Ch. 2861..2870
Chapter 2861
When Gwen returned to the hotel, it was already ten in the morning.
Luna and Joshua were sitting in the living room of the suite, organizing the documents Denise sent over.
The first thing Gwen saw when she opened the door was Luna biting a pen and frowning to compare the two documents. Luna’s hands were supposed to be used in drawing sketches of jewelry design, but at this moment, she looked like a clerk instead as she looked for loopholes in the documents.
Joshua was more serious than Luna. There were piles of documents on the coffee table in front of him, and these did not seem to have come from Denise. There were probably documents he gathered from other places.
Both of them were so serious that they did not notice Gwen had come back. After a while, Joshua was about to put the document away and finally noticed Gwen was back when he lifted his head.
He curled up his lips elegantly. “When did you come back?”
His low voice interrupted Luna’s thoughts. She frowned and discovered Joshua looking somewhere. Thus, she followed the direction and saw-
“Gwen!” She got so excited that she sprung up from the chair. “You’re back!”
“Luke–sorry, I mean Steven… How is he? Are there any side effects because of his split personality?”
Gwen smiled upon noticing how worried Luna was. “I’ve told him about it.”
She then repeated what she and Steven talked about to Luna and Joshua. At the same time, she also told them that she and Steven met with Sean and Denise.
Luna’s eyes widened. “So Sean and Denise will be registering their marriage? My brother will never agree!” Perhaps Jim might agree if he did not know Denise’s…deplorable actions in Saigen City. However, if he knew what happened, he would never allow them to get married.
Moreover, she had talked to Bonnie about everything that happened to her, Gwen, and Yannie when they were here in the city. If Bonnie knew this, it meant Jim knew about it too.
Since Jim knew what happened, he would never accept Denise becoming his sister–in–law!
With these thoughts in mind, Luna felt like a headache was coming. “I mean, there’re so many women. Why did Sean fall in love with Denise?”
Even if Denise was manipulated and knew she had made a big mistake, in some circumstances, Denise was a stubborn woman with no opinions. She would believe anything people told her.
As long as the person was nice to her, she would treat what the person said as a decree and execute it. Could this type of woman… be suitable for Sean?
“It’s not our business, so don’t get involved.” Joshua curled up his lips and stuffed some documents into Luna’s hand. “If you have time to think about other people’s issues, why don’t you organize these? Time is of the essence, and we need to settle this soon. Let’s hope we can settle this within a week and get the resuit.”
Luna groaned. Although she was reluctant to do it, she accepted the documents and started organizing them.
Since Joshua and Luna were serious about dealing with Luke’s matter, Gwen was not about to get lazy. She pursed her lips and walked to Joshua, asking cautiously, “Joshua, what should I do now?”
She was the one who wanted to sue the Miller family and the Hughes family. It was unreasonable for her to do nothing and leave everything to Joshua and Luna.
Chapter 2862
Joshua raised his head to look at Gwen with a smile on his face. “Actually, I do have something for you to do. But…I think you won’t want to do it, so forget about it. Just sit here for a while. When Luna and I finish organizing everything, we’ll tell you the whole conspiracy that the Hughes family and the Miller family have done.”
Gwen frowned at Joshua’s words. “What is it that you want me to do?”
She would willingly do anything, even if it meant exhausting herself. As Luke’s beloved woman, she wanted to help out and make use of herself.
Joshua furrowed his brow and glanced at Luna, who frowned. “Forget about it. I don’t think she wants to do it.”
He shrugged and looked at Gwen smilingly. “See? She’s the one who asked me to keep my mouth shut.” The fact that the couple acted like they were playing charades made Gwen feel more curious. She frowned and walked to Luna, grabbed Luna’s arm, and begged to know what they were talking about. “Come on, you’ll have to tell me first before thinking that I won’t want to do it. All these things happened because of me. I can’t just sit by the side and see you guys work your arse off while I do nothing.”
Luna smiled. She used her hand to pinch Gwen’s nose as her expression faltered into helplessness. “I think you don’t feel easy, especially when we’re busy while you do nothing. You could even be more stressed and uneasy than us.”
That was true.
