“Lily,” Julian suddenly gently broke the silence, pushing a small, hand-shaped bowl in front of his niece. “Look at this, do you like it?”
Lily’s attention was indeed diverted, and she forgot her previous question.
Elara lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously tracing the rough surface of the clay.
A warmth spread through her chest, mixed with an ineffable bitterness.
She knew Julian was giving her space-
Just as he had for the past three months, always maintaining a perfect distance, never
overstepping.
“I’m going to change the water,” she suddenly said, walking away with hurried steps.
In the restroom, Elara looked at herself in the mirror.
Three months had passed. The dark circles under her eyes had faded, the tightness in her lips was gone, and the scars on her body had softened.
The sunlight and gentle breezes of Havenwood seemed to have healed some of the invisible
wounds she carried.
But when Lily said “forever,” Elara’s mind flashed with Leo and Mia’s faces-
The two children she had carried for ten months, who had pushed her down the stairs.
Could those past events truly be forgotten?
3:52 pm
<
Dominic’s private jet landed at Havenwood airport that very day.
The sun was blindingly hot. He squinted, watching the two children being carried off the plane by bodyguards.
“Daddy, will we really see Mommy?” Mia asked, looking up, her eyes sparkling with anticipation and
unease.
“Definitely,” Dominic said, tidying his clothes, his voice calm and certain.
“Mommy will be very happy to see you.”
His assistant hurried over, handing him a file. “Mr. Thorne, we’ve confirmed Mrs. Hayes’s location. She’s currently at a pottery studio in the east of the city, with… those two.”
The file included a candid photo-
Elara was kneeling in front of a little girl, gently wiping mud from her face.
A tall, bespectacled man stood beside her, smiling as he watched them.
Sunlight streamed through the glass window, bathing the three of them. The scene was sickeningly
warm.
Dominic’s fingers unconsciously tightened, creasing the edge of the photo.
The way that man looked at Elara, he knew it all too well-it was the tenderness he had never given
ner.
“Prepare the car,’ he said coldly. “Let’s go there now.”
On the way, Leo and Mia were unusually quiet.
They pressed their faces against the car window, looking at the unfamiliar cityscapes, their small hands nervously clutching their clothes.
