Reina nodded. “Yes, I did switch identities with her later.”“Was the reason related to the Rivas family?” Abel asked.Reina was silent for a moment. Her tone was a little helpless as she changed the topic. “I’m sure you’ve guessed that the apprentice who caused trouble at the wedding is Sean’s man.”“That’s right.”“And Sean is backed by the Rivas family—”“That fifth apprentice?” Ruth asked with a firm tone.Reina looked at her in surprise. “You know that person?”Ruth nodded. “I heard Julius mention him before.”Charles was instantly displeased and raised his voice. “Why was he telling you this?”Ruth glanced at him and said, “What do you mean? Should the whole world be like you and stay silent while waiting for things to be resolved? Is that what you want? Then, you can easily explain yourself by saying that you had no choice but to do the things you did, huh? You’ve even deluded yourself and think that you’re so noble and selfless.”Charles’s face was as dark as ink. He
Ruth suddenly thought of something and asked, “Does Callum know about this?”Reina nodded and said, “He knows a part of it. Rose was pregnant at that time and wanted to give the child a proper family. She also wanted this matter to be taken care of, so she hired a man to be a matrilocal son-in-law.”In other words, Callum was willing to take over the Lockton family’s assets.However, he did not know whose child it was.It was only after they got along that he gradually “found out” that this child might belong to the Lovehart family.“A proper home?”Ruth chuckled.Because of Rose’s self-righteousness, Ruth had lived in the shadows for almost her entire childhood. She was clearly living in her own house, but it was no different from living under someone else’s roof.Callum and Bella were the real family. She was that burden that Callum could not get rid of even if he wanted to.George’s voice was comforting. “It was all fate’s fault! Someone in the Lovehart family was watching
“I—”“Oh, you wanted me to have a proper family? Was that why you were willing to make a cuckold out of yourself?”Ruth paused and said emotionally, “How noble of you.”Charles’s face darkened, and his voice was unusually serious. “Ruth, the situation forced us to do so. Your mother is the beloved daughter of the Lockton family and the Rivas family. You couldn’t be born out of wedlock—”“Do you people in high positions think that pride and power are more important than anything else?”Charles was completely stumped.Ruth stared at him for a while and sneered. “You guys were the ones controlling the entire situation, so there’s really no need for me to interfere. Back then, you guys advised me not to investigate, so I should have stopped. My mother herself would have hoped so too, right?”They did not want her to interfere. They did not want her to ruin the overall situation. They just wanted the plan to be completed successfully.Now, it was indeed perfect.Everyone looked hap
The entire family was trying to butter Ruth up, as if they were afraid that she would be angry.Charles was afraid that she would not acknowledge him as her biological father.However, no one cared about her feelings or how difficult it was for her to accept the truth with a clear conscience.Then, her rebellious mentality was triggered, and she went in the direction that they were most afraid of. She was angry and dissatisfied, and she reprimanded them for being ruthless and cold-blooded.Only Abel understood her.His casual words easily exposed her thoughts.Her emotions were like a balloon that deflated with a single poke. Ruth felt a lump in her throat and an inexplicable sense of grievance welled up in her.Looking at her red eyes, Abel pulled her into his arms with an aching heart. His voice softened unconsciously. “You’re young. In their eyes, you’re just a child, and children need protection. Don’t you know that?”Ruth could not help but whimper when she touched his war
After Ruth left the ward, Lily quarreled with everyone again.She came out the victor.Because her method was much more direct.She wasn’t angry, nor did she criticize them. She just poked at their guilty consciences sarcastically. “You guys are quite amazing. You’re really amazing. You played me and my cousin like fools. If you had lost this battle for power, then my cousin and I would have just died, right? It’s fine if we were still young and didn’t have the right to know. But we’re all adults now. Why would you keep this from us? You’re the only real family here. You’re united against a common enemy. Ruth and I are just toys. It’s fine if we don’t have the right to say anything, but don’t tell us that we’re not entitled to our own feelings.”Reina turned her head helplessly. She did not expect Lily to argue with them after Ruth had just left.However, Lily’s words allowed her to grasp the main point.Reina came to her senses and corrected her seriously. “Why would you think t
Ruth’s lips twitched as she looked helplessly at the man beside her.Abel smiled slightly. He tilted his head and interrupted Lily. “Looks like your cousin is overthinking. You don’t need to be comforted.”“Huh?”“Didn’t you drive here? Go back on your own. We still have something to do.”Lily was dumbfounded.She had just helped them out and was already being chased out?How could he do that?She leaned over from the console and hugged Ruth’s arm. She said coquettishly, “No! I want to be with Ruth! We don’t want to be separated!”At this point, Abel wanted to repay kindness with ingratitude. After all, Abel was also an accomplice.After all, he had been in private contact with Reina, and he had already understood the situation with just a few words.Thus, he had to know something.But before she could say anything, she felt a chill at the back of her head.She silently retracted her body, but she could not bear to let go of Ruth’s hand. She hugged the back of the passenger
