Bianca crouched down so that the three children could look at the photo too. "Daddy, Mommy, why don't we print a big one and frame it in the living room?" Lanie suggested. "Alright." Luke thought that it was a good idea. Other than the wedding photo with the children, they did not have any other family photos. The photo would complete their home. Bianca took the camera and snapped many photos of the children. Their laughter echoed at the lakeside. At that time, they did not know that a sinister pair of eyes was watching them from a small patch of forest on the opposite side of the lake. "Luke Crawford…" There was a vicious ferocity in that man's gray eyes. He wished that he could tear the man in front of him into pieces! … Luke, Bianca, and the children went to Crawford Manor the next day. Bianca held Rainie and Lanie's hands while Luke carried Tommy. The family of five entered the door. Before the adults opened their mouths, Rainie and Lanie greeted Old Master Craw
Old Master Crawford chuckled. The two children loved their mother very much. Tommy also tugged Old Master Crawford's pant leg. Old Master Crawford lowered his head and looked at the little boy. "Do you have anything to tell me, Tommy?" "Great-Grandpa, if you scold Mommy like that again, I won't play with you anymore!" The three children looked at their great-grandfather determinedly. Old Master Crawford looked at the three children and shook his head helplessly. "Looks like you don't respect your great-grandpa after all." Lanie corrected him, "We respect you, and we love you, Great-Grandpa, but we'll have to point out your mistake." Since young, Luke had told Lanie that he should be righteous and just. Lanie thought that Old Master Crawford had not been just. "Alright, alright, I was wrong. I won't do that next time." Old Master Crawford felt comforted by the determination in Lanie's eyes. The Crawford family needed people like him to pass on the family legacy. Lu
Everyone in A City knew about Allison's extravagant lifestyle. Old Master Crawford was not close to other wealthy ladies, but he had heard rumors. The Crawford family might be wealthy, but all that wealth had to come from somewhere. Old Master Crawford had worked hard since he was young and had amassed a lot of wealth. People from his generation were very thrifty, and they would save every cent whenever possible. Even until today, Old Master Crawford would not waste any money. His clothes were expensive, but they lasted for a long time. He always believed that clothes made the man, which was why he did not spare any expense on his clothes. What Allison had been doing was the exact opposite of Old Master Crawford's principles. Allison might have moved out of Crawford Manor, and her personal life was no one else's business, but all her money came from the Crawford family! Susan looked at Allison smugly while waiting for Old Master Crawford to continue speaking. "If you
Allison became nervous, seeing that Luke did not say anything. She had already maxed out her credit card, and she would be blacklisted if she did not repay the debt. One of her friends was the wife of a banker. Everyone would know if she got blacklisted. "Can you bear to see your mother starve?" Allison began to cry again. Her red and puffy eyes looked more realistic than ever. Rather than trying to evoke pity from her son, those were tears of desperation. Luke stood there with his hands in his pockets and looked at his mother coldly. Allison was used to Luke's cold treatment, but she was losing her temper. No matter how useless she might be, she was nonetheless his mother! Allison did not want to throw tantrums because she wanted money. All she could do was cry and evoke pity. Luke was getting impatient with his mother's waterworks. Through the entirety of Riley's incident, his mother had never even given him a phone call. Now that the matter was settled, he saw her in
Allison closed her eyes and tried to recall. "About half an hour." "Alright, Madam. I'll perform heat therapy to open up your pores before we proceed with the treatment." Elsa covered Allison's eyes with a damp towel before starting the treatment. Allison felt a blast of hot air on her face. She felt slightly uncomfortable and asked, "Why does my skin feel off recently, Elsa? It gets very uncomfortable with the slightest irritation." Elsa's hands that were mixing the beauty essence paused for a while as she composed herself. She smiled gently and said, "It means that your skin's condition is becoming better, Madam. Your skin is so soft and tender, so it's not surprising that it gets irritated easily. Look at the people who work menial labor every day. Their skin is rough, and they won't be as sensitive as yours." Allison thought that it was quite strange, but what Elsa said made sense too. Her skin was well-maintained, and it should not be surprising that it was more sensit
Elsa took out her phone and read that person's phone number to Allison. Allison took that number down. "Madam, may I know which of your friends it is?" Elsa asked curiously. "None of your business." Allison put her phone away and lay down on the lounge chair. "You two can go out for now. I want to rest for a while." Elsa nodded, stood up, placed a blanket over her, and left the room with Elise. The siblings went downstairs. "Elsa, why do you think Madam wants Jonny's phone number?" Elise asked curiously. "I don't know either. Try not to make yourself sound too close to him though. She'll be wary of us if she knows that we're friends with those people," Elsa reprimanded her sister softly. "Alright, I know." Elise nodded. "We'll just have to ask Jonny… Jon when we meet him." Elsa took off her gloves. She would wear gloves whenever she applied beauty essence on Allison's face so that her bare skin would not have to touch it. "There's no other reason why wealthy people
