I remembered how emotional and irrational I got when my children were kidnapped. Back then, I would rather the kidnappers took me as their hostage instead despite what Ashton and John said.
With the love of her life dead, her child missing, and her face modeled to look like someone else, it was enough to fill Nora with hate and change her completely.
I knew Ashton would have disarmed the bomb if he could, but that was just not possible. This is probably what Armond wanted. Even in death, the man continues to haunt our lives, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Feeling helpless, I sighed before asking Ashton to take us home. Nothing much we can do for now. What’s bound to happen will eventually happen, whether we like it or not.
On the way home, I could not stop thinking about how I could make up for Nora’s losses. Her child was still an infant when Armond’s men took him away. Maybe he’s still alive somewhere. But even Nathaniel couldn’t find him; what chance do we have now that it’s been six years?
As much as I wanted to help Nora, I could not come up with a practical solution.
Because of how sudden our meeting was, I forgot to confirm with Nathaniel if he had really dealt with Marcus, who personally told me that he gave his life in exchange for mine. If that was true, then I owed Marcus my life.
Even though I met Ashton after the six-year coma, Marcus could have taken me somewhere far away and had me all to himself, but he did not do that. I wonder if Marcus hesitated to keep me to himself because he knew that he was going to die soon. Even the kindest man sins sometimes, so it’s not that hard to believe even the evilest man is capable of kindness, and Marcus is definitely not the evilest man I know.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I did not even notice that we had reached home.
Leaning in, Ashton unfastened my seatbelt for me before giving me a comforting smile. “We’re home. If you continue to frown that, I’m afraid that our daughter will have no choice but to smother you with love.”
I could not help but chuckle when I thought of how Audrey would always put her arms around my head to comfort me. “There’s no better way to die,” I remarked jokingly before getting out of the car.
Then, I waited for Ashton to walk over to grab my hand before we entered the house together.
John had witnessed Ashton’s cooking skills when the man pretended to be an amnesiac, so when Ashton promised to make desserts for Audrey, John was ready to see the whole thing flop. Like a pesky fly, John followed Ashton around in the kitchen and made disapproving sounds and faces while the man worked.
Fortunately for John, Ashton was in a good mood, so he decided to ignore any form of disturbance.
Ashton put the cake into the refrigerator when he was finally done but realized that the children were nowhere to be seen.
When I went outside to wait for the children, I saw the chauffeur watering the flowers in the garden as if he had completely forgotten about his other duty.
“Boris.”
“Yes, Mrs. Fuller? Is there anything I can help you with?” Boris put the watering away before turning to me.
“No. I just wanted to remind you to pick up the children. That’s all,” I replied with a polite smile.
Boris was not getting any younger, so I could understand that he would need a reminder from time to time.
“What? I thought you picked them up today. Aren’t they in the house right now?” The chauffeur was utterly puzzled by my reminder.
“Me?” At that moment, I could feel that something had gone wrong.
“What’s going on?” inquired Ashton, who just got out of the shower and was already in his pajamas.
