"What are you doing?" Verona did not understand why her husband was apologizing.To her, it was not a serious matter. If Luke really pursued the matter, the worst-case scenario would be to go to court. They most definitely could afford to hire a famous lawyer."Shut up!" Irving felt ashamed. Originally, he thought it would be great to build a relationship with the Crawford family, but he did not expect that this was all plotted by his own daughter from beginning to end. As her father, he ended up being used by her!Verona wanted to express her dissatisfaction, but seeing that Irving’s expression had turned ugly, she held herself back. She glared at Luke, stood up, and took Maxine's hand. "Let's go.""Mom..." Maxine did not want to leave, but she had no choice considering how awkward the situation was."Haven’t you embarrassed us enough?" Irving also wanted to leave. He had lost all his dignity and stared at her fiercely.‘Spiking someone’s drink and taking an indecent photo just
"Do you think that there’s nothing I can do if you don’t want to tell me the truth? I'm canceling the partnership right now." Irving was disappointed when he saw how she refused to tell the truth."Dad, I told you that I don't know anything about the drug. We’ve already signed the contracts, and if we back out now, we’ll lose a lot of money!" Maxine panicked when she heard that her father wanted to pull back his funds.It was a trivial matter to back out of the contract as Capital Corp could afford it, but Abel was no ordinary man.If they canceled the contract, Abel would be furious and take revenge. She would not be able to defend herself at all!Maxine had heard from Hera Sanchez that Abel was so powerful that he could make someone disappear without a trace. If such a man was unhappy and decided to go after her, she would be helpless."Maxine, what else are you hiding from me?" Irving clenched his fist. If Verona were not standing in front of Maxine, the other side of Maxine’s
Eler seemed to be in a daze. It took her a while to come to her senses after hearing Bianca's voice. She nodded and said, "I've brought you the medicine, Miss." Bianca knew that she was behaving like that because she had met Shanks. "Bring it to me," she said. To ensure that the baby was safe, she tried not to get out of bed. Eler handed her the medicine. Bianca opened it and downed it without complaint. To her, the most important thing now was keeping the baby safe. By now, she had some affection for the baby. Eler brought Bianca a glass of water after Bianca finished the medicine. "Please wash your mouth." "Thanks," Bianca said. She finished the water and handed the glass back to Eler. "Miss…" Eler wanted to say something. "Is it about Shanks?" Bianca could instantly tell what she wanted to say. "Mm. I think that I'm useless." Eler was dejected. Bianca sighed. "Useless" was not the correct term to describe someone in love, but she had to admit that Eler fell in
Luke was relieved at first, but he became nervous again. He carefully stepped inside and saw the woman. The woman looked exactly like Bianca. His eyes opened wide at that instant. His legs froze, and he refused to take another step forward. "Bea…" Luke opened his mouth, but his throat was dry, and his voice was forced. The woman sat on the bed, hugging her knees and shivering. She was cackling maniacally and shrieking as though she did not hear Luke. When she lifted her head, the scar on her neck was clearly seen. The scene stabbed Luke's eyes like a knife. She was his Bianca, but she was also not his Bianca! "All of you are bad guys! Bad guys!" The woman tore her clothes but soon clenched them tightly. "Don't touch me! Get lost! Go away, now!" No one dared to step closer to the bed while she continued to behave erratically. She threw a pillow at Luke and screamed, "Go away! All of you are bad guys!" The foul-smelling pillow landed on Luke's face, but he did not dodge.