Gwen sighed and coquettishly grabbed Luna’s arm. “Since you can understand my feelings, why won’t you tell me? What if I can do the things you want me to do?”
Luna, unable to resist Gwen’s inquisitive nature, looked at Joshua and said, “You tell her.”
Joshua did not look up and was still organizing the documents. With a hushed tone and what sounded like he was smiling, he said, “Gwen. Do you really want to know?”
Gwen nodded seriously.
“Well, we were going to ask you to…” Joshua stopped what he was doing. “Go to Steven’s house with him when you come back.
“You need to pretend to be Steven’s girlfriend to create a distraction so Steven’s parents will be busy and distracted so they won’t notice Denise stealing these documents. And they won’t have the time to care about other things because they’ll concentrate on you and Steven. All we have to do is refrain the Miller family from getting further information about our progress to stop them from leaving the city and force them to attend the court case in a few days.”
After that, he sighed. “At first, we thought it was the best option. You could halt the Hughes family and we could use Thomas to halt the Mille family. Everything will be fine then.
“But, since you had spoken out and decided you don’t want to have anything with Steven, then you shouldn’t go look for him anymore. Let’s just forget about having you pretend to be together with Steven. I’ll ask Thomas to add more personnel to control the Miller family.”
Gwen bit her lip quietly. She thought Steven and Luke could have closure as soon as possible if she explained everything to Steven. It just did not occur to her that… Joshua and Luna had such a plan in place. If she had communicated with them before she told Steven all those things, the plan could have
proceeded, but given her circumstances, she felt stuck.
She could not help Luna and Joshua, and she could not pretend to go look for Steven and say she wanted to be with him.
She sighed deeply.
Just as she was about to say something, her phone rang.
Well, she must have spoken of the devil, because it was Steven.
Chapter 2863
Gwen’s eyebrows furrowed when she saw the name on her phone. She looked at Luna and Joshua for a moment and hesitated. After that, she turned and went to the balcony to answer the call.
“Steven.” She frowned while looking at the snow and asked, “Did something happen?”
“Yes.” Steven paused a while. “I’m home, but…something happened.”
“What’s wrong?” His voice was obviously tense and anxious. Gwen asked, “Does it have to do with Denise?
“Yes.” Steven sighed over the phone. He sounded tired and helpless. “My parents have locked up Denise.” Gwen was startled. “What about Sean?”
If she remembered correctly, Sean had accompanied Denise back to Steven’s house.
“He’s locked up too,” explained Steven, “but they’re not in the same place. When I came back, Sean had escaped. I don’t know if he’s run off to other places or is hiding in the house, waiting for the time to rescue Denise…
“I think I need your help. Joshua and Luna should have a way to contact Sean. Can you ask them to contact him? I’m scared that he doesn’t know the situation in the residence and acted recklessly. It can easily backfire, and my parents can capture him again or even do something to Denise…”
Steven sounded very genuine that Gwen did not know what to say.
After a while, she sighed, “Then…do you know why your parents did it?”
If she was not wrong, Denise and Sean went to Hughes’ residence because she wanted to take the adoption certificates and her personal documents. She did not even want to take any of the clothes she bought when she was still the young miss of the Hughes family. All she wanted to take away was the stuff that was related to her identity.
Did that infuriate Steven’s parents?
Steven did not answer right away. In the end, he sighed deeply. “Denise came back to cut off ties with my parents and take back anything that relates to her identity. But my parents…”
His voice became hoarse. “They don’t want to cut off ties with Denise. I don’t know why they didn’t want to let Denise go and insisted on making her stay to the extent of locking her up…
“Maybe it’s because they developed a true family bond after being family for over twenty years. They don’t want to see her leave and never see her again. Or maybe…”
Steven looked at the sky and sounded despair in his hoarse voice, “Maybe they’re thinking they’re at a loss after raising Denise for so many years, especially now that she’s trying to leave.”
Gwen fell silent while holding her phone right beside her ear. After a while, she said, “It’s most likely…the second reason.”
It was unlikely Steven’s parents had any feelings for Denise. Otherwise, they would never have used her to please the Howard family and even made sure they had nothing to do with her when she was in trouble a couple of times.
