Chapter 479 William and Hayden （80）
"Yes, I understand," Hayden said, tugging at the corner of her mouth and bowing her head.
Sophia looked at Hayden, her mind whirling with thoughts. She had never anticipated that Hayden would drastically switch tactics and do something completely different from what she had imagined.
"Dad, I..." At that moment, Jocelyn came down the stairs.
"Jocelyn, come here, we've been waiting for you!" Sophia instantly called out to Jocelyn with a beaming smile.
"Oh," Jocelyn replied and took a seat next to Hayden, then started on her breakfast.
"Jocelyn, what happened to your hand?" Hayden swiftly inquired, grabbing her hand as Jocelyn reached out with her right hand to grasp a fork, noticing a series of deep teeth marks near the base of her thumb.
Jocelyn quickly withdrew her hand, hiding it under the table, and stammered, "It's nothing."
Across from her, Daniel rolled his eyes at Jocelyn.
"How can it be nothing? Those bite marks are so deep. It's obvious you were bitten," Hayden said with furrowed brows, his voice filled with concern.
"Jocelyn, what really happened?" As her biological father, Finn felt compelled to ask upon seeing the deep bite marks on her hand.
"It was Daniel, he..." Jocelyn started, but tears welled up in her eyes, and she couldn't finish her sentence. She looked at the picture of misery.
"What are you waiting for? Go get the first aid kit to clean and dress Miss's wound!" Seeing Jocelyn mention Daniel and appear so distressed, Sophia knew things were not good and hurriedly interrupted everyone.
"Jocelyn, dare to spread lies. Just try," Daniel warned through clenched teeth, glaring at Jocelyn from across the table.
"Daniel, how dare you speak to me like that!" Sophia scolded Daniel fiercely, glaring back at him.
"She always takes Jocelyn's side, scolding me every day," Daniel complained, completely ignoring Sophia and looking toward Finn for support, proudly continuing, "It wasn't me who bit Jocelyn's hand. She's lying to smear my name!"
With that, Daniel glanced, annoyed, at Hayden and Jocelyn, "Thinking you can bully me just because you came back, huh? No way!"
"Daniel, you..."
"Jocelyn, is it true what your brother is saying? Are you smearing him?" Finn interrupted with anger before Jocelyn could voice her grievance.
"Daniel, he..."
"Jocelyn, that's enough. Daniel is younger, our brother. It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not. You need to be the bigger person from now on." Hayden looked at Jocelyn with sympathy, but at that moment, he felt that all he could do was ask Jocelyn to step back and stop her from seeking justice.
Because in this household, fairness, and truth had long lost their place.
In Finn's eyes, it was all about Sophia and their son, Daniel.
Jocelyn watched Hayden, thinking about the words she had said to her yesterday. She glanced at Daniel and Finn, fought back the tears that threatened to fall and nodded. "I understand."
After speaking, she turned to Finn and said obediently, "Dad, I'll be more considerate of Daniel in the future."
"Ha! Who said I wanted you to be considerate? I'm not conceding to you. Can you even beat me?" Daniel scoffed at Jocelyn, his face smug.
"Daniel, you..." Jocelyn started, but she was interrupted.
"Breakfast is getting cold, let's eat." Not wanting to watch Sophia's continued act, Hayden quickly interjected with a smile.
"Alright, alright, bickering is normal, let's eat." Finn openly supported his son Daniel.
Hayden watched, amused, but she didn't show it. She just bowed her head and began to eat her breakfast.
The meal was extremely uncomfortable for Hayden and her sister. Still, seeing that Hayden didn't show any displeasure and was exceptionally tolerant, even friendly, toward Sophia and Daniel, Jocelyn swallowed her anger and learned to tolerate it as Hayden did.
After breakfast, as soon as Finn left the house, Hayden planned to meet William.
As she was getting into her car, Jocelyn ran over and pleaded, holding her arm. "Take me with you, please!"
"Jocelyn, I know what you're worried about." Hayden held Jocelyn's hand with one hand and gently pushed a few stray hairs behind her ear with the other. But this is our home, and I can't always be by your side. Just do as I said, be nice to Daniel, and treat Aunt Sophia kindly, as if she were Mom's sister, okay?"
"Jocelyn, I believe you can do it, and you definitely will." Hayden whispered in her ear, "Remember my words, if you want to be tough on your enemies, start by being tough on yourself."
Jocelyn looked at Hayden, bit her lip thoughtfully, and then seriously nodded before slowly letting go of Hayden's hand.
Hayden smiled reassuringly, released her, got into the car, and drove to Sunset Haven Resort.
...
Sunset Haven Resort.
William had not slept all night.
Partly because he had a lot of business to attend to and partly because he simply couldn't fall asleep.
As dawn broke, the ashtray on his desk was piled with cigarette butts, and the small study was filled with a haze of smoke.
As the first light of dawn streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, piercing the swirling morning fog in the study, William extinguished the half-smoked cigarette between his fingers. He rose and made his way to the window, opening it to let the room breathe.
The moment the window swung open, a burst of chilly air rushed in, immediately clearing William's mind of haziness.
Rubbing his weary brow, and with a meeting with Hayden looming in the morning, he turned and made his way to his bedroom to take a shower.
