Javier had already prepared everything else they needed when Ollie came down with his bag. The beach that they were going was right behind Diroux Residences. The natural beach there was picturesque, framed by lush greenery.Even though they knew it was a nice place, Ollie and Claire were still stunned by the scenery.Ollie’s eyes went wide. “This is so pretty!”He let go of Claire’s hand and ran onto the beach. His childish liveliness was apparent.Patty followed behind, worried that he would hurt himself.Claire and Javier sat on the beach as the chefs prepared some barbeque for them.Claire couldn’t help but marvel at the lives of the rich. Even though the Weiss family was well off, their wealth was nothing compared to Javier’s.The weather was just right today, and the sun shone warmly without a bite. It was very comfortable, especially under the shade.Claire didn’t even need to move a finger to get food, as the chef served her right where she sat. She couldn’t really move around
Javier glared at Shawn gloomily.His friend was a good man most of the time, but unfortunately, Hattie had him wrapped around her thumb.Javier had no desire to continue talking with them. Patty came in with Ollie when he was about to ask them to leave.Hattie couldn’t hide her shock when she saw Ollie. “Why is he here?” she demanded, pointing at Ollie.Patty was surprised to see Hattie and Shawn. She smiled at them and greeted, “Miss Snyder, Mr. Jones.”Even though Patty was technically their elder, she still had to greet them first.However, she didn’t know how to explain Ollie’s presence to Hattie, who was visibly distraught. Patty glanced at Javier, who did not seem fazed by Hattie’s reaction. “He is staying with me at the moment. Why?”This was his house. He didn’t need to explain anything to her.Hattie also realized that she had overreacted. She covered up her emotions and said weakly, “Nothing, Javier. I was just surprised.”Even though she backed down, she still couldn’t acce
“What do you mean the engagement has been postponed?” Over at the Weiss family, Zoey asked in disbelief. She was furious. “What is the Kendall family doing?”Chantelle sat before her on the sofa. Her eyes were red as if she’d just cried. “Armand’s parents are not happy about our company’s problems,” she said, glancing unhappily at her father.Chantelle knew the Kendall family would drop her like a hot potato if this continued. “Mom, Dad, you have to do something,” she sobbed. “I don’t want to call off the engagement. I can’t live without Armand!”Seeing how upset her daughter was, Zoey felt sorry for her. She hugged her. “Don’t cry, my daughter. It will be fine, I promise.” Then, she told Liam, who was standing at the side, “Can’t you see how upset your daughter is? Find a way to fix this!”Liam did not say anything. He was tired enough of all the troubles the Weiss family was going through.In order to escape his wife and daughter’s complaints, he went to the study for some peace and
Claire had no idea what the Weiss family was planning for her. She nursed her leg wound at home for a few days, then returned to work.At first, Patty wanted her to stay home longer, as she was worried about her health, but Claire rejected the idea.She was the kind of person who could never stay still in one place. A few more days of bedrest would drive her insane.Moreover, Thomas was now the talk of the Internet thanks to his role in “Traverse 2.” His Twitter followers quickly shot to a million.Claire planned to take advantage of his rise to fame by releasing a video of him as a fan service.As she expected, the comments came flooding in soon after she released the video.“Thomas is so good-looking! I’m going to lick my screen!”“Oh, my God. Yes, he’s the obvious choice for Percy Drake. I love him!”“I hope he gets famous soon! I’ll be his first supporter.”Claire replied to a few of these comments, then left them to manifest.After all, she was a busy woman, and Internet fame only
That evening, Claire had dinner with Ollie and Patty.Javier was nowhere to be seen. Normally, by this time, he would have been home already. Claire figured Javier was probably caught up with work and had to work overtime.For some reason, she was already used to welcoming Javier home every night.Patty knew who she was looking for. “Mr. Marquez is having dinner with his parents tonight.”Claire nodded her understanding. It wasn’t like she cared all that much. She was just embarrassed that Patty had seen through her so easily. She continued eating.Ollie looked between them. He was also sad that his father was not having dinner with them tonight. He, too, lowered his head as he ate. He planned to tell Dad that Mommy was sad when he came home.At the same time, Javier was having dinner with his parents at Marquez Manor. Shawn and Hattie were there too.Sofia served them food happily. “Shawn, Hattie, it’s been so long since you visited. I missed you. Here, have more food. You like this,
Javier arrived home late at night. Ollie was already fast asleep, and Patty had turned in for the night.Claire was alone in the living room practicing yoga. Her tight outfit accentuated her perfect curves.When she heard a sound from the door, she glanced at it. What she saw gave her a scare of a lifetime.Javier was standing there, watching her. She didn’t know how long he had been there.“How did you come in so silently?” Claire stood up, muttering under her breath. Her face felt hot when she realized Javier had seen her in those weird poses.How embarrassing!Javier seemed to be in a good mood. He said teasingly, “If I made a sound, then I wouldn’t be able to see such an interesting picture.”“You…” Claire started awkwardly, but Javier turned and went upstairs without waiting for her reply. She glared after him.Due to Javier’s interruption, Claire lost her mood to continue practicing yoga. She packed up her stuff and prepared for bed.The next morning, Claire woke up to find that
