Chapter 288 A Twist of Fate?
Unaware of the storm brewing in the Walker household, Kenny and Ashton were lost in their own world.
Having settled on the gifts, Kenny invited Ashton to the garden.
The spring day was glorious, and the meticulously cared-for blossoms were in stunning bloom.
Kenny and Ashton found themselves lounging comfortably in garden chairs as they gazed up at the night sky.
Perhaps due to the fine weather that evening, Ashton spotted quite a few stars.
"Mrs. Walker," Kenny turned to glance over.
"What is it, Mr. Walker?" Ashton replied, her sparkling eyes meeting Kenny's, making his heart soften.
"Let's not move," Kenny suggested softly.
Ashton paused briefly, her mind flitting back to Janna's insistent words.
"Don't let Janna get to you, I..." Ashton's eyelids fluttered as she hesitated, "Kenny, you know everything about me. Those experiences from my past; they still hold me back from being a good mom."
Kenny chuckled and ruffled her hair. "What are you talking about? We haven't even started our life together yet, let alone think about kids. That’s way off in the future."
"But you..." Ashton glanced up at him.
"I don't want you to move out because I enjoy every single day with you. If you left, I might feel lonely. But if staying with me is a burden for you, then you can also..."
"No burden at all!" Ashton blurted out quickly.
To think staying with Kenny would be a burden, what did that make her time with the Shaw family then?
"So why wouldn't you?" Kenny asked seriously.
"I didn't say I wouldn't."
"If you're not against the idea, then it's settled!" Kenny declared firmly but with a warm smile.
Ashton looked at him, then laid back comfortably, nodding. "Alright, the cohabitation adventure of Mr. and Mrs. Walker continues!"
Kenny kept looking at her, unable to hide his laughter.
"Oh, wait!" Ashton suddenly perked up, something coming to mind. She turned to Kenny. "Did you know Chicago before? Today was the first time you met, right? Her reaction to you was strange, and I can't shake the feeling you two were whispering about some conspiracy!"
Kenny laughed. "I've seen Chicago in the small park when I go out to walk my cat."
Speaking of cats, the plump little furball emerged from nowhere, waddling over. Without a second thought, it aimed for Ashton's lap.
But Kenny was quicker, scooping up the cat into his own arms. "You're too hefty! What if you squished my wife?"
The cat gave them an utterly unimpressed look as Ashton doubled over, laughing.
Outside the garden wall, someone was passing by with a dog, walking extra slowly—hoping Kenny might appear for another chance encounter.
No unplanned meetings had happened on previous nights, but tonight, she heard Kenny's voice and not just Kenny's. There was also...
Mrs. Walker.
The tall woman with depth in her gaze gave the garden wall a fleeting look before moving on with her dog.
*
Elsewhere, Fiona was finally getting some alone time with Charles while the little Chicago was taking a bath. After persistent coaxing from Charles, Fiona rolled up her pants leg to show him her injured knee.
The tiny child gazed at his mother's injured knee, causing tears to well up in his eyes. He fought the urge to cry, bowed his head once more, and gently blew on the wound.
"Does it still hurt, Mommy?" Charles asked, his heart twisted in concern.
Fiona kissed her son, Charles's cheek. "It stopped hurting a long time ago. Mommy is pretty tough, don't worry, Charles."
Charles nodded in understanding.
"Did they catch the bad guy?" He asked.
"Wait until your dad..." Fiona halted mid-sentence, hesitating.
"Wait for Daddy Darwin to catch him?" Charles continued.
"Yeah," Fiona nodded, and then tenderly proposed, "Charles, when he gets better, I want to take you and your sister to meet him."
"And then you'll tell us he is our dad, and tell him we're his babies, right?" Charles asked.
"If you're not ready, Mommy won't force you," Fiona quickly assured him.
Charles fell silent for a moment.
"Mommy, if you and him make up, will you be happy?" He inquired.
Tears filled Fiona's eyes. "Yes."
Charles let out a sigh. "Mommy, I just want you to be happy. If you're happy, I can handle anything."
Fiona was about to speak when suddenly, Charles's nose began to bleed.
"Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed, startled.
She quickly grabbed a tissue.
Charles, surprisingly calm, took the tissue and covered his nostrils. "It's okay."
"It's not the first time, is it?" Fiona noticed something off in Charles's words.
"Third time," Chloe muttered.
An uneasy feeling settled in Fiona’s heart. Later in the evening, after putting the kids to bed, she quietly made a call to the Rhoads Family Hospital to schedule a check-up for Charles.
Charles had been a frail child since birth, even more so than his sister, Chicago.
"Fiona, what's up?" Burl descended from the third floor and worriedly approached Fiona upon seeing her furrowed brow.
"Charles said he's had a nosebleed three times in the past few days," Fiona reported gravely.
"It's no big deal, I had one too," Burl let out a sigh of relief.
He remembered getting nosebleeds often as a child and didn't think it was a cause for concern.
"We should still be careful. It's about time for Charles and Chicago to get a check-up anyway. Let's do it for both of them," Fiona suggested.
Burl didn't argue.
"You've been back for half a month now; how are you handling school?" Fiona inquired.
"I have other priorities!" Burl proclaimed, not without pride. "Worst case, I'll just repeat a year."
"Burl, thank you," Fiona said softly.
"Come on, we're siblings. No need for thanks," Burl dismissed, then remembered the situation with his brothers-in-law. "I should've come back sooner. Look what happened, two brothers-in-law in the blink of an eye!"
Fiona let out a laugh amidst the tension.
"Hey hotshot, maybe now's a good time for you to jump into the dating scene?"
"No way!" Burl's face turned beet red in an instant. "Drop it. Did they catch that idiot yet?"
Fiona's lips pressed into a thin line.
"Burl, I think the person we've found might not be the real mastermind."
"How's that possible? I can make mistakes, but there's no way Charles and I both got it wrong!" Burl clutched his chest as if swearing an oath.
"I'm not saying you made a mistake. What if the cell phone was deliberately placed to mislead us?" Fiona posed the question earnestly.
"Set up?" Burl shot up, startled by the thought.
Finding the phone had been hard enough.
He hadn't even considered this possibility.
"Think about it. It was off and had no signal for so long. Why would it suddenly turn on? If someone wanted to tamper with something, they'd probably shut it off again quickly," Fiona analyzed logically.
"But the signal was gone only after the night I came to see you," Burl bit his lip.
"Doesn't it seem like it was because the battery died? It shut off automatically, and that's why the signal vanished," Fiona said gravely.
The timeline from when the signal appeared to when it disappeared coincided with the lifespan of a phone's battery.
Burl's expression darkened as he mulled it over. Indeed, there was something highly suspicious about the signal issue.
"Sis, do you have a suspect in mind?" Burl looked at Fiona.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
