Kris knew that her only choice right now was to keep Hayden by her side. Although Hayden wasn’t the successor of the Fuller Family, she could tell that he was pretty well-off from all the gifts that he had given her in the past. Even if he only owned a tiny portion of his family’s assets, he was already living a much more comfortable life compared to her at the moment. After what happened with the Walton Family, she knew that her reputation had hit rock bottom—she didn’t even need to ask!
At the thought of that, Kris let out a silent curse as she blamed it all on Gideon. Did he think that Kris wasn’t aware of his side chicks during their relationship?! Yet, he was so heartless when she got into trouble!
“The doctor says that you’ll be discharged today, Kris.” Hayden had just returned to the ward; as usual, he was carrying multiple bags of fresh fruits and flowers.
Kris bit her lip instinctively at the sight of him. Truthfully, Hayden was a very good man to her; he was extremely caring and he loved her alone. While Kris stroked her belly, a complicated look clouded her eyes as she sunk into deep thought. That night, she didn’t lose the baby—was this a sign from the heavens?
Whatever it was, she decided the only way for her to survive was to be with Hayden for now.
“Uh, Hayden… You’re the only one who’s been visiting me in the hospital lately. You’ve been taking care of me so well, and I…” Kris trailed off as tears flooded her eyes. Soon, she lowered her head slightly.
Hayden went up to her and put down the items he brought before wrapping the woman in his arms. “You’re our baby’s mother, silly. Who am I supposed to take care of if not you?” His voice softened after that as he said leisurely, “As long as you don’t blame me for ruining your career.”
Kris smiled at his words. “Why would I blame you? You only said it in a moment of desperation. Besides, you know that Gideon and I were only acting—there was nothing between us to begin with.”
“Was there really nothing going on between the two of you, Kris?” Hayden questioned her casually all of a sudden.
Her heart skipped a beat; she looked up at Hayden and asked, “You don’t believe me?”
Just then, Hayden broke into a chuckle. “How could I not believe you? You told me that you’ll never lie to me.”
Even though he was laughing out loud, Kris couldn’t seem to make out the genuinity in his gesture while she continued to stare at him.
“All right, let’s pack up and leave. Since it’s your first day out of the hospital, we’re going to eat something fancy!”
With that, Hayden left the hospital with Kris. In the car, he picked up a call and calmly replied with a grunt before he searched up a Western restaurant. When they arrived, he carefully helped her through the doors.
Throughout their meal, Hayden was incredibly caring toward Kris. Whatever she wanted, he delivered; he had the waiter bring out each and every food that she was craving. Nevertheless, Kris couldn’t eat much since she had just been discharged, so the two of them finished up pretty quickly.
As Kris rose from her seat and was prepared to leave, Hayden stopped her and cast her a slight smile. “What’s the rush? Since you’ve just recovered, I asked someone to get you a bowl of bird’s nest essence. At the very least, you should have some of it; it’s good for your health.”
Even though Kris thought that it was extremely odd to eat something like that in a Western restaurant, she sat down and waited quietly—Hayden was just concerned for her, after all. Just then, Hayden got up and went over to Kris before he sat down next to her on the sofa. He then leaned in close to her, raised his phone in front of their faces, and took a selfie.
“What are you doing?” Kris jolted in surprise.
In return, Hayden smiled at her mischievously. “You’ll know in a while.”
Immediately after that, he logged onto social media and posted the selfie on his Stories with the caption, ‘First family dinner of three. Feeling blessed.’
Kris could see everything as he tapped away on his screen by her side. When she realized what he was up to, her pupils shrunk a little—he was blatantly exposing her state of humiliation to the whole world. However, she could only keep her anxiety hidden; she couldn’t do anything against him at a time like this, so she forced a smile at him and said, “You don’t have to post it—we’re just having a meal. Besides, I remember that you don’t like going on social media.”
“I used to hate it.” Hayden nodded before he fixed his gaze on her and gave her a warm, sincere smile. “But from now on, I’ll post photos of us; there are many other couples on my Stories who love showing off, so we have to up our game as well.”
