Estella blinked, and her sobs reduced. Still in disbelief, she pursed her lips.She had heard Lucian talking to her teacher with her own cars, and the two boys were absent from kindergarten that day.How could there be such a coincidence?Lucian sensed her doubt, which made him feel even more helpless. “There’s no need for me to lie to you. They didn’t go to school today because they were unwell. You’ll see them tomorrow.”Estella continued to purse her lips aggrievedly. Suspicion was written all over her face.Lucian was at a loss for what to do. “How should I make you believe me?”Never did he expect Archie and Benny to have such an important place in Estella’s heart. They were so important to the point that she did not believe his words.Estella hesitated for a moment and let Catalina put her down. She then picked up a small notebook from the pile of mess and scribbled something while sobbing. Her squiggly writing read: Confirm!She wanted to hear the boys tell her that they were n
Archie and Benny exchanged gazes when they saw Estella in such a state. They found her cute yet pitiful at the same time.“We weren’t feeling well this morning. We’re much better now. Don’t worry,” Archie reassured earnestly.Benny turned to Essie and made a face. “Look at you, all scared like that. We’re just taking a day off. Can’t you be away from us for just a day? You little minion.”A sense of relief washed over Estella when she heard their words, and she broke into a smile.Lucian, who was standing at the entrance of the dining room, looked conflicted when he saw Estella finally smiling,It took me so long to coax hcr, yet it was nothing compared to the trio’s words. Not only did she stop crying. she even smiled.After standing there for some time and watching the boys making Estella grin from ear to car, he stepped into the room, wanting to take her home.They had only come over because Estella wanted to confirm things with her own eyes. Now that it was done, it was time for t
Estella hesitated momentarily before nodding gently.Seeing her admitting to it, Lucian frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”Estella shuddered and inched closer to Roxanne, feeling frightened.Roxanne cast Lucian another displeased glance when she saw Estella’s reaction.The kid’s injured. How could he still speak to her in such a tone?“Does it hurt a lot?” Retracting her gaze, Roxanne held Estella’s hand and massaged it gently.Estella pursed her lips and nodded.“You’ll be fine. I’ll help you to apply medicine. It won’t hurt in a while.” Roxanne gently released Estella’s hand and instructed her boys, “Keep her company. I’ll get the medical kit.”The boys nodded immediately and started taking turns telling Estella some interesting things..Soon. Roxanne returned with the medical kit, and she carefully applied some medicinal creamonto Estella’s hand.Estella was well-behaved throughout the entire process. When it hurt, she would only shrink away a little and would quickly place her ha
Estella was working with the boys on the final stages of a Lego project they had been working on together.Having already assembled a section, the children were struggling with the height of where it was supposed to be attached. Roxanne was usually close by to lend a hand after the preliminary assembly was completed on the ground.As she was busy with the dishes at that moment, the children stood around, figuring out how to circumvent that obstacle.After a glance around, Archie decided to bring a chair from the dining table.“Here, let me.” Taking pity on the children, Lucian softened his expression to the best of his ability and offered Archie a hand.Archie hesitated for several seconds before handing the assembled part in his hands to the man. Following Archie’s instructions, Lucian took it and snapped it in place.“Thank you,” Archie said gruffly.Lucian nodded noncommittally. With one hand in his pocket, he mostly watched the three children amuse themselves with the toy bricks
Roxanne sighed in secret relief when he finally let go of her hand. She leaped up as soon as she could place some distance between them. “Thank you, and sorry again for troubling you.”The man frowned slightly at her words but did not respond.Roxanne glanced at the mess on the kitchen floor and made to get up.“What are you doing?” The sullen voice sounded again.Roxanne froze. “The floor needs cleaning up,” she said. “The children might step on the shards.”Lucian’s scowl deepened.Despite this woman’s stellar credentials, she can’t even take care of herself!Roxanne grew anxious at the man’s gloomy expression, not knowing what she had done wrong this time.Could it be because of the trouble she had caused him earlier?After careful consideration, Roxanne was about to apologize when he spoke again.“You can’t get your bandage wet. Let me find you a housekeeper.”Without giving her a chance to respond, Lucian gave his assistant a call.After his dinner, Cayden was about to wash up an
Aubree, seated on the couch, leaped to her feet when she saw them crossing the threshold. She bent down and tried to touch Estella’s head, which the latter did her best to avoid.Aubree’s eyes flashed with displeasure, which she quickly hid by straightening up with a smile.“What’s the matter?” Lucian studied her intently. His tone remained indifferent.Aubree gave him a casual smile. “I want to thank you again for lending us someone today. You helped us out of a jam there, and Dad had me come over to offer our gratitude personally.”She was going to add something else after a brief pause, but Lucian cut her off, “Is the matter resolved?”Aubree was momentarily dumbfounded by his bluntness. She nodded with a smile that now seemed rather forced. “Well, the little trouble we had kept us busy until the afternoon. I hope it didn’t interfere with your business.”Lucian nodded. “There are plenty of employees in Farwell Group, and the absence of one wouldn’t make a difference. There’s no nee
