"Stefan, put me down. We're not that close with each other!" Renee said as she struggled to break free from the man.She was embarrassed that she couldn't beat him despite her skills and reputation."Stop moving. You're hurt." Stefan shot back with a poker face as he carried her to the bathroom.She was as light as a feather, which stirred a huge urge in him to protect her.Renee was a little speechless. Her arm was only slightly injured. It wasn't like she had broken her leg or waist that she couldn't care for herself. She became worried when she saw that he had not intended to leave after he had placed her inside the bathtub."Stefan, you're not really going to shower me, right? I'm warning you, don't you dare take advantage of me!"A sly smile appeared on the man's face after he had placed her inside the bathtub. His slender finger hooked underneath her chin, and he asked, "What if I want to? After all, the bathtub is huge. It has enough space for two people.""No!" Renee shouted wi
"What happened?" Stefan called out as he hung up the phone and went straight to the bathroom door. Just as he was about to open the door, he heard Renee's panicked voice coming from inside, "I'm fine. Don't come in!" And a series of loud banging sounds followed afterward. It doesn't seem like she was fine. After moments of hesitation, he pushed the door and entered. "Ah! Who told you to come in? Get out!" Renee was standing up in the bathtub. She quickly wrapped a towel around her naked body when she saw that he had entered. Although her movements were quick, he still saw her body. He froze in place and swallowed harshly, feeling his lips turn dry. He hadn't known that she was so stunning! He wondered why it had taken him so long to realize that he had been living with a hidden treasure for the previous four years. After a while, he finally calmed down. Only then did he realize that the clothes on the rack had fallen, which meant Renee's clothes and towel had dropp
It was already late at night when Stefan and Renee finished changing their clothes. She lay on the bed, losing all patience as she gazed at the handsome man sitting on the couch in blue pajamas. "I only have a slight injury on my arm. You don't have to stay here and look after me all the time. You should return to your house, and we should keep our distance like before." "You got hurt saving me, so I'm responsible for it," Stefan calmly replied as he folded the magazine he had been reading. He coldly gazed at her and asked with seriousness, "Do you need me to tuck you in bed?" "That's not necessary!" Renee said, immediately crossing her arms and turning to the other side of the bed. She reasoned that if he persisted in guarding her, she should leave him to his own devices since she was sleeping comfortably on the bed and not the one suffering on the sofa! The orange light from the table lamp illuminated the room. A calm silence filled the room as time passed, and the only s
The following day, the sun shone brightly. Elijah immediately sent Stefan all the pieces of information he had on Renee. After reading it, Stefan was shocked, and he had a new perception of her. They had been married for four years and were about to get a divorce, and only now did he find out that his wife was the infamous genius that graduated from BC University. She skipped two grades in high school and entered BC University without needing to take the exam. She studied Electronic Communications and Technology, majoring in Electromagnetic Field and Electromagnetic Wave Direction. She became the lecturer's assistant in her second year, and whenever she was in class, it would be full of students. During her second year of postgraduate, she went to Asken as an exchange student and continued to have exceptional grades. However, everything changed when she was in her final year. The Everheart family faced insolvency and declared bankruptcy. Her parents committed suicide because
Renee subconsciously pursed her lips but didn't answer him, thinking to herself, 'You're aware of what I misunderstood. Why are you pretending not to know?'Stefan's dark eyes focused on her, and he said, "I don't care what you misunderstood about me, but I don't want you overthinking things. I'm doing all this to thank you for saving me. Besides that, I have no other intentions." After hearing this, she laughed mockingly at herself. She knew she had read too much into his actions.He had never liked her in the past four years, so it was impossible that he had feelings for her now!"That's good." She relaxed instantly and joked, "After the divorce, we won't see each other anymore."Stefan merely pressed his lips together and didn't say a word. He was thinking of the same thing, but he didn't feel happy when he heard her say it.Renee rolled up her sleeves, pointed at her injury, and said, "See, my injury is healing. I can take care of myself. You can leave now."He looked at
"You?" Shocked was written all over Renee's face. He was an unwelcome guest! "Am I not welcomed here?" Haze asked with his hand shoved inside his pocket. His charming face, hidden under his cap, gave off a mysterious vibe to him. "I don't think we're that familiar with each other," Renee replied coldly. She didn't know why a hacker like him was here, and she was instantly wary and on guard at his presence. "Not familiar?" Haze repeated and laughed sarcastically. "We're a great team in the hacker world. Although we've never met each other, we've worked together online multiple times before. We should be old friends, right, Phoenix?" When Renee heard this, she smiled helplessly. As expected, he purposely let her win that day at Hunt Enterprise cause he had long known her identity. It didn't matter anyway since she wanted to meet him too, and he came on his own today, so it was perfect. "Hi, I'm Phoenix. You can call me Renee," she said, extending her hand to the man.
