Chapter 88



When he heard that, Hayden felt every drop of blood in his body freeze.

N City was so big and populated, how could it be him?

However, digging deeper into the vaults of his memory, he probably bet on this necklace using the future of the ST Group. Other than the Beckham Family, he couldn’t think of anyone else capable of doing something like this.

By this time, Joseph was no longer lying in the chair. He seemed to have returned to the hotel due to some business.

When she noticed, she stared at a place not too far away, at a diminutive Noah who was building a sand castle with his daughter. She was rapt, she could feel his tender features registering something deep in her memory.

Aside from feeling a surge of terror, she had no trouble believing the fact.

It turned out that the son she had missed for the past five years was standing before her eyes. As his mother, he couldn’t even recognize his own son.

The waves swept over her feet, but it was as if she had been pinned in place, her legs no longer obeying her brain. She summoned all her strength to step forward, but she could not contain a kind of bitterness in her heart. Suddenly, tears came to her eyes.

“Mama!” Stella came flying over, “Come see the castle we’ve built…”.

Hayden wanted to wipe away his incipient tears, but nothing could escape Stella’s inquisitive eyes. Who asked him worriedly: “Mom, why are you crying?”.

“Mommy’s not crying.” Hayden was babbling, “It’s just the wind. Yes, the wind is really strong and I got sand in my eyes.”

Noah was also trotting over and, seeing her expression, also showed a worried look on his face. He took her hand and looked at her worriedly, from up close, his eyes seemed to be the same as Stella’s. They were very similar, but she had never considered that they might be related. As she thought about this, she couldn’t stop her tears from rolling down her cheeks.

Slowly, she bent down and looked at the child who had never had the chance to grow up next to her. Her heart was tearing and seizing from the complications, and that enormous pressure threatened to tear her apart.

Noah was genuinely distraught for her as he tried to messily wipe away Hayden’s tears. He was on the verge of tears himself.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry, Noah.” Hayden cupped her little hand in his palms, “Mommy just feels happy.”

When Noah heard the word ‘mamٔá’, he was stunned for a second.

However, Stella didn’t notice any difference, she simply blinked as she explained, “Noah, Mommy told me that her eyes hurt because she got sand in them. Let’s go help get it out.”

Noah hesitated a bit before nodding. The two boys gently blew on Hayden’s eyes, their warm, moist breath could be felt on his face. Hayden finally couldn’t hold on any longer, so he hugged the two tightly as he formed a smile on his face, despite the tears splashing down his cheeks.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

Stella was a fairly self-aware child, and she understood that Hayden wasn’t crying because her eyes hurt from the sand.

Hayden let go of the two children, and after deliberating for a long while and swallowing some words he had intended to say, he forced out a forceful reply, “I’m fine.”

Noah was Joseph’s son, so while he could now tell Noah the truth and perhaps it would be accepted by him, what about Joseph?

From the way he had sent his men to lure and threaten her, from the dynamics of their relationship, it seemed that he prioritized this son even more than she had thought. There was no way she could claim her own son by simply telling him she was his mother.

At worst, once Joseph knew that Noah was not his only child, and once he knew that Stella was also his daughter, would he snatch her from Hayden’s side as well?

As she pondered such a possibility, she immediately felt a shiver run through her body. She was beyond terrified at the prospect. The chances of that happening were too great and she wasn’t going to take that chance just yet.

After wiping away her tears, Hayden grabbed a shovel as she sketched a smile, “Stella, Noah, let me come with you to build that sand castle.”

After all, they were still just kids. When they heard Hayden claim that she was fine and was going to join them in their fun, they were immediately distracted. They quickly pulled her in the direction of their half-built sand castle.

At dinnertime, Joseph saw that Hayden’s eyes were a little red, so he couldn’t help but frown looking at her, “What happened to your eyes?”

“Nothing happened to me.” Hayden didn’t dare look him in the eyes as she lowered her head and replying in a flat tone told him, “I got dizzy a while ago, so I felt a little uncomfortable.”

The wrinkles on Joseph’s forehead deepened as he heard that, and there was a hint of concern in his eyes. “You should go rest after dinner. The filming will be taken care of by the show’s crew, they’ll take care of the kids no problem, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Hayden merely mumbled some vague reply, his expression was very unnatural.

After recovering slightly from that initial shock, his mind was transported back to that night six years ago. He could only feel a tingling in the back of his neck. She felt as if an undeniable fear was bearing down on her and threatening to engulf her completely.

The Beckham Family had all the power in N City, and Joseph was someone no one could figure out. If he found out that Hayden was really the surrogate womb he used years ago, there was no doubt that his current stable life would once again be devoured by a huge storm.

After dinner, she hurried back to her room and pulled out the luggage box in the corner of the room.

The next day Joseph and Noah went down to breakfast as a father and son would.

A moment later, Freddie was leading Stella into the dining room with a proud air and sat down nonchalantly across from Joseph. He asked, “Waiter, give me a cup of latte, a glass of milk, and two plates of waffles.”

Joseph glanced at the elevator behind Freddie. The woman he was waiting for didn’t appear for some reason.

“Where is she?”

“Who are you talking about?” Freddie sounded like he was waiting for Joseph to broach this subject, and there was a smirk on his face.

Joseph looked at him without even making an effort to hide his contempt for Freddie’s childish behavior.

“He’s probably upstairs. Women are really troublesome.”

“Women are really troublesome.” Freddie picked up where Joseph had left off and said mischievously, “But Hayden is the least troublesome woman I’ve ever met. She could even come back at a moment’s notice without bothering anyone, she was able to do all that by herself.”

“She’s back?” A slight change appeared on Joseph’s face.

They had only been here for one night. How could she suddenly return without warning?

“You don’t know?” Freddie’s voice was exaggerated as he clicked his tongue, “I figured, as his boss, Hayden would at least let you know that. But it turns out I’m the only one who knows.”

Hayden had left the Maldives after only one night, returned to N City to change houses. He left a note to ask her for the favor of taking good care of Stella.

Joseph furrowed his eyebrows, “What did she say to you?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Joseph pushed back his chair which made a creaking sound on the floor. He stood up straight as he lightly straightened his shirt, his expression extremely cold, “Even if you don’t tell me, I can find out on my own.”

“Hey, what are you planning to do?”

“I’m going back to N-Town right now.”

When Freddie heard that, his expression immediately darkened. “What?”

Had he just crushed his own feet with a rock? The pair had been interacting ambiguously in front of him, but the moment they both returned, he could only foresee how they would act towards each other.

As he watched Joseph take his son away in a hurry, he realized he wasn’t uttering an empty threat. Freddie called his agent not far away in a disgruntled tone, “Gordo, I want to get back to the country now! Book me on an earlier flight.”

A drastic change appeared on his agent’s face. “The program hasn’t finished taping yet. We still have some schedules to follow, so we can’t leave now.”

“I said we’re coming home no matter what!”.

“The fine for breaking the contract is twenty million dollars!”.

“…”.

Freddie held his head as he made a big grimace. If he hadn’t signed that contract because of Joseph, he wouldn’t be in his current situation like he was a slave!

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