The afternoon rays of sunshine shone into the room through the opened curtains and woke Essie from
her sleep.
She yelped. She felt dizzy and her bones felt as if they had been torn off her and re-installed and they
were in danger of falling apart any time.
She opened her eyes in a daze and saw a handsome face beside her.
"You're awake." The man rested his head on one of his hands and looked at her with a playful
expression. There was laziness and satisfaction in his eyes.
"When did you come back?" Essie was a little surprised. Wasn't he planning on ignoring her? Why did
he come to her again?
"Honey, why do you always snap at a critical moment?"
The coldness from his fingers gave Essie a chill. She took a look at her body under the quilt quickly.
Oh my God! She was...
"Zac, you... You..." She felt both annoyed and ashamed at the same time. Suddenly her face was
covered with a burning sensation and she buried her head into the quilt like a snail. Then, she said,
"Zac, you took advantage of me again!"
"Honey, it was you who took the initiative last night," said the man lazily in a low and deep voice.
"Nonsense, impossible." It was obvious that he seduced her while she was drunk.
With a vicious smile, Zac reached out his big hand to caress her head. "Honey, you were drunk. You
might remember it after thinking about it hard."
"I don't want to remember it. It's better to bury the memory for the rest of my life." She turned her head
angrily only to hear her stomach growl, and she realized that she hadn't eaten anything since last night.
A servant brought her lunch. It included black chicken soup, braised beef in soy sauce, and white
spareribs. All of them were her favorite foods.
She was absolutely starving, so she ravished her food like a beast.
"Honey, eat slowly. You might choke." The man beside her courteously served her some food.
"Aren't you going to eat something?" She pouted. Why did he always look so energetic and full of blood
vitality?
"I'll eat after you finish eating." He smiled, and his eyes filled up with love.
Essie didn't care about anything but her food anymore. She didn't even care about eating in a prim and
proper way. She never had to keep a good image in front of him anyway.
"Honey, did you miss me very much while I was away?" he said lightly when she finished her last bite.
Essie choked at his words, so she quickly picked up the soup and took a sip.
"Don't think too much of yourself. You are always harassing me and squeezing me. Without you, I can
do whatever I want in bed and get out whenever I want, so I always have a very good sleep."
"Really?" He frowned and asked, "Then why did you get drunk last night?"
"I... I didn't mean for it to happen. I heard from you that the wine from France is the best, so I just
wanted to try it. It tasted really good, so I ended up drinking a little too much. I got drunk because of my
carelessness," Essie explained haltingly. She didn't miss him at all. She didn't even have a single trace
of love for him at all. She had just become a little dependent on him. That was why whenever he wasn't
around, she felt a little uncomfortable.
"Then why did you say that I am yours and that I can't be with other women?" Zac touched his chin and
looked at her with deep and sharp eyes, as if he could see right through her with a single glance.
She quickly lowered her eyes, letting her long eyelashes cover her flickering eyes. When she heard
him mention being with someone else, she suddenly got very angry.
"You demanded me to keep my chastity and self-discipline. Shouldn't you do the same?"
He leaned against the headboard of the bed and put his hands on the back of his head. Then, with a
playful smile on his face, he said, "I was only following your words. You gave me the green light and
told me to look for another woman."
Essie felt upset. 'When I asked you to find another woman, you did it. So if I wanted you to break
everything off with Leila, would you do it, too?' thought she inwardly.
Upon seeing that Essie was quiet, Zac raised his finger and tilted her chin up to face him. "Don't worry,
honey. If you are always as enthusiastic as you were last night, I might consider keeping my integrity
for you."
"You're such a bastard! You pervert!" She hit him on the shoulder. She would never give him another
chance to get close to her.
He took a lock of her hair behind her neck and played with it with great interest as the smile at the
corners of his mouth deepened.
He was loving this game of cat and mouse more and more.
But he had to control himself and be careful not to become the mouse.
In the afternoon, Mary called them and asked them to go to the family home.
Essie's intuition told her that another storm was about to come.
And as soon as they entered the living room, she immediately saw Elizabeth and Valery.
In her mind, Essie sneered again. She had been mentally preparing herself for whatever may come
since Holy told her that Mary had gone to see Elizabeth. She wanted to see what they had up their
sleeves today.
After Essie took a seat with Zac, Mary opened her mouth to speak at once. "Zac, Essie, there is
something I wanted to tell you. I've asked Valery to live here."
Essie rolled her dark eyes again.
When Mrs. Vicki brought Elizabeth and her children to the manor, the house turned into a total mess.
Fortunately, she and Zac didn't live there. Valery was definitely playing a one-sided game, and she
couldn't affect Essie's mood.