They felt bitter for not having any returns that they thought they should have received after raising and adopting Denise from the orphanage.
Steven did not refute what Gwen said.
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “Gwen, I know whatever I say now cannot change my parents’ image. I also know in other people’s minds, they’re bad people-terrible, horrible people. But…they’re my parents, and they’ve always been good to me. I can’t…”
He paused for a while.
“I can’t just send them to jail without feeling anything like you guys.”
Chapter 2864
Even if Steven knew Mr. and Mrs. Hughes had done many bad things, they were still his parents. They never did anything bad to him.
Gwen understood the struggle and helplessness he felt. Thus, she curled up her lips and smiled. “I understand. You don’t have to feel bad or blame yourself. I believe if you’re Luke now, he’d make the same decision as you. Don’t worry. I’ll tell Joshua and Thomas about this. We’ll rescue Denise and Sean.”
Her sweet voice soothed his hanging heart. He gripped the phone tightly and shut his eyes. “Thank you, Gwen.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I have a favor to ask.”
Steven’s breathing halted at this. After a while, he asked quickly, “What can I help you with?”
He thought they would never cross paths again after how things ended in the hotel. It took him a long time to gather up his courage to make this call, and he never thought Gwen would actually request a favor from him.
He was willing to help. No matter what Gwen asked of him, he would do it.
Gwen was right. Luke and he were selfish. They ignored if their contributions were what she wanted and didi it anyway. Hence, if Gwen was willing to ask for a favor, he would do anything to help her, no matter what it took.
Steven’s excitement was evident in his response. A weird feeling appeared in her heart as she heard it through the phone.
She thought… after how cold she treated him, he would outright reject her. It surprised her that Steven would agree to help out so quickly, as though he was so afraid she would regret asking it.
Gwen felt like her heart was stuffed with something, making her feel slightly suffocated because of Steven’s reaction.
She took a deep breath and said, “Steven, I’d like to be your fake girlfriend.”
She knew it was an absurd request. Nonetheless, she could not bear not doing anything to help out with Luke’s case. If letting down her dignity before Steven would help Joshua and Thomas even just a little bit, she thought it was worth it.
On the other side of the phone, Steven could not believe what he heard.
He gripped his phone tightly. His mouth was wide open, but there was no sound coming out of him.
After a while, he lowered his hoarse voice and asked, “Why?”
He did not understand why Gwen wanted to be his fake girlfriend when she sternly told him they would be strangers in the future.
Gwen smited bitterly and told him about Joshua’s plan.
“Steven, I won’t lie to you. We’re planning to distract your parents so Joshua and Thomas can have more time and advantage to put your parents in jail. They have to focus on me to prevent turning you back to Luke, and they hate me so much that they’ll pay more attention to me. You can reject it, and I won’t blame you. As you said, they’re your parents, and they’ve never done anything that harms you.”
It was a long moment of silence after Gwen explained their plan.
Just when Gwen thought Steven would not agree with the request and was about to give up, Steven suddenly replied, “Okay.”
Gwen’s eyes widened in astonishment. “What? You agree?”
“Yes.” Steven closed his eyes. “If that’s what you want, I can help you.”
Helping her this last time…was a way for him to bid goodbye to the short romance that had not even started.
“Perhaps…after we pretend to be a couple, my parents will focus on you and me. Then, they won’t pay that much attention to Denise and Sean too.”
Chapter 2865
After a moment of silence, Gwen nodded vehemently. “Thank you. I’ll go tell Joshua and the rest about Denise and Sean now. After I’m finished here, I’ll go over to your place to look for you.”
Since Denise and Sean were both in danger, it was better for her to go over as soon as possible to distract Mr. and Mrs. Hughes.
“Steven’s parents are gross.” Luna frowned after knowing what happened to Denise and Sean. “They specifically said Denise had nothing to do with them. They made it very clear that she was adopted. Now that Denise finally found the love of her life and wanted to cut ties with them, they’re pulling this?”
She pursed her lips. “They’re so mean.”
