Last year, when Estre had called him, he distinctly remembered the moment. He was in the middle of
a meeting and had asked Drew to call her back. She said it was nothing. Then he had to leave on a
business trip.
Seeing Jason’s face turn sour, Jesse nced at Estre and said, “Estre, you should get some rest.
I’ll swing byter to check on you.
The moment Jesse left, Estre faced Jason’s icy silence with her usual grace. “Come on, lighten up.
With a low-maintenance wife like me, you should be counting your blessings.”
She added, “Buty off the small talk about Jesse. There’s a lot you don’t know, and you’re just picking
at her scars by bringing it up.” Strangers had no right to speak of it, and even less so the man by her
side.
Estre’s nonchnce was met with Jason’s hand suddenly gripping the back of her neck, pulling her
close, “Estre, do you even care at all?” As he looked down at her, considering her stubborn nature-
how she would learn from her mistakes and never make them again-Jason felt a twinge of fear. He
worried that one day he might be the obstacle she chose to avoid.
At his question, Estre chuckled, “How could live if I didn’t care?” She then scolded him yfully,
“Here I am, sick, and you came empty-handed, only to give me attitude. Shame on you, Jason.”
With a few teasing words, Jason slowly let go of her neck. His hand gently caressed her face as he
asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about something so big?”
Any other woman would have held onto it, brought it up time and again, but Estre never mentioned it,
not even once.
Wearing her hospital gown with its simple stripes, she shrugged it off with a smile, “It’s all in the past,
and I wasn’t really hurt.”
The more she downyed it, the more Jason felt a thorn in his side. No matter their rtionship’s
strains, he was still her husband,
Estre tried to remove his hand from her face but Jason pulled her closer, causing her to stumble
slightly into his embrace.
As she looked into his eyes, which seemed to hold a deep affection, she wrapped her arms around his
neck and teased, “Figured it out, have you? Ready to have kids?”
Jason retorted, “Is that all you think about?”
Estre, on her tiptoes, nudged his forehead with hers, coaxing, “Let’s have one. Life’s so dull
otherwise.”
Jason insisted, “No kids.” She was still naive like a child herself, her heart a maze yet to be
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deciphered.
“Jason.”
“Mhm?”
Their moment of intimacy was abruptly interrupted as the door swung open and Kristin’s voice burst in,
“Estre, how on earth did you get sick?”
In the room, they quickly let go of each other.
At the doorway, Kristin paused, looking puzzled. After a moment, she asked uncertainly, “Are you two
fighting or being affectionate?”
Estre didn’t respond but instead asked, “Kristin, you came to see me?”
Her question made Kristin forget her own, and she replied, “I rushed over as soon as Bryce told me you
were ill.”
Estre reassured her, “It’s just food poisoning. A couple of days on IVs and I’ll be fine.”
Just as she finished speaking, a nurse came in with her medication.
Kristin sat by the bed, chatting with Estre, while Jason busied himself peeling fruit for them. As they
talked, Estre dozed off on the bed..
Kristin said with a touch of concern, “She’s lost weight from the sickness.”
Then she turned to Jason, “Jason, transfer that Serene girl out of here, as far from Ravenwood as
possible.”
Jason handed her a slice of orange, “There’s nothing between Serene and me, Mom. Why can’t you let
it go?”
“I don’t have an issue with Serene. I’m just afraid Estre might feel upset or ufortable, and I don’t
want her to suffer. Put yourself in her shoes. If Korey came back and hovered around her all the time,
would you like that?”
The mention of Korey visibly changed Jason’s expression. He stuffed the half-eaten.
orange
slice into his mouth and looked back at Estre on the bed.
Kristin whispered, “Now that you’re married to Estre, you should keep your distance from other
women. And let me tell you, son, that Serene isn’t as simple as she seems. Don’t be fooled by her.” In
Kristin’s eyes, no girl could hold a candle to Estre.
Jason responded tly, “I don’t have those feelings for her.”
“Then why can’t you bear to transfer her away? Andst time, I asked Estre to give her a check.
She actually refused it. Estre was right to say that my advice was pushing her towards trouble. Now I
think I underestimated that Serene girl.”
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Jason suddenly turned to Kristin. “Was it you who told Estre to give the check to Serene?”
He thought Estre wouldn’t do that. He assumed she was purposely trying to annoy him, but, it turned
out to be his mother’s idea.
What made him more upset was that while he threw the check back at her, she never mentioned his
mother.
There were many times when Jason would rather have Estre argue with him, like any other woman.
It would make him feel a bit better.
She was always so generous, and it only made him feel irrelevant.
Kristin replied, “Yeah, that was my own private money.”
As Kristin rambled on, Jason’s thoughts drifted elsewhere.
Estre blinked awake as the midday sun streamed through the window, only to find that Kristin had
already left. Jason, however, was still there, lingering in the room.
With her arm thrown over her forehead like a makeshift visor, Estre squinted up at him and drawled,
“Aren’t you busy today?”
It wat genuine surprise. Jason always seemed to be caught up in a whirlwind of tasks mitments, his
schedule as packed as a subway train during rush hour.
ар
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today,”
replied nonchntly, then with a hint of curiosity, he cocked his head Tha eck for Serene, it’s from
Mom, right? Why didn’t you tell me?”
in answer, Jason’s mind drifted back to that recent conversation. y imed that with twenty million in
hand, she could easily have up their divorce papers.
sa sincere sentiment or a joke, Jason was unsure.
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