The little bell above the door rang as I entered the hole-in-the-wall boutique.I planned to propose to Jane today and worked extra hard to finish my work early, but she was nowhere to be seen when I finally left my office.But based on Joseph's information, my mother had run off with Jane in the middle of the workday to come to Amanda's boutique to try on her custom dress for the last time in preparation for tomorrow's gala.The moment I walked in, I was greeted with the familiar sight of gold detailing lining the shop's walls with rolls of fabrics scattered all over the place and the usual musky scent that clung to every inch of the wall. It was something I had often seen as a child whenever my mother insisted on dragging me here to play dress up."Oh, hello, Rafael. I wasn't expecting to see you today. Do you need to get something altered at the last minute?" pipped Amanda as she lifted her glasses off of her face and rounded the corner to greet me.I shook my head and glanced arou

After I finished proposing, I carried Jane back down to the first floor and walked out to the car to collect all the blankets, pillows, and the large picnic basket I had packed.Even though the house was completely bare down to its walls, without a single piece of furniture, I thought it would be romantic to stay in the empty castle all by ourselves for the night. It was one of the few moments where it was just Jane and me, not that I didn't enjoy little Theo's presence, but it was a rare moment where we could be as intimate as we'd like with each other.It was pretty dark by the time we came down, so I decided to stay near the living room fireplace and set up a fire to keep us warm through the night. Jane's eye's sparkled as the flames grew bigger and bigger until they reached a roaring fire.Although she tried to keep her voice quiet, I heard her mumbling about how it reminded her of a scene in one of her romance books where a couple snuck into a barn to hide from the rain and start

"Are you feeling better now, Liam?" A hand smoothed over his head, eliciting a soft hum from the said boy. "You know that she didn't mean you any harm, right? She was just very happy to meet you."Liam let out a clearly disgruntled but incoherent muttering before turning his head away from his mother.Jane sighed and continued to calmly stroke his head. "Cheer up, honey. I don't like seeing you upset."She really was such a good mother, even if she was a bit too nice for her own good at times. She always listened to Liam's side of things and tried to understand him before saying anything.Trying to take his mind off my mother's overly friendly and nearly deadly display of affection toward her first grandchild, I lightly nudged Liam's cheeks and offered, "If you want, I can tell my mother to not bother you because you want want to stay by Jane's side tonight. She can be a bit overbearing at times, but she'll still at least respect your wishes."He looked up at me hesitantly before glan

Liam's voice grew louder as I stalked toward the crowd. Even if I couldn't make out his words, I could already tell how upset he was by just the tone of his voice."How dare you hurt Ms. Jane?!"The crowd immediately parted for me as I strode passed them with two guards trailing behind me.My mood was already bad after dealing that unconscious idiot upstairs and only dropped several degrees lower with this new fiasco. As such, most of the guests diverted their eyes, instinctively knowing not to test my temper in my current state.Some random woman's voice rang out from the center of the crowd."Who do you think you are accusing? You're clearly mistaken, young man. I am an elite woman who would never do such a lowly thing, so please take your tantrum elsewhere.""I'm not mistaken. I saw you do it!""Look here now, kid. There's no need to try to blame your embarrassment on me. Your mother is just not fit for upper society and tripped over her own two feet."Once I broke into the circle'

"Mr. Cordova, the board is ready for you in conference room 1."I nodded as I handed Joseph a folder of private paperwork and grabbed my phone. "Did my father decide to intrude on today's meeting as I expected?""Yes, he just messaged me an hour ago and told me to bring him a dark roast coffee with 1 creamer and 2 sugars."Of course, he did."That's fine. Just tell the baristas downstairs to bring one up for him and to leave it outside if we are in the middle of the meeting." I closed my laptop and handed it to Joseph. "Join me in the meeting room after you finish making a copy of those papers and leaving the original copy in my office."He raised an eyebrow in confusion but nodded in agreement anyway.After he left my office, I started to make my way to conference room 1 on the other side of the floor from my office.I planned to reorganize the hierarchy of the outer families at today's board meeting as I had announced at the gala, and it seems that my father had found out about my p