"Should I open the door or not?" Bryan hesitated for a minute, though he is within the house, still he couldn't help but to feel nervous, however pulling up his courage, he walked straight to the door.After thinking twice, Bryan opened the door only to find Mia standing out of the door with an awkward smile fidgeting, with a nervous look on her face."Mia?" Bryan mumbled, not speaking out loud as it's the time where the entire house is asleep, while she is standing in front of his room's door, "What are you doing here at this hour? Did you at least take a look at the time before coming here?"She smiled softly looking at him, through the way she is looking at him, he is sure, she isn't here with a smile reason, however she herself spoke. "I’m here for you, Bryan.""We can talk in the morning," he said with a lazy tone being exhausted by everything that happened throughout the day as if he is in a roller coaster ride for so long.Mia sighed, as her expression became droopy, "I’m not h
"You heard it right, it's afternoon, it'll be better atleast for now if three of you come out of the bed, and rush to freshup," Bryan spoke showing them the time, without further word, they jumped out of the bed and rushed out of the room making him chuckle.John called four of them to join for lunch as Alicia wanted them to have lunch together.As the family gathered around the dining table for lunch, all of them looked tensed thinking Alicia would scold them for sleeping till late.The clinking of silverware and soft whispers filled the space as everyone settled into their seats. Bryan sat quietly in between his grandmother and Stacy as Always, his mind still occupied with the fear as he glanced at Alicia back to back hoping her not to scold them.Just as Bryan was about to get a glass of water to calm himself down, Jake entered the room with a furious look on his face. He walked straight over Bryan confidently and without hesitation, he stood in front of Bryan."You’re in my seat,
"Nothing," Bryan replied calmly, making Stacy to sigh at his casual response. "Is 'nothing' really a part of your plan, Bryan?" She can't help but to ask sarcastically.Bryan shook his head letting a soft chuckle out of him. "No, for now, it's just nothing, that's it, I didn't mean totally doing nothing."Stacy looked confused at his clueless and complicated words, "you know Bryan, sometimes I need to keep a dictionary by my side all time, to search meaning for the words you use to communicate," Bryan took a calm breath, trying to explain, "I'll be going back to campus in a few days as I can't live here forever. Before I leave, I'll give you some information, all you need to do is feed her the information I give to you.""And then?" Stacy inquired trying to figure out more about his plan."Everything will go according to what she dreamt for. As expected she'll start seeing the profits," Bryan said wrapping up all the documents."How does that even benefit us?" Stacy wasn't sure about
"Grandma," Stacy and Bryan looked around hearing to Alicia's voice, Stacy walked towards Alicia with a gentle smile on her face, while Alicia's expression immediately softened looking at her grandson and granddaughter, "When your brother gets married one day, do you think he'll still treat you like a princess?"Alicia can't help but to tease her granddaughter who always tags along with her brother throughout the day as if she has nothing to do apart from looking after her brother, while Stacy just chuckled in return, glancing over at Bryan. "I don't think any of those are matters to be concerned in between us grandma, since I trust my brother, and I'm sure he'll always take care of me, even if he is married or not, the affection he has towards me will never be changed." Alicia smiled at Stacy’s confidence and trust in Bryan. "I'm glad to hear that dear. I hope you two always stay this close, looking at both of you like this, I can't help but to feel sad that I never had a brother lik
"What do you mean by that?" Bryan and Alicia were both taken aback after hearing to Stacy's words, while wiping her sweat away, Stacy nodded her head with a heavy voice, "Dad suddenly felt pain in his chest and collapsed on the floor."Alicia sighed in a worried tone, "where is he? How is he now?" Stacy shook her head with teary eyes, "we aren't sure how is his health condition right now as he is unconscious, but dad is in the living room on the couch." Bryan's expression shifted instantly from shock to concerned. "Did you call an ambulance or a doctor?" He inquired in an urgent filled tone.Stacy responded quickly without any delay, "Nancy called for an ambulance, they must be here anytime, and I came to inform you both, as we aren't understanding what to do while mom is asking for us to wait till the doctor arrives, whereas the doctor has said he'll be here in an hour, I'm so scared Bryan."Alicia, visibly shaken, held her head as she felt the feet under her crumbling. "Oh, God!" S
"What exactly are you trying to say doctor?" Bryan was first to question him, following by Nancy also reacted, "what do you mean by slow poison?" Stacy sighed placing her mobile on the table, "my father uses medicine prescribed by the top doctors, and one of the top most doctors in the city works as our family doctor, how can something like this will happen with my father's medicine?" "I understand what you're trying to say, but here we need to look into the truth rather than discussing about the facts you know," the doctor said with an understanding tone, "we doctors never lie about our patient's condition, what would I even get by lying about Mr. Winterwood's condition? He isn't my enemy or something else, as a doctor, I treat all my patients in a same way." Bryan took the initiative to clear the misunderstanding, "I think there's a misunderstanding here, we aren't saying that you lied to us, it's just we are concerned about how this wrong happened when everything is looked after
