Justin flicked her on the forehead. “Your sweet-talking isn’t going to work. I’ll send you off to some summer camp in the mountains if you don’t obey me.”
“You’d miss me too much to do that,” Charlotte muttered as she pouted and held onto her forehead.
“Let’s see if I’d miss you.” Justin wore an emotionless expression as he spoke. Charlotte could sense that something was up-she knew that Justin was about to tickle her. “Mommy! Save me, Mommy! Hurry!” Charlotte shouted as she wriggled away from Justin.
“No one’s going to save you!” Justin had already got Charlotte at her ticklish spot before Rachel could even get closer to Charlotte. The young girl laughed so hard that she could barely breathe. “Hahahaha… I was…. Hahahaha… I was wrong, Daddy… Hahahaha! Mommy… Hahahaha!” The young
girl giggled.
Even Rachel couldn’t help but laugh as she watched the father and daughter fooling around. The night breeze made Rachel’s hair messy, so she tucked some hair behind her ear, revealing her defined jawline. Justin’s hands stopped mid-air, and he no longer tickled Charlotte when he saw Rachel’s warm and gentle smile.
Rachel had been laughing, but she froze the moment she met gazes with Justin. The sun was setting, and the breeze was cooling. Charlotte’s giggles filled the air as Justin and Rachel looked at one another. The atmosphere around them seemed too warm and loving to be real-their actions felt natural enough to seem like a daily thing, yet it felt rather unfamiliar for them to have such a relationship.
The maid’s voice came from inside the kitchen then. “Mr. Burton, Miss Hudson, dinner’s ready! You guys can eat now.” Only then did the couple snap back to reality. They hastily looked away from one another. Justin lowered Charlotte onto the ground, and the young girl stomped her feet as she walked toward Rachel while panting. “Daddy’s a big monster!” Charlotte cried as she held onto Rachel’s hand.
“Fine; I’m a big monster. You shouldn’t come home with this big monster from now on,” Justin muttered as he walked into the house. Rachel glanced at his back figure before she held onto
Charlotte’s hand. “Come on, little monster.”
Charlotte blinked puzzledly. “How am I the little monster?”
The woman blinked back at the young girl. “Shouldn’t the big monster’s daughter be a little monster?”
Charlotte chuckled for a while. “You should be a big monster too then, Mommy. In that case, we’re a family of monsters!”
Justin turned around when he heard what Charlotte said, and he gave Rachel a thoughtful gaze for a moment. Rachel couldn’t handle the awkwardness-she looked away and avoided his gaze.
Dinner wasn’t anything fancy-they had a few homemade dishes. Charlotte couldn’t seem to sit still at the dinner table. “Are we making cookies together later, Daddy?”
“I’m not,” Justin uttered.
“Why?”
“You’re the one who’s supposed to prepare a gift for your aunt, not me,” he replied.
“Fine.” Charlotte pouted before she turned to Rachel. “Please don’t mind him, Mommy. Daddy’s just this sort of person. I can’t imagine how he managed to win over the heart of a woman like you in the past.”
Rachel stiffened while Justin nearly choked on his water. “What are you talking about, Charlotte?! How
could I possibly go after her?” Why would I go after her? he thought.
“Well, what happened between you two, then?” Charlotte opened her arms as she asked. “Could Mommy have been the one who went after you? She’d never have left if she was the one who went after you. You must’ve made her angry. I can’t believe you’re not admitting to your faults yet!”
Justin found himself completely speechless. He had no memory of his past with Rachel, so he couldn’t even dispute Charlotte’s claims. He had never wondered about his past, but he was starting to get rather curious about it.
Rachel and Charlotte headed into the kitchen to prepare for their cookie-baking session after dinner. Justin was busy working in his study, but he couldn’t seem to process any of the documents he was reading. Eventually, he fished out his phone and dialed a number. “How did I meet Rachel in the past?” he asked in the call.
The person on the other end paused for a moment. “Why are you wondering about this all of a sudden?” the person asked in a surprised manner.
“No reason. I’d just like to hear some details about the things that happened between us,” he uttered.
“Old Mr. Burton specifically warned me not to talk about this, President Burton. Please don’t make things hard for me. Why don’t you just ask her if you really want to know?” Frankie was one of the few people Justin actually trusted, so Justin couldn’t bring himself to fault Frankie for following orders.
“Well, just tell me this-who was the one who chased after the other party in the past?” Justin asked.
“What?” Frankie was so puzzled-Justin could hear the confusion in his voice. After a while, Frankie finally gave a rather uncertain response. “There wasn’t exactly one party who went after the other… I guess it was a mutual liking. But after that…”
“What happened after that?” Justin asked.
“You went after her,” Frankie replied.
“No way!” Justin leaped out of his chair. “Did you remember this wrongly?”
Frankie sounded rather irritated as he spoke. “Of course not. It has only been five years.” Apart from Rachel and Justin themselves, Frankie was the one who knew the most about their relationship during then. “President Burton, you…”
Before Frankie could finish his sentence, Justin ended the call on his end of the line. He then slumped into his chair with a grim look on his face.
Meanwhile, Rachel was busy showing Charlotte how to bake cookies in the kitchen. “Let’s use some molds to shape the dough-every cookie will be about the same size that way.” Rachel patiently guided her daughter in a step-by-step manner as they removed the molds from the dough. “Is this right?” Charlotte asked.
“Yeah. You need to press on it firmly before knocking it out. You’re such a smart girl, Charlotte,” Rachel uttered. In fact, Charlotte’s motor skills weren’t that great. It was evident that the young girl had been spoiled from a young age-she hadn’t had to use her hands for much work in the past.
“Have some tea, Miss Hudson,” the maid offered.
“Okay. Thank you. You can leave it there.”
“You can take a break. I’ll be here with Charlotte.” The maid placed the tea in the living hall before ushering Rachel to go over. “You shouldn’t strain yourself too much,” the maid reminded her.
Rachel stole a glance at the room upstairs before she nodded half-heartedly. “Sure. You can look after Charlotte. Make sure that she doesn’t hurt herself. I’ll use the washroom for a bit.”
“Ah, okay.”
After washing her hands, Rachel stepped out of the kitchen and took a few sips of her tea in the living room. She then headed upstairs to the washroom on the first floor. Once she was in front of the washroom, she shut the door from the outside and turned to make sure that the maid wasn’t watching her. Once she made sure that the coast was clear, she hurried up the stairs.
The skies had turned dark by then. There weren’t any lights in the master bedroom-the whole place was pitch black. Rachel had to find her way to the wardrobe door based on her memory of how the room looked. She then pulled her mini-flashlight out from her coat before shining it at the keypad of the safebox. Once the light rays stuck against the surface of the keypad, there were neon-colored powder stains that indicated the buttons with fingerprints on it.
Rachel hastily noted down all the numbers that had fingerprints on them. “Mary…” Justin’s voice came from outside the room. “Bring some tea up, please.”
“Ah, alright. Please hold on, Mr. Burton. Miss Hudson is in the washroom, and I need to take care of Charlotte. I’ll send some tea up once Miss Hudson is back to look after Charlotte,” the maid explained.
“Come down and take a look at the cookies that Mommy and I made, Daddy!” A child’s sweet and innocent voice came from downstairs.
Rachel felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her throat. One would attract what one feared the most-Rachel could hear faint footsteps walking in her direction. One step, two steps, three steps… The sound faded off at the stairway. If Rachel’s estimations were right, Justin had gone downstairs.
Her expression altered as she hastily shut the wardrobe door.
