Love After a Steamy Affair

Serenity and Gabriel heard the commotion from the living room as they arrived. She held Gabriel’s arm with one hand and carried the cake into the living room with the other.

When John saw the two enter, his breathing stopped as his gaze fell on the hand holding Gabriel’s arm. His heart felt as if it had been stabbed by a sharp knife. It was so painful that his muscles spasmed and his limbs and bones felt as if they were no longer his.

As they entered the living room, Serenity called out to her family members with a smile on her face. Then, she passed the gift to Eva Grant.

The present was a longevity locket that she had bought before she came. Serenity took quite some time looking for the right one for Eva – she simply could not make up her mind. Eventually, she managed to choose the one she just gifted Eva while Gabriel gifted the child a pair of bracelets with bells.

“Gabriel, come. Come and sit down,” said Benjamin eagerly with a smile.

Gabriel nodded slightly and sat down on the other side of the sofa with Serenity in his arms.

Serenity felt a gaze on her and looked up. John was leaning against the single-seater sofa with his eyes lowered, his face a little pale.

The landline suddenly rang and Helena Turner picked up the call. When she called the person on the other end of the line ‘Dad’, everyone knew that it was Old Master Samson.

After hanging up the phone, Helena Turner looked at Selena.

The older daughter understood and asked the servant to go upstairs to the study room to bring the laptop down. Helena Turner carried Eva Grant while Selena turned on the laptop to set up the video call. Old Master Samson’s sick face appeared on the computer screen.

Gabriel, John, and Benjamin Rivers went to the chess room while the women talked to the elderly. Serenity sat at the side and watched the video call. The quiet living room was filled with laughter and the occasional cough from Old Master Samson.

Serenity was starting to feel bored so she left the living room and walked around the Rivers residence. She headed southeast along the tree-lined path to the flowerbed. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks.

The other flowerbeds either had exotic flowers or evergreen trees. However, the square flowerbed before her was a pomegranate tree with luxuriant leaves.

October was the season for pomegranates so the entire tree was full of heavy and ripe pomegranate fruits that looked even redder against the sunset sky.

The afterglow reflected mottled light and shadow on the ground through the gaps in the treetops. The pomegranates were big and one of the tree branches was bent over from the weight of the fruits. With just a stretch of her hand, she could easily pick one.

She looked up, her gaze a little dazed as vague memories gradually cleared up in her mind.

Serenity had always loved eating pomegranates, especially during her time at Willow Town. After returning to the Rivers residence, she always felt that something was missing from the pomegranates she bought.

So, on her sixteenth birthday, she and John planted a pomegranate sapling here. He said, “In the future, all the pomegranates on this tree will be yours. No one will take it away from you..”