Renee didn't take Haze's threat seriously, and she threw the card away. She didn't care if he exposed her. After all, she saved Stefan's life. She hoped Stefan wouldn't be cruel to her just because of a little prank.However, she was curious about the problem Haze said about the Hunt family.'Is that why Stefan keeps getting targeted? Who would be bold enough to attack the Hunt family of Beach City publicly?' she thought to herself.At first, she wanted to ask Liam to check it out, but she felt it was unnecessary, seeing as she and Stefan were about to get a divorce soon.She put the thoughts back in her mind and decided to care for herself first. It was a pointless venture anyway, as she had never gotten any gratitude from the Hunt family in the past four years despite all the sacrifices she had made for them.Seeing as the weather was great today and she hadn't gone out to shop in a while, she called Leia. The two decided to meet at three in the afternoon in Paragon Plaza.Thin
Francine snorted and sized Renee from head to toe before mockingly saying, "Stefan won't even touch her, so how can she be pregnant? She's just a waste of our money." Francine's words were so cruel that Renee instantly clenched her fist when she heard them. Just as she was about to say something, Leia stepped forward and insulted Francine. "Hahaha! You're not that capable, either. One of your sons died, and the other had an affair. If I were you, I would reflect on why my sons are useless. Aren't you afraid your grandchildren will get karma because of your nasty remarks?" Before Renee had a divorce, Leia kept quiet and didn't interfere in their family matter. But now that Renee was getting a divorce, she wouldn't stay silent anymore. Francine was furious when she heard that, and she turned pale with anger as she pointed a finger at Leia. "You…" When Briar saw this, she felt that this was an opportunity for her to get on Francine's good side. She instantly stood between Franci
Livid, Mateo pulled the trigger without hesitation. However, he moved the gun less than an inch. The bullet passed by Liam's ear and hit an orange behind him.The fruit immediately blew up, its juices splashing on Liam's face."Aaaah!" Amber, terrified, trembled. Her eyes turned red, and she hurriedly tried to plead with Mateo. "Matt, cool it! Aren't you and Liam friends? You guys drank and chatted together in the past. You were so close to each other. How could you do this to him? Hurry up and put the gun away! If it goes off accidentally, it'll be over!"However, Mateo ignored her. His eyes were red as he glared at Liam. "Did you see the orange behind you? Let go of her now! If not, I'll blow up your head just like I did to that orange!""Is that all you got?" Liam taunted. He refused to let Amber go. He whispered to Amber, "Watch well. If he shoots me today, promise me not to marry such a man. I can use my life to knock some sense into you.""No!" Amber shook her head. Liam
"What bad timing!" Mateo's indifferent voice came from behind Amber.Amber turned around and saw Mateo with a team of armed soldiers. Terrified, she quickly put some distance between her and Liam. She stammered an explanation. "Matt… It's not what you think. Liam and I came here to look for people. Ms. Everheart and Ms. Osborne are gone. Liam couldn't find them and guessed they might be in the orchard. He wasn't familiar with the orchard and asked me to guide him."Mateo looked livid, but still cracked a gentle smile. "Silly, you don't have to be scared. I know you're prudent. He must have forced you to come here. I don't blame you."He extended his hand and beckoned Amber toward him. "Come here. You're my fiancee. You should stand with me.""I…" Amber bit her lip—Mateo was right. She kept her head low, about to walk to him.But in the next second, Liam firmly grabbed her wrist. "You can't go!" Liam held Amber's wrist tightly and shot Mateo a challenging look."When did Amb
Liam could only see through Amber's true thoughts if she showed her true self to him. "No, I do like you. I love you the most, and I want to marry you. But you neither like me nor want to marry me. You love freedom and Ms. Everheart. You love and yearn for the kind of life ordinary people like. So, I could only choose to give you up and let you get what you want. What else do you want me to do?" Amber was generally shy and reserved, but when Liam drove her anxious, she rambled a lot."Whatever I want is my business. You don't need to sacrifice yourself to grant my wish!" Liam held Amber's shoulders, acting like a kind senior. He tried to persuade her in earnest. "Marriage isn't a joke. Think it through. Do you like and know Mateo well? You won't be happy after marrying him, given the savage culture around here. And can you divorce him easily?""Matt will be nice to me. Even if he changes his mind, he'll still be nice to me because…my father is Benjamin," Amber replied.She chose
Being a sensitive woman, Amber immediately noticed Liam's displeasure. She kept her head lower and explained carefully, "I want a chance to choose again… I want to choose another person to fall in love with. You know that Matt and I grew up together. We're childhood friends. He likes me and always protects me without asking for anything back. I feel that it's happier to marry a person who loves me instead of marrying someone far beyond my reach."For the first time, she expressed the exhaustion she felt from her relationship with Liam. She no longer wanted to be the one who kept fawning over him. She wanted to give up and relax by being the one who was loved and adored in a relationship."Tsk!" Liam snorted arrogantly. "You don't know Mateo. He's not a nice guy. He's just good at pretending. Maybe it's just his means to get what he wants, but you assume that he loves and wants to protect you."Liam hadn't made that statement to purposely put Mateo down. After standing against Mate