"Yeah, she is the one I'm talking about," Bryan said, maintaining his voice to be steady, despite watching Stacy's shocked faces expression, "I know you're quite surprised to hear this from me, but I'm sure she must be the one behind all this."Stacy couldn't help but to sigh while rubbing her forehead, "But what would she even gain by harming Dad? Don't you know what kind of ideal couple our parents are?" "Ideal couples? In what way?" Bryan sneered at Stacy's words, "a man with multiple affairs, just because Mia came to light, we knew about her, what if there are others too? Do you think he is someone who is satisfied with one woman? A man like him will never be satisfied with one woman, and even after knowing all, why didn't our Mom react? Don't say it's love, please." Stacy knew Bryan was right, because all of them know what kind of man their father is, "either it's love or her greed towards the title of winterwood family, whatever it can be, still, why would she hurt her own fam
"What's happening here?" Josephine's voice echoed in the waiting area, instantly drawing the attention of the three siblings and Ronald who are peacefully involved in a conversation.They all turned to see her standing there, her face filled with extreme frustration."Can't you even answer your calls? What exactly are you doing? Do you three even know how many times I've called you people?" She demanded, making her voice to ring around everyone's ears.Bryan rubbed his ears out of frustration because of her raspy voice bringing nuisance."Mom, we are also waiting for the doctor to give us his final update regarding Dad's health, that’s why we are still waiting before we can inform you," Nancy spoke trying to calm her mother, as the nurses passing by glancing at them weirdly making it awkward for all of them.Stacy frowned at her mother's behaviour in a public place, "We told you to stay with Grandma at home, what are you doing here, Mom? Why did you even come here?""You shut up," Jos
"Why is this mystery never ending?" Bryan sat in his study, surrounded by stacks of old documents and family records. Unaware of what Josephine is plotting behind his back, he is so busy in getting the truth that was buried in the past.The faint glow of the desk lamp made him feel uneasy to stare at the papers, however he is so busy and involved in flipping the pages.He had been checking through the Winterwood archives for hours, determined to find any trace of evidence to support his suspicions regarding the mysteries.As he reached the bottom of an old wooden chest, a red envelope caught his attention.The paper looked too old, the edges were torn, and the handwriting on the front unmistakably belonged to his late grandfather, Edward Winterwood, "grandfather? This handwriting is similiar to grandfather's, I still remember the handwriting of grandfather from my previous life while helping my father, if so why is grandfather's handwritten paper is here?" With a curiosity, he leane
"Sure, I can," Stacy said and took the file, as she checked the details, apart from very minimalistic nothing else found, "Bryan, if you don't mind, can I ask who is this man? If you don't want to say it's okay." Bryan took a deep breath and said the conversation he had before with officer Hobbes."What the!" Stacy was beyond surprised, "how can this be?" Bryan replied, "I don't know either, but the maid is already dead too, I don't believe our mom is doing all the things alone, I'm sure someone must be helping her," Stacy looked curious, "so, did you figure out anything more about these things?" Bryan sighed, leaning back to the bedframe, "Not yet, but I have a feeling this man from mom's past holds the key to everything. If I can figure out who he is, I might be able to predict her next move, until then I'm not sure of anything because things are different from my previous life at this moment, so I can't take a blind step believing in intuition." Stacy frowned in deep thought. "
"These are the files you're supposed to look at and take care of," Josephine sat at her desk in the office, glaring daggers as everyone who was looking down on her, whereas Nancy, had been firm but fair in her leadership. To Josephine, it felt like a constant reminder of her fall from grace. Once the madam of the Winterwood household, but she was now reduced to a subordinate, a reality she bitterly hatred.Just then, her phone buzzed on the desk. It was a text from Bryan, "I think you love your new life, Mrs. Winterwood." Josephine slammed her phone down, with an angry look, "The audacity of that bastard to treat me this way! I don't know what got into him out of a sudden, all these years, I've tamed him perfectly, but he became a fox out of a sudden pulling strings to annoy me." When Nancy walked into the room, holding another set of reports, Josephine couldn’t contain her anger."Just because your father made you a CEO, do you think you're superior to me?" she hissed, with a ton