However, Zac didn't even take it seriously. "It doesn't matter to me. You are the boss here. It's up to
you," he said with an indifferent tone.
Mary nodded her head and winked at Elizabeth. Elizabeth sighed heavily and said, "Over the past few
days, Valery has been figuring things out at home. She no longer holds any grudge against you from
being gossiped about by outsiders. She just wants to live a good life with you. You're the only one she
loves, and she is pregnant with your child. She will be yours for the rest of her life. She won't even
marry another man. As long as Essie stops making things difficult for her, she and Essie will get along
well."
Now that Zac had announced the news of their marriage, it was impossible to get him and Essie to
divorce and make him marry her daughter. This was all she could do now to make any progress. She
wanted her daughter to improve her fighting skills and improve herself, so she could grind Essie down
once the opportunity arose, just like she did to Luce fifty years ago.
Zac flashed a mocking smile at her. "Aunt, Valery is still the daughter of a rich family. Why do you have
to disgrace yourselves for no reason?"
Valery responded to him tearfully, "Because I love you! I can't love anyone for the rest of my life except
for you. Even if I can't be your wife, I'd be satisfied to be the mommy of your child. All I want is to stay
with you. I don't care about anything else. I will no longer fight for you or steal you from Essie. If you
can't even agree to this small request, my child and I would rather die. What would be the point of
living?"
She whimpered over the lines that her mother had made up for her. In her heart, she hated saying all of
that so much that she just had to grit her teeth. What she really wanted was to rip off Essie's skin, pull
out her tendons, and drain her blood. 'I won't let Essie lead a comfortable life in the family. I must
destroy her and take back my position,' Valery said in her heart.
Mary patted her hand and tried to comfort her with a soft voice. "Don't cry. Crying during pregnancy is
bad for the baby."
She had always treated Valery as her own daughter, and now that she was pregnant with her
grandson, she had gotten even fonder of Valery. On the other hand, she didn't have a good impression
of Essie. She was even disgusted with her. She had been disgusted with her from the first moment she
saw her.
She didn't like the way she looked, and just as Elizabeth had said, she knew that girl was going to bring
them bad luck.
In Mary's heart, Essie was the real other woman who was standing in the way of her son and Valery's
relationship. She was sabotaging their relationship and forcing her precious grandson to become an
illegitimate child before he could even be born.
Zac looked at Valery coldly and said, "If that's the choice you want to make, then I have nothing to say.
But please keep in mind that Essie is the only one who can be my wife, not anyone else."
The corners of Valery's mouth twitched, but she managed to hold back the anger in her heart. She
gritted her teeth and managed to squeeze out a few words, "I know." She kept her mother's advice that
haste makes waste in mind. Her mother was able to defeat Luce and become Mrs. Elizabeth, and so
would she.
A small smile appeared on Mary's face when she heard her son agree to Valery's request. She didn't
care about what he said after that. Right now, Valery, as a pregnant woman, was still very weak, but
after the baby was born, she could fight back. Moreover, when that happened, Zac would stop giving
Essie all the attention and instead focus on the baby. Valery could use that to get Zac's love.
She turned to Essie and said, "Essie, I hope you can get along well with her. Although you're Zac's
wife, Valery is still the mother of Zac's child. You're in the same position."
Essie sneered in her heart at her mother-in-law's words.
There was a world of difference among people. Some mothers-in-law would do everything to help their
son and daughter-in-law fix their marriage if they quarreled with each other. Meanwhile, other moms
would do everything to cause trouble in her son's marriage for fear that he and his wife would live a
peaceful life together for the rest of their lives.
Mary was exactly like the latter. As Zac's mother, she thought she knew her son better than others, but
in hindsight, she didn't actually know her son at all, and she was just doing whatever she wanted.
Maybe it didn't matter as Zac wasn't her husband. If she had the chance, she would ask Minny to come
back home and take care of her father-in-law. But would Mary be able to stand having Minny in the
same position as her?
With an arm around Essie's shoulders, Zac looked at Mary and said, "Mommy, you are the head of the
family here, but in my home, Essie is the hostess. She knows what she has to do. You don't need to
worry about it."
Mary's face turned pale. Apparently, she was just an outsider in her own son's eyes. It would have
been better if he had married Valery, but now he had chosen to marry Essie. He had even abandoned
the family and left it in shambles. If she didn't get involved, things would get even more out of control.
Seeing her helpless expression, Elizabeth couldn't help but frown.
If only Zac were a man who would listen to every word his mother said as Baron did, they wouldn't
have much trouble getting him to marry Valery.
Now, she needed to think of a way to deal with Essie. Back then, she worked so hard and plotted very
hard to get her daughter pregnant. If she could get her daughter pregnant, then she wasn't going to let
anyone take Zac away from her daughter.
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