Thankfully, Lucian wasn’t insistent and put his daughter down on the ground as she wanted. However, just as he was about to reach for Estella’s hand, he realized she had already scampered away.For a moment, Lucian was stunned as he subconsciously turned to look behind him.To his surprise, he saw Roxanne and the rest smiling fondly at Estella, with the former even walking toward the little girl.It was a rare sight as Estella ran toward the school’s entrance while waving wordlessly at Roxanne and the boys.Seeing that the little girl was too caught up in the excitement to care about road safety, Roxanne quickly rushed over to hold her hand. When she saw Lucian walking calmly toward them, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of helplessness.Estella grinned from ear to ear as she held Roxanne’s hand. Once they stopped walking, she even hugged the latter’s leg affectionately.Archie and Benny weren’t jealous either and greeted Estella with big, friendly smiles.When Lucian finally came t
By the time the treatment was over, Frieda had also returned home.Upon finding out from the butler that Roxanne was treating Alfred, she made a beeline for the latter’s bedroom.“Grandpa, how are you feeling?” Frieda asked concernedly the moment she stepped into the room.Alfred nodded slightly. “Much better.”Having lived for so long, he had gained an understanding of how traditional medicine worked and had also consulted countless famous doctors.Roxanne, however, had come as a delightful surprise to him.After each course of her treatment, Alfred would always feel a significant improvement in his health, which was something that not even the best doctors in the world could achieve.Frieda looked her grandfather over and finally nodded with a smile. “That’s good to hear.”Then, she turned to Aubree and added, “Have you come to visit Grandpa too, Aubree? Since it’s getting late, why don’t you stay for dinner?”Naturally, Aubree had no objections to that and grinned broadly. “In that
Seemingly sensing Roxanne’s gaze, Lucian turned toward her. Roxanne was stupefied when their eyes met. It took her a few seconds to come back to her senses and signal Lucian to stop the head of the kindergarten.“I don’t have much time. Tell them to hurry up.” It was as if he did not understand the look she gave him.What the he*l!The head of the kindergarten was quick to agree to it and promptly went to call the parents.Once the other man was out, Roxanne turned to look at Lucian disapprovingly. “You don’t need to blow this out of proportion.”Those kids might take out their anger on Essie after getting scolded by their parents. The lesson I taught them was more than enough.Lucian’s eyes flitted toward the girl in Roxanne’s arms before anger seeped into those eyes. “Those parents could not educate their children well and let their kids bully Essie, so it is normal for them to have to pay the price for it. The consequences await them will only be more severe if they don’t apologiz
Pamela had not been paying attention to Estella, and she dared not tell any lies in the face of Lucian’s gaze. Thus, half-way through her speech, she turned to cast a pleading look at Roxanne.Roxanne had planned to talk to Lucian about it anyway, so when her eyes met with Pamela’s, she continued where Pamela trailed off.“The kids crowded around Essie and said something to her. They even stepped on Essie’s hand. Essie resisted, but they pushed her down again. I only intervened when I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore.”Roxanne could somewhat guess what the children had said to Estella, but she did not want to rub salt into the girl’s wound.As Roxanne gave Lucian the explanation, Lucian’s expression turned colder.At the same time, the more Roxanne said, the angrier she became. She questioned, “The intense way the kids bullied Essie means that this has been going on for more than a day or two. Do you really not know anything about this, Mr. Farwell?”Why did he put Essie in a school
“May I know your last name?” Pamela suddenly looked at her. “Jarvis,” Roxanne replied in a hoarse voice.Once Pamela heard the answer, she breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly notified Lucian.I’ve never heard of the Farwell family having any relationship with a family with the surname Jarvis. Thus, this woman will certainly not be any relative of Essie. Luckily, I call Mr. Farwell in time to confirm it.However, the person on the other end of the line fell silent after she told him Roxanne’s last name.It made her a little worried, and she wondered if she had done anything wrong.“Get her to wait. I’m heading over right now.”When Pamela was about to apologize, Lucian’s deep voice suddenly rang out.She looked at the woman before her in confusion and hastily agreed.Roxanne noticed Pamela’s gaze and felt her heart drop.After hanging up the phone, Pamela looked at Roxanne solemnly and said, “Mr. Farwell said he’ll be here soon. Please leave Estella to me.”Lucian’s tone on the ph
