The hall was left abuzz with excitement. Everyone knew Henry had a wife and daughter, as the man was always scandal-free.Since this was the first time he showed intimacy with a woman in public, and considering Linda's gown, everyone wondered if Linda was the rumored Mrs. Barnes."You don't say," someone mused out loud just then. "Looking at them from the back, they looked just like the couple who rented out the whole of Wonderland for their daughter's birthday."Those words reminded Tina the day her darling Sophie was cremated, and her eyes were cold even as she stared at Henry.That was when the emcee announced, "Let's hear a round of applause for Mr. John Levine, CEO of Levine Inc.!"The crowd was once again abuzz at the mention of John Levine's name. The Levine family's legacy had stood for over a century in Jadelight, and John was head of their family in this generation.Amongst all the other prestigious families in the city, he and Henry were the most outstanding indivi
Even as Emma spoke, she glanced at Tina, and there was no hiding the admiration in her eyes.After all, she loved Tina's work for the competition—in her mind, Tina was first place.Pausing for a moment, she then announced, "As the first and second runner-up of this competition have proved their outstanding skills, the executives of the Continental had a discussion, and decided to induct them as interns as well.""It's our hope that all three winners will keep striving to do their best. May we all be graced with even more impressive work than the sublime pieces we've already had the pleasure to feast our eyes on tonight!"The hall was once again abuzz with excitement—it was the dream of any jewelry designer to get a job at the Continental!Naturally, it was Tina's dream too, so she could hardly believe what she was hearing."Really?! That's wonderful!"Still, Yvonne's joyful exclamation and Linda's ashened face were very much proof that it was true—that this was very real!And e
John and Tina arrived at a restaurant, and he pulled the chair out for her."Thank you," Tina smiled as she sat. People often said that John was as civilized as he was gentlemanly, and the praise was certainly deserved.Still, as John took his seat and after they ordered food, neither of them spoke.Tina waited for John to start discussing her work, but the man was simply staring at her.Though his gaze was tender and didn't invoke disgust, being stared like that still left Tina slightly uncomfortable.Eventually, she frowned slightly, meeting his gaze as her expression turned a little cold.Could he be just messing with her? Perhaps the rumors were just exaggerated, and he was just a rich playboy like any other?But even as her suspicions gnawed, John calmly spoke in his deep, magnetic voice, "You really don't remember me?""Huh?"Tina did a double take, staring at John blankly.What was that supposed to mean? Were they actually acquainted?Still, John smiled as he presse
Tina raised her foot right then, kicking Henry viciously on the shin!Thud!Caught off guard, Henry gasped in pain and stumbled backward.At the same time, Tina shoved him, sending him stumbling and dropping on the toilet, while she quickly opened the door and fled.As Henry followed out of the cubicle, he paused at the doorway, glaring as Tina left like a hunter glaring after his prey…Like he could skin her and eat her right then!However, no one noticed Linda standing behind a potted plant, her knuckles clenched.Be it five years ago or now, everyone knew that Henry loved her, spoiling her endlessly…Even so, that man never looked at her like that!-By the time Tina made it back to the table, the food was already served.John didn't start without her, however, so she apologized, "Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Levine.""It's alright," John replied, his gaze lingered on her swelling red lips just a second before turning away.Tina started eating, keeping her head lowere
Tina's slap came so quickly that it caught Linda' off guard, launching her face sideways.Since Henry wasn't around, her face contorted viciously right then.But even as she raised her hand, Tina caught her before she could slap her back and shoved her forcefully away."Linda Cook," she warned coolly. "If you have the time to come after me, you should instead put a leash around Henry Barnes and stop him from chasing me around!"And with those words, she turned to leave.-After finishing her paperwork to get discharged, Tina headed to the elevator.As she passed the nurse station, two nurses were gossiping quietly, as one of them had witnessed Tina's confrontation with Linda and came to tell the other nurse."Urgh, and here I was wondering why that bitch was so cold," she sighed. "So they were after the same man.""What are you talking about?" her colleague asked half-heartedly, busy cleaning her table."Don't you remember Sophie? That sweet, pretty little girl."Tina stoppe
There was no doubt that Linda knew Sophie was dead, but she kept mentioning her around Tina.If anything, Tina was dead sure that Linda planned this call, deliberately choosing the day of Sophie's funeral for some bullshit party.It was also to brag to Tina that Henry loved Rory, and not her darling Sophie!Even when Sophie was alive, Linda had used Henry's absolute affection for herself and Rory to hurt Sophie as much as she could. And they weren't letting up even after she was gone!Such humiliation and insults… Linda was truly savage!"Hello? Are you listening, Tina?" Meanwhile, Linda's voice remained sickly sweet, leaving Tina absolutely disgusted.Even so, she sneered as she answered, "Sure."And with that, she hung up, kissing the photo of Sophie on the tombstone before she got up."It's alright, Sophie. I won't let you suffer anymore."-Meanwhile, at Saint Holden Hotel, Linda's smile stiffened when Tina told her "Sure".She was actually surprised that Tina would co
