"Are you all right?" she wanted to walk to him to hold him up. But she stopped immediately. She couldn’t do that.

She clenched her fist tightly and stood still.

"Stuart, I don’t love you anymore. We are not married. You are not my husband anymore."

"Don’t love? Then why do you want to kiss me back when I kiss you. Edie, you could not even lie to yourself. How could you lie to me?" Stuart laughed at himself, bitterly.

Hearing his questioning, Edie blushed. How could she control herself while kissing? She didn’t expect that he would feel this.

But...

So what?

She held the fist so tightly that her nails inserted into her skin deeply.

"We’ve been married. It is natural. I don’t want you to bother us anymore. Please watch how you conduct yourself."

Then Edie wanted to leave. But he walked towards her and held her in his arms again.

She wanted to get rid of him, but she heard his cold voice.

"Why are you so brutal? Don’t you feel heartache?��

Heartache...

This word kept ringing in her brain. She almost burst into tears.

How possible?

Her heart was burning,

She leaned against his arms. She couldn’t get rid of him. But she still replied to him in a cold voice, "Don’t flirt yourself."

Then she tried the best to push him away and turned around, left.

Looking at her back, Stuart showed a bitter smile at the corner of his mouth. Then he leaned against the car weakly.

He didn’t chase after her because he got so weak to keep sober now.

At the moment he faded out, he saw her coming back.

It was Edie. She was so worried about him. So she returned back, witnessing the moment he falling down.

She froze for a second and rushed to him without any hesitation.

Then, she held him in her thin arms.

Stuart was held in her arms. His breath swept through her neck. It was warm.

Edie held him tightly. She wanted to cry out.

"If we get together again, it would be so dangerous and painful. We would have to suffer a lot again. Why...why do you want to torture yourself?"

She said in a slight and low voice. She sounded really hopeless.

Then she took him back to the ward and stayed with him. She didn’t leave the ward until the dusk came. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

She went to pick up Laty and bought some ingredients in the supermarket.

Laty felt something happened to Edie. She talked a lot in the car. But now she kept in silence. Besides, her eyes were reddened. She might cry before.

Stuart didn’t drive her back. Has he done something to her?

"Mom." Laty decided to ask Edie.

"What’s up?"

"That man...my daddy..."

"You’ve already known?"

Edie looked towards her in shock. She felt it was so incredible.

Actually, Laty didn’t want to tell Edie this. Otherwise, she would have no choice but acknowledge that she was really stupid.

She’s been keeping this secret for many years, to make Edie feel confident. But now she couldn’t hide this from Edie anymore. She had to tell Edie what she knew now.

"Edie, do you really think you can hide something from me? Are you really proud of lying to me with Arther and Cecil? I am young, though, I am not stupid, okay? I can see your signed pictures at home. I can read it. I can go search for you on the Internet. Then I would find lots of news about you. It is hard for me not to know that, okay?"

Laty shrugged her shoulder to express her difficulties.

"Wait. So you already know when you are in London, right? So you employed that man on purpose. You asked me to go there on purpose, right?" Edie suddenly realized something wrong.

"Well... we have much in common, frankly speaking. We are pretty and so smart. I think there is only one reason...." Laty tried to change the topic.

Hearing these words, Edie squinted, "Laty, how dare you. You lied to me. I am your mother. I am still planning to make steak for you tonight. Forget about it."

"Really? Thank god."

Laty took a relief. She felt so lucky that she could get rid of Edie��s steak.

Edie widened her eyes and stared at her daughter, angrily. She pushed the cart and went to the counter directly.

It was until this moment that the little girl realized she might make mistakes. She ran towards her mother immediately to apologize to her, "Sorry, mom. I don’t mean that. Your steak tastes good. But I don’t like it. Mom, please, listen to me...."

But Edie didn’t throw an eye on her. Laty stopped her steps and said, "Actually, I really don’t care about the steak. What I care about is whether you want to get back to my dad or not. Tell me, Edie."

Hearing this question, Edie stopped immediately.

"What’s your opinion? Do you want him to be back?"

"Actually, I don’t care. What I care about is you, what do you think? All I want is you. You should promise me you should stay with me. Frankly speaking, I don’t like his taking you away. It feels.... feels quite weird."

At the moment, Laty had a weird feeling. She couldn’t describe that kind of feeling.

Since she started memorizing things, she has already had to worry about her mother.

Now, someone wanted to take her away from Laty. Edie indeed felt sad, as if her daughter was taken away.

Though this description sounded wrong, it was this kind of feeling. Laty did think she was like Edie’s mother.

"Take me away?" Edie rolled her eyes hopelessly.

"Mom, do you know a dog digging hole to hide bone? Even the dog doesn’t like the bone, and it would choose to hide them in the sand, rather than giving them away. This is my feeling now. Of course, I don’t mean that you are my bone. I am not a dog, either. Whatever, that’s my opinion. Could you understand me?"

"Someone came into our life all of a sudden, and you haven’t gotten used to it, right? Then, we can move." Edie’s eyes started shining.

They could go back to Zabreg.

"Move?" Laty blinked. She felt stumped and told Edie, "Edie...though I don’t like Sophie so much....to be honest, she was the first friend I have, I don’t want to leave her now. Besides, my dad might keep looking for us. Should we keep moving? Mom, I don’t want to move. I want to study here. Though those teachers are stupid, they look quite kind to me...."

Hearing these words, Edie fell into contemplation.

Laty has been five years old. It was late for her to go to kindergarten now.

She sat with Sophie because they were the two oldest kids in the class.

Sophie always asked her why Laty came to school so late. Sophie went to kindergarten because she was sick last year. But why did Laty go to school so late?

Edie didn’t know how to answer Sophie’s question.

Because she was hiding from a man, in the first two years, Laty was still an infant. She couldn’t even walk. So Edie had to stay in Zabreg to take care of her. Then, when Laty learned to walk, she started her trip to take photographs, to do those things she loved. When Laty memorize things, Edie took her on her trip.

It took her five years to return back to A.

When he was not here.

If she chose to leave this time, she didn’t know when they could come back again.

Edie hesitated. Finally, she sighed, "All right. We don’t move. I can handle everything. Don’t worry about me. If I refuse your father, please don’t blame me, okay?"

"As long as you stay with me, you can do whatever you want," Laty smiled towards Edie happily.