Now that Pamela had taken a good look at Roxanne, she realized there were indeed some similarities between Estella and her. Despite that, she still chose to be careful and confirm with Estella. “Essie, is she your aunt?”Estella only wrapped her arms around Roxanne’s neck with her back facing Pamela. Not a single word came from her mouth.Roxanne had no choice but to pat the girl’s head to attract her attention. “Essie, your teacher’s talking to you.”Only when Estella heard Roxanne’s voice did she slowly turn around.Flashing Estella a smile, Pamela repeated her question.To their horror, Estella pursed her lips and shook her head, clearly looking upset.Both Roxanne and Pamela were stunned by Estella’s response.Roxanne knew Estella was mad because she had denied being her mother. However, she could not explain the situation to Pamela either.Pamela thought that Roxanne, the woman who claimed to have a different identity, was extremely suspicious.She picked up her phone again with
The children got more fearful when they heard Estella calling Roxanne “mommy.” On top of that, the latter did not show any rejection. This lady must’ve seen how we bullied Essie just now.Roxanne patted Estella’s head before lowering her gaze to glance at the surrounding children.“Apologize to Essie!”Her fierce expression made them hang their heads low in guilt.However, the girl who attacked Essie summoned her courage and feigned innocence. “It’s not like that. It was Essie who pushed me first. That’s why—”Hearing the little girl lying straight in her face only brought Roxanne’s anger to a new height. “Why would Essie push you out of nowhere?”When she finished, she suddenly remembered something and reached out to hold Estella’s hand.The moment Roxanne saw the red mark on Estella’s hand, her anger spiked even more. “Did Essie do this to herself, too?”The children exchanged glances, for they never expected Roxanne to have witnessed them stepping on Estella’s hand.Now that her a
Roxanne heaved a sigh of relief. She could see that although Estella was a bit out of place, the other children approached her enthusiastically and played with her.Yet before she could feel totally at ease, she saw Estella letting out a yelp.The children who were skipping around also halted their actions one by one.Feeling her heart tighten, Roxanne instinctively looked in Pamela’s direction.Something was obviously wrong with Estella, and Pamela could probably see that from where she was standing.However, there was a child who wouldn’t stop crying next to Pamela. Although she did notice a small commotion over here, she was occupied with coaxing the child beside her.Left with no choice, Roxanne turned back to Estella and observed her worriedly.The girl hung her head low as she ma*saged her hand on her lap.Roxanne could only see Estella’s actions vaguely from her spot, but she could guess that the latter was hurt.Upon realizing that, Roxanne felt a little distressed. Neverthel
Roxanne was surprised by her son’s words. She knew they had always been very sensible and had always taken good care of Estella.However, what she didn’t expect was that they had been thinking about this even more than she did.Benny chimed in sweetly, “Mommy, please talk to Mr. Farwell about this. We’re worried that Essie might get bullied, and we won’t be there to protect her.”Roxanne felt her chest tighten at the mention of Estella being bullied.She recalled the incident when Estella had been bullied by her cla*smates when Archie and Benny first entered the cla*sroom.Back then, the boys had stepped forward to protect Estella and helped her to smoothen things over with her cla*smates.However, now that Estella was in a new kindergarten, she no longer had any playmates she was familiar with. Roxanne was worried that if Archie and Benny weren’t beside Estella, the past would repeat itself.There’s a possibility that it would be just like what the boys said. Estella would be ostrac
Meanwhile, Estella and Pamela were the only ones left at the kindergarten entrance. “Essie, who’s coming to pick you up today? Were you always picked up so late in your previous kindergarten?” Pamela patiently clarified the matter with Estella, for it was the first time she had encountered such a situation.Estella pursed her lips in silence as if she didn’t hear Pamela at all.It was never her desire to come to the new kindergarten, and now that she was left to wait for a long time, she couldn’t help but feel depressed.Just when Pamela was wondering whether to give Lucian a call, a car gradually rolled up beside them.Aubree alighted from it with an anxious expression on her face.“I’m sorry for being late, Ms. Yaxley. Traffic was really bad.” After speaking to Pamela, she gave Estella an apologetic look. “I’m sorry to have made you wait, Essie. I’ll definitely come earlier next time!”Estella continued to pout in silence.Seeing that, Pamela defused the situation with a smile. “It
Jack froze for a few seconds before coming to some kind of realization and agreeing to it. The two of them then went out of the research institute.A look of delight danced across Colby’s face when he saw them leave.Ever since Jack came for Roxanne, Colby had been keeping his focus on the two.Therefore, he saw the look of struggle on Roxanne’s face.Evidently, what he had said in the morning was effective.Meanwhile, Roxanne came to a stop in her tracks at the entrance of the institute with mixed feelings still surging in her heart. In the meantime, Jack stopped behind her.“Sorry.” Roxanne had calmed herself down on their way out and realized that she had been a little too carried away earlier.Jack raised a brow and teased, “What’s the matter? Why are you apologizing to me all of a sudden? You couldn’t have secretly done something terrible to the project, could you, Ms. Jarvis?”Roxanne shook her head immediately. “Of course not.”I’ve done so much for this project. Why would I d