Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 242

Regarding the issue of whether writing a self-criticism was a punishment for Payne or Ivan, Mr. Hernandez’s answer was, “It’s for both of them. If they stick together, they might cause me a lot of trouble in the future.”

“Only a real dad like you would say something like that.” Julie Abraham gently ran her fingers over a piano, the black and white keys beautifully pure. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“Feels like I haven’t heard you play since you graduated from college.” She could still recall his figure playing the piano, wearing a black tuxedo, thick hair, slender fingers stroking the black and white keys, the melodious sound still resounding in her mind.

She reminisced and laughed, “Did we buy this piano after we divorced?”

She remembered this room used to be empty.

He said, “It was bought by Bertha after our divorce, along with this.”

He picked up a sheet of music and passed it to her. Julie took it, it was the familiar Greensleeves from their memories.

“I told you, after our divorce, Daphne made a scene at our house. I got that video back under the pretext of donating to the school. I watched that video a lot during the time right after our divorce. Ivan was only one year old then, I often held him and slept in the media room.”

He was reminiscing, wanting to tell her about what had happened in the past, even if they hadn’t experienced their child’s growth together, at least their memories wouldn’t be so barren.

Julie sat in the chair, her fingers lightly resting on the keys. She didn’t press down, instead she looked up at him and asked, “So you bought this piano, has Ivan been surrounded by the sound of piano since he was a kid?”

“This piano was bought by Bertha.” He said honestly, “In fact, I never played it once, but it was always in this room, I often came in and sat.”

Julie didn’t ask any more, she just smiled and said, “Then let me stay here quietly today? This ring is in the small box on the dressing table, give it to Payne!”

The reason she called Payne over was for that ring. If there was indeed a secret in the ring, then Payne might be the only one who could unravel it.

Although the ring was valuable and it was possible that bad guys could track and threaten for it, the ring was bought at an auction by a mysterious buyer.

The actual buyer was also Kyle’s, there was no reason a bad guy would know the ring was in their hands in such a short time after the auction, so Julie thought it was likely because there was a secret in the ring, and this time, Kieran Hernandez also thought her guess made sense.

Kieran said, even if the criminal kidnapped her it wasn’t necessarily because there was a secret hidden in the ring, it couldn’t be denied that the ring had caught the criminal’s attention.

So, in any case, it was safer to leave the ring with Payne than in the villa.

Julie wanted to be alone in the room for a while, Kieran didn’t stop her, he just gently patted her shoulder and then turned and left.

Before long, footsteps were heard at the door. Julie thought it was Kieran, so she didn’t turn around.

But, she heard Hayden Simson’s voice behind her, “Why did you stop playing?”

Julie turned around and was surprised to see Hayden leaning against the door. She was very surprised, stood up and looked at Hayden, “Hayden? Why are you

here?”

She clearly didn’t expect Hayden to come at this time.

“I need to see Kerry.” He said.

“He should be in the study with Payne.” Julie always maintained a respectful attitude towards Hayden and kept her distance.

Hayden nodded and said, “Mhm, I know.”

**

He didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving, so Julie had to politely invite him in, “Hayden, would you like to come in and sit for a while?”

He walked straight into the piano room, then stood next to her, he reached out and touched the piano, “I-bought this piano.”

Julie was a little stunned, she just realized, didn’t Kieran just say the piano was a gift from Bertha?

She looked at Hayden with confusion.

Knowing she had misunderstood, Hayden explained, “Bertha asked me to buy it, it’s her gift. She knew she had sacrificed the love between you and Kieran, and she felt guilty.”

The past was the past. Even if they regretted it now, it wouldn’t mean anything.

Julie smiled faintly, just looking at the sheet music.

Unexpectedly, Hayden suddenly asked, “Do you blame him?”

She was totally unprepared for Hayden to ask her such a question, this was certainly not his usual style.

So Julie was stunned on the spot.

“Hard to answer? Never mind then.” He said.

Julie quickly shook her head and explained, “It’s not hard to answer, I’m just surprised, you’d ask me such a question…”

Hayden looked a little embarrassed, but he softly said, “You don’t have to answer.”

He asked the question, and then said she didn’t have to answer, wasn’t that redundant?

Julie spoke honestly, “Of course I blame him, if he didn’t hide things from me back then, would there be so many problems?”

