Queenie rose from her dressing table chair after she watched Jack enter the washroom and close the door. She glanced at the door, then turned around. Her gaze fell on the charging phone on the bedside table.

Leia told her that Jack must be hiding something from her when he hid from her to pick up the call earlier.

Queenie was not worried that Jack might be having an affair. They had been a couple for so many years, so she knew what kind of person Jack was. She was sure that he was not that kind of person.

She was just worried that Jack was hiding Bianca's matter from her. Têxt © .

Queenie took a deep breath. She decided to walk toward the bedside table and pick up Jack's phone.

Queenie tapped on the phone's screen. She needed the passcode to unlock Jack's phone, and she knew his passcode. She glanced in the direction of the washroom and chose to key in the passcode. After that, she opened his messages. The chat conversation pinned on top was with her.

Queenie continued to scroll down. Other than the office group chats, the latest message was from Luke.

She tapped on the message with trembling hands. Luke had replied to him: [Alright, Father-in-law.]

Queenie scrolled up, but those were the old messages. She quickly went through the char records but did not find out anything related to Bianca. The messages were mostly about work, as well as some conversations with the seniors and juniors.

Some of them were the audio messages sent by the kids using Luke's phone.

The sound of the running water in the bathroom became softer. Queenie quickly returned to the home screen and continued to charge the phone.

Queenie waited until Jack came out of the bathroom. She looked up and said innocently, “Dear, your phone rang just now. I was curious, so I picked it up and took a look at it."

Jack remained calm when he noticed there were not many changes in Queenie's expression. "Whose message was that?"

"It was Luke's. I opened the chat knowing it was Luke. What did you tell him? Why did he reply to you with just an 'alright'?" Queenie asked. The messages that had been read would not appear in the notifications again. That was why she needed to look for an excuse to tell Jack that she had opened Luke's message. She also wanted to take the chance to see if the two were keeping secrets from her.

"Oh, I called him but he didn't answer the call. So I left him a voicemail telling him that you're missing Bea. I reminded him to ask Bea to give you a call and have a chat with you to cheer you up when he's able to contact her." Jack had been working in the officialdom for more than ten years. It was easy for

him to make up a story.

He did not intend to lie to Queenie, but it was better for her this way.

“I see." Queenie nodded and apologized, “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to look at your phone. I just happened to see it—"

"It's alright. We've been a couple for years. There's nothing on my phone that I wish to hide from you. You can look at it anytime you want." Jack knew what Queenie was thinking, but he did not expose her.

He reckoned that Queenie must have opened his messages. Otherwise, she would not have noticed Luke's message.

Queenie was not dumb either. After all, she had been in the corrupted environment of the entertainment industry back then. Even though she had protected herself well all these years, she still knew a lot of things.

“I'm tired. I'm going to rest first." Queenie let out a sigh when Jack did not blame her for looking at his phone. She would not have done this if it had not been for Leia encouraging her to do so.

Queenie lay down on the bed and tucked herself in. She closed her eyes so that Jack would not notice the complicated feelings in her eyes.

Jack secretly let out a sigh as he watched Queenie close her eyes. Fortunately, he had immediately deleted the messages. Otherwise, he would not be able to explain it to her if she saw the conversation.

The following day.

Luca woke up and touched her waist. She could not help pursing her lips.

Luca could feel the pain in her waist by just pressing on the wound gently. She knew her wound infection had worsened without needing to check it.

The wound had yet to heal until now. Abel must have done something to the knife that he used to stab her. He had no particular reason. He just wanted to see Luca in pain.

Luca had so much work to do now. She hardly had the time to figure out what kind of drug Abel used and how to recover from it...

Luca frowned as she walked into the bathroom and lifted her shirt. Then, she removed the bandage wrapped around her waist. After Luca removed the bandage layer after layer, she noticed that the inflammation on her wound was worse than yesterday.

“As expected." Luca picked up a cotton swab to clean up the pus oozing from the wound and put it in a test tube.

Luca had prepared the tools before she slept last night. It was to make it convenient for her to collect the sample and figure out what was going on.

She took out some more cotton swabs and swiped the liquid on her wound. Then, she cleaned her wound with iodine. The last step would be to dress the wound and wrap the bandage around her waist.

It took her fifteen minutes to finish doing everything.

Luca quickly cleaned herself up as she would have to prepare breakfast for Luke later.

She came to the first floor after getting washed up. The maid ran into her at the stairs.

“Ms. Luca, you're awake. I thought you overslept and was planning to look for you upstairs," the maid smiled and said to Luca.

“I woke up a little late today. Oh, is Mr. Crawford awake?" Luca looked in the direction of the maid's room. Luke was very particular about his food and environment.

Luca wondered if Luke was able to rest well in the maid's room.

"Mr. Crawford is up. I just pushed him into the bathroom to let him wash up just now." The maid headed to the kitchen after answering Luca.

Luca nodded after she heard that Luke had already freshened up. Then, she followed the maid into the kitchen and began to make breakfast.

The maid saw that Luca was preparing breakfast, so she stayed near Luca to help her. She could not help but exclaim while looking at Luca's side profile. "It's getting colder every day. In the previous years,

it would have already snowed by now, but the first snowfall of the year has yet to come."

"Yes. Perhaps it'll be late this year." Luca continued the conversation while she beat the eggs.

Luca suddenly remembered that the kids were not here when she was about to grab a few more eggs. There were only three people in the villa—Luke, Luca, and the maid.

Luca put down the eggs she had just picked up.

The maid noticed Luca's gesture. She tried to contain herself, but she could not help letting out a chuckle. "I'm sorry, Ms. Luca. I didn't mean to laugh at you."

Luca shook her head and replied, "It's alright. I've gotten used to making the children's breakfast too."

"It's become a habit." The maid sighed. "Previously, the villa was filled with the kids' laughter when they were still here. It has become so much quieter since the kids were sent back to Crawford Manor."

Luca nodded. Indeed, the house felt lifeless without the kids' laughter and cheerful voices. Luca was not used to it either.

However, Luke and Luca had been busy with work lately. She could not find the time to take care of the kids when the wound on her waist still hurt.

Even though Luca missed them, she did not take the initiative to suggest to Luke that he bring the kids back here—unless Luke mentioned it first.

Anyway, she would not be able to take good care of them.