Book 1: She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement Annulment

Chapter 9

Chapter 25: Triggered?

If her memory was serving her right, the first time they met, he had warned her to stay away from his son. When they were at the movies the day before, he had also given her another warning.

Was the man suddenly out of his mind?

Seeing her surprised, a somewhat uncomfortable look came over Justin’s face.

In order to get close to him, that woman had done everything possible to get Pete’s approval. Therefore, she would never miss this opportunity!

He was just thinking about it when he saw Nora casting her eyes downward coolly. “You must be mistaken, Mr. Hunt. I’m not a childcare teacher. Neither do I have any fantasies about you.”

Justin paused.

Nora took a step forward. With a momentum that didn’t lose out to his in any way, she said, “Also, if the hospital really wants to hold me accountable, please contact my lawyer.”

After saying that, she covered her mouth, yawned, leisurely walked past Justin, and left the operating room.

She was already on the verge of falling asleep. How would she possibly have the time to play with a kid? The most important thing now was to hurry back home and sleep!

Even Justin didn’t have the right to detain people at will.

If he couldn’t find Anti, then the only thing he could do was release them.

In the car back to the hotel, Lawrence complained, “Can Anti be an eel? Why is she so slippery? How did she get out when I was obviously standing guard outside?”

Justin, who was in the back seat, replied, “There are three possible explanations. One, our intel was wrong and Anti is blond. Two, Anti has very good moves and managed to escape, but this is unlikely.”

“Yes, we surrounded the area very securely. Unless the hospital has an underground tunnel or she can fly, there’s no way she can get out.” Then, Lawrence asked, “What’s the third possibility?”

Justin kept quiet. Then, he turned and looked outside the car and slowly said, “Nora Smith is Anti.”

The corners of Lawrence’s lips spasmed a little. “Compared to that, I’d rather believe the second one. We’ve already thoroughly investigated Miss Smith. Someone who has never even gone to school can’t possibly be Anti.Speaking of her, though, it turned out that she was the one that emailed Anti. That was why Anti had come. No wonder she was always so calm whenever her aunt’s surgery was mentioned. As it turned out, it was because she had total confidence!”

Justin pressed his lips together tightly and frowned. Then, he suddenly said, “Find someplace where we can buy a Barbie.”

_

In the stairwell on the top floor of Hotel Finest, the two children had sneakily met up.

An aggrieved Cherry whined, “I haven’t played any games for two days, Pete! Daddy is too strict. He doesn’t let me use the cell phone!”

Pete replied, “Let’s switch back for now.”

Cherry nodded. “Yes, yes, yes! Let’s switch again after I’ve played my games for a day!”

“Yeah.”

Cherry sighed. “Daddy really hates Mommy, Pete. What should we do?”

Pete frowned. After pondering for a while, he said, “if the soft approach doesn’t work, then let’s try the hard approach.”

Cherry’s eyes lit up. “What kind of hard approach!”

The two little ones put their heads together and discussed for a long time before they finally reluctantly separated.

Before leaving, Cherry blinked and said triumphantly, “By the way, the doctor made me do an IQ test today. My IQ is really high! The doctor rewarded me with a prize, and even Daddy was speechless with astonishment!"

Mommy had also let her do something similar before, and even praised her and called her a genius.

She had made her brother proud today!

Pete, who believed her again, praised her. “You’re so awesome.”

He returned to the room. He was just about to enter the study and spend some time doing some revision when he heard the door open. Justin strode in.

He took off his coat. Then, he walked over and said, “Don’t be mad anymore, Pete. Take a look at the toy that Daddy bought you.”

Pete’s eyes lit up.

The tyrant was always urging him to study every day and rarely let him play. He had actually bought him toys today?

Then, he saw Justin walk over with a big pink Barbie and place it on his desk.

A question mark slowly appeared in Pete’s mind again.

Seeing that his son didn’t react, Justin thought he was still mad and asked gently, “Shall Daddy play with you?”

Pete stared at him with an indescribable expression. “…”

Seeing that he was finally reacting, Justin braced himself and suggested, “Let’s style Barbie’s hair and change her.”

