Gregory’s favorite was his laptop. Ashton didn’t want him to wear glasses, so he was only allowed to play for an hour every day. Upon hearing he had an extra half an hour of screen time today, Gregory’s eyes lit up. He jumped down from his seat without even bothering to swallow his food and dashed to his father.
Seeing Gregory leaving, Audrey could no longer sit still. She struggled to leave John’s lap and wailed, “Greg! I wanna go to him!”
Afraid she would trip, Gregory slowed down and waited for her. They held hands and went upstairs together.
Ashton was ahead of them, stomping up the stairs arrogantly as though he was trying to taunt John.
Once they had left, the living room fell silent.
“Ha!” John spread his hands jealously. “Ashton’s still a sly fox though he had lost his memory. He knows to get the leader’s attention first.”
I burst out laughing. “You know how he climbed his way up to what he is today. You’re no match for him.”
“You’re right.” John nodded and lamented, “Perhaps he’s having the best time of his life after forgetting everything.”
Indeed, living a muddled life might be a good thing.
Still, we couldn’t pretend that nothing had ever happened.
I changed the topic. “I remember Nicolas injected a toxin into my body six years ago. Why did nothing happen even after six years?”
That was also one of the reason I kept pretending to suffer from amnesia.
I wasn’t sure how long I would survive, so I dared not return to the Stovall family and reunite with my children. Reuniting with my family would be a joyous occasion, but it would be hard to lose everything again.
Compared to the short period of happiness after reuniting with my family, I was afraid of bringing irreversible regret to them. Hence, I decided to be alone and update myself about the events of the past six years.
Immediately, John straightened as his expression turned serious. “I’ve been investigating this for the past six years. Initially, I found nothing, but now that you’re alive and well, it all makes sense. We couldn’t figure out why Nicolas didn’t inject you with a fatal poison. Instead, he chose a toxin that everyone was researching. I suspect he didn’t want you to disappear and…”
“Try to control me, right?” I suspected the same.
After seeing how capable Ashton was, Nicolas tried to control me to threaten Ashton into submission.
However, Nicolas had successfully hypnotized Ashton and made the latter his puppet. He could’ve eliminated me for I was an unstable variable. Why didn’t he kill me?
“Mm,” John replied and inclined his head. “When Emery told me you were with Marcus, I was curious and investigated his whereabouts six years ago. He wasn’t the one who rescued you from the sea. There was another person who saved you, but proceeded to inform Marcus. To avoid being found by the Stovalls, Moores, and Halls, Marcus brought you back the very night we arrived in M Country. It seemed like a well-planned scheme.”
Indeed, Marcus wasn’t capable enough of finding me ahead of the Halls unless he had struck a deal with one of them.
Who was the person who went against Nicolas and spared my life?
Could it be Tiffany Hall? No, she wanted Scarlett Stovall to disappear from this world so no one would take Ashton away from her.
Could it be Simone? After abandoning her son for over twenty years, she suddenly developed a conscience and went against Nicolas’ wishes for her son’s happiness? That didn’t seem right. If she did have a conscience, she would’ve stopped the Hall family from taking Gregory away. Yet, she didn’t do so.