As Henry clenched his fingers around Tina's wrist, the pain left her lowering her hand.Linda promptly turned and threw herself into Henry's arms.Clutching her swollen cheek, she sobbed at Tina, "Sophie's your daughter! Why do you keep saying she's dead? Are you trying to curse her so? Just because she couldn't help you win over Henry?"Tina's eyes flashed with cold savagery. "Mention Sophie again and I will slap your mouth right off!" Sophie was dead, but Linda refused to stop hurting her, trampling all over her memory!"You hurt Mommy!"Rory heard the commotion and ran toward Tina in her pretty princess gown. "You bad woman! You're just like Sophie! Always bullying us!"She grabbed Tina's hand, ready to bite down, but Tina pulled her hand off, glowering.It knocked Rory off balance, and she dropped on her rump.She quickly fell backward, forgetting the tower cake that was just delivered, and knocked it over herself."Wargh!!!"While she was just going to pretend to cry e
Even as Linda cried out in panic, Tina did not hesitate to pull the tablecloth with all her strength. Crash!!!Everything from the plates, confectionery and drinking glasses on the table were sent crashing down on the floor, leaving an utter mess."Stop it already, Tina!" Henry bellowed at her.Stop?!Tina smirked—the only reason she came here today was to ruin this party for Linda and Rory!In fact, even as Henry kept bellowing at her, Tina strode off to knock over the stacks of presents, sending everything crashing down, reduced to trash."Wargh!!!" Rory bawled even harder as she watched.She was going to show off to all her friends, only for Tina to destroy everything!It was all ruined now!"That's enough from you!" Linda sprang to her feet furiously, her eyes widened in rage as she charged at Tina.As she grabbed Tina's hand, she shoved her towards the nearby champagne tower.Once Tina crashed into it, she would definitely be disfigured!However, Tina's was just too
The instant Tina tapped on the notification, she found Henry kneeling outside her door, motionless.She swiped through her phone and saw that most notifications were from Henry, with the first of many being sent at three in the morning.That meant Henry had driven straight to her place after leaving Rose Garden and knelt outside her door for almost four hours.But Tina remained unaffected.Remembering the video John had sent earlier, she had a hunch that Henry was outside after he became aware of Rory's true nature.She soon tapped out of the notifications and kept chatting with John since she found herself in a good mood first thing in the morning.When John said he had yet to have breakfast, Tina could read between the lines and did not play dumb, telling him that she would cook extra portions for him when he came over.John replied: [Already on my way.]Tina could not resist a smile. [Drive safe. See you soon.]After putting down her phone, she went about her daily routine—
It was an especially long night, and every passing second was especially gruelling as Henry stayed on his knees outside Tina's door, like his heart was being stabbed.-When Tina woke up, she noticed that John had just texted her a minute ago.[Are you up?]Tina smiled ever so faintly as she replied: [Mornin'.][There's a video you should watch.][Okay.]While waiting for the video to be sent to her phone, she noticed many notifications from her alarm system.It was the first time this had happened since she moved in, and she was about to tap on it when John's file was downloaded.Tina tapped on the video first and immediately recognized that it was taken outside Rsoe Garden when she tapped on it.A familiar car was outside Linda's villa—it was Henry's.Tina's gaze cooled as she looked on.Yesterday was Sophie's death anniversary and also Rory's birthday.And given how much Henry doted on Rory, it was not hard to see that he went to the Rose Garden after visiting Sophie's
As Henry's car soon disappeared in the night, Rory was left behind and too exhausted to give chase.She lay sprawled on the ground, watching as Henry left her, and her body's warmth slowly faded.Her gaze was endlessly horrified and helpless.Was he really going to leave her?-After leaving Rose Garden, Henry drove straight to Tina's apartment, having paid a hefty sum to buy the adjacent units to hers after finding out that she had moved there.He drove into the car park but stayed downstairs.The apartment complex was very quiet as it was three in the morning, but his heart could not quiet down at all.After all, he had been horrified since the moment he exposed Rory's two-faced nature.It was so obvious, but he just did not see it!He really was too overjoyed from the reunion when Linda showed up, passing herself off as Orange.The delight of the lost and found was just too much, and he cared even more for Linda when she told him that Mama Orange was dead, and how much su