Although Luna did not like Denise, she was a mother of four. She knew the bond between the parents and the child. Even if the child was adopted, the parents should never treat the child any differently.
The only explanation was that Steven’s parents were heartless, cold-blooded people that had not a smidge of sentiment for Denise. The only thing they cared about was the advantage they could attain from being her parents.
She stretched her mouth and said, “How could people like them have Steven and Luke as their parents?”
Joshua smiled. “Parents and children are different from one another. My father is a jerk. Do you think I’m a jerk, too?”
A simple statement, yet it left Luna speechless. When they were organizing the information on how the Hughes family and the Miller family plotted against Luke, Joshua had already taken out all the evidence of what Adrian had done to Joshua’s mother, Rianna.
Luna had a hard time believing how shameful and despicable a man could be.
In the past, she thought Adrian was someone bad at displaying his affection and had no feelings for Joshua…until she saw the information on how Adrian plotted, little by little, to drive Rianna nuts that finally drove her to kill herself. She knew she had underestimated how brutal and cruel Adrian was.
Gwen did not know what Joshua and Luna had read or chatted about. She frowned. “It’s not the time to talk about this now. Do any of you have any way to contact Sean? Steven said there are a lot of traps and secret passages in the residence. If Sean is still in there, he could be in danger.”
Luna furrowed her brow. “I don’t have Sean’s number.”
On the other hand, Joshua took his phone to make a call. Albeit, it could not get through.
“You can’t reach him?” Gwen frowned and asked.
“Well, not really.” He curled his lips and called another number. “Contact Sean for me.”
“Daddy, did you call Nigel just because of this?” Nellie was the one who answered the call. “You sound so cold. Nigel is not your employee. He should be like me, your previous!”
Finally, there was a smile on Joshua’s tensed and worried face because of what Nellie said. “When did I say he’s not my precious? It’s an emergency and I need your brother’s help.”
“Hmph! Excuses!” Nellie felt sorry for her brother. “I’ll let you go this time! If I hear you ordering him and not treating him like your precious, I’ll be angry!”
After Nellie said what she wanted to say, the phone got snatched away. Subsequently, Nigel’s voice came through. “I’ve contacted Uncle Sean. What do you want to tell him?”
Chapter 2866
Gwen was astonished to hear Nigel’s mature voice coming from the other side of the call. “How… How did Nigel do it?”
Joshua tried calling Sean, yet the call did not go through. How did Nigel contact Sean from so far away, especially when Sean’s phone was off the network? Did he have some kind of superpower?
“Before Sean came over, Nigel had given him a special piece of jewelry.” Joshua furrowed his brow as he listened to Nigel repeating what Sean told him and explained it to Gwen in a low voice. “It was the same type of jewelry Luna and the kids used to communicate right in front of me back in the past. Sean was sent here by Nigel to protect Riley.
“During his operation, he had to avoid many surveillance cameras, so Nigel gave him the jewelry. That’s why we can’t contact Sean, but Nigel can.”
Even after the explanation, Gwen still felt puzzled by it all. Although she did not understand entirely how it worked, she realized one thing: Nigel was a genius.
A genius in computers and telecommunication.
Shortly, Nigel described Sean’s situation based on the jewelry Sean was wearing. Sean had not left the Hughes family’s residence, and he was not in any danger. He was in a room that stored many documents. As he flipped through those documents, it was all the fake accounts the Hughes family had been reporting throughout all those years.
Under Joshua’s and the exclusive communication channel between Nigel and Sean, Sean took photographs of all those fake accounts and the evidence of corruption. Nonetheless, the amount of data from those photographs was too large. Sean could not send all of the data out at one time and could only save it on his phone, which could not detect any signal.
Joshua then requested Nigel to inform Sean to stay in the document room for the time being. Steven once said that his parents had done many bad deeds in the past. Thus, they set up many traps and secret passages in the residence so that no one could easily discover the skeletons in their closet.
Since Sean was safe, it would be best for him to stay put. The consequences would be unbearable if he accidentally triggered a trap should he try to leave.
