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“We're here to—” Before the boy could finish his sentence, an elderly woman walked over.
Is she Ms. Ery's mother?
“Ma'am!” Zachary greeted politely.
Ma'am...
Avery followed Zachary's line of sight and turned to look behind her.
There, she saw a middle-aged woman in a set of white Adidas sportswear. She was just a passerby,
but she abruptly stopped in front of the trio.
Cayden knew that the woman was not Avery's mother, so he did not greet her.
“Is there anything wrong?” Avery asked, confused by the middle-aged woman's stare.
The middle-aged woman let out a sigh before stretching her limbs while staring at Avery for a while
longer.
Then she frowned and said, “You should be a responsible woman if you're married. You can't let your
husband and child starve! How can you come home so late at night?”
Clearly, the husband she was talking about was the man with a poker face.
A wave of embarrassment washed over Avery.
Just as she was about to explain the situation to the middle-aged woman, the latter turned to Cayden
and chided, “You're in the wrong too. How can you scowl at your wife just because you're unhappy?
What will your son think of you? Men have to learn how to cook nowadays too. You can't expect your
wife to do all the household chores. You're marrying a wife, not a housekeeper!”
The more the middle-aged woman spoke, the more Avery felt that she was crossing the line.
How can you possibly misunderstand a situation like that? It's so obvious that we're people from two
different worlds.
“You've misunderstood the situation. My relationship with him is merely a working, professional one,”
Avery quickly explained.
The middle-aged woman was ready to say something else, but Avery's words stopped her mid-
sentence, and she stared at Avery even more intently.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter a while, the middle-aged woman parted her lips again. Nevertheless, she did not say anything.
Instead, she gave the man, the woman, and the child yet another once-over.
Who are you trying to kid? It's obvious that you have a special relationship with that handsome man! I
can't believe this place has immoral people like her. I never thought that a mistress having an affair with
a rich man would be in the area.
Avery, who was abruptly labeled as a mistress, watched the middle-aged woman leave with pursed
lips. She did not know what else to say to the man and his son.
She was not close to either the adult or the child.
Avery knew well what an unmarried woman should and should not do. While it was normal for her to
interact with men at work, it was not appropriate for her to meet an unfamiliar man at night in private.
All of a sudden, Cayden lowered his head to look at the boy beside him and said in a low voice, “Hurry
up and say what's on your mind.”
Avery turned around.
Zachary could only blink at the two adults in a daze. He did not know why he had come, but his father
had said that he was here for something. Yet, he was asking him to hurry up now.
Oh! Now I remember! Daddy asked me to come as support.
The boy was still short in stature, so it took him a lot of effort to move two huge boxes from the dark
spot behind him.
One was light blue, and the other was white. They even had ribbons on them.
“Ms. Ery, this is a gift for you,” Zachary said. He turned around to look at his father, worried that he had
said the wrong things.
Zachary was small, so Avery only heard his voice; she did not see his face, as he was hidden behind
the box.
Even though she did not want anything from Cayden, she did not want the boy to have wasted his
efforts either. Hence, Avery accepted them and let the boy emerge from behind the box.
Then she looked at the boy and gave him an amicable smile.
“Why are you giving me this?” Avery asked the boy, but she was actually waiting for his father's
response.
Avery did not know that the aloof man was looking at the diamond ring on the middle finger of her left
hand.
That was a symbol of the wearer's engaged status.
“I... I don't know too.” The wary look on Zachary's face was replaced by an innocent one as he
scratched his head and turned to look at his father in confusion.
“You're done here, so let's get going now,” was all Cayden said to his son. After one last look at Avery,
who was holding onto the boxes, Cayden turned to leave.
Avery and Zachary watched as the man walked off.
“My daddy, he—” Zachary wanted to say something else, but he soon clamped his mouth shut, looking
disappointed.
A wave of helplessness washed over Avery as she said to the boy, “I really can't accept this gift.”
“Why?”
Avery could not explain to a five-year-old boy the reason behind her rejection—he would not
understand her.
Thus, she had no choice but to say, “I can't accept rewards that I don't deserve.”
With that, she smiled and put the boxes in Zachary's hands.
“Your daddy's going to leave you here if you don't go after him soon. Please help me bring these gifts
back to him.”
A white Porsche was parked by the side of the road by the entrance of the residential area.
Cayden sat gloomily in the driver's seat with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding onto
a cigarette. He brought the cigarette to his lips and took a long drag.
“Do you see the trash can behind you? Throw them in!” Cayden said to his son coldly when he saw the
things that the boy had brought back.
Returning to the Moore residence, Zachary, who had been quiet the entire journey, unbuckle his seat
belt and jump out of the car as soon as Cayden stopped the car.
Jeffrey was drinking tea in the courtyard, and he nearly leaped in fright when he saw his great-
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmgrandson jumping out of the car and dashing upstairs.
“What happened to my dear great-grandson? Who made him so mad?”
He knew that the boy and his father had never had a conflict in the past five years.
Right then, Cayden slightly loosened his tie and strode into the mansion.
“Did Zach witness a woman being clingy to you again?” Allie Musk, Cayden's mother, asked tentatively
as she stepped forward to take her son's suit jacket.
Cayden shook his head, which confused Allie even further.
She could not wrap her mind around what else could have possibly happened.
After all, that was the only thing that would make Zachary upset.
Both Zachary and Rory grew up living a rather sheltered life; they rarely encountered outsiders. As a
matter of fact, they did not even know what a mother was when they were younger.
It was only after making friends their age did the siblings find out that not only did other children have a
father, but they also had a mother.
That day, the moment he reached home, Zachary had asked, “Where's our mommy?”
Jeffrey had been lying to the children by telling them that they did not have a mother.
However, the five-year-old Zachary was much wiser than before. Evidently, his great-grandfather's lie
could no longer trick him.
Unable to bear staring into the boy's eager eyes, Jeffrey sighed and said, “Your mommy has gone
somewhere far. If she comes back, I'll ask your daddy to take you both to meet her.”
Zachary was the only one who had heard it, and he had kept those words carved in his mind.
After taking the suit jacket from her son, Allie handed it to the housekeeper, who took it away.
Standing by the windowsill, Allie looked downward. She was Cayden's mother and the children's
grandmother. It was almost impossible for her not to feel curious about the identity of the children's
mother.
However, five years had passed since the incident. Allie doubted that anyone would be able to find out
the details of the deal back then.
Of course, as a mother, she had asked Cayden about it. But Cayden had refused to speak a word of it.
Furthermore, Lindsay and Grover, who used to be by Cayden's side, had already retired due to
illnesses. Maybe I should pay them a visit one day. Perhaps I could glean some information from them.
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