It was such a horrible sight that Henry eased his foot off the gas pedal before he knew it, and his car clearly slowed.To Rory, it was a ray of hope—just as she thought, he loved her and could not really bear to leave her.He must be heartbroken to see how much she loved him and chased him until she got hurt.With that thought, her utterly discouraged spirit was once again soaring.So what if Sophie was his real daughter?! She was dead! And all a dead person could do was lay six feet under, unable to do a thing!But Rory was different—even if she was not connected to Henry by blood, she was alive.That meant she could sweet-talk him, whispering nice words to cajole him.And what could dead Sophie do about that?Hence, Rory found renewed strength despite being exhausted and started crawling toward Henry's car, bawling as she did.She had a clear objective and did not care that her hands and knees were scraped through."Daddy… Look at me… It hurts so much… Daddy…"As Rory g
Henry paused as he turned and suddenly turned toward Rory.Despite her leveling a miserable look at Henry with her eyes swollen from tears, he was still not relenting.In fact, he was endlessly cold as he glared at her with a cool look that cut to the bone."I'm telling you one last time—don't call me Daddy, you hear?"Rory had only seen him give Tina and Sophie that look before and had never expected him to look at her the same way now.She was left trembling endlessly, her lips parting as she really wanted to call out to him and sweet-talk him like she always did.But that icy glare left her speechless, and she could only watch as Henry turned and strode off, his footsteps soon fading into the distance.Did he really hate her now? Was he leaving her?Even as the thought struck her, she shook her head repeatedly!No! Henry could not leave her! She could not lose him! "Daddy!" She finally called out again as she leapt out of bed and started running without putting on her sho
However, was Rory really innocent?Henry might have believed Linda if he had not seen what Rory did with his own eyes—how malicious she looked when she cursed Sophie, and how vile the words she breathed were!Just remembering the sight left him shuddering.Not even a normal adult should have been capable of such vile words, and Rory was only seven!But what frightened Henry the most was how she was once again the good girl Rory as soon as she turned and saw him.She could switch between her personalities as if it was second nature, just like what Linda always did behind his back.The phrase 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree' really came to mind!Why could he not just see that from the start?!Rory had grown up by Linda's side, and Linda was a mother who was so immaculate with her pretensions.With such influence, would Rory have been all that different?"Adopt Rory, you say?" Henry breathed so quietly that no one could tell what he was really feeling just then.But s
Linda already had some choice words in mind for Rory after Henry never showed up today.So, her eyes were flaring in annoyance when she opened them, as Rory made such a loud ruckus past midnight, waking her up.She was ready to give Rory a beating as she moved from her bed to her wheelchair and headed to the next room.That was when she heard Henry's voice.She did not rush inside, however, and eavesdropped outside, cursing Rory's incompetence when she realized what just happened! Rory could not even do one thing right and had to let Henry catch her cursing that brat!At this point, Linda was well aware that any chances she had of getting back together with Henry depended entirely on Rory, so she must not let Henry become disappointed in Rory.Rory was her trump card. And if she lost her trump card, she had no shot of getting Henry back.And how could she accept something like that?!She had stayed by his side, putting up an act for years! How could she just allow herself to
It had never crossed Henry's mind that Rory was lying.He was prejudiced and had absolutely fought with Sophie, insisting endlessly that Rory would never lie.But was Sophie lying just because Rory did not?At this very moment, Henry did not even dare to think about how many lies Rory had told him over the years.And because he had absolute faith in Rory, how many times he had glazed over the facts and blamed Sophie!"Daddy…" Rory was truly terrified now, clutching her cheek where Henry slapped her in disbelief while her tears welled up in her eyes.In truth, Henry did not hit her that hard—he was holding back, compared to the times her mother had slapped her.But her heart hurt.Her daddy… The daddy she loved so much, the daddy who spoiled her so much and never raised his voice at her, slapped her because of Sophie!He did not just forget her birthday because of Sophie—he even struck her now!But she did not blame him.It was all Sophie's fault—and she hated Sophie even m
Rory asked, "Daddy? Is that my birthday present?"At the same time, she knew very well that if Henry saw what that straw doll really was, he would be absolutely furious.That was why he must not let him see at any cost.However, Henry was still glowering as he threw the gift aside, taking a step forward and glaring at her menacingly. "Show it to me!""Daddy…"More tears gushed from Rory's eyes, as if Henry terrified her.And yet, she gingerly reached out, tugging on the hem of Henry's shirt, chirping sweetly, "Daddy, you're scaring me. Don't look at me like that."At that moment, she was once again the Rory that Henry was so familiar with.Mature and obedient.Kind and innocent.Guileless and harmless.But Henry could not forget about the Rory he saw just now.And seeing that she kept trying to manipulate him, he lost all patience and pushed her aside, while reaching for the blanket with his other hand."Daddy! Don't look!"Rory cried as she lunged over in a panic to stop