Ruth wanted to ask more, but Abel held her hand and walked in.The office was decorated simply. From the moment they entered, two rows of candles mapped out a path, and the floor was covered with a layer of rose petals.The path led to the sofa. There was a pile of exquisite gift boxes surrounded by bright flowers.Ruth stood at the side. “Are these gifts that I didn’t open?”She had spent the entire day opening the gift boxes at home yesterday and had only managed to organize a small portion of the wedding gifts. Those were given by friends and close family on both sides, so she had personally opened them.As for the others, they were sent to Kingsland Manor for Mrs. Greenwell to deal with.But why were there still so many gifts here?“They’re birthday presents.”As soon as he finished speaking, Kallan calmly picked up the small signboard on the desk and stood beside the birthday presents.Three sets of eyes landed on his face.Kallan’s calm expression did not collapse. He w
Ruth did not know when it started, but Abel could always perfectly capture her emotions and comfort her patiently.Earlier in the ward, when she found out the truth, she asked her grandfather if he had never cared about the Lockton Corporation.This was because she realized that she had tried her best to hold on to it and protect it.However, it turned out that they did not care at all.At that moment, she felt like a joke.She felt that all of her hard work was meaningless.However, Abel had comforted her.Her chest felt warm. Her eyes were also tearing up, gradually blurring everything in front of her.She sniffled and tried to return his smile, but tears rolled down her cheeks.She wiped her cheeks in a panic and said in a delicate voice, “You’re annoying! You made me cry again! You’ve embarrassed me twice in one afternoon!”How could she maintain her cold and arrogant image in the future?“Why are you crying? Don’t you like the birthday presents?” Abel smiled and reached
Galen stood nervously at the side. At first, he wanted to step in and help, but he held himself back.In the end, he gave up and watched the fight.The more he watched, the more startled he was.Despite her delicate frame, her moves were calculated and ruthless.Many of her moves were lethal.She was a young woman who was loved. She was pampered and adored by everyone. How was such a person so ruthless in combat?It was as if she often fought to the death…Mr. Watson was shaken as well. He covered his neck with one hand, while his other hand hung limply by his hand. He looked at Lily in shock. His other hand hung weakly by his side. He looked at Lily in shock.How could such a small and delicate-looking person possess such strength? Was she really the heiress of the Cavendish family?“Do you want to verify it? The wounds match with the one who attacked me. I broke his right wrist on the spot, though. After that, I didn’t wait for reinforcement to come. I moved immediately an
Her hand paused while hefting the silver fork.Ruth’s husband was really very considerate. He loved her sister truly and everyone in her family.She decided to find a boyfriend like him for herself in the future.“I definitely will!” She thought.She stood in the spacious living room and looked at the man beside Galen who wanted to get to the bottom of this investigation. Her fingers tightened on the fork. “Words might not be enough to explain. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you give this a try?”Galen had not reacted when Charles spoke, nor when Abel had talked about switching it to a blunt weapon, but he definitely did now. “Nonsense!” he said sternly and stood up.Lily’s fighting spirit was ignited, but his stern rebuke deflated half of it. “Why not? Is it now allowed? You said attacking a police officer wasn’t allowed, didn’t you?”“He doesn’t count!” Galen said with disdain.Lily’s aggressive stance was completely deflated. “Well… if he doesn’t count, then his skills
The seemingly innocent question was directed at the young police officer.He looked troubled.Her delicate appearance did not help.The young police officer turned to the stern-faced man beside Galen for some help. The man pursed his thin lips and spoke in a deep voice.“Your Excellency… Madam… the nature of this case is severe, but the process of investigation is smooth. If your daughter doesn’t reveal the whole truth, it’ll be difficult for us to reach the crux of the issue. I assume that you don’t just want the result from this investigation but also the truth?”His firm voice was authoritative yet respectful.Charles turned to look at him. His brown eyes were calm, and he was sizing up this person.The police officer’s cold demeanor momentarily faltered. He quickly looked away and did not dare look him in the eye. “We’re just following procedures. To prevent this matter from escalating further, we hope for your cooperation.”He sounded intimidated yet resolute. It seemed
