My Mute Bride

Chapter 244 Nervous

“I’m going to help Martha prepare dinner,” Rachel said, thereafter going to the kitchen. It wasn’t until she left that Justin finally dropped the magazine in his hands with an uncharacteristically vexed expression on his face. In fact, he was very dissatisfied with his previous nervousness.

After all, it wasn’t as if he was a prepubescent boy. He shared a marriage and a child with her, so how could he still get so nervous? Martha’s and Rachel’s voices floated out of the kitchen, blending with the sound of the two children talking and laughing in the dining room. Just like that, the large, deserted villa was filled with familial warmth.

As Justin looked down at the cake on the coffee table, he couldn’t help picking up the fork once again. Indeed, the cake was quite delicious.

After dinner, Rachel headed into the bathroom to help Charlotte bathe.

As the four yellow rubber ducks floated atop the bubbles in the filled bathtub, Charlotte said, “These two are Mommy and Daddy. This is me, and this is Samuel.”

Giving her daughter a conflicted look, Rachel started, “Charlotte, if Mommy and Daddy were to separate, who would you want to live with?”

The smile on Charlotte’s face froze and her small, heat-reddened face crumpled up with anxiety. “Are you leaving again, Mommy?”

The word ‘again’ stabbed into Rachel’s heart like the sharp point of a knife, but she steeled herself and persisted, “I’m saying ‘if,’ Charlotte. If your daddy and I separated, who would you want to go with?”

Instantly, the rims of Charlotte’s eyes reddened. “Why do you want to separate, Mommy? Is it because I was bad?”

Seeing her daughter on the verge of tears, Rachel no longer had the heart to continue asking. Quickly, she wiped her daughter’s eyes and reassured, “It’s not because of you. You’ve been very good. You’re a very good girl.”

After carrying Charlotte back to her room, Rachel took some time to placate the child and read to her. Only after an interminable length of time where she watched her daughter fall asleep did she finally let out a deep breath.

Children were the most vulnerable party in a parental divorce. Often, their first reaction would be to find fault with themselves, whether it be ‘I wasn’t well-behaved enough’ or ‘my parents no longer wanted me.’ The anxiety of abandonment would wire itself into their brains, leaving them with trauma that would not heal for the rest of their lives.

If it weren’t for the fact that it was her last resort, Rachel would never subject Charlotte to that.

By now, it was late in the night. The wind on the balcony was strong and it looked like it was about to rain.

showed an incoming

“Hey, are you back?”

landed. How are

on to Janice.

truly related to

of the transaction that Hans stumbled upon is Stanley Tillery, one of Jefferey’s men. He currently works as Chief

he be convicted based on one video

as well as the other people in the video. He’s only the face of the group. The others

tantamount to being Jefferey’s right-hand man and monitoring Hudson Pharmaceuticals’ every move when

looked unremarkable and unrelated to Hudson Pharmaceuticals, they were actually Jefferey’s way of protecting himself

side these few

be

take things too seriously, though. When everything is over, I have

another plane ticket and send me to another place for

clueless? Of course it’s not a plane ticket. Right, I can’t talk anymore. My

with not being able to continue talking, she heard a man’s voice calling out from the other end of

“No one!”

the end, Jolly hung

Who on earth had gone to pick Jolly

texted, ‘Is

her part, Rachel didn’t feel like pursuing the topic, anyway. As of late, the conclusion of Hans’ murder case had been weighing on

closer she got to the last, critical moment,

the next three days,

will be a storm again tonight, President Burton, so the security team advises that we cancel the celebrity meet-and-greet session lest a safety incident

of publicizing the mall event, rushed over to report on

have a Plan B?” From behind the desk, Justin asked coldly, “Did