When she heard that, Hayden felt every drop of blood in her body freeze over.
Nanking was so sparse and massive, how could it be him?
However, upon digging deeper into the vaults of her memory, he probably betted on this necklace using
the future of the ST Group. Besides the Beckham family, she couldn’t think of anyone else who would
be able to do something like this.
At that moment, Joseph was no longer lying on the chair. He seemed to have returned to the hotel due
to some matters.
When she realized that, she stared at a spot not far away, at a tiny frame who was building a
sandcastle with her daughter. She was entranced. She could feel his tender features registering
something deep in her memory.
Besides getting seized by a rush of terror, she didn’t have any problems believing this fact.
It turned out that the son she had been missing dearly for the past five years was right in front of her
eyes. As his mother, she couldn’t even recognize her own son.
The waves were sweeping her feet, but it was as if she had been rooted to the spot, with her legs no
longer obeying her brain. She mustered all of her strength to take a step forward, yet she couldn’t push
back a kind of bitterness in her heart. All of a sudden, tears broke free of her eyes.
“Mummy!”
Stella came flying over, “Come look at the castle we have built…”
Hayden wanted to wipe away her budding tears, yet nothing could escape Stella’s inquisitive eyes. She
asked worriedly, “Mummy, why are you crying?”
“Mummy is not crying.”
Hayden was stammering now, “It’s just the wind. Yes, the wind is too strong, so some sand has gotten
into my eyes.”
Noah was jogging over too, and when he saw her expression, he also revealed a worried look on his
face. He held her hand and looked at her worriedly, and from near, his eyes seemed to be one and the
same as Stella’s. They were really alike, yet she never even considered the fact that they might be
related. When she thought of this, she couldn’t stop her tears from rolling down her cheeks.
She slowly squatted down and took a good look at this child who never had the chance to grow up by
her side. Her heart was wrenching and seized by complications, and that massive pressure was
threatening to tear her apart.
Noah was really anxious about her as she tried to wipe away Hayden’s tears messily. He almost cried
himself too.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t you worry, Noah.”
Hayden held his little hand in her palms, “Mummy is just feeling happy.”
When Noah heard the word “mummy”, he was stunned for a second. Nevertheless, Stella didn’t notice
any difference, she simply blinked while explaining, “Noah, mummy told me that her eyes are painful
because of sand getting into them. Let’s help to blow it away.”
Noah hesitated for a little before nodding. The two children carefully blew air into Hayden’s left and
right eyes, their warm and moist breath could be felt on her face. Hayden finally couldn’t hold it in any
longer, so she hugged the two of them tightly while forming somewhat a smile on her face despite tears
streaking her cheeks.
“Mummy, what’s wrong?”
Stella was a pretty oblivious girl, and she only understood that Hayden wasn’t crying because of her
eyes feeling painful due to the wind getting sand into her eyes.
Hayden let the two children go, and after deliberating for a long time and swallowing some words she
had intended to say, she forced a brisk response, “I’m fine.”
Noah was Joseph’s son, so even though she could tell Noah the truth now and she might get accepted
by him, what about Joseph?
From the way he had sent his men to entice and threaten her and the dynamics of their relationship, it
seemed that he prioritised this son even more so that she had thought. It was impossible that she
would be able to reclaim her own son by just telling him that she was his mother.
When worse came to worst, once Joseph knew that Noah was not his only child, and once he learnt
that Stella was his daughter too, would he snatch her away from Hayden’s side too?
When she mulled over such possibility, she immediately felt a chill run through her body. She was more
than terrified about that prospect.
The chances of that happening was too huge, and she was not going to shoulder that kind of risk just
yet.
After wiping away her tears, Hayden picked up a spade while squeezing a smile on her face, “Stella,
Noah, let me join you in building that sandcastle.”
In the end, they were still nothing more than a child. When they heard that Hayden claimed that she
was fine, and that she was going to join them in their fun, they were immediately distracted. They
quickly pulled her in their half-constructed sandcastle’s direction.
At dinner time, Joseph saw that Hayden’s eyes were a little reddish, so he couldn’t help frowning at her,
“What happened to your eyes?”
“Nothing has happened.”
Hayden didn’t dare to look him in his eyes as she continued to droop her head and replying in a flat
tone, “I was seasick a while ago, so I felt a little uncomfortable.”
The wrinkles on Joseph’s forehead deepened upon hearing that, and there was a hint of worry in his
eyes “You should go to rest after dinner. The filming of the show will be handled by the programme
team. They will look after the children without any problems, so you don’t need to worry about
anything.”
Hayden simply muttered some vague response, and her expression was very unnatural.
After recovering slightly from that initial shock, her mind was transported back to that night from six
years ago. She could only feel a tingling sensation assaulting the back of her neck. It felt like an
undeniable fear was coming at her and was threatening to swallow her whole.
The Beckham family had all the power in the world in Nanking, and Joseph was someone nobody
could decipher. If he learnt that Hayden was indeed the surrogate from all those years before and he
was mistaken about that, there was no doubt that her stable life right now would once again be
devoured by a massive storm.
After dinner, she hurriedly got back to her room and took out the luggage box lying in one corner of the
room.
The next day—
Joseph and Noah came down to have breakfast just like what a father and son would do. A moment
later, Freddie was leading Stella to the dining room while looking proud and he sat down casually
opposite Joseph. He requested, “Waiter, give me a cup of latte, a glass of milk and two waffles.”
Joseph stole a glance at an elevator which was behind Freddie. The woman he was expecting didn’t
appear for some reason.
“Where is she?”
“Who are you talking about?” Freddie sounded like he was expecting Joseph to broach this topic, and
there was a smirk on his face.
Joseph glanced at him without even putting in any effort to conceal his contempt towards Freddie’s
childish demeanour, “She is probably upstairs. Women are really troublesome.”
“Women are indeed troublesome.” Freddie continued where Joseph had left off and he said
mischievously, “But Hayden is one woman I know who is the least troublesome. She could even return
to country at a moment’s notice without disturbing anyone. She was able to do all that on her own.”
“She has gone back?” A slight shift appeared on Joseph’s face.
It was only one night they had been here. How could she suddenly return to the country without
warning?
“You don’t know about that?” Freddie’s voice was exaggerated as he clicked his tongue, “I imagine that
as her boss, Hayden would at least notify you about that. It turns out that I am the only one in the
know?”
Hayden had left Maldives after just one night, and she was saying something about returning to the
country to move houses. She left a memo to ask for his favour to take good care of Stella.
Joseph knitted his brows, “What has she said to you?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Is that so?” Joseph pushed back his chair and made a piercing, grating sound on the floor. He stood
up straight while tending to his shirt slightly. His expression was one of coolness, “Even if you don’t tell
me that, I can still find out on my own.”
“Hey, what are you planning to do?”
“I am going back to the country now.”
When Freddie heard that, his expression immediately darkened, “What?”
Did he just smash his own feet with a stone? The couple had been interacting ambiguously in front of
him at least, but the moment they both returned to country, he could only foresee how they would act in
front of each other.
As he watched Joseph carried his son away in a hurry, he realized that Joseph was not making an
empty threat. Freddie called out to his agent not far away with an unhappy tone, “Fatty, I want to go
back to the country now! Book me the earliest flight.”
A drastic change appeared on the agent’s face “The show is not finished filming yet. We still have
some schedule to follow, so we can’t go now.”
“I said, we are going back home no matter what!”
“The penalty for breaking your contract is twenty million yuan!”
“…”
Freddie held her head while grimacing greatly. If he didn’t sign that contract because of Joseph this sly
fox, he wouldn’t end up in his current situation as if he was a slave!
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda