“Evan, where will you two live now? At Imperial Garden or Hillside Villa?”
“Hillside Villa!” Evan answered without any hesitation.
Susan furrowed her brows and asked, “Evan, where is Imperial Garden? It sounds like an amazing place. Could we live there instead?”
Evan barely glanced at her before replying in a firm tone that brooked no argument, “No!”
Imperial Garden belonged to Nicole and nobody but her was allowed to live there. If she were to return one day, that would still be her home.
The abnormally fierce look on his face surprised Susan. She bit her lip as tears welled up in her eyes, looking incredibly pitiful.
Clenching her fingers, she repeatedly reminded herself that everything was fine. She was his wife now, and that gave her plenty of time to make him open up to her and eventually, fall in love with her.
All she needed was time.
One year later, at K Nation.
It was a sunny day. Nicole was standing in the garden, watching as Nina and Maya played around the swings while Kyle and Juan practiced their Taekwondo nearby. Inexplicably, her heart swelled with warmth.
Time had flown by so quickly. Before she knew it, the four kids had been staying with her for a year now. Strangely enough, they still seemed to have no intention of going back to their own parents.
“Hey, you four, when are you going back home?”
The children tensed as anxious expressions appeared on their faces. They began to whisper among themselves.
“Mommy is trying to shoo us away again.”
“Sigh. It’s been a year yet we still haven’t managed to make Mommy remember us. What a failure!”
“I think this is pretty good though! At least Mommy seems happy.”
Nina rolled her eyes at her sister. Pursing her lips tightly, she explained, “That’s not true! Mommy’s not happy at all. Levant keeps bugging her and urging her to marry him! She doesn’t like him so she’s very upset about it!”
“Levant is a big, fat liar! He keeps lying to Mommy.”
“Yeah, exactly! What do we do? How can we help Mommy?”
Juan racked his brain for ideas before he suggested, “How about we bring Mommy back home? Take her far away from Levant.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea! If we take Mommy away, she won’t have to marry Levant anymore!”
John, who had been staying close by and listening to their discussion, had to agree that was a splendid plan. Another reason he approved of their decision was that he had not seen Evan in over a year. He wondered how the other man was doing.
“Nina, Maya, how about this? You two tell her that you want to go back to see your father. After that, insist that you want her to take you all back,” John proposed.
Nina snorted and retorted, “We’re not going back to see meanie Daddy!”
“Yeah! Even if we go back, we wanna stay with Mommy! I don’t want Daddy anymore!”
John thought it over before reassuring them, “It’s just an excuse to make her go back with you. After you return, you guys get to call the shots, don’t you?”
The girls pondered his words but did not immediately reply. It was only after their brothers nodded at them that they agreed.
Nicole had already been toying with ideas on how to escape her marriage to Levant. Thus, she readily agreed to the children’s suggestion.
In the past couple of months, Levant had been persistently trying to find all kinds of reasons for them to get married. Every single time, she had to find a different excuse to reject him.
She was slowly running out of excuses to use. In fact, she had barely been able to refuse his most recent two advances. Temporarily leaving the country sounded like a great idea.
“Alright, I’ll accompany you guys back home.”
The quadruplets cheered at her agreement. They would not need to see that liar Levant again and their mother could escape his clutches. How very wonderful!
Worry clouded Stephen’s mind the moment he heard that Nicole was bringing the children back to their home.
“Nicole, you really should stop pushing back your wedding date.”
Although Stephen did not really approve of Levant, he had seen how well the younger man had treated Nicole in this past year.
Other than Evan, Levant was the only other man in this world who treated her so nicely.
Since Evan had already married someone else, there was no better choice than Levant.
Nicole grinned at him in response and swore, “I know, Dad. I’m just taking them back home. I’ll be back in no time; you’ll see.”