“Daddy.” After Joshua requested Sean to stay put, Nigel said helplessly over the phone, “Uncle Sean said… he’s worried about Denise. He said if we could help save Denise, then he’s willing to stay in the document room forever, even if he has to eat paper to survive. If we can’t save Denise…”
Nigel sighed. “No matter how dangerous it could be, he’s willing to take the risk. Both of them had done what a married couple would do. He can’t leave her anymore.”
Gwen bit her lip quietly as she listened to what Nigel said.
Maybe Sean truly was the best Denise could have. It was a blessing and good fortune that Denise could meet Sean after she realized her misdeeds were terrible.
Joshua frowned and replied, “We’re going to save Denise, regardless of whether he asked.”
After that, he gave Nigel a few more instructions before ending the call.
When Joshua put down his phone, Gwen frowned and asked anxiously, “What should we do now?”
Joshua raised his head and looked at Gwen. “Now, you’re going to go buy a matching outfit and buy a pair of couple rings with Stever. Then, you’re going to treat his parents to a meal in the city center and meet them as Steven’s girlfriend.”
Chapter 2867
Joshua had said it before-they hoped Gwen could pretend to be Steven’s girlfriend to distract Steven’s parents. Therefore, Gwen was not surprised when Joshua said that.
She pursed her lips and looked at Joshua with a pair of serious eyes. “Do I need to do it now?”
She thought there was time for her to prepare mentally.
“We don’t have much time left.” Joshua looked down at his watch to check the time and said, “It’s going to take roughly half a day for you and Steven to get ready and ask Steven’s parents out to the restaurant.
“And, since we don’t know the exact location where Denise and Sean are in the residence, we can’t guarantee Sean has an adequate food supply. Most importantly…”
He gave Gwen a serious look. “If we don’t distract Steven’s parents soon, I’m scared they might be cornered in desperation and sell Denise to someone else.”
Luna frowned as she heard that. “Are you saying…”
“Yes.” Joshua interrupted her indifferently to express affirmation of her assumption. “You should know Steven’s parents adopted Denise because of themselves. They wanted to lighten the sin they conducted and nearly ruin Denise’s life.
“All these years, they only treated Denise like their daughter, taking care of her, pampering her, and showering her with love because they hoped she would marry into a good family in exchange for more power and wealth. Since Denise is no longer a virgin, they had also lost hope of having her marry Thomas. The scariest part for them is Denise actually wants to be with a poor man and leave them for him…”
He raised his head and looked at Luna. “What do you think they’d do out of desperation?”
Luna bit her lip and took a step back unconsciously.
The answer was simple; they would do everything they could to maximize Denise’s value to them. If they thought Denise was a high-end luxury product in the past, the current Denise only had the value of a scrap car that belonged in the scrap yard.
They would never consider Denise’s feelings or thoughts. Their main purpose was to make sure they could gain benefits and money from selling Denise.
Luna shivered when she thought of that.
“I’ll contact Steven now.”
Obviously, Gwen had the same thought in her mind. She frowned and took out her phone to call Steven. When the call was connected, she told him her plan.
Steven stayed silent for a while before answering, “Alright, I’ll go pick you up from the hotel now.”
After that, he hung up the phone.
Gwen put away her phone and sat across from Joshua and Luna. She helped them to organize the messy documents on the coffee table and asked Joshua about the subsequent planning with a frown.
Originally, she thought it would take Steven at least one hour to reach the hotel from his house. Nonetheless, her phone rang 20 minutes later. Steven told her he had reached the hotel and was waiting for her downstairs.
Gwen was so stunned that she failed to say anything. After a while, she stuttered to answer.
She stood up and tidied up her stuff while furrowing her brow. “Why is he so fast?”
The distance from the Hughes family’s residence to the hotel was not short.
Joshua glanced at her and said, “Because he knows sooner or later you’ll need him, so he’s been waiting for you downstairs. The reason why he only asked you to go down after twenty minutes was because he was afraid you might feel awkward and thought you’d troubled him.”
Chapter 2868
What Joshua said startled Gwen as she stared at him dumbfoundedly. “Seriously?”
“Why do you think it only took him twenty minutes to arrive here, then?” Joshua glanced at Gwen. “I know don’t want to owe him anything or be too involved with him, but you need to face the reality, Gwen.
