Chapter 296 Their Only Photo Together
Rachel suddenly took a step back while furrowing her brows. Even though the obvious resistance in her eyes had quickly flickered away, Justin was able to capture it. “I’ll pretend that I didn’t hear what you said earlier.” After that, she turned around and walked off.
He was left dumbfounded for a few seconds before he suddenly caught up to her with annoyance and blocked her path. “I’ve always wanted to ask you what you think of our relationship. You are Charlotte’s mother, and you live in the same house as me. Doesn’t that make us lovers?”
“No,” Rachel answered firmly. “I’m glad that you know I’m Charlotte’s mother. After Jefferey was imprisoned, I said that I wanted to move out, but I decided to stay in the end. Have you forgotten why?”
Justin was slightly infuriated. “I thought it was because you were angry at me.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time to play these childish games with you.”
“Aren’t you angry at me now?”
Looking at the raging man in front of her, she felt that she needed to draw a line between them.
“To me, you’re just my ex-husband in a legal sense and Charlotte’s father. If you really want to know what our relationship is, I want us to be business partners. We are just friends.”
Friends? Justin gritted his teeth. “Same as Hernandez and the others?”
A frowning Rachel reluctantly nodded her head.
She hated to admit that to her, Hernandez and Julian were friends that felt like family whereas Justin wasn’t even close.
However, she didn’t wish to be too harsh on him since it wouldn’t benefit her future plans if they had a fallout.
“What if I don’t want to be your friend?”
“Then, I’ll just move out of the house?”
“You…”
“Charlotte and I have talked about it before. We can take turns taking care of her every week. No one will be at a loss. What do you think?”
“Who says that I’m not at a loss?”
“Then, what do you suggest?” Rachel calmly crossed her arms.
After holding back his anger, Justin gritted his teeth and responded, “Who said that you can move out? If you want to be friends, then we’ll just be friends.”
I need to look at the bigger picture and endure this for the moment. I don’t believe that I can’t break through her icy heart.
Then, a familiar sound of cheering was heard in the distance.
Gloria and Jolly were now competing to see who could hold their breath the longest with Victor as the judge. There were also a bunch of onlookers around them.
“2 minutes… 2 minutes and 15 seconds…”
Finally, Jolly could no longer hold her breath, so she emerged from under the water. “This doesn’t count. We choose the best out of three rounds.”
Gloria raised her brow and clarified, “Even if we play 30 rounds, you still won’t beat me. It’s best if you just give up now.”
“She learns music, so her lung capacity must be larger than any normal person. You’ve miscalculated,” Victor murmured to Jolly after suddenly realizing this loophole.
However, she was still dissatisfied with the result as she pushed the sunglasses to the top of her head. “No, let’s play one more round.”
“You still won’t give up? Fine, let’s have one more round then!” Gloria didn’t panic at all since she was full of confidence. “However, if I win this time, you have to promise me that you won’t bring anyone to mess with me whenever I start a game.”
“Alright. It’s a deal.”
When Jolly winked at Victor, he nodded his head in agreement.
After he let out a scream, Gloria and Jolly quickly pinched their noses and sank into the water. Then, Victor took down the rubber crab toy hanging around his neck and sneakily reached into the water to approach Gloria’s calf.
Pfft!
Gloria immediately lifted her head in panic.
Meanwhile, Jolly calmly wiped her face and announced, “It’s a draw!”
Gloria wasn’t stupid enough not to have noticed the rubber crab toy in the water, so she pointed at Victor and shouted, “You cheated. Both of you cheated!”
He hid behind Jolly and made a funny face at Gloria. “Hehe, you didn’t say that we are not allowed to cheat! It’s a draw anyway!”
An angry Gloria then jumped. “There’s still one more round!”
“I’m not playing anymore. Let’s go and play something else.”
“Hey, don’t run away!”
In the meantime, Rachel and Justin saw Julian piling sand with the two children on shore.
She asked, “What are those three doing again?”
Julian smiled. “They are just playing around.”
“Mommy, come and help me build a castle!”
When Charlotte saw Rachel, she quickly pulled Rachel aside.
When Julian saw Justin behind her, his eyes darkened a little. “Justin, why do you look like you are clinging onto something?”
Justin had just suffered defeat from Rachel and was now enraged, so after listening to his sarcastic words, it was enough to make Justin infuriated. “What about you? I didn’t see you achieving any success when you were alone with her abroad for so many years. Not only that, you even let the Curly Weirdo approach her.”
“A curly weirdo?” Julian chuckled. “Did you learn that word from Charlotte? How old are you?”
When did he become this childish?
“Just mind your own business!” Justin glared at him.
Listening to their squabbling, Samuel breathed a thoughtful sigh. Even though he was playing with the sand, his face radiated a sense of calmness that exceeded his peers. “You two are the same, so quit the squabbling!”
Julian was happy to hear his words, so he moved closer and asked seriously, “Samuel, out of the men present here today, who do you think has a better chance of winning your mommy’s heart?”
Samuel looked around with his huge eyes before unfolding his hands. “None of you.”
“If you have to choose one, though?”
“If I have to choose one, that’ll be him.” Samuel pointed his chubby finger at Justin.
At first, Julian thought he had a good chance of winning, but when he saw the direction that Samuel was pointing at, the smile on his face instantly froze. “Why him?”
“I saw his photo in mommy’s notebook before.” Both Julian and Justin were startled. “It was a wedding photo. After staring at it, Mommy cried and threw it in the trash can, but she picked it up afterward.”
Therefore, Justin subconsciously looked into the distance and quickly found Rachel’s extremely skinny back. Her swimsuit had revealed her butterfly-like silhouette as she built a sandcastle with Charlotte.
Some time ago, he searched every corner of the house, but he still couldn’t locate the photo he had taken with her. After asking Frankie, he retrieved a photo from their previous wedding certificate.
They were both wearing white shirts in front of a red background in the photo, but it was unsurprising that it was the only photo that they shared together. If Rachel had never loved me before, why would she take that photo with her when she left?
Suddenly, a slimmer of hope was suddenly ignited inside his heart and it gradually grew into a huge flame.
“Thank you, kid!”
Justin suddenly pinched Samuel’s cheek before walking toward Rachel and Charlotte in the distance.