Bianca's water broke. The bedsheets were gradually stained with a mixture of amniotic fluid and blood. Abel grinned even sider when he saw the woman slumped on the bed. He sauntered over casually and checked her breath. Bianca was still breathing, albeit her breath was very shallow. "It's finally time." Abel laughed brazenly. He had been waiting for this moment for very long. Bianca was wheeled into the operating theater. Shanks was preparing for the operation. Abel came in through the door and said, "Take this opportunity to change her face too." Shanks was wiping his instruments with a sterilized cloth. He paused for a while before saying, "Are you sure you want to do it now?" "She'll have to go under anyway. To you, a C-section and plastic surgery are minor procedures." Abel thought of achieving his goal in one shot. Bianca's water broke, and there was a threat of miscarriage. After conducting an examination, Abel decided to perform a C-section. Abel did not want to
The room was quiet save for Shanks occasionally flipping the pages. The siblings did not do anything. An hour later, the effects of the anesthesia wore off, and Bianca slowly came to. She opened her eyes with much difficulty. She could feel pain all over her body. Noticing Bianca's movements, Shanks put the magazine away, glanced at the drip bottle, and looked at her. "How do you feel?" Without the effects of the anesthesia, Bianca thought that her entire body was in pain. She opened her lips slightly and found that they were numb. "Hurts." Bianca's weakness lasted for only one second. She remembered that she had just delivered and asked, "Where is my child?" "The operation was successful. The child is with Abel," Shanks replied. Bianca took a deep breath. After bearing the baby for nine months, she did not have the right to carry the baby in her arms. "It's a girl," Abel said. Silent tears flowed down Bianca's face when she thought that the baby girl could not remain
After he finished speaking, the baby cried even louder. Her face was red. Bianca's heart wrenched, but her eyes remained closed. She did not want to look at the baby. "Tsk tsk." Abel shook his head at the crying baby. "I didn't expect that you could be so heartless, Bianca. I'll be bringing the baby away with me. You can come to me any time you feel like seeing her." After that, he left the room with the baby. The baby continued crying. Bianca could hear her wails as she disappeared down the corridor. Bianca slowly opened her teary eyes. She looked as though she was going to cry at any time. Eler immediately wiped her eyes with a napkin. "You shouldn't cry, Miss. It'll be troublesome if your wounds are infected." Bianca blinked and looked upward. From Bianca's expression, Eler could see that she was not as heartless as Abel said she was. "Miss, if you miss your baby, I'll let Boss know. He seems like he wants you to take care of the baby." Bianca shook her head. "I ca
"It's not painful. It's better to feed the baby breast milk," Bianca said softly. She knew that breast milk was better than baby formula. Seeing Bianca's determination, Eler did not try to convince her otherwise. She saw that it was already noon and said, "I'll go and get lunch from the kitchen, Miss. Please rest for a while." "Alright." Bianca closed her eyes. Meanwhile, in A City. Luke was standing in the corridor. He frowned hard when he heard the hysterical screams coming from inside. Unable to alleviate his frustration otherwise, he took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. The person screaming hysterically in the ward was Bianca Rayne. He had made arrangements to transport her back to A City after finding her. According to the diagnosis, Bianca had many serious psychological problems caused by repeated trauma. As for her body… Luke dragged his cigarette out of frustration. Johann had asked a female doctor to conduct a full examination on Bianca's body, who fo
“As long as he stays out of your sight, I won’t make a move,” said Ray.If Gordan were not one of Luke’s pals, he would have been long gone.Anyone who dared to mess with someone Ray cherished would not be let off easily. The only reason Gordan was still breathing was thanks to Luke.“Alright, Ray. Just let it go. I’ve moved on and started a new life. Plus, I’m studying at Capital University. We have mutual friends, so running into him is inevitable. If that happens, we’ll just be strangers. There’s no need to step in for me or act impulsively.” Just as Vivian finished speaking, the doorbell rang.“Is it the clothes delivery?” asked Ray.“No, while you were talking with Mr. Crawford, I asked someone to buy some medicinal cream. The ones here work better than the ones in Russia. A little massage with it should help you heal faster,” Vivian said, grabbing a mask and hat before heading to the door.“Miss, is the boss alright?” asked one of Ray’s subordinates.“He’s fine. Did you ge
When Ray heard that there was a 90% chance of success, he could not help but ask, “Can you walk me through your plan?”“The prison where Kassy is being held actually has an underground passage. I’ve already spoken with the prison officials, and we can use that passage to transport her out. It connects to the sewage system, which leads directly to another detention facility. "The only catch is that this facility’s underground pipes don’t connect to the outside world, so the remaining 10% risk lies in moving Kassy onto the main road and securing her at the new location.“This whole operation can be done without anyone noticing, which is why I’m confident it’ll work.” As Luke explained, he pulled out a detailed map of the sewer system. “Here’s the layout I had someone retrieve. This is the starting point, and this is the destination. If we take this route, we can move Kassy without alerting Abel’s people.”Abel’s men were keeping a constant watch outside the prison now. That was prec
