Chapter 184



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Joseph had been angry after being ignored by Hayden all these days.

After all these years, this was the first time Joseph couldn’t control himself. He knew Hayden was hurting now, and him doing this would cause an irreparable emotional breakdown. But he still couldn’t stop himself.

He was supposed to be sweet and loving to her, but anger had taken over.

Hayden’s eyes were red as he stared at Joseph. Her hands were bruised and her wrists were red and swollen from being pressed by Joseph.

Hayden lost consciousness after a while.

Tears from the corners of her eyes ran down her cheeks, falling into the freezing bathtub.

Joseph became nervous, seeing Hayden’s look of despair.

The rage inside him vanished right then and there.

He was almost lost, and carried her to the bed after a while. He heard a muffled sound as he covered her up. “Is this what you want, are you happy now?”.

He held the blanket and shivered for a second. Then he covered her up to her shoulders.

“Don’t touch me.” Hayden shot Joseph a disgusted look without even looking at him, “Fuck you.”

His face looked bloodless as he gritted his teeth for speech. His whole body was cold. She couldn’t imagine that this man, whom she thought was destined for her, would make her do something like this.

Joseph felt disgruntled and was silent for a while. Finally he left the room without saying anything.

It was irreparable for something like this to happen. The wounds of their relationship would not heal with a few words, as he had been wronged for being too mean. But he couldn’t even say sorry at this point.

The room fell silent as Joseph left.

A dim yellow light was still on when Joseph left. The door to the room was ajar and lights were coming in from outside, making it seem less lonely.

Hayden was heartbroken, and he was in pain. And the pain was like a reminder of Joseph’s cruelty a moment ago.

Since they no longer loved each other, why not let go.

He had made up his mind and planned to leave during the night.

Stella was roused from her sleep by Hayden, rubbing her eyes. She sat up in bed, looking at the familiar figure in the darkness, “Mom.”

“Stella, put your clothes on and come to Mommy.”

Stella was stunned, and asked in a hoarse voice, “Mommy, where are we going?”

“Back home.”

Hayden put Stella’s clothes on and lifted her out of bed. As they were about to leave, she saw someone in the other bed sit up and look at her. He seemed to have sensed her depression, so he behaved himself and kept quiet.

“Noah.” Hayden uttered his name hesitantly, feeling desperate.

If she had custody of Noah, she wouldn’t hesitate to take Noah and abandon the Beckham Family. Then he would go to the U.S. and they would never return to this sad place. But he knew that if he did it now, all his hard work would go down the drain.

Joseph would do anything if he got angry. He couldn’t take any chances with Noah.

He closed his eyes, tears running down his cheeks, and took Stella in.

A hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind her, “Mom.”

The child’s voice sounded hoarse, probably from not speaking for a long time, but it was full of complaint.

As if he was pleading with Hayden to stay.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she went back to the head of the bed.

Noah held her by the sleeves with tear-filled eyes.

Hayden was heartbroken, she looked Noah in the eyes and held back tears, “Noah, listen to Mommy. Mommy will be back to take you, but now is not a good time. If I take you now, your daddy won’t agree. Then I won’t see you again, so you have to be good and trust Mommy, OK? Mommy won’t leave you again.”

Six years ago, she feared that the one who took away her innocence and forced her to give birth knew of Stella’s existence. So she fled abroad and endured the guilt and pain for six long years. Her son, whom she never knew, was always a knot in her heart. And this was the reason she could not leave the city.

Now that she had found him, how could she give up?

She had to take Noah with her, even if she ended up with Joseph.

The small hand on her sleeves finally loosened. Noah sniffed and rolled over, burying himself in the comforter. Sobs were coming from him and Hayden was distraught.

He didn’t dare stay any longer and hurried away with Stella in his arms.

It was late afternoon and the Beckham mansion was located in a remote area. It was difficult to get a cab, so Hayden loaded Stella and headed down the road. The sky was very cloudy, it looked like it was going to rain very soon.

Stella’s voice sounded from behind him, “Mommy, Noah looked so sad, why are we leaving?”

“Because this isn’t our house.”

“Mommy broke up with Joseph?”.

“Yes.”

It was the first time Hayden had confronted her emotional issues in front of her daughter.

She used to think her daughter was still young and didn’t talk to her about these issues. But she realized that the girl was even more sensible than she thought.

No one had told the children that the Sanchezes wanted to join the Beckhams, but they had noticed.

“Will Stella be sad if Mom breaks up with Joseph?”

“A little bit.” Stella was lying on Hayden’s back and sighed, “I’m sad too because Mom isn’t happy. If I knew Joseph would make Mom sad, I wouldn’t want you to be with him.”

“Is that so?” Hayden sketched a wry smile, unsure whether to be relieved or harsh.

Stella called out to her suddenly after walking down the road for a while, “Mommy!”.

“What’s wrong?”

“How about going back to Daddy? Even though Daddy isn’t always home, he buys you a lot of things when he comes back, and he’s really nice to me, too.”

Hayden frowned and was silent for a moment after hearing this, “Stella, you’re all grown up now. Mommy wants to tell you something. But first you have to trust Mommy that I will always love you no matter what.”

“What’s that about?”

“Do you still remember Mommy telling you that you have a twin brother?”. Stella was speechless.

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