Kris felt a little uncomfortable at his sentiment; perhaps she was imagining things, but she had the impression that Hayden’s words had a deeper meaning to them. With that in mind, time seemed to drag on as they waited for the bowl of bird’s nest essence in the restaurant.
Just then, Kris’ eyes locked onto a nearby corner; she had caught sight of a couple walking out of the Western restaurant, and her expression hardened as soon as she recognized them.
The pair of lovers weren’t strangers to her—it was even safe to say that she was more than familiar with the man!
It was Gideon!
He was engaged in an affectionate, light-hearted conversation with the woman next to him; Kris even noticed that his arm was wrapped tightly around the woman’s waist. As soon as they stepped into the lobby of the restaurant, they started kissing in public without a care in the world.
Kris watched the scene in front of her angrily, and her hands balled into fists.
Gideon hadn’t even officially broken up with her, yet he already found another woman in such a short period of time. He was obviously giving her a punch on the face!
“See, Kris? Gideon was playing with you the entire time; he doesn’t appreciate you at all. It hasn’t even been that long, and he already has a new chick!” Hayden said in her ear, his voice low and eerie.
Kris’ head snapped toward Hayden in an instant; she stared into his eyes in disbelief as she exclaimed, “Did you bring me here on purpose? Did you try to stall me because you wanted me to see Gideon together with his new girlfriend?!”
It all made sense now—Kris finally knew why things felt so odd today. Hayden wasn’t worried about her out of concern; he hadn’t asked anyone to buy her a bowl of bird’s nest at all. Instead, he simply wanted her to wait in place so that she could see Gideon sharing a kiss with his new woman!
For a moment, Hayden couldn’t hide the cunning look in his eyes; Kris caught it and she suddenly felt like Hayden was a whole new person she never understood.
“Of course not; I had no choice but to do it because I was worried for you. I was afraid that you were missing someone you shouldn’t be thinking about.” As he smiled at her, the underlying foreboding beneath his smile didn’t go unnoticed.
Kris took a few deep breaths; she stood up abruptly and turned to leave the restaurant.
“Where are you going, Kris? Wait for me!”
Since Hayden was a little loud, several neighboring diners turned to look toward the commotion.
Kris felt inexplicably bothered by the sudden spotlight. Naturally, Hayden’s voice attracted Gideon’s attention as the latter turned toward their direction as well—he wasn’t that far away from them.
As soon as Gideon’s eyes fell upon her, the mocking look he threw at Kris gave her the urge to walk up to him and land a few slaps on his face. What is there to smirk about? As a result, she changed her mind in an instant and walked toward Gideon instead.
Meanwhile, Gideon reacted by calmly stepping in front of the woman who was in his arms.
Kris went up to him, raised her hand to his face and slapped him without a moment of hesitation.
It happened all too quickly that the onlookers couldn’t even comprehend what had just happened. After suffering a smack to his face, Gideon’s expression darkened. He immediately caught Kris’ hand which was about to land another stinging hit. He then bellowed, “What are you doing, Kris?! Are you crazy?!”
“Am I crazy, you say?! Yes, I want the woman behind you to see how rotten you are!” Kris’ attitude was unyielding. “Are you having fun playing around with women, Gideon?! How dare you get with another woman before even ending things with me?!”
“Kris, you can’t be thinking that you’re still my fiancée, right?” Gideon said deridingly as he sized her up sarcastically. “Look at you—how can you even compare to Miss Brie? More importantly, when it comes to playing around… aren’t you more of an expert than me? You were with another man when we were together!”
Then, Gideon’s eyes shifted to Hayden who was standing next to Kris. “Young Master Fuller, when this woman was around you, she couldn’t have told you that her relationship with me was fake, and that it was all pretend, right? Or did she? If that’s the case, how is it possible to pretend in bed?!”
Kris’ face fell at once. “Enough of your nonsense, Gideon!”
She looked toward Hayden instinctively, but to her surprise, the man was unfazed and his expression was indifferent.
