After some commotion, Vanessa Armstrong realized it was pointless, so she had to leave with her suitcase. She headed back to the apartment Oliver Shaw bought her when she first arrived in T City, planning to stay there temporarily. But despite fiddling with the key for a long time, she couldn’t open the door.
Vanessa knew in her heart that Oliver Shaw had changed the door keys. She took out her phone and called Oliver, and surprisingly, this time he actually answered.
But before Vanessa could speak, Oliver’s cold voice came through, "Since you’re already discharged, pick up Seraphina this afternoon and leave. I never want to see you and your daughter in T City again in my lifetime."
With that, the busy tone came through the receiver, not giving Vanessa a chance to speak. A man used to ruling over others, he allowed himself to betray, but would never permit anyone to betray him!
Putting away her phone, Vanessa left the apartment with her suitcase and checked into a random hotel to drop off her luggage before heading to the school gate to wait for her daughter.
She held onto a last glimmer of hope. Oliver Shaw doted on his daughter, and if Seraphina pleaded for her, she believed Oliver would surely soften.
Seraphina Shaw came out of the school gate and was very happy to see her mother picking her up. She ran over joyfully, "Mommy, when did you come back?"
"Mommy just came back this afternoon," Vanessa forced a smile, holding her daughter’s hand as they walked toward the street. Not seeing who usually picked her up, Seraphina couldn’t help but mutter, "Mommy, why don’t I see Uncle Wu’s car?"
"Oh, Uncle Wu had something to do today, so Mommy took a cab," Vanessa explained with a smile, then hailed a taxi and got in with her daughter, telling the driver the villa’s address.
The taxi stopped outside the villa gates. After paying, Vanessa and her daughter got out one after the other. Seraphina grabbed the still-locked gate and looked inside with confusion, asking, "Huh? Why is the gate locked?"
After speaking, she stood on tiptoe to press the doorbell.
In the villa, Oliver sat on the sofa reading a newspaper. On the opposite side, the TV was on, playing some kind of melodrama—Melody Zachary’s favorite genre in the past.
Hearing the doorbell, the housekeeper walked to the monitor, saw the mother and daughter standing at the gate, turned around, and reported truthfully, "Sir, it’s Miss Armstrong and her daughter."
"Ignore them; continue with your work."
Oliver continued to read the newspaper, his stern face showing no extra expression.
Outside the gate, Seraphina continued pressing the doorbell. As she did so, she muttered, "These maids must be slacking off in their rooms. Just wait until I tell Daddy to fire them all!"
Vanessa knew in her heart that the reason no one responded was because Oliver had ordered it. Glancing at the villa in the courtyard through the iron gate, she crouched in front of her daughter and said with some difficulty, "Seraphina, it’s not that the maids won’t open the door, it’s..."
"Then who is it?" Seraphina immediately turned and asked. Vanessa hesitated for a moment and then, holding her daughter’s hand, said sorrowfully, "It’s Daddy. Daddy doesn’t allow the maids to open the door for Seraphina, so they don’t dare..."
As Vanessa spoke, tears flowed, and Seraphina was even more puzzled, "Why? Why won’t Daddy let them open the door for Seraphina?"
"Because Daddy doesn’t want Seraphina and Mommy anymore..."
"Waa..." Hearing her mother say this, Seraphina immediately burst into tears, grabbing the bars of the iron gate, shaking it incessantly while crying and shouting, "Daddy, open the door for Seraphina..."
Seraphina cried loudly, the sound transmitting through the dark door panel into the villa. Oliver’s brows furrowed, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on the newspaper.