He opened the Barbie’s box packaging and took out the doll. However, after picking up a lock of hair, his fingers—which were extremely nimble and flexible while playing the piano—froze.

“…”

With a constipated look, Justin looked at his son and asked, “Do you know how to tie a braid, Pete?”

Pete was speechless.

After the two stared at each other for a long time, Pete finally slowly uttered, “…This is so stupid.”

Justin’s face instantly darkened. For some reason, his son’s calm and unflappable expression made him unable to control his anger. “I’m doing this all for you!”

Pete lowered his head and flipped open the book, completely ignoring him.

Justin was shocked.

Then, he stared at the question that his son was looking at. The question was beyond Pete’s current syllabus, so he asked, “Can you understand such a difficult question when you don’t even have a strong understanding of your basics?”

Pete raised his head and glanced at him again. Which part of this simple question was difficult?

The tyrant’s behavior was simply a mystery today.

He said coolly, “Don’t disturb me when I’m studying.”

“…”

Justin felt very speechless when he saw how his son was acting as if he totally understood the question when he clearly couldn’t solve it, and he said, “Fine, do what you want!”

He would see for himself how long Pete could carry on the pretense for!

After dinner, a perplexed Justin sat in the study.

His son had obviously been behaving very adorably, so why did he suddenly become reserved and taciturn again?

Although he seemed more normal now, for some inexplicable reason, Justin instead missed the way he had wheedled and how animated and quick-witted he had been previously.

He picked up his cell phone and called the family doctor straightaway. He asked, “Why is Pete’s personality switching back and forth?”

The doctor thought for a while and replied, “Maybe something had triggered him previously, causing his personality to change.”

A trigger… What could have possibly triggered him?

Could it be that woman?

Downstairs.

Nora took a bath and fell into a deep sleep immediately after she came back.

With her cell phone in her hand, Cherry sat on the sofa and played games with Chester.

Chester was as talkative as ever while they played. He said, “Did you get into an argument with Justin again? That behavior doesn’t work on him. Why don’t you wheedle instead? Also, Justin didn’t manage to find Dr. Anti today, so he’s in a bad mood. Aren’t you just asking for it by doing that?”

He was looking for Dr. Anti?

Cherry was stunned. She glanced at the bed in the bedroom and asked, “Chesty, why is Daddy looking for Anti?”

Chester replied, “Isn’t it obvious? It’s for you—”

Before he finished, the doorbell rang.

Mrs. Lewis was busy in the kitchen, so Cherry jumped off the sofa and walked over to the door. She didn’t think much and opened the door right away.

Justin was currently outside the door. He wanted to try asking Nora again to go upstairs to take care of his son.

He got ready to speak when the door opened, only to spot Cherry right away.

Chapter 26: A Single-Celled Organism

“…”

One was big and tall while the other was small and short. The two stared at each other for a full two or three seconds before the shocked Cherry subconsciously tried to close the door.

Pete had told her that they mustn’t acknowledge each other before Mommy and Daddy fell in love with each other. Otherwise, it would trigger a terrible battle for custody!

However, the man reached out and held the door open. He asked in surprise, “Why are you here, Pete?”

Cherry was terribly alarmed.

Justin’s expression was dark and overcast.

He bent over, picked up Cherry, and ordered, “Come upstairs with me!”

But Daddy will discover what’s going on when we go up and run into Pete!

Cherry struggled and shouted, “Let me go! Mommy, help!”

Mrs. Lewis, who heard her cries, rushed out of the kitchen to see Justin entering the elevator with Cherry in his arms.

Shocked, she ran over to the bedroom in a panic and woke Nora who was in a deep sleep. “Nora! Wake up! Something has happened! Mr. Hunt took Cherry!”

Nora was in a deep sleep, but she instantly woke up when Mrs. Lewis shook her awake.

She got up and went straight out after putting on her slippers. She didn’t even have the time to change.

At this point, Cherry had already been brought upstairs.

After they entered the presidential suite, as she watched her angry and handsome father walk toward the study with her in his arms, she thought to herself, We’re finished! We’re finished!

Because her father was holding her tightly, she couldn’t even inform Pete about what was going on.

They would definitely be exposed now.

Creak!

Justin stopped in his tracks as he opened the door to the study.