“No matter how you try to avoid it, you can’t deny the fact that you had accepted many favors from him.”
you
He lowered his head and continued organizing the document on the table. “Nonetheless, you don’t have to feel too stressed about it. After all, he’s Luke’s brother, and he’s using Luke’s body. He’s the beneficiary of all of these. It’s right for him to help you.”
Gwen bit her lip and did not know how to react to what Joshua said.
“Why did you tell all those?” Luna frowned and raised her hand to knock on Joshua’s head. She then turned and looked at Gwen with a smile. “Don’t mind what he said. Calm yourself first. Our priority now is
to save Denise and Sean.
“Now that Sean has a lot of evidence to prove all the bad things Steven’s parents did, it’ll be easier for us to take them down, as well as the Miller family, once we rescue Sean.”
Gwen finally snapped out of it. She bit her lip and looked at Luna. “I understand.”
After that, she turned around and took a deep breath to stride to the door.
When the elevator door closed, Luna frowned and looked at Joshua. “Why did you tell her those things?”
Yes, she was curious too why Steven could arrive within half an hour after Gwen called him, but…it would only stress Gwen more if she knew how much Steven would do for her.
“Do you think she won’t realize it even if I don’t say it?” Joshua looked at Luna and smiled helplessly. ” Which is more stressful for her? Me telling her, or she figures it out on her own?”
He flipped to the next page to read as he added, “Now that she knows, she can express her gratitude to Steven immediately when she sees him and keeps her distance at the same time. If we keep it from her and only let her find out about it after Steven has done many things for her… it’ll be harder for her to clear her relationship with Steven, and she’ll have a hard time repaying those gratitudes.”
Luna furrowed her brow as she seemed to understand and yet felt that there was something strange about it. “Does Gwen really need to keep her distance from him?”
“This is Luke’s decision.” Joshua closed the file in his hands. “Luke told me he doesn’t mind if Gwen and Steven get together. He’d be happy if they could be together. But…”
He paused and reminisced back on how sorrowful Luke’s voice was when he talked.
“I hope Gwen’s feelings for Steven aren’t mixed with gratitude and her attachment to me. She should stay away from Steven and draw a line between them so she can see her feelings for what they truly are.
“She shouldn’t enter the next relationship without thinking straight just because of me, because Steven is my brother, and how sorry and grateful she feels for me and Steven. At least, she should spend some time alone to think it through and figure out what her true feelings are.”
Chapter 2869
When Gwen was down at the lobby, Steven’s car was parked just right in front of the hotel entrance. The sky was snowing a little, yet there was already a thick layer of snow on Steven’s car.
Gwen bit her lip when she saw the layer of snow. Even if she did not believe what Joshua said, she had to believe it when she saw Steven’s car.
Joshua was right. Steven must have come after she called him…or maybe, he could have been waiting for a long time even before she called him.
The snow could not have piled up that thickly in a short time, especially when it was only snowing a little. The gratitude and guilt she felt for Steven accumulated even more. She took a deep breath and opened the car door to get in. “Have you waited for a long time?”
Steven smiled and looked at her calmly. “I just arrived.”
“Just arrived?” Gwen raised an eyebrow. “How could there be snow that’s almost three to four centimeters thick on your car if you just arrived?”
The question caught Steven off-guard as he fell silent for a moment before smiling sheepishly. “It was snowing heavily when I got here. It’s not as intense now.”
As though afraid Gwen would not believe him, he reiterated, “I really just got here.”
“I believe you.” Gwen curled up her lips in a smile when she saw how panicked he was.
She looked at the front and said, “Let’s go.”
At first, Steven wanted to explain more, but Gwen’s reply stopped him from explaining further. He then quickly swallowed all his words back and started the car engine. “So we’re going to the shopping mall?” “Yes.” Gwen nodded. “You’re going to buy some clothes with me. After that, we’ll ask your parents out.” “Okay.” Steven looked at her seriously and, inhaling deeply, drove toward the shopping mall at the city
center.
