It seemed that he still cared about his daughter Sadie.Sherman led his men to a dilapidated house. Esmond had been cautious enough to choose a rundown house situated at the end of a village.When Sherman barged in, he found Rita lying on the floor while Esmond's men ignored her. Esmond's men had followed his orders, and since he did not instruct them to do anything to Rita, they left her well alone.Before the men could react, they were surrou
Karen cried and silently knelt by Sadie's side without trying to defend herself. Sadie, on the other hand, feebly tried to explain herself. Alas. Vince refused to listen.There had been many occasions before when he had chosen to believe Karen and Sadie, but at this moment, he realized he had been terribly wrong to do that.Rita used to be so kind, understanding, and well-behaved. However, ever since Karen and Sadie moved in, Vince felt like his daughter had become manipulative, always trying to compete for attention, and stirring up jealousy in front of him.Unfortunately, it took Rita's disappearance to make Vince realize that Rita was not trying to compete for attention. All Rita wanted from him was to treat her the same as Sadie.Vince used to think that Rita should give in to Sadie more since Sadie was younger, too."Why don't you go live with your biological father since you prefer him so much? I never want to see you show your face around here anymore! As for your mother, s
Sadie was so anxious that she wanted to jump out. "Mom, don't tell me you fell for it! Why did you call Esmond? Now they all know where Rita is. You've ruined everything, again! What were you thinking?"Karen could not care less. She cried and slapped Sadie. "You nearly scared me to death! What would I do if something happened to you? I didn't raise you just to watch you die. I told you not to meet up with Esmond, so why did you secretly meet up with him? How can you ask him to get rid of Rita?"Are you out of your mind? All I want is for us to live out the rest of our lives peacefully, so why didn't you listen to me?!"Sadie was furious. Karen had stopped trying to get rid of Rita ever since she got pregnant, so how could Sadie not be angry? Rita was like a thorn in her side, and Sadie would never be happy unless Rita was dead."Don't you know I like Sherman? How could you ask me to do nothing when Rita has stolen him from me?! I was the one who liked him first. It's either Rita g
Karen wanted so badly to slap Esmond through the phone.'What good are his pompous words now? We wouldn't be in this mess now if he hadn't hit me back then! What's more, he's saying he's doing this for Sadie. But has he ever thought of what would happen to me and Sadie if he got rid of Rita? Rita's the heiress of the Russell family. Not to mention, she's married to Sherman, so that makes her owner of Parr Group too! What makes Esmond think he can get rid of Rita so easily?'Karen's breath was ragged as she said, "If you don't believe me, just listen to your daughter's screams. I can't save her now; you will literally decide her fate! Plus, I'm pregnant with Vince's baby, so even if I lose Sadie, I still have a kid—which is more than what I can say about you!"Sherman could not help but be impressed by Karen a little. Even in this dire situation, she did not forget to express her heartfelt feelings to Vince, letting him know that she was always on his side. It was certainly not an ea
"Sherman raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a minor injury, maybe just a finger. There shouldn't be any major issues. A sprained joint takes only a hundred days to heal, and it might take her even less time to heal if you take very good care of her while she's recuperating."Karen's heart ached upon hearing that. She lunged toward Sherman, wanting to hit him, but the bodyguards stopped her before she could get close.Vince, still worried, held Karen tightly beside him. "Calm down. I'm sure Sadie will come out unharmed if Rita's kidnapping has nothing to do with her. But if it does, then you should know very well that…"Vince's voice dropped an octave. He could not believe his daughter's disappearance had anything to do with his stepdaughter. However, he was not utterly naive.He continued, "How could a girl like her take Rita away? Even the car window was smashed. Others must've been involved. Does her biological father have anything to do with it?"Sherman nodded
"Yes, it's true I met up with my biological father, but it was just a one-time thing. I don't want to go back to him at all! Otherwise, I would've done it ages ago. Dad, I'm really grateful to you for taking me in and looking after me all these years. That's why I feel like you're my real father, even more real than those who share the same blood."How could you unjustly accuse me and Mom like that? Sherman is the one spouting nonsense here. He's trying to push all the blame onto us. Dad, you have to wake up and see the truth!"Karen nodded along, but her heart was racing. 'When did Sadie meet Esmond? How did Sherman know when I don't even know? Seems like Sadie does have something to do with Rita's kidnapping. I have to settle things and get Sherman out of here.'Karen never had the thought of rekindling her relationship with Esmond. The only thing she wanted then was to peacefully give birth to her son. Everything in the Russell family would eventually go to her son, and she would
Sherman detested people pointing their fingers at him when they spoke. He stood up slowly, towering over Vince instantly."You claim to be Rita's father, yet if I were you, I'd choose to shut up and stand aside. I can't believe you're scolding me for threatening Sadie when she's not even your real daughter!"Look at her guilty expression; it's clear she's involved. If you don't believe me, use your brain a little. No wonder Russell Group is declining under your leadership. It's only a matter of time before the company goes completely bankrupt!"Sherman showed no mercy, causing Vince to retreat with every word. Vince clutched his chest, struggling for breath.Karen, despite her weakness, stepped forward to support him. "How could you speak to your father-in-law like this? What has Sadie done to offend you? She has nothing but admiration for you. Plus, she's just a child. How could you treat her like this?"She went on and on, but Sherman stood his ground. Meanwhile, the burly bodyg