Since I did not know what else to say to this woman, I watched silently as she icily and hardenedly faced the questions of my brother and Henry. She had even dared to present herself as a victim. She claimed that she had only taken Henry's money in order to raise my brother and me with it.

When Henry asked her why she didn't tell him that he was the father of both of us, she only said that she had to prevent her husband from finding out the truth. She said, "If you had known, you would have done everything you could to see your sons. Maybe you would have even brought them to you. But I couldn't let that happen. My other husband didn't even know he wasn't their father."

At some point my collar burst and I screamed, "You're not a mother. You may have given birth to us. But you were never a mother to us. Dad took care of Hai Kuan when he was little. And Hai Kuan raised me and took loving care of me. You claim to have always loved us. Then I don't understand why you never showed us any of your love. Not once!"

Henry took my hand and stroked it, "Let it all out Yibo. You're doing fine." But that didn't reassure me.

It wasn't until there was a knock at the door shortly after and Zhan came that I felt better. He took me in his arms, kissed my forehead, and I told him the short version of what we now knew. Zhan hugged me tightly and said, "I'm proud of you Yibo. I know it hurts and you are sad, angry and disappointed. But now you finally know the truth and can start to leave all that behind. Because if you don't want to do that, you never have to see that woman again. You will and are happy without her. And don't forget that you now have a father who loves you and shows it to you. You still have your brother and I am there for you too and always will be."

"You're right Hubby. I'm very happy about that too. And I think we should go home now." I said. I looked at Cheng who walked over to my brother and gave him a kiss. That's when I remembered the question I've been dying to ask Zhan. "Oh Hubby, why did you ask Cheng to go with you anyway?"

Sure I could have waited until we got home and talked in private. But it was bugging me and I wanted the answer right away. Zhan stroked my cheek and said, "Because our Cheng has a secret that he didn't want to reveal until we got home from that appointment."

My brother and I stared at Cheng and he got all red in the face. Finally, however, he took out a book from his bag. "My Heart" is the book title and Cheng wrote it. He handed me the book and said, "I know there is no one more honest about books than you. That's why I'd like you to read my book and tell me what you think of it."

I grinned and took the book. "I'll definitely read it. But first I have to finish reading my Hubby's book." I put the book in my bag and Cheng thanked me. He also gave my brother a book, but remarked that he didn't think he would honestly rate the book because my brother loves him.

With all the excitement, we had almost forgotten about my mother. However, she and Henry continued to talk during that time. And they just got to the point where he wanted her to sign the divorce papers. She was very reluctant to sign the papers. The ink wasn't even dry when Henry took the papers, put them in an envelope, and told her that he was going to give them to his lawyer on Monday.

None of us knew what else to say or ask. She seemed to leave it all cold anyway and vehemently refused to explain to us why she claimed to have loved us as a mother, to have loved Henry, and then to have been the way she was anyway.

Since Zhan was there with his car, I said goodbye to my father, my brother and Cheng, turned to my mother once more and said, "I hope that one day you will wake up and realize that you are all alone. That you lost all the people around you who ever cared about you because of your lies and greed. And I wish you to feel exactly that and experience exactly the same treatment that you gave me. Cruel, cold and full of contempt."

Then Zhan took me by the hand and we left the apartment. I know that the other three left shortly after us. But I didn't care. I just wanted to go home with Zhan and forget everything I heard from my mother's mouth today. I don't even know if I can believe anything she said.

Once we got home, Zhan ran hot bath water in the bathtub. We both then sat down in the bathtub and he told me that Cheng approached him a month ago and asked him to read his first attempt at writing a book. "He kept it a secret from your brother because he was afraid his book wouldn't be good and then your brother would laugh at him. Although I doubt he would have done that."

"I see. And you've read his book?"

"Mmm, I have. It's good. Actually, for the first time he's written a book, it's really good. But you'll see for yourself when you read it."

"So you both had an appointment at the publishing house today?"

"I had an appointment there, and Cheng got a call from the publisher this morning, asking him to come by today and see the finished print."

"Ah I see. So you set him up with the publisher?"

"Yes, when he gave me his book and I liked it, I passed it on to the publisher and they then contacted Cheng."