Before she left, Sofia gave Claire a questioning look that she couldn’t understand. When she finally left, Claire let out a sigh of relief.However, she still felt worried. Her marriage with Javier was nothing but business. There was no relationship between them.Now that his mother knew about her, she wondered if she would interfere with this.If that happened, she needed to be prepared. After all, it was hard to say what the Weiss family would do to Ollie. She had to protect him at all costs.The more CLaire thought about this, the more anxious she was. In the end, she decided to go with the flow.At the very least, she ought to let Javier know about this.At the same time, Javier was dealing with work at the Marquez Group. His assistant, Henry, came in and said, “Sir, your mother’s here. She says she needs to talk to you.”Javier was surprised. He was pretty busy at the moment, so he had planned to let Henry entertain Sofia while he was busy, but before he could say anything, Sofia
Earlier, he had heard Javier arguing with Sofia from outside, but he didn’t know the cause of the quarrel. From Javier’s expression, it seemed things weren’t as he imagined.Had his boss lost his mind?Of course, he daren’t say that out loud. Quietly, he went over to him and handed him some documents.“Sir, this is the contract we’ll be discussing at the meeting later. Do you want to take a look?” he asked cautiously. He was afraid of triggering Javier.“No need,” Javier answered without even lifting his head.Henry was taken aback. “Really? But we’ll be talking about this tonight…”“Cancel the meeting,” Javier interrupted. “Tell Mr. Lancroft of Milltech that the meeting is canceled. I need to go home early today.”“Okay.” Henry nodded. He was surprised by this. Normally, Javier would stay late just to get more work done. Why was he in such a hurry to go home today?Was he in a relationship?Thinking about everything out of the ordinary that he had done lately, Henry was convinced that
Hattie looked extremely sincere in her pleading. However, when Sofia did not answer or even look at her, she began to lose confidence. Sofia's face was impassive. "Hattie, I've known you since you were a baby, but I can't help you with this. Please leave." She did not want to discuss the other stuff with her yet.However, Hattie was obstinate. She looked at her with tears in her eyes. "Aunt Sofia, please, please help me. I know it's not much trouble for you, but it can save our entire family. You've always been so kind to me. I promise that the Snyder family will repay you for your kindness!"Hearing this, Sofia felt uncomfortable. She raised her head and gazed at her coldly. "In this case, Hattie, I'll tell you why I won't help you," she said impatiently. "Do you really not know what you've done? I won't say it, but I know exactly what you've done to Ollie. You deserve everything that's happening to you now."Hattie widened her eyes, partly in shock and partly in disbelief when she h
Javier paused outside the door and waited until Claire left before giving his subordinates a look. They understood perfectly and grabbed Chantelle at once.As Javier had ordered, they were to send this woman abroad as far away as possible and leave her to fend for herself.Outside the hotel, Claire looked up at the sky blankly. She felt like a huge burden had been taken off her shoulders; for the first time in a long time, she felt relieved of all the hurt that she had suffered five years ago. Turning back, she told Javier, "Thank you, Javier, for allowing me to face my fears. I feel so relieved now."Javier's expression fell when he heard her thank him. He tapped her on the nose fondly in exasperation. "What are you talking about? Of course, I won't let those who hurt you get off so easily. They have to pay for what they have done."Claire was touched to see him so protective of her. A surge of warmness spread in her chest as she gazed at him fondly. "I'm lucky to have you, Javier."T
That was all Armand could think of.In just a few minutes, Chantelle admitted to everything she had done to Claire over the past few years.From drugging Claire out of jealousy and getting a stranger to assault her to getting Liam to banish her abroad, she admitted to everything. Claire knew some of them, but not all; only now did she know the extent of her crimes.When she was finished, everyone in the room sported conflicting expressions. Liam looked especially hurt and remorseful. It turned out that his younger daughter had always been evil, and he had wrongfully blamed Claire for all these years.Armand, on the other hand, didn't know how to feel about all this. He glanced at Claire and Javier. He felt that he really didn't deserve Claire, after all he had done. He had thought Chantelle to be kind and naive and had trusted her blindly to the point that he almost married her.Thank goodness the wedding didn't happen. Even so, he had lost Claire thanks to this. It made him regret eve