To prevent her father from scolding and disciplining her, the quick-witted Cherry decided to take the initiative to admit her mistake first. She said weakly, “I’m sorry, Daddy. Cherr—”

Before she could say “Cherry didn’t mean to keep it from you”, she saw that… The study was actually empty?

After a short pause, the words at the tip of her tongue turned into “—y Pit didn’t mean it.”

Her large eyes were full of confusion.

Where was Pete? Where had he gone?

His son’s soft and tender voice made Justin’s anger slowly fade away, and he couldn’t bring himself to lecture him anymore.

He gently put Cherry down and held her shoulders tightly as he said, “Don’t leave the top floor so casually, no matter what happens, Pete.”

He was trembling.

As the heir to the number one family in the States, a lot of people had their eyes on the Hunts.

Justin had been kidnapped before when he was a child and had only managed to return alive after going through hell. The events had almost traumatized him. That was why he had worked so hard all these years to protect and hide his son from the public eye.

But how few many times had Pete met Nora Smith? Yet he had sneaked downstairs! And, the most frightening thing was that he didn’t even notice it!

What if she had ill intentions, or what if someone were to kidnap him on the way downstairs? The consequences… He didn’t even dare to think about it!

Sensing her father’s inexplicable fear, Cherry suddenly hugged him and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “I won’t do it anymore, Daddy.”

The soft and tiny figure in his arms made Justin stiffen again.

This was the first time in all these years that his son had been so affectionate to him.

Justin’s turbulent emotions gradually calmed down as he took in the faint milk-like scent on her. He sighed deeply and, as a compromise, said, “If you really like Miss Smith that much, we can let her come up here to spend some time with you.”

Cherry was at a loss for words.

Seeing that she had successfully glossed over the issue with her dad, Cherry looked at the half-completed workbook on the desk and wondered, where’s Pete?

Meanwhile, Chester, whom the other two had neglected, was currently on the sofa in the living room and doubting his life choices.

Two minutes ago, he was playing games with his team leader when he suddenly heard Justin’s angry voice and his nephew’s calls for help.

As his sidekick in the game, Chester absolutely had to stick up for him. Thus, even though he was terribly afraid of the tyrant, he had still rushed over, intending to save Pete from ‘danger’. This way, Pete would probably scold him a little less often in the game, right?

But in the end, what he saw was that Pete was currently safe and sound while doing his homework?

He had suspected that his eyes were deceiving him at that time, and he even deliberately rubbed his eyes. But when he looked over again, he found that his nephew was still sitting right there.

He picked up the phone again after that. The game’s voice chat was still connected, and he could clearly hear his team leader calling for help: “Stupid Daddy, let me go! I’m gonna look for Mommy! I don’t wanna go upstairs!”

“…”

Then, he saw his nephew put down the pen and rush out without a word.

About twenty seconds later, the door was pushed open. Justin walked in with Pete and the two of them entered the study again.

Chester rubbed his eyes again.

The child that Justin was carrying did indeed look exactly like his nephew.

And, her conversation with Justin was also still being transmitted to his cell phone through the game’s voice chat… But if the person who had been playing games with him all this time was his nephew, then who was it doing homework here just now?

Also!

His nephew had changed into another outfit in the span of twenty seconds?

He stood up blankly and walked out with his cell phone. As soon as he went out, he ran into the family doctor. He grabbed the doctor’s hand right away and said in a troubled voice, “Please give me a checkup, Doc. Why am I hallucinating when I’m still so young? Do I have some kind of mental illness? I don’t want to die yet!”

The doctor was rendered speechless. It seemed like he had suddenly become terribly busy.

Meanwhile.

Pete was in the stairwell and going down the stairs.

Through the glass on the door to the stairwell, he saw his father enter the suite with Cherry in his arms, and he became relieved right away.

It was fortunate that Uncle Chester had arrived in time. Otherwise, everything would really be exposed.

He waited there for a while until Cherry sent him a voice message. After the two little ones exchanged information with each other, a troubled Cherry asked, “Uncle Chester saw both you and me just now. Will he realize something?”

Pete replied, “No.”

“Why?”