"Louis is quite egoistic. We shouldn't interfere in his family matters." Louis took the book from Rainie's hands and underlined the difficult words. He and Louis were brothers, and they knew each other's personalities well. Bianca nodded. She sat next to Rainie and listened to her read. In Louis's bedroom on the second floor, Yuri hugged Thea and gently coaxed her. The little girl was crying miserably in Yuri's arms. Her huge eyes were blurred with tears, which made people pity her. "Alright, don't cry. I'll buy a ballet dress for you." Yuri was angry after hearing what her daughter said. Louis was inferior to Luke in every aspect. He could not even afford a custom-made ballet dress for her daughter. 'Our daughter wouldn't want something that Rainie can't wear, you good-for-nothing!' She cursed in her heart as she listened to the heart-rending sobs of her daughter. "Mommy, I want a better dress than Rainie's dress." Thea did not want to be outdone. "Of course. Your dr
Bianca walked down the stairs with Lanie's backpack in one hand and Rainie's ballet dress in the other. The ballet dress had been pressed, and it could not be folded, which was why she did not put it in a bag but instead covered it with a plastic dust cover. Thea saw the dress and tugged her father's hand. "Daddy, I want that dress." Seeing that his daughter was interested, Louis asked, "Where did Rainie get that dress, Sis?" "Luke got it custom-made overseas," Bianca replied awkwardly. The scenes from last night were still fresh in her mind. Louis turned to look at Luke. He could still afford it for his daughter. Luke nodded. "I'll send you the address later." "Thank you, Luke." Louis patted Thea's head. "After you get the dress, I'll enroll you for ballet classes." "Yes, Daddy." Thea thought of something and went to Bianca. "Can I touch the dress, Aunt Bianca?" Bianca noticed that Thea's hands were clean. She nodded and handed the dress to her. Thea greedily caresse
“You don’t need to remind me. I was going to check anyway.” Abel shot Luca a chilling look.She took a step back and stayed silent.Abel turned to the pale-faced Hera and said, “If you’ve got low blood sugar, get up and eat something.”“I’ll eat now,” Hera replied, sitting up.Luca handed her the takeout.Abel glanced at the food and then frowned at Luca. “Why didn’t you make breakfast this morning?”“I was busy,” Luca explained with a calm indifference, her expression unwavering. She showed no fear, even under Abel’s questioning.Hera suddenly found herself admiring Luca. Everyone feared this man, yet Luca remained composed even when facing potential punishment. Not just anyone could pull that off.At the thought of this, Hera opened the takeout and kept quiet.Abel narrowed his eyes, glancing between Hera and Luca. His gaze was not exactly gentle as he muttered, “Stop eating this junk. It’s bad for you.”“I know, babe. Just this once. After this, I’ll have what Luca cooks f
Hera panicked the moment she heard that. “I trust her!”Luca and Shanks were both watching her.Hera repeated herself, saying, “I trust her, okay? What kind of treatment does she need? I’ll cooperate with anything. But what about Abel…”“I’ll tell him it’s just to help improve your overall health,” replied Shanks. Then, he turned around, opened the medicine cabinet, and started preparing the prescription.Hera let out a sigh of relief. As long as Abel did not find out about her health condition, that was all that mattered.If he knew she was unwell, he would send her back to A City. Without free medical help and no way to make extra money, she would be in serious trouble.“Thank you,” said Hera.“Wait outside,” instructed Shanks.“Okay.” Hera carefully stepped out.Luca, however, remained where she was, waiting.While preparing the medicine, Shanks asked, “Do you know which acupoints to target for her?”“Yes,” Luca replied confidently. As long as she checked Hera’s pulse, sh
“There are a lot of issues.” Luca did not hide anything and handed Hera the phone.Hera looked at it and frowned.“I can't understand any of this.” Hera felt dizzy just looking at the text, let alone the long list of medical terms. It was giving her a headache.“Look at these summaries and indicators. Compare the values on top with the normal values at the bottom, and you'll see what I mean,” explained Luca.Hera did not trust her. Therefore, Luca decided to let her see for herself. Seeing it with her own eyes would prevent any doubts later.Luca pointed out how to read the test results, and after a moment, Hera managed to understand the report. Her face turned pale. “How can there be so many problems?”She looked at Luca and questioned, “Did you fake this?”“I don’t have the power to make the medical center fake anything. Besides, the report has the medical center’s official stamp. If you don’t believe me, you can go directly to the medical center and ask for the official cop