Before Julie could finish, Hayden suddenly said, “I think what Kerry did was absolutely right. Back then, Lucian’s whereabouts were unknown, if he hurt you behind everyone’s back, Kerry wouldn’t have been able to prevent it. Now that Lucian’s whereabouts are traceable, the child is growing up safely, you’re living well, Kerry’s abilities are gradually increasing, he’s at least capable of protecting you and the child. Why are you still blaming him?”

Julle swore this was the most she had ever heard Hayden speak since she met him.

Listening to his fluent words, Julie almost doubted if the Hayden in front of her was possessed by someone else.

And his strong defense for Kieran made her feel like he was defending himself.

Julie gave Hayden a suspicious look, she mustered up the courage and asked him with a frown, “Hayden, are you okay?”

“No worries.” He might have realized that he had said too much, and he turned around and left right away.

Julie was standing alone in front of the piano, feeling like everything that just happened was a hallucination.

Julie rushed out, but saw Hayden and Payne getting ready to leave Noblewood Retreat.

“Hayden is leaving now?” Julie walked up to Kieran and asked as she looked at him.

Kieran glanced in the direction of Hayden, and somewhat surprisingly turned to look at Julie, “You want him to stay over?”

Julie shook her head, replying, “No, I feel like Hayden has been acting weird lately. He just said some nonsense to me!”

“What did he say?” Kieran wrapped his arm around Julie’s waist and asked.

Julie roughly repeated what Hayden had said. Even though she felt what Hayden had said made sense, but…

“The way Hayden was talking just now, it didn’t seem like he was defending you, but more like he was defending himself. I wonder, does Hayden have something he’s too embarrassed to talk about?” Julie looked at Kieran curiously.

Kieran thought seriously for a few seconds, then said gravely, “He might be asexual.”

Although Julie was somewhat naive, she could tell there seemed to be some past between Hayden and Julien that they couldn’t talk about. So she looked up at Kieran and said, “All asexual people in the world just haven’t met the right person.”

“Then when you have time, ask Julien if he helped Hayden solve any problems last time he got drunk,” he said.

As soon as this was mentioned, Julie suddenly slapped her forehead and woke up, “Oh god, I was going to call Daphne!”

After saying this, she rushed to the phone like the wind, and then took out her own cell phone and handed it to Kieran, “Honey, help me charge up my phone!”

Then she dialed Daphne’s number.

The phone rang for a while before the other party picked up. But even though the call had been picked up, nobody spoke.

“Mrs. Hernandez, there’s a problem with this call, you need to turn on the speaker to hear the other person’s voice.” Shannon poked her head out of the kitchen and

said.

Julie quickly hit the speaker, “Daphne, it’s me, how are you?”

Upon hearing Julie’s voice, Daphne obviously breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh my god, you scared me.”

“What happened? What’s wrong?” Julie asked.

“I’m in Machu Picchu!” Daphne said, “Oh my god, I just found out that pregnancy can cause air sickness. You know? The baby in my stomach nearly killed me.”

Julie was shocked, “How did you end up in Machu Picchu?”

“I told you before, right? Lionel was going to tell my parents about my pregnancy at my house. To avoid this, I arranged for Mrs. Flores and my dad to go on a trip together. I thought, since my parents are not at home, I’m not comfortable staying home alone, so I also came along.” Daphne said.

Julie asked, “What about your work?”

Daphne replied, “You know what, I didn’t expect our editor-in-chief to be so understanding. I told her I needed to go home for a surgery, and she gave me a one-and-a-half-month leave. Although I don’t have a salary during this period, I’m already very satisfied.”

Daphne was gushing over the phone about the beautiful scenery of Machu Picchu. She also said that her parents left her alone in the hotel and went out to enjoy life, and she was now surfing the internet alone in the hotel.

Julie told Daphne, “I think running away is not a long-term solution. If Lionel wants to find you, he can find you quickly, right? If he can’t find you today, he’ll still find you tomorrow.”

Daphne replied, “You’re right, I’m the kind of person who’s happy if I can think about today’s problems. As for other things, I’ll talk about them tomorrow.”

Julie thought for a moment, “That’s true.”

“Honey, Lionel is looking for you.” Kieran suddenly appeared beside Julie, and he was shaking her cell phone in front of her.

“Oh my God!” Daphne on the other end of the phone immediately hung up.