Pete pursed his lips and replied, “He’s a single-celled organism. He can’t imagine anything that complicated.”

None of them knew that he had a younger twin sister. Had he not bumped into Cherry, he wouldn’t have understood why Mommy had acted so familiarly with him.

Even the tyrant had never once imagined anything like that, let alone his simple-minded uncle?

Pete put down his phone and walked downstairs.

He had only just taken a step down when he heard hurried footsteps. Right after that, Nora came rushing up.

She looked terribly angry as if she wanted to fight someone to the death. When she saw him, relief came over her and she asked, “Are you on your way back, Cherry?”

Pete nodded. “Yeah.”

Nora hesitated for a moment but didn’t say much in the end. She turned around to head back down and said, “Let’s go home first.”

Then, she took Pete’s hand and went downstairs.

On the way back, she felt as if her daughter had become a lot quieter than before.

After returning to the room, Nora scanned Pete up and down. She stared at him and asked, “Are you sure Justin didn’t do anything to you, Cherry?”

Seeing how Mommy was so nervous, Pete nodded.

At this point, Mrs. Lewis came over. She frowned and asked, “Why are you in a different set of pajamas, Cherry?”

Chapter 27: Pete The Little Princess

The look in Nora’s eyes instantly sharpened when she heard this.

A girl going out and returning in different clothes—now, this was no doubt something serious.

Seeing that Mommy had become suspicious, Pete looked at Mrs. Lewis calmly and replied, “No, I’m not. Did you remember wrongly?”

Mrs. Lewis hesitated when she saw how sure he was. “Really?”

“Uh-huh.” Pete then changed the subject. He imitated Cherry’s way of speaking and said, “Go to bed, Mommy. I’m gonna go play games too!”

Her daughter was behaving a little weirdly, but Nora was simply too sleepy. Even her mind was in a total daze. She nodded and said, “Alright.”

She would settle the scores with Justin again after she woke up.

Abducting her daughter from her place without even so much as a greeting was absolutely intolerable.

This time, she slept straight until noon the next day.

When Nora woke up, she saw a text message from Lisa saying that her aunt was awake and that she wanted her to visit her together with Cherry if she was free.

Nora went to wash up first. But when she came out, she instead saw Mrs. Lewis having a staredown with her daughter again.

Mrs. Lewis, who was holding a beautiful princess dress, was trying to coax Cherry into wearing it. She said, “Why don’t you wear this, Cherry? You’re visiting your elders, so you have to be appropriately dressed.”

Pete was expressionless as he stared at the pink puffy dress. “…”

He felt that he would probably die of embarrassment if he put on the dress!

Nora frowned and asked softly, “Can you tell Mommy why you don’t want to wear a princess dress today, baby?”

Although Cherry had boys’ clothing, deep down, she was actually a little princess. She loved dressing up the most whenever she had to visit her elders.

Seeing that Nora had become a little suspicious, Pete could only grit his teeth and take the dress from Mrs. Lewis.

Because it was autumn, the dress even came with a pair of white leggings.

Pete was lost for words.

He entered the bedroom, put on the dress with much difficulty, and came back out after that. When he saw Nora’s satisfied expression, he heaved a silent sigh.

For the sake of their reunion as a family, he was really doing so much!

When she saw how her daughter looked as if she couldn’t even walk properly anymore after not having worn a princess dress for so long, Nora decided to just pick her up. Then, she walked out.

When she entered the hallway, she subconsciously hid her daughter’s face.

Nora’s mother had passed away just a year after she was born. She left behind only her last words that forbade her from behaving in a way that showed off her abilities. She was to keep a low profile and be plain and mediocre untilshe gained the ability to protect herself.Otherwise, she would be in danger.

She didn’t know what kind of danger her mother was referring to, but she had always followed her instructions. This led to her forming a habit of being cautious and staying low-key.

The two of them went downstairs and took a cab to the hospital. When they arrived, they went straight to the VIP ward.

Irene, who had bandages around her head, was already awake. A checkup in the hospital had shown that she didn’t suffer any damage to the brain at all. The operation had practically gone perfectly.

The troubled looks on Lisa and Will’s faces a few days ago had already disappeared, and they were elated to see her. Lisa even rushed up to them and hugged Pete. “Are you Cherry? You’re so cute and pretty!”