“I heard from the boss that he's coming because of Vivian.” Gale paused for a moment before adding, “But never mind, you don't seem interested in her affairs anyway. I'm just letting you know he's on his way.”Gordan frowned. Ray was coming for Vivian?What could that ugly woman possibly need?“What do you mean by that?” asked Gordan.Gale smirked. “If you and Ray meet, that’s bound to end in a fight. And since you can't win against him, you might want to mentally prepare yourself, or better yet, find somewhere else to stay. It’d be safer that way.”Gordan's expression darkened. “If you have nothing nice to say, just zip it.”Gale grinned, clearly pleased with himself like he had just hit a sore spot.Gordan exhaled sharply. “Of all times, why is he coming to A City now? He’s just making things worse.”“It can't be helped. Vivian's situation is urgent.” Gale covered his mouth mockingly after he said that. “Oh, right. I forgot you don’t like hearing about her.”Ray wanted to br
Luke sat in the villa, staring at Luca’s message.He was worried.For a moment, he considered calling her, but then he remembered that there were surveillance cameras everywhere on her side. He dismissed the idea immediately.Her safety came first.Luke reminded her: [Take care of yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything. Just focus on keeping yourself safe.] The worry in his heart refused to subside, but at this moment, there was no better solution.“Boss, you’re worried about your wife, huh? If you really can’t stand it, we can sneak you in again during the next shift change, just like last time,” said Gale.It had been his idea last time.Now, the real Lucius was still locked up in the basement of the villa.It had been nearly a month. Luke had forced him to take the antidote Luca had recreated. The man was still alive, proving the antidote worked perfectly.“That plan is too risky.” Luke put his phone away. His gaze was dark and thoughtful.“Risky, sure. But at lea
Luca had not expected Abel and Shanks’ relationship to be like this.It seemed Abel still did not trust Shanks.Shanks continued, “Abel isn’t someone who trusts people easily. He doesn’t trust anyone. You think he’s devoted to Kassy now, right? That’s just his obsession. He's allowing Kassy to receive my treatment, but if it were him… No matter if he were blind or crippled, his safety would always come first. If he were seriously injured, maybe he’d accept treatment, but he definitely wouldn’t do it right away.”Luca stayed silent. Shanks really understood Abel well.Abel did not trust anyone—not even Kassy.Calling him paranoid would not be an exaggeration.Luca felt like they were getting off-topic, but she had never seen this side of Shanks before.In her mind, he was always buried in his work at the lab, only leaving for meals and sleep. Other than that, he was practically never outside.The lab was like his home…“Are you troubled by Hera’s situation?” Luca asked directly
Hera was startled by Luca's words.The refusal that had been on the tip of her tongue suddenly got stuck in her throat.“I…” Hera hesitated, feeling conflicted. Leaving Abel might not be such a bad idea. At least she would not have to live in constant fear.She was finally realizing how unpredictable his moods were. At first, she thought it did not matter as she could still look at other men. She just had to ensure there was no physical contact. In reality, even if she so much as glanced at someone, Abel's expression would darken with anger.It was frustrating. Now, the only person she was allowed to look at was Gerald. Still, what was the point of just looking at Gerald?At that thought, she lifted her gaze to Luca.Luca added, “I’ll give you five minutes. If you refuse treatment after that, I’ll take the medicine back to Mr. Shanks and won’t try to convince you again.”Hera's heart tightened. She did not even need five minutes. She had made her decision within 30 seconds.“I’
“If Abel finds out that Hera's body isn't suitable for organ donation to Kassy, what do you think he'll do?” asked Shanks.He already knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear Luca’s thoughts.“He has invested a lot of time and money in Hera. If he gets nothing out of it, he won’t let her off easily,” Luca said bluntly.Luca and Shanks were on the same page.They did not have a good relationship with Hera, but they had no intention of ruining her either.Hera’s personality was unpleasant, but that was not enough for them to hate her so much that they wanted to see her suffer.“What methods do you think he’ll use?” Shanks asked again.Luca was silent for a long moment.Shanks already knew the answer, yet he still wanted her to say it out loud.After thinking it over, she finally said, “There are plenty of ways he could go about it, but no matter what he chooses, Hera’s fate is sealed. She’s as good as dead…”She lowered her gaze, her tone firm and certain.Shanks nodded.
Hera heard that Luca had returned and immediately went to find Shanks. She narrowed her eyes.That woman went to see Shanks. Could she be talking about her?The thought made Hera uneasy. She had a nagging feeling that something was wrong with her medical report.However, when they left the medical center earlier, Abel asked Luca when the report would be ready, and she said it would be available tomorrow.Hera turned to Gerald and said, “Take these back for me first.”“Alright.” Gerald carried the bags as he walked away. He could not help but wonder what exactly Hera bought. These bags were really heavy!Only after Gerald went upstairs did Hera slowly make her way up as well. Her room was on the third floor, but she stopped when she reached the second floor. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching before heading toward the laboratory.The door was closed.Instead of knocking, Hera pressed her ear against it, trying to eavesdrop.However, the laboratory was special