"Your half-brother?" Nina asked.

"Yeah." Luca did not know what to say, so she decided to use Amur as an excuse.

"To be honest, I envy you a lot. You and your brother are not related by blood but you're so close. Even those who are related by blood may not have as deep a relationship as the two of you," Nina sighed.

Luca knew that she was lamenting about her relationship with Jean. Their relationship was worse than those who were unrelated.

"What did your brother do?" Luca asked. She had been busy with a lot of things in the last couple of weeks. Since Percy had sorted out most of Nina's issues, Luca had not been checking in on her.

After her loud sigh, Luca remembered that Nina had problems with her relationship and family.

Especially with Jean.

"Jean? All he does is think of new ways to ask me for money." Nina sounded helpless as she said, "Since he couldn't get the money from me, he'd go ask Percy for it. I told Percy to not give him a single cent, so he has no choice but to ask my mother now."

"Did he succeed?" Luca knew that Anna was still in the hospital.

"Yeah, he did. If he cries in front of her a few more times, my mother will probably be willing to give her life for him. The medical expenses I set aside were all taken out by my mother and given to him. Do you know what happened next? There's no money in the account to be debited, so the hospital called me." Nina chuckled. There would never be a solution to the problems in her family unless Anna decided to be ruthless and ignored Jean.

"I assume that you've stopped depositing money into that account now, right?" Luca asked.

Nina put the cleaned bowls aside and started to tidy up the cutleries. "No, but I've gotten smarter. I don't deposit too much at a time, and I told the hospital that only I can touch the money in the account. That way, my mother will run out of money for him to squander."

"That's smart," Luca said. There would be no good ending to Anna spoiling Jean like that.

Jean was a terrible man. He worked with Pierre to kidnap Nina and even went as far as to take the money meant to save Anna's life.

It was as if the two of them owed it to him...

"Things aren't great, but they're not terrible either. Jean will still find opportunities to bother me. Since Percy and I have gotten back together, he seems to think that Percy will also support him for the rest of his life. I've told Percy that no one is allowed to help. Since he can't get any money from Percy, he's just causing trouble every day. It's so annoying." Nina washed the cutleries and put them aside.

"You have to be careful with him. He worked with Pierre to kidnap you before. He might do it again." Luca reminded her.

"I know. I don't think that Pierre has the time to bother me, though. I heard that he's busy dealing with the mess he created. From what Percy told me, the illegal things he did have caught the eye of relevant government bodies. He's being investigated. He's too busy to even take care of himself, so he probably won't have time to trouble me and deal with Jean." Nina said. Pierre had not been doing well. Otherwise, her life would not be so peaceful now.

"The Mallory family won't give up on Pierre. His problems will be solved sooner or later. You must protect yourself." Luca reminded her.

Although Abel agreed to hassle Pierre, he had yet to make a move. She could not figure him out.

"Don't worry, I'll protect myself. I'm even thinking about learning some self-defense techniques," Nina said happily. She watched as Luca added salt to the soup while she counted the corresponding soup bowls and cleaned them.

"It may be a little late for you to learn them now. You should just listen to Mr. Mallory," Luca said cheekily. She was happy to see a confident and optimistic Nina.

Nevertheless, no one could gain self-defense skills overnight.

She used to learn fighting skills from Rain. Back then, she thought that she could train and protect herself so that Luke would not have to worry.

However, after the three years she went through on the Island of Despair, she realized that these skills were not something that could be accomplished overnight.

It took her three years to get to where she was, and she paid a huge price for it.

"You're speaking as though he can protect me." Nina stuck out her tongue.

Luca plated the last dish. "I can't guarantee anything, but I do believe that if he can't protect you, no one can."

"It's not that many want to hurt me. I'm just unlucky. I pissed off someone I shouldn't have, which led me to my current situation. I'm just an ordinary person. I'm so ordinary that no one bothers me when I walk on the streets." Nina sighed, then picked up the washed bowls and walked out of the kitchen.

'Who's not an ordinary person?'

Luca thought to herself. If it were not for Luke, she would be like an ordinary person too, striving helplessly toward the goal of establishing herself in A City.

Her days would be repetitive. Original from .

Instead, she was in a situation where she did not know what she would encounter next.

Luca sighed. She quickly concealed her feelings and took out the dishes.

After dinner, Luca saw that it was still early, so she guided the children to finish their homework. She then imitated Luke's signature as it was required.

Nina watched from the side and could not help but sigh in her heart.

Bianca had never done anything like this for her children since she lost her memory.

At that moment, Luca was more like their mother than Bianca.

Nina sighed once more when she saw how the kids surrounded Luca. 'Things might be better if Luca, not Bianca, is their mother...'

When Bianca first lost her memory, she often visited Crawford Manor.

She noticed that the kids would want to get close to their mother, but often, they were scared off by Bianca's resistance. They could only watch her dully.

In comparison, the three children surrounded Luca like they would with their mother. It was a heartwarming scene.

After Luca was done, she glanced at the time and said to Nina, "I'm going out in a while. Thanks for taking care of the kids."

"Don't worry, I'll watch them closely and put them to bed at half-past ten. Go do what you need to." Nina assured her.

Luca nodded and went upstairs to change.

The clothes she was wearing were inappropriate. They hindered the movement of her arms and legs.

Luca changed into all-black casual clothes and put on a thick coat, scarf, and gloves. She then went downstairs with a briefcase in her hand.

Nina saw her, nodded, and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I'll be here waiting for you to come back."

"Okay." Luca glanced at the children and turned around to leave.