Pete was lost for words.

Amidst all the joy and happiness in the ward, a hostile voice suddenly reached them. “Tsk, disappearing during the operation because you were afraid of being held responsible, and then returning like a good person once the operation went smoothly. Nora, you’re very scheming, indeed.”

What accompanied the voice was a red-eyed Angela walking in. She had rather serious dark circles under her eyes filled with a hateful look.

The school had issued her a warning after Dr. Anti exposed her the day before, which cost her the title of Most Excellent Graduate in her college’s School of Medicine this year.

She tried to incite discord between Nora and the Blacks and said hatefully, “All she did was just move her fingers a little and send an email to Anti, and all of you are already so grateful to her? If she really cared about Aunt Irene, she wouldn’t have left during the operation!”

As the patient in question, Aunt Irene would definitely be sad, right?

As soon as the thought formed in Angela’s mind, she heard Irene say, “Thanks for yesterday, Nora.”

Nora chuckled and replied, “No problem at all.”

The two exchanged a look. As if they had some kind of tacit understanding between them, both of them turned a deaf ear to Angela’s words, which made her cheeks burn. She looked like a clown for trying to sow discord between them just now!

Mad and anxious, she was about to say something when Wendy asked, “Is this your daughter, Nora? She’s so cute.”

Nora frowned. She found her annoying.

At this point, Irene also asked, “Why are all of you here?”

The Smiths had never once expressed any concern when she was hospitalized, yet they were coming here so frequently these days. They were really getting in the way of her catching up with Nora.

A look of disdain flashed across Wendy’s eyes.

Did Irene really think that she wanted to come to a place like a hospital? It was all because Nora refused to answer their calls, so they had to come to the hospital to look for her.

Henry, who was the last to enter, frowned and replied, “We’re here to visit you, of course.”

After speaking, he followed Wendy’s gaze and looked at Pete. He put on a fake smile and said, “So, is this Cherry? Although her father may be a ruffian, she looks pretty cute.”

Pete retorted, “My father is not a ruffian.”

Angela scoffed and said, “You’re right. Not even your mother knows who your father is. Maybe he’s not a ruffian but an even more unbearable beggar? Or perhaps a criminal? In any case, based on your mother’s looks back then, no man who’s even slightly normal would ever take a fancy to her!”

Nora blocked Pete from them, rolled up her sleeves, and asked coldly, “Was the beating last time not enough?”

She didn’t care about their mockery, but she was afraid that Cherry would be sad.

Thinking of the slap Nora had given her previously, Angela took a step back and hid behind Henry. “Dad, look at her! She wants to hit me even when you’re here. She’s too overbearing!”

Henry threatened angrily, “You just try laying a hand on her, Nora! You’re really running riot, aren’t you?!”

Wendy stepped forward to mediate between them. She said, “Don’t be violent in front of children. Nora, when I saw Cherry, I couldn’t help but wonder, if that little boy from back then is still alive, he’d probably also be very good-looking, won’t he?”

When she said that, Nora suddenly looked at her.

All these years, she had repeatedly asked Henry where he had abandoned the child from back then. He had always kept mum about it, so why were they bringing it up today?

Sure enough, Henry took out the agreement again the next moment. “Aren’t you looking for your son? Sign the ownership transfer agreement and I’ll tell you where I abandoned that little bastard!”

Nora clenched her fists. A grave look appeared in her eyes.

Henry added forcefully, “You’ve been back in the States for a week, haven’t you? You’ve also approached a few private investigators, but I believe they don’t have any news, right? I’ll tell you this—I’m the only one in this world who knows where your son is. If you really want your son back, then sign the agreement.”

Nora’s son was her weakness.

Nora took the pen from Henry without hesitation to sign the agreement.

At the sight, the eyes of Pete, who was next to her, widened in horror. “Mommy, don’t!”

Nora turned to him and said, “Stop making a fuss, Cherry. If we can find your brother, I’m willing to give up everything I have, let alone the company.”

He realized how much Mommy loved him.

Pete’s eyes reddened and he hurriedly grabbed Nora’s hand.