When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“Okay.” I nodded obediently and continued speaking through puffed cheeks, “Get home as soon as you can.”

A faint voice spoke up from his end of the call. It was foreign and sounded like it belonged to a man. “Mr. Fuller, you may begin now.”

“Alright,” Ashton responded to the voice before turning back to me. “I have to deal with some stuff here, so you should go on to bed without me. I’ll text you when I get home.”

Then he hung up before I could manage a “goodbye” or even an “okay.”

Looking back at the call history, something didn’t quite sit right in my chest.

Am I mistaken or did Ashton sound a little nervous earlier? As I contemplated giving him another call after he was done with his work, my phone buzzed—it was a WhatsApp message from Ashton: Don’t worry, Honey. I’ll be extra careful so no one can cop a feel.

A soft smile broke out on my face, thinking that he must be fine if he can joke around like this.

Feeling relieved, I put away my phone and decided to check on the twins in their nursery. On my way there, I noticed a faint glow coming from Summer’s room. Seeing that her door wasn’t fully shut, I peeked into her room out of curiosity.

still awake at this hour. She sat before her brightly lit computer with her head leaning down, doing something that I

when Stella tried to get close to Summer. I already transferred Stella to the Logistics Department and made sure she

behind Summer to get a better look. It turned out that Summer was practicing some fourth-grade math questions with the guidance of an online

I took in the unexpected sight before me. Summer had just started school, yet

lowered, focusing on the fourth-grade workbook before her. She was so absorbed

such a tiny human

not startle her before asking my question, “What are you up

Summer beamed at me whilst eagerly motioning to the contents of her workbook. “Math equations are so fun, and Mr. Cress said I’m really good at solving them! He even assigned some extra

“Is that so…?”

nothing special about the contents since it mostly consisted of basic

pressed my lips into

Macy was a business owner, she would happily throw herself into the tediousness of bookkeeping. She loved it dearly; calculating, and tallying the sums like she was

this was comforting to see. It was as if Summer was living proof that a wonderful

the workbook back down and petted the top of Summer’s head. A comforting smile stretched across my face as I encouraged, “That’s great,