Chapter 4

The next day, Jonathan brought Letitia with him.

When he opened the door, Jonathan was holding a bouquet of roses and smiling brightly, clean-shaven and dressed impeccably.

"Jocelyn, I knew you were the kindest," he said, reaching out to kiss my hand.

I turned my head to avoid him, looking at Jonathan with disappointment. "You know why I agreed."

Jonathan looked at me with deep emotion. "I'm sorry for bringing Mom into this, but I had no other choice."

"Believe me. Letitia is very well-behaved. You'll really like her."

Letitia smiled sweetly, "I will be very good and won't cause any trouble."

Faced with a child, I couldn't bring myself to say anything harsh. Besides, my mother had already accepted the house. It felt uncomfortable to owe someone a favor.

Letitia was indeed well-behaved and even smart, knowing how to be likable. But the truth she was Wendy's child made it hard for me to like her.

When she was inside the house, I stayed outside. When she was outside, I went back in.

"Jocelyn, you're going to be Letitia's stepmother soon. Can't you be nicer to her?"

"Since you're already here, it means you've accepted this situation. Why the long face? Letitia is sensitive. Don’t give her that attitude."

At that moment, I felt like a clown at the peak of embarrassment. Wanting everything but having nothing described me perfectly.

Becoming a stepmother and being forced to accept it was something no one could easily handle.

Jonathan's eyes flashed with determination. He realized that if there were any gaps as Letitia grew older, his busy work schedule would make it hard to manage me and the child who didn't get along.

"I'm going away for a month. There are things at the company that need my attention. Letitia will be left in your care," he said and left without waiting for my response.

The atmosphere was thick and tense.

Letitia seemed more mature than me and suddenly spoke mysteriously, "Do you want to know where Dad and Mom went this past month?"

This was something I had been ignoring.

If I could endure until now, aside from the pressure from others, it was because of Jonathan. No matter how late, he would always come back and never spend the night elsewhere.

Not betraying me was my last line of defense.

I had deliberately forgotten about his disappearance this past month. At most, he was accompanying Wendy in her final days.

But Letitia’s words still caught me off guard. Seeds of doubt began to take root and grow.

Wendy was beautiful. Even in her final moments when she could barely move, she still evoked pity from anyone who saw her.

With such a delicate beauty around, could Jonathan really have remained unmoved by her?

If there was truly nothing going on, why didn't he contact me? Not even a phone call or a message?

When I came back to my senses, I found Letitia playing with my phone.

"Children shouldn't play with phones," I said as I took it back from her.

Being a stepmother wasn't easy. People might say I spoiled the child on purpose or taught her poorly.

But then I noticed that Letitia had logged on to a WhatsApp account on my phone.

I thought she had randomly tapped it, but it turned out to be Wendy's WhatsApp account.