Liam focused on holding Amber's hand and leading her through the orange grove. At the same time, he carefully scanned the ground and trees to find any related clues left by Renee and Leia."I don't care what others say, because I didn't do anything wrong," he said indifferently. "I hope you'll feel the same. I don't think you need to stop being my friend after choosing to marry Mateo. Am I not the friend you like the most?""That's different," Amber said.She followed Liam passively. At first, she couldn't adapt to it. After walking briefly, she felt better and found it easier to do. "Although I'm not good at my studies, I know men and women should keep a polite distance. You can't take my hand and sound righteous at the same time," she mumbled."Why not?" Liam retorted firmly. "When I was young, I always held my sister's hand wherever we went. I'm holding your hand because this fog is thick and the ground is slippery. I'm afraid of being separated from you. Just walk with me. St
Liam walked ahead of Amber, then turned to glance at her. He faked a smile and asked, "What's the matter? Are you worried that I might take advantage of you?" "No, of course not!" Amber quickly shook her head and pushed her scarf up. It had fallen a little. "I just find it improper," she answered softly.She looked like a typical woman from Southeast Aeos, petite and with a small face. Her skin was tanned, and her facial features weren't very distinct. She was charming and reserved, exuding a girlish pureness. She had put on her country's special traditional clothes. The thick clothes, embroidered with various patterns, wrapped around her petite body and gave her an exotic impression. From afar, she appeared like a colorful oil painting. "Hey, it's not improper. If I wanted to do anything to you, I would've done that long ago. I don't have to wait until now." Liam sounded relaxed and prudent to ease Amber's anxiety."Don't worry. I've always regarded you as my younger siste
Amber hurriedly turned Liam down. "You can't help with my affairs. I can handle it.""Well, tell me why I can't help you," Liam pressed. "I… I want to sew a wedding gown. And there are a lot of details that I need to add." Amber became competitive for no reason, and added stubbornly, "Your words aren't absolute. Yes, your business is important, but so is mine!""Oh, you want to sew a wedding gown. I can help you with that…" Liam said, relaxed. "Maybe I didn't get to tell you that I went to a small country in Southeast Aeos when I traveled around the world. I got to know a great sewing master. The pictures he sewed looked real like paintings! I found them interesting, so I learned from him. My sewing skills are probably better than yours. I can help you with that.""Really? You can sew?" Amber was full of surprise and admiration. Her eyes lit up. "I can't sew well. I want to learn from a great master too! If you can do it, can you teach me?""Of course!" Liam promised. "Can you he
"Uh…" Amber looked like she was being put in a difficult position. She found it impudent for a man and a woman to be alone in the dense orchard at night. "What's wrong? Is it inconvenient?" Liam frowned, puzzled. He felt that Amber was purposely avoiding him after expressing her desire not to marry him and making Mateo her groom instead.Before, she would always put on her favorite dress and stand at the entrance of the fort, looking eager no matter how late Liam and Benjamin returned from their work.Usually, she would carry a small bamboo basket containing the tea she brewed and dessert or food she had painstakingly prepared. When Liam returned, she would excitedly welcome him and inquire after him. Lately, she no longer did that. When Liam occasionally ran into her in the fort, she would bow indifferently at him and quickly brush past him as if they were merely acquaintances. They seemed distant.Honestly, Liam found it unfamiliar. He couldn't get used to the fact that Amber
"I don't know. Why don't you ask the guards to get us some fried chicken and French fries? Didn't Mateo say that we can ask the guards for food?" Renee said.Leia's anxiety eased as she relaxed. She turned around and got out of bed, then gestured at the guard and ordered quite a lot of food. Meanwhile, Liam accompanied Benjamin to West River in the morning for a negotiation that yielded a good result. Benjamin's attitude had improved. He didn't demand an explanation from Liam about the affairs between Liam and Amber, and didn't ask about Renee or Leia either. Liam was delighted. He carried the unique desserts he had bought at the local market for Renee and Leia to enjoy. Upon arrival, he found that they were not in the room. "Weird. Where did they go?" Liam looked around, but found no sign of Renee and Leia. He casually asked a servant, but the servant stammered and insisted on not knowing anything. Anxious, Liam kept looking for them in the fort. Coincidentally, he ran into