Chapter 100

Caroline’s eyes widened and blinked a few times before she speedily threw her room door open to rush

downstairs. She wanted to figure out if the hair she had found in her mother’s pocket actually belonged

to her father.

When she got downstairs, she saw Ethan, who was still sitting on the couch. Instead of greeting him,

she sneakily edged over before she swung her hand over his head and quickly plucked a few strands

of hair off of him.

“What are you trying to do?” Ethan noticed Caroline’s presence a while ago, and he had decided to just

compromise and allow Caroline to have her fun for a while. He hadn’t expected her to start pulling his

hair. “Is this how you treat your mother too? Do you pull her hair?” Ethan’s expression turned stern—his

scalp was rather painful after all that tugging.

“I… I don’t…” Caroline was shocked, and she put her tiny hands behind her back to conceal the hairs

that she had just pulled out.

“Why are you being so fierce? You’re scaring Caroline,” Rosy came downstairs to take something, and

she happened to overhear Ethan. She felt annoyed, especially when she saw the stern look on the

man’s face. “You shouldn’t fool around like that with Mommy, okay? You’ll hurt her if you do that.” Ethan

then realized how stern he sounded and how he might have scared the young girl. Caroline was an

obedient and mature child, so he was sure that she would obey him even if he spoke to her more

patiently.

“Okay, I got it. I’ll take care of Mommy, and I won’t hurt her.” Caroline nodded a few times. “I’m sorry,

Daddy. I didn’t mean to do it. I just—”

“It’s fine. I don’t blame you for it. You should head upstairs,” Ethan uttered. She’s such a mature and

sophisticated child. There’s no need for such a formal apology over such a tiny matter, right?

Meanwhile, Rosy’s expression changed as she watched the scene from where she stood at the bottom

of the stairs. It seems like Ethan is starting to get rather protective of Alice.

After Caroline got upstairs, she pulled out the transparent bag that she had found in Alice’s pocket and

took out the strand of hair from inside it. Then, she compared that strand of hair with the ones she had

plucked off Ethan’s head earlier. The hair that I just plucked out seems a little longer, but they’re both

black and rough. So… Does this belong to Daddy?

Caroline was thoroughly focused on examining the hairs when she heard the sound of the bathroom

door opening. Is Mommy done with her shower? Caroline panicked for a moment before she hastily

kept the hairs in the plastic bag. She was too flustered, so she ended up mixing all the strands of hair.

A few strands of hair fell to the ground, too—Caroline only managed to stuff the hairs between her

fingers into the bag. She hurriedly placed the bag back into Alice’s pocket.

However, at that point, Caroline no longer knew if the hairs in the plastic bag were hairs that were

originally there or if they were hairs that she had plucked off Ethan’s head earlier.

After putting the bag back into Alice’s pocket, Caroline started questioning herself. Why am I being so

nervous? Why did I panic? Mommy said that I shouldn’t touch other people’s things without permission,

but I wasn’t doing it intentionally. I just wanted to help Mommy wash her clothes, and I only looked

through her pockets because of that. Well, now that I’ve returned the item to its original spot, I won’t

have to tell Mommy about it, right? she thought as she tried to reason with herself.

From that point onward, Caroline decided that she would be the most obedient child ever so that her

mother would love her too much to ever leave her. Let’s just forget about whatever happened—I’ll be

good from now! “Are you done showering, Mommy?” After comforting herself and telling herself that

she hadn’t made a mistake, Caroline no longer felt as flustered and nervous as before.

“Yeah. I came over to be with you after I changed out of the clothes I was wearing earlier.” Alice didn’t

seem to notice anything out of the norm. She walked over to the balcony to retrieve the clothes she had

been wearing earlier. Based on her memory, she recalled how she had opened the room door right

after Keith handed her the tiny plastic bag with his hair in it. She recalled stuffing it into her pocket as

she didn’t have the time to keep it in her handbag.

Apollo’s hair, on the other hand, was kept in her bag. Alice took the tiny plastic bag with Keith’s hair out

of her pocket. She didn’t know about what happened just moments ago, and she simply placed the

plastic bag into her handbag alongside Apollo’s sample. I’ll bring these over to get a DNA test

tomorrow, she thought.

“What are you going to do with that hair?” Caroline watched as Alice carefully kept the hair samples in

her bag. The young child was rather puzzled. “I need them for something,” Alice replied without

explaining too much.

“What do you need them for?” Caroline clasped her hands together. Does Mommy need them? What

are they for? Did I mess up the strands of hair earlier? Will it affect whatever Mommy wants to do with

it? Should I tell Mommy the truth? But… It’s just hair, isn’t it? What could she possibly use it for? Isn’t

everyone’s hair all the same? She can probably use anyone’s hair—it wouldn’t matter, right? Since it

won’t affect anything… I don’t have to tell Mommy the truth, right?

Alice had already returned to the balcony to wash her clothes at that point. The words of truth were at

the tip of Caroline’s tongue, but the young girl decided to keep her mouth shut in the end. After Alice

was done washing her clothes, she began to tell Caroline a bedtime story. Alice only stopped when she

saw that Caroline had fallen asleep. Right then, Alice happened to receive a text.

The text was from Ethan. Alice could sense his domineering aura even through his simple message.

‘Come out. We need to talk.’ Alice frowned at his message. Talk? What’s there to talk about? Alice

didn’t reply to his message immediately. In fact, she wanted to just ignore it.

‘Do you want to come out, or should I go in?’ Ethan texted her again.

Alice took a glance at Caroline, who had just fallen asleep. He’ll wake Caroline up if he comes in now.

After letting out a huge sigh, Alice eventually got to her feet. She opened her room door only to find the

man standing in front of her. Alice blinked puzzledly. Has he been standing here this whole time? So…

He heard me telling Caroline a bedtime story, and he figured that Caroline had fallen asleep when I

stopped my story. That explains why his text came so aptly. What does he want to talk about? Is it

something important? Did something bad happen? Before Alice had the chance to say anything,

Ethan’s deep voice filled the air. “Did Keith propose to you?”

Alice froze. She was too dumbfounded to respond for a moment. What’s going on? How did Mr. Knight

know about Keith’s proposal? Keith and I might have bumped into him while we were leaving the room,

but he wasn’t around when we first went in, Alice thought. The waiter had walked in and out of the

room a few times, so Alice knew that someone would’ve noticed Ethan’s presence if Ethan had been

standing outside.

So, Alice figured that Ethan had probably just arrived minutes before she walked out of the room. If

that’s the case, then how does he know about Keith’s proposal?