Faux Vows, True Desires

As soon as Cecilia left, Stefan turned to Lucinda and and addressed his concern, "You've been so busy; are you tired?"

"Well, I wasn't really busy all morning. Only after I finished the updates, then I went to do some grocery shopping and then cooking."

Seeing that her hair was a bit messy, Stefan smoothed it out for her and tucked it behind her ear, "I did offer to help you know, but you wouldn't let me. Look at you, even your hair's all over the place." Lucinda caught his hand and chuckled, "Nah, I'm not tired. Having you take care of me like this, even if I'm exhausted, it's all worth it."

"Everyone's here. We've got two more dishes to make. Let's each do one."

"You only have one pot, right?"

Lucinda laughed, "I have two pots. I'll go get the other one."

"No need. Those two dishes won't take too long to prepare. You go and chat with them. I'll whip them up in no time."

"Okay then, I'll head out. Holler if you need me for anything without any hesitation."

Stefan gave his face a little slap indicating something to Lucinda.

Lucinda glanced at the kitchen door, quickly pecked him on the cheek, and before he could react, she hurriedly left the kitchen. Once outside, she casually walked towards her partners as if nothing had happened.

"Is the shop locked?" Lucinda casually asked as she sat next to Cecilia.

"Cecilia asked Mr. Martinez to watch it for now. We'll take over after lunch,"

A staff member answered.

Lucinda glanced at her friend teasingly, making Cecilia want to pinch her.

"Owen agreed to watch the shop for us?"

Cecilia sat up straight and replied, "I'm paying him, it's not like it's charity. An hour for twenty bucks, where else can you find such a sweet deal? Back when business wasn't going so good, we couldn't even make twenty bucks in a whole day."

Lucinda laughed and said, "Yeah, yeah, such good fortune is hard to come by for many people."

Owen might feel hard done by.

"Where's Mr. Coleman?"

Basil felt a bit awkward being the only guy sitting there.

"He's in the kitchen. Let me tell you, Stefan's cooking skills are amazing. Their family education is holistic. Everyone is self-reliant. Even without the family's protection, they can fend for themselves." Lucinda had been married to Stefan for a while at that point and their relationship had only got better. But she rarely talked about her husband in front of her staff. That was the first time she praised Stefan in front of them.

Stefan, in the kitchen, heard Lucinda praising him and couldn't help but giggle.

"Just look at the difference between Mr. Coleman and Mr. Malicious, and you'll know whose family education is superior."

Cecilia also grabbed a handful of seeds to munch on.

In the Martinez family, the only one who was truly awake was Trenton. They said Harry Martinez was also a decent young man, but Trenton favored Owen more, hence the CEO position fell on Owen. Cecilia believed Trenton's attitude towards his two grandsons indicated a deeper love for his first wife and less affection for his second wife.

Hence, his emotions tended to lean towards the descendants of his first wife.

The group chatted for a while before Stefan announced from the kitchen, "Food's ready!"

Everyone quickly tidied up the small dining table, arranged the chairs, and then went to the kitchen to help bring out the hot dishes.

Apart from one vegetable dish, everything else was seafood, even the soup. It was a feast of seafood.

"Basil, do you want some booze?"

Lucinda opened the mini fridge door and asked Basil.

"I've got to work later, so I'll pass. Besides, I can't hold my liquor. A little sip and I'm out for the day."

Lucinda promptly closed the fridge door and laughingly said, "Then you'd better not. We're counting on you to make some snacks."

Everyone had a good laugh.

Stefan drove here, so he naturally wouldn't be drinking.

"Lucy, do you have a thermal lunch box? Can I borrow one?"

"Sure, I'll go get one for you."

Lucinda got up to fetch a thermal lunch box for Cecilia. After cleaning it, Cecilia filled half of it with rice, then brought it out and added a bit of each dish into it, stuffing the three-tiered lunchbox full. "Do you want some soup?" Lucinda asked her, "I'll find a big bowl for you."

"No need, just these dishes are good enough for him."

Since she insisted, Lucinda didn't go looking for a big bowl.

Everyone was in sync, eating very slowly. Only Cecilia ate at a normal pace.

Lucinda subtly suggested, "Cecilia, if you're full, you should head back to the shop. The food in the lunchbox will get cold. Seafood doesn't taste good when it's cold."

Cecilia sat there for a few more minutes, then picked up the lunchbox and quickly left for their shop.

No one else said much. They had long accepted Cecilia and Owen as a single entity.

Skywatch. The Porter family.

After being hung up on yet again, Madeleine Porter angrily put her phone on the table and complained to her mother, "Mom, that woman has recovered. As soon as she got better, Nathan's no longer as nice to me as he used to be. Today, we only chatted for more than ten minutes, and he hung up on me. This is the tenth time he's done that."

Mrs. Porter couldn't help but poke her head, saying, "You're aware that this is the tenth time he's hung up on you. It's only halfway through the day and you've already called him ten times! He's already very patient to chat with you for ten to twenty minutes each time. If I treated your father this way, he wouldn't want to chat with me even for a minute anymore."

"Mom, I'm just worried. I was about to replace that woman, and then they told me that Lucinda was found. The moment the woman saw her daughter, she recovered so quickly. I thought she had gone insane for over twenty years and wouldn't recover even if Lucinda was found."

Every time Madeleine thought of Janice waking up and of Nathan's deep affection for Janice back in the day, she'd get scared, fearing that all her efforts over the years would evaporate into thin air.

Even though she was a daughter of the Porter family, and her family's influence even surpassed that of Janice's family, she was not officially Nathan's wife yet, even though everyone thought that she could take Janice's place. She knew what was really going on.

The position of the leading lady of the Blue family was still Janice's!

"Worrying now is pointless, Janice is awake, and Lucinda has been found. We tried our best to prevent it, but Lucinda's luck is just too damn good. Madeleine, while your dad's not around, I want to have a heart-to-heart with you. You mustn't tell your dad, or he'll give me an earful."

Mrs. Porter lowered her voice and suggested, "Maybe, you should consider stepping down. Nathan is old enough to be your dad. No matter how well he takes care of himself, it can't change the fact that he already has a pair of 24-year-old kids."