Luca and Rainie were baking cookies in the kitchen, while Aunt Neile was tidying up the living room.The villa's telephone rang. Aunt Neile answered the call with a puzzled look on her face. After all, people nowadays used smartphones, and there was hardly anyone who would call the villa's landline number. The telephone was basically a decoration in the house. Besides, it was the first time the telephone rang after she started working here. "Hello, this is theCrawford family." Aunt Neile picked up the receiver. “Is Luca there?” Luke’s voice came from the other end of the line. Aunt Neile was startled for a moment, and she replied, “Mr. Crawford? You're looking for Ms. Craw, right?”“Is she in the villa?” Luke asked. "Yes. Ms. Craw is in the kitchen. She's baking cookies with Ms. Rainie. Do you need me to inform her to pick up your call?" Aunt Neile asked.“Never mind. If she’s at the villa, then it’s fine,” said Luke. He called Luca after the meeting ended, but no one was an
“Not many. Lanie, you should try.” Tommy was worried Lanie would not allow him to eat the cookies, so he moved the plate toward him. Lanie turned to look at Luca helplessly. Luca could feel Lanie’s gaze on her. She seemed to understand what he meant. It was like Lanie was telling her, ‘Look at your greedy little son…’Luca cleared her throat and said, “Lanie, take a few of them. Leave the rest for tonight.” Lanie nodded and took three pieces of cookies.Tommy was looking at them eagerly and asked, “Ms. Luca, can I take some too?” Luca looked at the cookie crumbs on the corner of Tommy’s lips, and the eager look on his face. It softened her heart. She glanced at the plate, and she briefly knew how many cookies Tommy had eaten. If Tommy continued to eat the cookies, he would not be able to have dinner later, or he might be stuffed. “Ms. Luca…” Tommy tried to act cute again when he saw Luca not saying anything. He wanted to win another chance to eat more cookies. Luca th
The expression on Luca's face was stern. She would agree to help Nina to improve her health so she could get pregnant if she was married and Percy and Nina wanted a baby. However, it was not the right time to do so now. “Nina, it’s not necessary to get the Mallory family’s permission if Mr. Mallory wants to marry you. You can get married abroad, then come back to sign the marriage license. Your marriage will still be legalized here. It’s the same,” said Luca.Getting married in A City would require a household registration permit. It might be difficult to get married if either side of the family disapproved of the marriage. However, it was different in countries abroad. Any couple could be legally married as long as the two of them had their passports and related documents."I know. I know that." Nina let out a sigh. "But I don’t want to see Percy be caught in the middle between me and his family. Luca, they're his family members. If they disagree with us getting married but he
Aunt Neile said, “It was rare to see you sleep in today. That’s why I didn’t wake you up. I didn’t expect you’d look so tired.”“I’ll be fine after drinking a cup of coffee,” Luca ate a mouthful of oatmeal. She thought she needed a cup of warm coffee to perk herself up a little.“Let me get you some coffee,” replied Aunt Neile as she walked into the kitchen.The kids finished eating their breakfast. Tommy glanced at the time and said to Luca, “Ms. Luca, we’re heading to school first.” “Okay. Be good and listen to your teacher,” replied Luca. Usually, it was Uncle Zander who picked the kids up and sent them to school. When Luca was making her way down the stairs, she glanced outside the villa and saw Uncle Zander’s car already outside and waiting for the kids. “Ms. Luca, see you later.” Rainie waved her hand at Luca and walked out of the dining room.Luca was watching the kids as they left and disappeared at the entrance of the dining room. Only then did she shift her gaze and c
Luca let out a sigh helplessly. Nina was so close to living a happy life, but someone stabbed her in the back at this time. Sue added, “I’m afraid that she might overthink now. After all, her past is her deepest wound. It’s cruel for someone to use this against her. That’s…”Sue felt helpless and angry at the same time. There were no words that could describe how upset she was.Luca did not know what to say either. Although Percy protected Nina well, after their conversation last night, Luca could sense that Nina was still sensitive. She would still feel worried and insecure. Now, such awful things had happened to her. “Luca, is there anything we can do for her?” Sue was overwhelmed.“Let’s show more concern for Nina. There’s nothing we can do about the reporters. Things aren’t as simple as they are. The reporters are looking for her now…” replied Luca. She knew what kind of people the Mallory family was. They were probably annoyed after getting exposed this time, thinking t
Luca was doing experiments in the study the entire time. The kids did not come upstairs to disturb her either. Only when the alarm rang did Luca stop doing her experiment. She disinfected her hands and walked out of the study.Luca ran into the kids when they were making their way upstairs. “Ms. Luca, have you finished your work?” Tommy smiled cheerfully and came forward to hug her.Luca stroked Tommy's head and looked at Lanie and Rainie, "Come on. Go clean yourself up. It's time for bed." “Okay, Ms. Luca,” the three kids replied at the same time. Luca returned to her bedroom. She got herself cleaned up at the same time as the kids did so. Then, she tucked the kids into bed.Her phone rang when she was about to do some reading before heading to bed. Could it be Luke?Luca could not suppress the quiver in her heart. She picked up her phone and looked at it. It was Nina who called. She quickly answered the call and said, “Nina, what’s wrong?”Luca had a feeling that som
“Most of what the news articles wrote about me are true.” Nina took a deep breath as she was not afraid that Luca would know about her past.It was because she knew Luca would not do anything to hurt her even if she knew everything. “Mr. Mallory should already know about your past. He’s not making a fuss out because of the news articles, right?” said Luca. Percy knew Nina well, just like her.“No, he’s not. He’s been busy handling the matter the whole day. It’s still a hot topic on the internet, and it’s not because he’s not doing anything to stop it. He’s planning to find out who was the one to expose the information to the reporters and proceed with the next step.” A bitter smile swept across Nina’s smile. She agreed with Percy’s way of handling the matter. After all, only a few knew about Nina’s past. They should be able to find out who was the mastermind behind all these soon if they were to look into it. After that, they would implement the next plan. That would be the best.
Nina nodded and said in a soft voice, “Okay. I’ll be quiet.”The two of them walked into the bedroom one after another.Luca opened the closet and took a new set of pajamas and underwear. "Your figure is almost the same as mine. These are new. Hurry up and take a shower."“Thank you.” Nina sniffed and took the clothes that Luca handed to her.Something came across Luca’s mind, and she said, “Hold on. Let me get you a set of new towels and toiletries.”Luca walked out of the bedroom and headed to the storeroom to get a new set of toiletries and towels. Aunt Neile had prepared all these.Luca returned to the bedroom and handed everything to Nina. She said, "Off you go. You can use the shower gel, shampoo, and skincare products in the bathroom."“Luca, there’s no doubt I’d fall in love with you if you were a man,” Nina playfully joked with her.Luca was amused by Nina's joke and pretended to be serious as she said, "No way. I'm not going to fight over a woman with Mr. Mallory. I'm