Luke had no idea what kind of mindset the person who poisoned Vivian had. However, he found Gordan’s current behavior quite intriguing.“Luke, what’s with that look?” Gordan felt uneasy under his gaze.“You seem pretty concerned about Vivian,” Luke leaned back on the couch and said thoughtfully.Gordan froze for a moment before laughing it off. “What? No way! Why would I care about her? Come on, Luke, don’t say stuff like that. If she hears it, she might start getting ideas.”Luke could not be bothered to expose his act and got straight to the point. “Why are you here?”“Speaking of that, I almost got sidetracked by that woman.” Gordan quickly pulled out his phone, grimacing. “Man, Ray really didn’t hold back. I need to get some treatment for these bruises later.”Luke took the phone and tried to unlock it. It needed a passcode. He handed it back. “Unlock it.”“All set, boss.” Gordan unlocked the phone and went back to pressing an ice pack against his face.Luke scanned the scr
It was the sound of a body slamming onto the ground.Gordan’s furious curses rang out. “Damn it! You're really going all out, huh? Do you think I'm scared of you?”Another loud thud followed.Vivian frowned. What the hell were they doing? Were they really going to fight until one of them won?Both of them were skilled fighters. If they kept this up, neither would walk away unscathed.“Enough!” shouted Vivian.The two men locked in the fight froze for a moment.“Vivian, stay out of this. I’m beating him to a pulp today,” growled Ray, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He was not in great shape, but neither was Gordan.“Ray, I don’t want to see him,” said Vivian. She did not want Ray fighting him. It was not to protect Gordan but because she did not want Ray getting hurt.Also, she definitely did not want Gordan to see her like this. She could already picture his smug face, his sarcastic remarks and his gloating.“Fine. If you don’t want to see him, I’ll just beat
After returning to the hotel from the hospital, Vivian felt much better.To her, the fact that Ray had taken her to the hospital meant there was hope for the future, which lifted her spirits. She picked up an apple from the fruit platter the hotel had provided and took a bite.“Ray, this apple is really good. Want to try one?” asked Vivian.Ray shook his head. “You go ahead. By the way, can I take a look at the luggage you brought from Russia?”Vivian nodded. “I only hung up my clothes. Everything else is still in the suitcase. You can just take the things out.”Ray walked into the bedroom, pulled out her suitcase, and opened it. Inside were just books and a few other small items, nothing unusual.“You didn't bring any food with you?” asked Ray.“I haven’t really been in the mood, but the food here is way better than Russian food, so I didn't feel the need to bring anything.” Vivian’s tone was lighthearted now that she was in a better mood.“That's true.” Ray agreed, then asked
Ray's tone turned serious. “Alright, I'll make the arrangements immediately. Dr. Craw, once the toxicology report is out, we’ll still need your help.”“For toxicology cases like this, I recommend combining both modern medicine and traditional herbal medicine. Don’t worry, if I can help, I definitely will,” Luca assured him.“Alright, thank you.” Ray expressed his gratitude and ended the call before updating Luke on the situation.Luke reassured him, saying, “If Vivian was really poisoned, don’t worry. Previously, Luca discovered that her biological mother had been poisoned with a slow-acting toxin. She prescribed herbal medicine and used purely traditional herbal medicine to detoxify her. It didn’t take long for all the toxins to be expelled, and her health fully recovered. So, rest assured. If it’s something she can fix, she’ll do everything she can.“Besides, once we identify the exact problem, the doctors will be able to step in and help, right?”“Yes. Thank you both in advance
Gerald walked over. “Ms. Sanchez, what's wrong?”He was eager to get back upstairs and stash his cigarettes before someone noticed and took them.Hera yanked open his bag, glanced at the cigarette brand, and scoffed. “I thought it was some expensive brand. But it's just this? And you’re acting all deferential to her over this?”Gerald was rendered speechless. “I knew Ms. Craw was going out, so I asked her to bring these back for me. This is the brand I’m used to. Maybe it’s not expensive to you, but for me, it’s what I can afford.”Realizing she had misspoken, Hera felt a bit awkward. She quickly changed the topic. “Still, is a pack of cigarettes really worth you being so grateful to Luca? How much could it have cost?”“It’s not about the money,” replied Gerald. “It's just a nice surprise. I never expected to get anything out of helping Ms. Craw, and this kind of unexpected gift has nothing to do with the price. Besides, I'm not being overly grateful. I'm just happy.”He was ba
Luca’s lips were already swollen and flushed from Luke's kisses.That deep shade of red, reflected in Luke’s eyes, was utterly captivating. It tugged at his nerves, stirring an uncontrollable desire within him.At that moment, he had only one thought, and it was to completely lose himself in her.…The two of them stepped out of the bedroom.Vivian quickly turned her back and greeted Luke when he saw him coming out, “Hello, Mr. Crawford.”“Vivian, don’t worry. Everything will get better,” replied Luke.Vivian simply hummed in response.Ray gave them a grateful nod as Luke took Luca’s hand and led her away.It was only after hearing the door close that Vivian finally turned back around.Ray glanced at her and said, “Vivian, they’re your friends. You don’t have to act this way around them. They won’t judge you.”“I know they won’t…” Vivian let out a soft sigh. “I just feel like I look terrifying right now. I didn’t want to scare them, so I avoided facing them directly. But it’
“I once treated someone who had been slowly poisoned over a long period of time. Their pulse was similar to Vivian’s. Given that your family has good genetics, yet Vivian is different from the rest of you, and her skin improved after leaving her original environment, all of this confirms my suspicion.“Could it be that someone in your family has been poisoning Vivian? That would explain why her skin ended up like this.”“If she really has been poisoned, then would staying away from that environment or identifying the person responsible help her get better?” asked Ray.Luca shook her head.“The poison I’ve encountered before was a slow-acting toxin that kept the victim’s skin dark. I don’t know exactly what it was, but long-term exposure to any poison has an effect on the body. It's just a suspicion now. I need to consult someone I know. And honestly, I can’t be sure what’s really causing Vivian’s condition.“Is her skin deteriorating so quickly because she was poisoned once more a