After a moment, they arrived at the shopping mall. Their shopping trip was quick and efficient. Both of them had the body of a model, so it did not take a long time for them to pick out a pair of matching outfits that were suitable for them at any two shops. After buying the outfit, they went to buy the same design of jewelry and watches.
By the time they were done, it was already three in the afternoon. Steven brought Gwen for a simple meal before he found a quiet place to call his parents.
Meanwhile, his parents and Denise were settling a business with Mr. Hoffman, an entrepreneur from Banyan City. Mr. Hoffman had the desire to make Denise his woman before. Nevertheless, he had no opportunity to lay his hands on Denise since Steven’s parents had been pampering and loving her in the past.
He knew what Steven’s parents were up to when they were the ones who initiated a business deal with him while bringing along Denise and thus requested a price a lot higher than the market price.
He sat beside Denise and stretched out his hand to reach for Denise’s hand. With a lustful smile, he said, ” I hope our cooperation will be a success. After this deal, not only will I continue this business partnership with you, but I’ll also…”
As he talked, he looked at Denise with lustful eyes. “I’ll also tell my friends to come and patronize-
“Ah, I mean, to deal business with you. I mean, Ms. Hughes is such a beautiful lady. No one wants to see her feeling lonely.”
As he spoke, his hands slowly wandered to Denise.
Denise, still seated on the chair, glared at Mr. Hoffman warningly. She tried to resist it, but she did not
have any energy to move her body. Before they came, Steven’s parents had forced her to take a drug that restricted her movement. She was like a doll, pliant for them to control her as they saw fit.
When Denise was in despair, Mrs. Hughes’ phone rang. Steven was the one calling her.
Chapter 2870
“Steven!”
Mrs. Hughes was thrilled when she saw the caller ID on her phone screen. She picked up the call excitedly. “Have you thought it through? I told you. As long as you change your mind, you’ll forever be my precious son! You’re our only son when we chose you over Luke twenty years ago!”
She was so excited that she forgot where she was and she did not care if she embarrassed herself in front of Mr. Hoffman. “Denise is just an orphan we adopted. Her life is worth nothing to us. It’s not worth falling out with us because of her. It just isn’t worth it!
“Where are you now? Do you need us to send someone to pick you up? As long as you are willing to come back, me, you and your father will still be a loving and happy family, okay?”
Steven furrowed his brow as he quietly listened to what his mother had to say. After a while, his mother finally finished what she wanted to say.
He took a deep breath and said, “Mother.”
His voice sounded heavy. “Gwen and I would like to sit and eat with you and father.”
Mrs. Hughes grabbed her phone tightly. After a while, she raised her brow as she blurted, almost screeching, “Who do you say you want me and your father to eat with?!”
On the other side of the phone, Steven took a deep breath and said solemnly, “Gwen and I.
“Gwen, my girlfriend. I wish you and Father will share a meal with us so I can introduce her as my girlfriend to both of you. I’ll be together with Gwen in the future.”
The color of Mrs. Hughes’ face turned from white to red, and then from red to white again. After a long while, she gritted her teeth while gripping her phone tightly. “Steven, are you crazy?”
It was not like he did not know who Gwen was. The only reason Gwen was here in Saigen City was to get close to Steven because of Luke, and Steven, of all the other people, should know it more than the onlookers like them.
Why would he want to be with this unpredictable woman? This woman might kill Steven in his sleep for Luke. Was he not afraid of that?
“I’m not crazy.” Steven took a deep breath and solemnly added, “I like Gwen, and she likes me too. We both have feelings for each other. This has nothing to do with Luke.”
While he was talking, he turned to the side to look at the woman sitting beside him in the car. Gwen was reading a text message Luna sent over.
The afternoon sun shone on her face from the window. It strongly emphasized her jawline, and she looked incredibly pretty.
Steven was bedazzled by her beauty.
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Mrs. Hughes’ angry voice pulled Steven back to reality. Her hysterical voice was transmitted through the phone into Steven’s ear. “That woman gets close to you because of Luke. All she thinks about is how to kill you so her Luke will come back! Aren’t you afraid that one day you might not wake up in the morning being together with her? Steven, you’re crazy. Your father and I will never agree to let you be with her!”