Chapter 242

Chapter 242

To my surprise, the sun paid a visit to Bryxton after the storm was over. I sat under the sun on the

swing that Joseph had moved outside for me as I flipped through the Xenos Family's map of influence

that Anthony had brought over to me. This was the first time I properly explored the Xenos Family's

influence on the rest of the world. The more I flipped through the information, the more afraid I felt.

Shawn had no idea about the existence of this map.

As I thought about it, I realized how my biological father had held such a strong sense of caution

toward his son. I was flipping through the map when I saw a few children playing around in the garden

of the villa down the road. The eldest child was seven or eight years old at most, while the youngest

one was about three or four years old. I thought that they were pretty lucky to enjoy their childhood

away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

I lowered the map of influence and watched the children fool around for a while. To my surprise, I felt a

lot calmer after that. Perhaps I felt more intrigued by children after having had my own children.

A while after that, Roxane walked out with a baby that looked about six to seven months old in her

arms. There were two bodyguards following behind her, and one of them, too, was carrying another

baby who looked about the same age as the first baby. The Yates sure are baby-generating machines,

I thought.

Roxane left the babies on the mat in the garden before she headed out of the house. The eight children

were left at home to play among themselves. Joseph noticed that I had been watching the children for

a long time, so he came up with a suggestion. "You can always pay them a visit, Miss."

I shot him a sideways glance. "Do you think Old Master Yates would want me over after what I did to

Alice?" Joseph nodded sincerely. "They wouldn't reject someone from the Xenos Family. The benefits

they could gain from the Xenos Family would outweigh any resentments they hold toward you."

I couldn't agree with him entirely—I didn't think that every single person was that intrigued by power. "I'll

stroll over." I finally got to my feet as I agreed with his idea. Joseph threw a coat over me, and we had

just headed out of the villa when we bumped into a dirty-looking ginger cat. I recalled how this cat used

to sneak into Nicholas' house for food—it used to bring another black cat along with it.

I squatted down to stroke the cat's head before I turned to look at Joseph. "Do we have any fish snacks

at home?"

"We have actual fish," he replied.

"Get someone to slice the fish and feed the cats," I ordered. "Alright," he replied before turning around

to head back to the villa. I walked on my own for a while before Joseph caught up with me again. I felt

rather hesitant by the time I reached Nicholas' villa. Before I could ring the bell, the nanny spotted me,

and she walked over with a child in her arms. "Who are you looking for, young lady?"

The child in the nanny's arms was beautiful—the child had thick eyelashes and eyes that twinkled as

bright as the stars! Furthermore, the child's hair was long, so I figured that it was a girl. "I live in the villa

up ahead, and I thought that I'd drop by to take a look because I saw a lot of kids playing in the yard," I

explained with a smile.

The way I dressed and spoke didn't make me seem like I was a bad person, but the nanny was

extremely cautious, so she didn't open the doors to let us in.

Instead, the nanny introduced all the children from behind the gates. "This is Leo, Old Master Yates'

granddaughter. That's Leonard, Leo's brother. They're twins. The one playing with blocks is the eighth

child. The sixth child there is about three years old, while the fifth child is slightly older. That's the fourth

child beside the fifth and the third beside the fourth. The eldest one here is the second child, and the

firstborn is in town with some friends. Madam Yates is heading over to town to pick him up." The nanny

told me all the children's names, but the only ones I was interested in were the twins.

My children were twins, too. The baby in the nanny's arms giggled as she looked at me, and I reached

a finger out to play with her as I responded to the nanny. "Why is it that Leo and Leonard seem to have

names that are different from the rest?" I asked. The nanny hadn't introduced Leo and Leonard as part

of the sequence that she listed the rest of the children in. If she had arranged them in terms of age, Leo

and Leonard would've been the ninth and tenth children.

"There are too many kids in the family, so Old Master Yates decided to name the kids by their

horoscopes after the eighth child. In a few days, another child will join us, and Old Master Yates has

already decided to name the child Scorpio. Madam Yates teased him for being too lazy to come up with

a proper name, but they eventually decided that it was fine since these were all just nicknames," the

nanny explained with a smile.

"Oh…" I mumbled thoughtfully. "We'll be going to Ashere tomorrow to celebrate the new year, and we'll

only be back next year. You can drop by to play with the kids then. You can come in when Madam

Yates is around—I'm a nanny, so I don't have the right to open the doors for you," she explained in a

hearty tone. I was expressing my gratitude toward her when Leo suddenly held onto my finger while

letting out a babble. "Mom…my…" she mumbled in her soft voice. I felt my heart skipping a beat at that

moment!

Tears gathered in my eyes as I stared at the child. "What did you say, Leo?" I asked gently. "Leo

accidentally called you Mommy just now. She's only six months old, and she doesn't know how to

speak yet, but she occasionally mumbles some random words. You'll know what it's like when you have

kids of your own," the nanny explained.

Hold on. Did she just say that this kid is six months old? Leo… The twins are Leos? Twins… Six

months old… Leos… That fits the profile of the two children I lost, I thought. Furthermore, Leo had just

called me her mother. But they're kids from the Yates Family, and they carry the blood of the Yates

Family. They can't be related to me!

"Where are her parents?" I asked as I fought back the tears in my eyes. "They're working in Ashere

now. They'll drop by to pick the kids up tomorrow," the nanny said.

"Oh…" I mumbled half-heartedly. The nanny asked if I was okay, so I nodded and reassured her. "I'm

fine." After that, I hurried off as if I were a fugitive on the run. Joseph could tell what was going on in my

mind, so he returned with new updates after a while. "Miss, both the twins have complete birth

certificates that were issued by the hospital they were born in. The details of their parents are stated

clearly on there as well," he reported.

Joseph was trying to tell me that those two children weren't related to me. Yet, if that were the case,

then why did Leo call me her mother? I shut my eyes to feel the sun pouring over my face.

The next morning, after I woke up, I lay in the armchair for a while before I saw the whole of the Yates

Family arriving at the villa.

Each one of the adults was holding hands with or carrying their children. Leo and her brother were

carried in the arms of a young couple who looked rather familiar to me. They seemed to be a part of the

Yates' extended family. I shut my eyes dejectedly, and the next time I opened them, I saw that the

Yates' villa was empty.

The next thing I knew, I saw a man standing outside my house.

My face fell immediately. The man was standing by the tree outside my villa and sitting beside his leg

was the dirty ginger cat from the day before. The cat seemed attached to him—it kept rubbing its face

against his ankle. I counted the days since the last time I met the man, and I realized that it had almost

been six months. He hadn't bothered me once in the past six months.

Our gazes met for a moment. Then, he spread his lips into a smile. He pulled his phone out and tapped

on the screen a few times. Right after that, my phone began to ring.

I picked my phone up as I watched him waving his arm. When I pressed my phone against my ear, I

heard his harsh voice coming from the other end of the line. "Are you reminded of your own children

when you see thes