The nanny heard Joey's cries from outside and rushed into his room to check on him."Miss Anya, what's going on? Did Mister Joey make you angry again? He's just a kid… He doesn't know any better. Won't you please forgive him?"Anya was raging. "What are you doing back in here? Didn't I ask you to go outside? How dare a lowly servant like you tell me what to do!"The nanny immediately hung her head low and said respectfully, "I'm sorry, Miss Anya. I didn't mean to…"In a fit of blind rage, Anya slapped her. "What didn't you mean to do? Barge in here? I put Joey in your care, and look at how he turned out now! The moment he sees me, he'll start crying as if I'm a monster. You must've taught him to do that."Covering her cheek with her hand, the nanny tried to explain, "No, Miss Anya. I didn't teach Mister Joey to do that. You're a first-time mother, so it's normal to lose patience sometimes… I'm sure he'll stop being afraid of you if you just show him a little more patience…"Anya
Lucas looked up, and his pupils shrank when he realized Joey was missing from his crib. "Where's Joey?"Anya looked at the crib, too. "Hey, you're right. Where is he? Did he run off with the nanny?"Lucas strode out of the room quickly and asked the servants stationed in the area whether they had seen Joey, but none of them did. He looked around the room once more and saw the balcony door was open. The balcony in that room was linked to all the other balconies on the same floor."He must've gone into the other rooms through the balcony. He shouldn't have gotten far. All of you, split up and look for him.""Yes, Mister Lucas!" said the servants.After that, he went down the stairs.Anya immediately chased after him. "Lucas, where are you going? Aren't you going to look for Joey with me?""I'm sure he's still in the house somewhere, so he should be fine. I need to go to the kitchen now.""Why?""We have an important guest in our house today, and to show our gratitude, I'm going
Anya's eyes lit up when her mother mentioned miscarriages.'She's right. We'll just have to sneak the saffron into Corinne's food at tonight's dinner and, boom! Her baby will be gone!'However, since all of her previous plans came to a fruitless end, she did not feel as confident as she did last time. "But what if someone finds out it's the saffron that caused her miscarriage?" she asked worriedly."Don't worry. I'll just say I did it should anyone find out about it. I can just pretend I didn't know Corinne was pregnant, and that's why I gave her some saffron to try," said Phoebe smugly.Knowing her mother had her back, Anya finally felt at ease."Okay, wait here, Mommy. I'll go get the saffron now. Try to put as much as you can in Corinne's food… I want to see her bleed out all the blood she has."…Meanwhile, in Luna's room.Corinne was resting on the small bed with her head against the headboard. She scanned every corner of the room to see if her memory could be jogged. Howe
However, Corinne had her reason for ending the call so quickly. She heard a noise outside her window, and she did not tell Jeremy because she did not want to worry him.After hanging up, she went to the window and peeked outside. "Is anyone there?"No one replied, which bewildered her as she was certain she heard something.She then looked down, and her pupils dilated when she saw a child hanging precariously from the balcony railing of the next room. He could have fallen!Although they were only on the second floor, it would still be dangerous for such a small child to fall from there."Don't move! It's dangerous!"Without thinking twice, Corinne immediately stepped over the balcony railing to save the child. After grabbing him, she stepped over the balcony railing again and brought him into the room.The child was, of course, none other than Joey—who Anya emotionally blackmailed Jeremy into adopting with her. His head was still thickly wrapped with bandages due to the injury h
Joey was struggling too much, so Corinne had to put him down again. "Okay, then. We'll stay here for a bit longer."As soon as Joey's feet touched the floor, he immediately backed into the corner, squatted, and curled like a scared animal with his arms hugging his knees.Corinne frowned at how pitiful he looked. "You do know I'm going to have to leave this room sooner or later, right? How long do you think you can hide in here then? What if you got hungry or thirsty? The people in this house will find you eventually."Joey started trembling violently when he heard he was going to be found eventually. Seeing this, Corinne could not help but feel sorry for him. She was once like him, too—all alone and helpless.Even though her mother entrusted her to Marvin, that good-for-nothing man was quick to send her off to live with his relative in the countryside as soon as the opportunity presented itself. She was a bona fide outsider in that house, and the only reason Marvin's relatives woul
"Do you want to leave this place?" Corinne asked Joey.Joey nodded anxiously."Where do you want to go?""Orph…age," stammered Joey.'Does he mean the orphanage? Heh. He'd rather go back to the orphanage than live with the Riveras, huh,' thought Corinne.She patted his head gently to calm him and to make him trust her."I really want to help, but I'm only a guest here while Anya is your legal guardian. I can't help you to leave this place if we don't have proof that she's abusing you."Joey only blinked and looked at her in a daze. He did not know how to express himself nor did he understand what she was talking about, despite him taking every word seriously.Corinne thought what she said was above Joey's comprehension ability too, so she sighed and said, "What I mean is… Bear with this for a while. I promise I'll get you out of here once I get the chance to, okay?"Joey was stunned for a while, but the look of wariness in his eyes lessened. He then nodded docilely."If you d
Corinne led Joey out of the room.Edmund was leaning against the wall and scrolling through his phone. As soon as he heard the door opening, he straightened himself respectfully. However, his dutiful expression changed to confusion when he saw Corinne with Joey.'What's going on? I've been standing guard here the whole time, so how did Miss Anya's kid go in without me noticing?' he wondered."Miss Corinne, how did Joey get into your room?""I'm not sure either. I just happened to see him come running in from the balcony."'Oh, so that's what happened! I'm so glad it wasn't my mistake,' thought Edmund."Forgive me, Miss Corinne," he said respectfully. "I shouldn't have let Joey bother you. You can leave him with me and head down to have your dinner."Corinne nodded and pulled Joey toward Edmund. However, the kid just grabbed her hand harder as if not wanting to let go.Joey had a particularly peaceful rest, and it had been such a long time since he had slept so soundly with none
Corinne smiled and remained seated where she was. She then picked up a glass of water among the expensive-looking tableware and drank from it."What on earth are you doing? I asked you to get up! How dare you drink from the water on the table? What is wrong with you tutors nowadays? Don't they teach you any manners anymore? Do you think you can do anything just because you've finished tutoring my son? If you don't get up now, I'm going to fire you!"She then grabbed Corinne roughly by the elbow to pull her up from the chair."Phoebe Stewart, watch who you're talking to!"Startled, Phoebe turned to see Cedric, being supported by Lucas, and Beatrice supported by Anya. The person who shouted at her was none other than Cedric."But, Dad! I was just trying to show this tutor her place," said Phoebe.Both Cedric and Beatrice frowned while Lucas' eyes darkened. Phoebe could sense she had said something wrong, but she could not tell what it was.Anya frowned and said unhappily, "Mom, wh