If Chantelle told Claire the truth about what happened that night, then there would be nothing stopping her from having a happily-ever-after with Javier.Back then, driven by jealousy, she had drugged Claire and put her in Javier's bed without their consent. She had planned all of this out herself meticulously. She had gotten Armand to catch Claire in the act so that he would call off the engagement and be with her instead. Liam banished Claire abroad to fend for herself. However, if she had known that the random stranger she had arranged to assault Claire was Javier, she never would've done it.Even so, it was a perfect plan worthy of a blockbuster film. Claire and Javier never found out the truth, nor did they know that Ollie was actually Javier's son.It took them two years of skirting around each other only to find out that they were meant to be in the first place. Now that the truth was out, Claire would not settle for prison as a punishment for the cause of all her suffering. Sh
After a lot of persuasion, Claire and Sofia finally managed to get Ollie to agree to stay in the hospital for another three days.Of course, three days weren't enough. Sofia and Pedro tried everything they could to convince Ollie to stay in the hospital for as long as possible.However, Ollie was smart enough to see through their ruse. He felt guilty when he saw them trying to cajole him into staying, so one day, after another attempt, he spoke up hesitantly, "Grandma, Grandpa, I'm glad that you're trying to keep me happy, and I'm touched that you're concerned about me, but I've been in the hospital for too long and it's making me sad. I promise that I'll listen to the doctor even when I'm at home, okay?" Under his bright, clear gaze, Sofia's protests died in her throat, leaving only exasperation and wordless sorrow.Ollie was too mature for his age. How could they not love him?Therefore, Ollie got his wish and was discharged three days later. In order to take care of Ollie, Sofia an
Hearing this, Javier narrowed his eyes. He felt like he was on the verge of grasping something, but the feeling passed too quickly for him to register it. Softening his tone, he said, "There's no need to be scared, Ollie. We're all right here with you. We'll protect you no matter what happens. Can you tell me what you remembered?"Ollie might have regained his memories from before he'd been drugged.Buoyed by the encouragement, Ollie thought hard for a moment and said with a frown, "I … I remember a lady beating me. She locked me up and didn't let me eat anything while saying bad things about me and Mommy all the time. I wanted to fight back, but I was too weak. After I tried to run, she caught me and beat me up some more and forced me to eat food off the floor." Toward the end of this, Ollie burst into tears.Claire's heart hurt for him. She wanted to hug him, but Javier got there first."Tell me, Ollie, do you know her name?" Javier's voice was thick with tears as well. "Do you remem
With that, Henry threw a glance at the rest of the employees and hurried them out. He also dragged Raina and Thomas out with him, leaving only Claire and Javier's parents to keep him company.Since it was only a small procedure for Javier, he did not get a lot of anesthesia. He tried to wriggle his body a little. Realizing what he was doing, Claire quickly helped him sit up.Javier did not look like he had just come out of surgery. Thanks to his strong physique, he looked fine.Seeing this, Sofia finally eased up a little on her worries. "How are you feeling, Javier?"Javier shook his head. "I'm fine, Mom. I just need some rest. How about Ollie? Did they say when he'll wake up?" He already knew that the surgery was a success, so he wanted to know when he would be able to see Ollie."Randy said that Ollie will be out for some time, but he's fine," Claire replied. Javier nodded. He, too, finally eased up on the tight knot of worry that was weighing his chest.Once he was sure that Javie
The surgery took three hours.As time went by, Claire got more and more anxious. However, there was nothing she could do but wait.In the end, Sofia was the first to crack. She went up to Claire and said anxiously, "Claire, are you sure that Dr. Xenos is good? It's been three hours, why aren't they out yet? I have a bad feeling about this."Claire wasn't exactly relaxed either, but she didn't show it. She gathered her thoughts and comforted Sofia. "Everything will be fine, Mrs. Marquez. Randy is a well-known surgeon, I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Don't worry." She wanted to reach out to comfort her, but in the end, she just sat there with an awkward expression. This was probably how their relationship would be in the foreseeable future—awkward and distant.Pedro watched their interaction with an air of knowingness. "Stop crying, Sofia," he said. "They're fine, you don't have to cry about them. Claire's still pregnant, don't upset her."Sofia was about to get angry about his admoni
At that, Javier narrowed his eyes dangerously.The Weiss family wasn't in a stable condition right now, so it wouldn't be hard for him to take revenge on Claire's behalf. Now that he knew the truth of what had happened, he had to find a way to punish the perpetrators.The news that Ollie was Javier's biological son quickly spread, especially after Sofia held a party in celebration. In fact, it made headlines the day before Ollie's scheduled surgery.Javier wasn't surprised about it. He had been looking for an opportunity to announce it to the public so that there wouldn't be unsightly rumors that would affect Claire. Claire, on the other hand, felt a little uncomfortable about the announcement. After all, she had always been a private person; she didn't want anyone to disturb her peaceful life.After a while, though, she got used to it.The most important contributor to this was that it benefited Ollie. From now on, he wasn't a fatherless child anymore. He could tell anyone who would l