"So it really runs in your family."

"Yeah seems so. So how are you feeling now? I mean, after talking to your mother."

"At the moment I still have mixed feelings. On the one hand I hate her even more, on the other hand I'm glad that I finally know the truth, if it's the truth. And then there's the fact that I feel pity for her. Because apparently she is so blind not to see what is happening around her. She even tried to portray herself as a victim."

"Then you can only hope she really wakes up someday, too, and tries to become a better person before it's too late."

"I have given up that hope. I think she's just like that and can't be any other way. The only thing I have to give her credit for, though, is that she seemed to have really loved my father and only lied about it all these years. She was probably really afraid of losing him."

"Could be. Did she say why she wasn't at the funeral?"

"My brother asked her about it and she said she couldn't bear the thought of her beloved husband being dead and couldn't go to his funeral because she couldn't bear to see the urn with his ashes. She even looked upset when she said she couldn't bear to think that there was nothing left of the man she loved so much and who was always by her side but a pile of ashes."

"I see. Well, maybe she was telling the truth in this case. When my grandmother died, my grandfather couldn't stand it either and even broke down."

"Yeah, I might not feel any different if it were you. I couldn't bear that either. So don't you dare die before me."

"Haha, Okay, I'll try my best."

"You Hubby?"

"Yeah?"

"You know what I'm most excited about right now?"

"Our date tomorrow?"

"Yeah that too."

"What else?"

"That we can finally get married now."

"Oh, right. You're absolutely right. Now that you've got it all figured out, there's nothing standing in the way of the wedding."

"Exactly. And I think we should start planning as soon as possible."

"Are you in a hurry?"

"Yes. You told me you wanted to marry me within a year. But that didn't work out. We've been together a year and two months now. And I hope we can get married in four weeks. If that's all right with you."

"Well, no one could have guessed the chaos that would ensue and that we would have to postpone the wedding. And yes of course, I'll be happy to marry you in 4 weeks."

"Good, then we can start planning on Monday."

"Since we had largely already planned everything, there's not much left to plan. The wedding ceremony will be at your father's house. The official who will marry us has already been found and only needs our appointment, then he will come here from the States. There are plenty of flowers in your father's garden. We already had the cake picked out. So still invitations and our wedding suits."

"And music we still have to pick out. The lighting. The dinner. The honeymoon. We have so many things to think about. Plus, I have a few other ideas."

"Oh okay, I can already see my cute prince knows exactly what he wants."

"I do Hubby. And you know what? My daddy said he's not only going to host the wedding, he's going to pay for it."

"Mhhh, I would have paid for the wedding too."

"I know and that's what I told him. But he said, as my father, it's his job. And I think that's good. And besides, he told me if I wanted to, I could start working at his company too."

"Do you want to work there? I mean, you'd have to go to university first, I'm sure."

"I know. At that time, I had looked for an education after school and didn't study. I wasn't interested in it either and couldn't have afforded it. And I didn't want my brother to have to pay for it, too."

"But?"

"No buts. I told my daddy that I was thankfully declining. I like working in the hardware store and I don't want to end up in an office. He said it was okay with him. He made the same offer to my brother and my brother wants to work for him. And, my daddy said he's going to give me a little pocket money every month because he never used to be able to do that."

"We don't depend on the money, though. He knows that, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he knows that. He still wants to give it to me. According to him, I can put it in our garden, too. But honestly? I love the garden the way it is now."

"So do I. You put so much effort into it. And I feel really comfortable there. It's perfect the way it is now. Especially with the pavilion. Pretty soon, I think the roses you planted there will be climbing up it."

"Yes. By next year at the latest, the pavilion will be covered with roses."

"I'm really looking forward to seeing that." Said Zhan.

This precious time I spend with Zhan is my favorite. We just talk about whatever comes to mind and make plans together. I am happy as it is now and look forward to marrying him very soon.

After our bath, we went to our bedroom, I continued reading Zhan's new book and he started writing a new book. I liked that he was sitting next to me with his laptop, I could lean my head against him and read.

Around midnight, after making extensive love to each other, we went to sleep. After all, we have a date the next day and want to be fresh and rested for it.