The Reunion After Seven Years

When Nicole reached out her hand, Jay managed to pull the phone away just in time.

Eyeing Nicole warily, he clutched the phone in his small hands. The corners of his mouth rose in a slight, but unmistakable, smile.

"Mommy, you really should pay more attention in future. If you're not careful, you could damage me. As a parent and an adult, you're responsible for everything you say and do. I'm only six years old. There's no way a child should be seeing stuff like this!

I'm saving the photo as evidence for now. And if it ever happens again, I think you need to kick the old man out, you know?"

It had taken Jay a lot of effort to get hold of this photo and he wasn't about to hand it over to his mom without a fight. Besides, the old man had taken her away from him last night. This time, Jay really wanted to teach him a lesson!

Jay couldn't help feeling happy when he imagined the scene of Kerr being rejected by Nicole. The old man would surely be angry. Jay definitely wasn't about to let the old man win every battle.

Nicole looked at her son's earnest little face. He really meant business. In response, she could only nod in agreement. Jay was such a naughty kid sometimes that it gave her a headache.

She could never have predicted that she'd have a paparazzo living in her own house.

"If I remember rightly, the room I slept in last night was mine. You should sleep in your own room too," Kerr said. He had heard what Jay had said.

Sitting next to Nicole, he regarded Jay with a cool, calm gaze. After all, he didn't feel that there was anything wrong with what he'd done last night.

"You didn't get home on time after work, and even when you did come back it was obvious you'd been out drinking wine. Mommy was worried!" Jay took a deep breath. "Is that the way you take care of my mommy? And she's pregnant with my little sister, too. You must know that worrying is bad for my mommy and my little sister?"

want his mom to worry, but the old man behaved like he didn't care. How could the

as calmly as possible. He had a point. Last night had been Kerr's fault, even though there had been another reason he hadn't come home early. But Jay was probably justified in parts

had been, the truth was that it was down to him if he'd worried Nicole so much that she couldn't sleep well. He stretched out his hand until it

you take a look at today's news, then maybe you'll see why I was so late back last night. And maybe you'll

covertly planned in advance by Zachary. He'd

was sure she'd been looking forward to seeing her settle down with a good man. It was

in the determined smile on Kerr's face and curiosity flooded through her. What on earth could have made

Vedder walked up to Kerr, a folded newspaper under

"Here's today's paper, sir."

the man's hands, handing

scanned the headlines quickly until she found the news she was looking for. It was a full-page spread, all about Avery and Zachary. It turned out that they were engaged to be

racked her brains, thinking back. Everything she remembered seemed to point to the couple acting more like brother and sister. Although, come to think of it, Zachary had always treated Avery very well, and of course they weren't actually related by

so sudden, though. Nicole really hadn't been expecting

and Kerr could

couldn't help feeling grumpy, though. They'd been talking about all of Kerr's mistakes when the man had just swept in and changed the subject, distracting his mom so easily. How was he going to keep bad-mouthing

breakfast,

this time. He wouldn't miss a single moment of Nicole's prenatal appointments. He wanted to witness

As if in a trance, she stood up, walked

stirred in her sleep,

Avery, is it true what it says in the paper? Are you really