Chapter 9
Ha.
Apparently, she needed another lesson before she remembered anything.
“Then I’ll go back to work.”
At four that afternoon, Audrey slipped out early.
She drove her two-door electric car, the one covered completely in strawberry decals, straight to the kindergarten.
She and Little Bean had won that EV in a supermarket raffle a year ago. Ridiculous luck. After that, Audrey had gone to get her license. Little Bean loved strawberries, so Audrey covered the entire car with them. It looked like a giant strawberry on wheels.
Elsewhere, Phoenix had just left for a signing ceremony. His black Rolls-Royce was stopped at a red light when Audrey’s giant strawberry pulled up beside it.
“Huh. Isn’t that Ms. Mitchell?” Mr. Wade said. “That car wrap is definitely… personal.”
The window lowered. Phoenix’s expression darkened.
She had insisted on taking one hour off that morning.
It wasn’t even closing time yet. Was she in that much of a hurry to go on a date?
That desperate?
The light turned green. The little car rolled forward slowly, then turned left while signaling right.
Phoenix: “…”
That maneuver made his already grim face even darker.
“Skip the signing ceremony. Follow her.”
Back then, he had left her all his assets. How had she ended up living like this? A cheap little car. Clothes that weren’t designer. Tsk.
The Rolls followed Audrey all the way to a private kindergarten.
Phoenix’s expression jolted.
What was she doing at a kindergarten?
His composure began to crack.
A moment later, he saw Audrey pick up a little girl at the entrance and kiss her cheek.
They looked extremely close.
This was… his child?
Excitement shook through him until even his breathing turned unstable.
“Daddy. Handsome Daddy,” the little girl suddenly called out twice.
Audrey turned her head and saw Phoenix standing behind her.
Her brain went blank with a violent buzz.
Why was he here?
“Audrey Mitchell, did you secretly give birth to my child?”
Phoenix’s aura sank chillingly low as he stared at the little girl’s delicate face, her dark berry eyes, her snow-white skin. She was beautiful enough to look like a porcelain doll.
Genes like that.
If they weren’t his, whose could they be?
“Ha. Keep dreaming.”
Audrey’s words shoved him straight into emotional Siberia.
She pressed down her panic and asked the little girl in her arms with perfect seriousness, “Tell me. Why did you call him Daddy?”
Little Bean answered solemnly, “Grandma Alina taught me. If he’s super handsome, call him Daddy. If he’s regular handsome, call him Uncle. If he’s not handsome, call him Big Bro.”
Her mother had trained this child into a tiny menace.
“Then why don’t you call me something? I worked so hard to pick you up.”
“Sis, Sis smells so good today.” The little girl’s mouth was sweet as candy. She kissed Audrey’s cheek.
Audrey finally looked back and explained with utter composure.
“Mr. Castillo, Little Bean was a child my mother took in. Her paperwork is all under my mother’s name, so she calls me Sis.”
“If you like children, you’re welcome to have one with someone else.”
Phoenix had thought she had given birth to a child for him.
For a moment, he was so choked that he couldn’t even fire back.
“I’ll take her home first. Suit yourself.” Audrey took two steps, then turned back and tossed him one more line.
“Following people is a very uncivilized habit.”
She carefully placed the child in the seat, buckled her seat belt, and drove off in the little strawberry car.
Phoenix’s expression turned storm-dark.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Investigate Audrey Mitchell’s romantic history over the past four years. Check whether she has any hospital records for childbirth.”
Audrey watched his figure in the rearview mirror and let out a heavy breath.
Thank God her mother had been farsighted. Afraid the child would become a burden on Audrey, Alina had used Audrey’s uncle’s connections to register the child under Alina’s name. She had also taught Little Bean that outside the family, she could only call Audrey Sis.
At first, Audrey had hated it.
Later, she got used to it.
She never expected it to save her today.
Even if she died, she could not let Phoenix Castillo take the child from her.
Back then, after Phoenix left, the Roberts family had driven Audrey and her mother out of Westbrook. They had almost dug up her father’s grave.
She and her mother went to a remote town. In a field beside that town, Audrey gave birth to Little Bean.
She hemorrhaged badly. The bleeding wouldn’t stop. She had come within a step of death.
The town’s clinic was under-equipped and barely connected to the outside. The blood bank didn’t have enough blood. If they drove to the city, it would take two hours, and in her condition, that meant certain death.
Someone said there was a retired trauma doctor living up in the mountains, known for handling desperate emergencies. Her mother ran up the mountain in the rain to beg for help. When she came back, she was covered in mud and wounds, with no telling how many times she had fallen.
At the time, Audrey’s hands were full of blood, clutching Phoenix’s agate bracelet.
Where had he been then?
Probably having the time of his life with Brooklyn Roberts.
Later, thanks to that physician’s emergency treatment, the bleeding stopped, and Audrey clawed her way back from the edge.
The half of the bracelet that had once been white had turned red.
Now the entire bracelet was red.
It could never return to what it had been.
Thinking of it all, her vision blurred.
“Mommy, can that handsome uncle be my daddy?” Little Bean suddenly asked.
When no one else was around, Little Bean called her Mommy.
“No,” Audrey said icily.
“What a shame.” Little Bean pouted. He was the handsomest uncle she had ever seen.
…
Audrey took Little Bean to a restaurant in a mall, where Skylar Campbell was already waiting.
Holding Little Bean’s hand, Audrey turned into the Western restaurant on the third floor.
By the window, a woman in a red slip dress was stirring the coffee in front of her with world-class boredom. Her curls fell lazily over her shoulders, her gaze bold and vivid.
Audrey’s best friend, Skylar Campbell.
Little Bean’s eyes lit up. She broke free of Audrey’s hand and charged over.
“Hi, Aunt Sky!”
Skylar instantly put away that boneless lounge-lizard posture. Her whole face burst into a smile as she scooped Little Bean into her arms.
“Oh, my sweet baby.”
She pinched Little Bean’s chubby cheek, then produced several gift bags from behind her back like a magician with better eyeliner.
“I brought you so many presents.”