"Mother," Josephine spoke in a low tone, "you know whatever I do, it is for this family, I've been in this house for so long serving as his wife and your daughter-in-law, I built the reputation of this family along with my husband, how can you say this to me when I was also a part of the glory now winterwood family enjoying?"Alicia snapped at her, "glory? You brought nothing but shame, don't forget how you became the daughter-in-law of this family, from that day till now, there's nothing but humiliation and insults surrounding this family." Josephine opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Bryan finally stepped forward, "Grandma, right now, I don't think it's important for us to discuss the past." Everyone turned to him, with a curious and surprised expression trying to know what he is trying to do, as they're not sure why Bryan is helping Josephine who treats him nothing but as an enemy."Bryan, this is none of your concern," Neil said sharply. "I advise you to stay out
"So, are you pitying me?" Bryan asked making Ronald to smile, "not once but thrice, because you'll be one's husband and forever brother to two sisters, I think sister Stacy is also one of them, so not even thrice but four times I pity on you." Bryan rolled his eyes, Mia who glanced at Ronald and Bryan speaking to eachother just frowned, when Ronald looked at her, she immediately turned her face away."Why is she angry with you?" Bryan who observed the fierce reaction of Mia, asked Ronald, but he just lied, "I don't know." At the sametime, Stacy came with a smile, "everything is done, we can go home now." Bryan held Mirabel's hand, "I want to take you home, but this isn't the right time Mira, so...." "Come on prince, did I ever blame you for anything?" Mirabel gently hugged him, "I'll go back to dorm, don't forget to give a call when you reach home." Bryan nodded, she gave a kiss on his forehead, "take medicine well, you need good rest too, don't stress and don't overwork, it's no
"No, this can't be real!" Josephine is stunned to see all the shares she has invested are running in a huge loss, forget about profit, she can't even get the amount she used to invest.Josephine is overconfident about the results and invested more and more not even thinking about the risks she'll be taking.Now finally the time for her to suffer came, as she was left with nothing, even the current mansion is also under mortgage, she is going to loose it completely.Josephine became crazy by the stress and called Stacy multiple times, since Stacy is the one who gave that list to Josephine, but Josephine who was busy with taking care of Bryan didn't even bother to answer Josephine's calls and messages."This bitch!" Josephine clutched her mobile, "why isn't she answering her call? Don't tell me she and Bryan planned this together? No way....that can't happen, I'm sure this must be a mistake, but how am I supposed to solve it? Should I make her get money from Bryan? After all he loves hi
'If you ever tarnish this family’s name again," Mr. Wilson continued, with a cold voice, "I will cut you off entirely from this family, no more money, no more support, no more anything. You’ll be on your own, do you understand me?"Tracy nodded slowly, her lower lip trembling. "I understand," she whispered .Her mother folded her arms, her expression still harsh but slightly softened, as after all Tracy is their only daughter whom they loved and cherished a lot."Good, and as for the Winterwoods, we’ll be distancing ourselves from them for a while. After what you’ve done, I don’t want to see or hear their name in this house," those words from her mother left Tracy to be heartbroken.Tracy’s head shot up, panic flashing in her eyes. "No, please! Don’t do that! I—I’ll fix this! I’ll apologize to Bryan, to everyone, and I'm sure Bryan will believe in me, he'll forgive me, I'm the only friend he had, so give me a chance to apologize to Bryan." "It’s too late for that," Mr. Wilson said fi
The tension in the Wilson household was quite evident, the air thick with anger and disappointment. Tracy sat on the velvet couch in the grand living room, her head bowed, tears streaming down her face. Her parents stood nearby, their expressions a mix of fury and humiliation. The scenes of the disgraceful behaviour of Tracy at the Winterwood party were still fresh in their minds."Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Tracy?" Mr. Wilson, roared, his voice resounding through the room. "You’ve humiliated not only yourself but this entire family! Thanks to you, I can't raise my head and go out in public anymore." Tracy flinched, her hands gripping the edges of her dress tightly. "I didn’t mean to," she began, with a shaking voice, as she isn't sure how things changed from what she originally planned, she wanted to drug Bryan and force him into a relationship with her, but things changed in a different way leaving her as a laughing stock in front of everyone."Didn’t mean to?" Her m
"This is so exhausting, I don't prefer any kind of parties, from now onwards," Nancy said stretching her arms, looking at the guests leaving.Bryan smiled at her, "I thought you're the one who enjoyed it mostly," Nancy glanced at Bryan, ruffling his hair, "I did just as you said, nothing as enjoyment is here, what about you, did you enjoy the party?""I'm totally blown out, my head is heating up," Bryan said, making her chuckle, as all the guests left, Bryan said to John, "Mr. John, I'm tired, can you manage all these, I'll go to my room to get some rest." John nodded his head, "sure young master." With that, all of them returned to their rooms, Bryan closed the door and collapsed on the bed with a sigh.The night was eerily quiet within the Winterwood estate. Bryan laying on the bed, with his thoughts consumed by his earlier conversation with Mr. Hobbes. The revelation about Josephine and her past truly thrilled him, yet his determination to uncover the truth burned brighter than