He was already determined to stake everything on his plan.“Right,” Lily said, “What about those bodyguards assigned to protect me? How were they swapped?”“Abel offered them ten times the price and bribed the group of bodyguards hired by Denver. The two poor people were taken down. The rest were replaced by our own people,” said Galen icily.Lily was shocked. She looked at him and then at Abel, who was driving calmly.Ruth looked at her husband with the same shocked face.So, this was how money made the world go round!When Denver had transferred money to that company, Lily had caught wind of it, but it seemed Abel had found out even sooner.He had already made arrangements to take drastic measures.“Don’t they have any morals? I heard that those kinds of organizations have principles. They won’t willingly betray the ones who employed them,” said Ruth.“As long as it’s not a terrorist organization, every organization needs connections. William’s group was already in dire stra
It was mainly because Denver clearly fabricated an alibi. But he had appeared on the scene and had been taken away.It was indeed quite puzzling.At that point, everyone looked at Abel in confusion.Abel looked straight ahead and did not speak. He only spoke when he was asked directly.“The father and son lost because they didn’t know each other’s motivations. It’s easy to bribe their people to send a message to the other and get them to the scene…”Before they set off, Sean received news that Denver was going all out and wanted to go down with Lily in the manor in the suburbs.Sean did not doubt it because Denver had been acting increasingly strange recently.He was transferring his assets and buying and renovating manors. It was as though he was prepared for death.He had even arranged for his funeral.Afraid that his son was taking things too hard, he put down whatever he was doing and rushed over to the scene.Since that was taken care of, it was easy to deceive Denver af
“See what you are doing? What if something happens to your sister?”Charles was not known for showing affection or caring about people outright.However, when his daughter cried and threw a tantrum, he could not stop himself.Charles stood by Lily without hesitation and scolded Abel for his incompetence.Ruth was originally filled with resentment and wanted to vent it out on Abel too, but when she saw that the father and daughter duo had joined forces to attack her husband, half of her resentment dissipated.With four bodyguards that had been arranged to deal with two outsiders, coupled with Lily’s abilities, her life was indeed not in danger…She glanced at Lily hesitantly. At this moment, Galen had cleaned up all the stains on her palm.Other than the redness between her thumb and index finger, she did not seem too badly hurt.All the resentment was gone. In fact, she was even a little protective. “Why did you have to deal with the four bodyguards?” Lily lowered her head an
Everyone was speechless.This discussion was fruitless. Everyone had their own opinions, and no one wanted to give in.In the end, Reina and the old man took a car, while Ruth, Abel, Charles, Galen Barker, and Lily got into another.The fire slowly died down.The cars left one after another.After Mr. Lockton got into the car, his cloudy eyes became shrewd. He asked his daughter, “Do you think that police officer is also interested in Lily?”Otherwise, why would he be so active and rush to the front? Why would he find such a lousy excuse to be the one to drop her home?“I think so, but unfortunately, Lily doesn’t seem to be as interested as before,” Reina said helplessly.Otherwise, why would she reject such a good opportunity to get into his car?Wouldn’t she have acted pitiful enough to earn his sympathy to get into the car?Mr. Lockton frowned. He was in deep thought.The last time he had heard that his granddaughter had fallen in love with another man who happened to be
Also, she was sure that if it was Luna being attacked at that time, he would have helped her without hesitation.This man was just like Notus. He was stupid, stubborn, and hypocritical.The reason why she spoke on his behalf was that she could not stand Luna’s smug face. Even if she wanted to drag someone down, she had to ask first.It was just the truth. She would not die if she made that clear anyway.Luna’s smug look cracked as she stared fixedly at her. Her gaze shifted from doubt to resentment and unwillingness.Aquilo was not surprised when Lily accused him. He knew that he had done something wrong. If not for Abel’s careful consideration, they would have died here today.However, he was quite surprised to hear her defend him.As he was handcuffed and escorted to the police car, he could not help but turn to look at her.“Lily…”Lily was about to walk to her car.She paused for a moment and turned to look at him calmly.Her usually playful eyes were indifferent at that
Aquilo opened his mouth but did not know what to say.Just then, a team of uniformed police officers rushed over to the scene to rescue the hostages.Looking at the people standing before them, they could not tell which ones were the hostages.Galen Barker walked over from behind and glanced at them. “What are you still standing here for? Get out quickly!”This manor had an ancient Sommersetese courtyard.The place where they were gathered was a small open space in the courtyard.After passing through the desolate artificial mountain pavilion, they arrived at the large courtyard outside the manor. There were many people gathered there, with many police cars parked nearby.A fire truck had also arrived.To Lily’s surprise, Sean Lovehart and his father were also there and were being escorted into the police car.When he saw her coming out, Denver’s face filled with hatred. He wanted to rush to her and strangle her. “You’ve got guts! You risked your life to drag us down with you!