“He is… living a good life?”
“Yes, he is living very well now.”
“That’s good,” Estelle said with a smile, “I’m much relieved to know that he’s living a good life. Is it because Mr. Lopez showed him the letter I wrote, and he was sad, so he didn’t want to contact me?”
“Letter? What letter?” Ron asked in confusion.
“You don’t know about it?”
“It doesn’t matter whether he has read the letter you referred to,” Ron said, “All you need to know is that Mr. Mysterious doesn’t want to contact you or have anything to do with you anymore.”
“Has his arm recovered? He must have been badly injured in the car accident. He bled a lot…”
“Miss Hudson, don’t try to get any more information about Mr. Mysterious from me,” Ron interrupted her and said, “No matter what you say or do, I won’t tell you anything about him or let you see him. Don’t beat a dead horse.”
After saying that, he gave Estelle a deep look, turned around, entered the elevator, and quickly left.
Estelle stood still for a long time with her mind in turmoil before finally coming to her senses.
‘Mr. Mysterious, it turns out that you’re not dead. You are still alive! Thank goodness…’
She covered her mouth and wept tears of joy quietly.
“Mom?” Estelle suddenly heard a familiar voice.
She turned around and saw Yohan standing nearby.
“Mom, why are you standing here? Come on in!” Yohan said happily.
Wiping her tears away in a hurry, Estelle sniffed and walked over. She then took Yohan’s hand and asked, “Are you here to pick me up?”
“Yes. Dad asked me to pick you up,” Yohan said with a smile and snuggled up to her. “Dad wanted to come out and welcome you in person, but he’s too shy to do that.”
Seeing Yohan, Estelle felt her mood improve. She took a deep breath and said, “Yohan, we left for our trip abroad in a hurry, and we didn’t take your Iron Man toys with us. We’ll go fetch them this weekend.”
“Really?” Yohan jumped with joy.
“Absolutely,” Estelle smiled and continued, “Do you still remember that Dad bought all those toys for you?”
“Yes! Many of them are limited editions and are not available on the market now. Mom, are we really going to Rose Garden this weekend?” Yohan asked excitedly.
“Yes, we are. You can start thinking about what you want to fetch before we go there.”
Yohan nodded enthusiastically and said, “I want to fetch my schoolbag, the stationery box, and the Iron Man models. By the way, Mom, is Marshmallow still here?”
Estelle didn’t know how to answer him.
Three years ago, they had hurriedly left for their trip abroad. She had planned to contact Mrs. Moorsum when they arrived in Randaw and ask her to take care of Marshmallow.
However, when she contacted Mrs. Moorsum after settling down abroad, Mrs. Moorsum had told her that Marshmallow was missing.
Marshmallow was just a puppy when it went missing.
‘It would be good if someone kind-hearted found the puppy, took it home, and took good care of it.’
‘But if the puppy met bad people…’
Thinking of this, Estelle felt like a knife was piercing her heart.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“I’m fine,” Estelle said. “You’ve grown much taller in the past three years, and Marshmallow must have grown bigger, too. It may not be able to recognize you when it sees you.”
“It doesn’t matter. Dad said that Marshmallow is also our family member. As long as we are together all the time as a family, that’s enough,” Yohan said happily.
“Did he say this just now?”
“No, he said this the day before we went abroad.”
Hearing this, Estelle was stunned and stopped in her tracks.
“Did your Dad say anything else?” she asked.
“Let me remember…” Yohan thought for a while and said, “He said he would buy me more Iron Man models when we went abroad. And… I can’t recall what else he said.”
‘Yohan was only five years old three years ago, so it’s understandable that he can’t remember things from the past clearly.’
‘I should have talked to Mr. Mysterious more on our last night together. I would definitely remember every word and expression of his,’ Estelle thought with regret.
“Yohan, I’ll buy you many Iron Man models tomorrow,” Cristofer said to him gently.
It wasn’t until Estelle heard his voice that she realized she had arrived at Room 1231.
The door to the room was open at that moment, and Cristofer stood at the doorway with Yvonne in his arms. Although he was speaking to Yohan, his gaze was fixed on Estelle.
Yohan waved his hand and said, “No, thanks, Dad. You’ve bought me a lot before. There’s no room for more Iron Man models in my room!”
Still gazing at Estelle, Cristofer leaned sideways to make way for them and said, “Come on in.”
Yohan then pulled Estelle into the room happily, saying, “Mom, look at this suite. It’s much larger than ours.”
Estelle looked around and noticed that the furnishings here were the same as before.
The sofa in the living room still faced the French window, different from how the sofa in Room 0826 was arranged. After checking in back then, Estelle guessed that Mr. Mysterious had rearranged the sofa in this suite.
“Come here,” Cristofer said.
His tone of voice was so familiar that Estelle was stunned.
Sitting on the sofa with Yvonne in his arms, Cristofer asked her in a deep voice, “Are you reminded of your past with him? You seem so absorbed in your memories.”
Hearing his words, Estelle cleared her throat to hide her embarrassment and reminded him in a low voice, “Don’t talk about this in front of the children.”
Looking extremely unhappy, Cristofer took a deep breath and said nothing more.
“Mom, I’m hungry,” Yvonne squirmed out of Cristofer’s arms and threw herself into Estelle’s arms. Then she said to Estelle, “I want to eat eggs.”
Estelle picked her up gently and then turned to look at Cristofer, asking, “What did the children have for lunch?”
“Yvonne likes eating eggs, and Yohan is growing, so I bought them steamed egg custard, vegetables, and meat for lunch. I’m their biological father and won’t mistreat them,” Cristofer said.
Estelle explained, “I was just asking. I believe you won’t mistreat them. I know you love our children. You just don’t love me.”
“Who said I don’t love you?” Cristofer blurted out.
The next moment, both of them were stunned.
After a short, awkward silence, Estelle was still too surprised to utter a word while Cristofer suddenly chuckled.
Plucking up his courage, Cristofer said, “Well, I think it’s a good chance to speak out my thoughts now. Star, I…”
“Stop, please!” Estelle interrupted him at once. “Don’t say anything more.”
Knowing what she was worried about, Cristofer patted Yohan’s shoulder and said in a gentle voice, “Yohan, take Yvonne to your room and play with her for a while, will you? I have something to tell your Mom.”