Love's Cunning Ruse novel Chapter 111

The moment she shrieked, Julie realized she had overreacted.

He just turned off the lights, right?

Doesn't everyone turn off the lights before going to bed? Did she really need to be so shocked?

In the darkness, Julie sat quietly.

A tired voice came from next door, "Been working all day; let's get some sleep."

Hearing Kieran's voice, Julie took a deep breath and crawled back into bed.

Julie had a dreamless night. She slept like a log. When she woke up in the morning, she felt refreshed and energetic. She stretched her long arms out of the blanket, intending to have a good stretch, but a sudden arm draped over her waist.

The warm sensation on her belly—it must be a hand!

A hand?

Where did that hand come from?

Julie turned her head abruptly and saw Kieran's peaceful sleeping face.

He seemed to be sleeping soundly. That position seemed very comfortable.

Julie swallowed the words that were stuck in her throat, then lifted the man's arm and bit his wrist hard.

"Ouch..." Kieran gasped, then retracted his arm.

Julie glared at the man beside her, "How dare you? Didn't we agree to sleep separately? How could you crawl over in the middle of the night?"

Before she could finish her words, she stopped.

Because now that she was fully awake, she could see whose bed she was in.

It was Kieran's bed!

Julie felt like she had a fly stuck in her throat and couldn't speak.

Kieran shook his arm. The woman bit quite hard; she actually drew blood.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the embarrassed woman, his voice raspy from sleep, "Got it clear whose bed this is now?"

After holding her breath for a while, Julie finally responded, "So what if this is your bed? I don't remember crawling onto your bed in the middle of the night. Maybe you carried me from my bed! Pervert!"

With that, Julie grabbed Kieran's blanket and walked off.

Kieran, wearing only boxers, continued to lie in bed in a languid pose.

Watching her hasty departure, Kieran touched his bitten hand, a sly smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

His woman could be quite sharp sometimes.

As Julie was brushing her teeth in the bathroom, she heard Kieran's phone ringing outside the door. When she came out after finishing, Kieran was no longer in the bedroom.

Julie had already planned her itinerary for the day. She was going to Kieran's company to cancel the contract, then get her purse from Karl, and then go house hunting.

After getting dressed, Julie went downstairs only to find that Kieran and Ivan, who were supposed to be having breakfast in the dining room, were both gone. Even Noah was missing.

Just as Julie was feeling puzzled, a woman wearing an apron walked out of the kitchen. Julie recognized her at a glance. She looked at the woman excitedly and asked, "Shannon?"

"Mrs. Hernandez!" Shannon's face was filled with an excited yet kind smile.

Shannon, aged almost over fifty, had been Julie's personal nanny. After Julie divorced Kieran, she never saw Shannon again. She was not only the Hernandez family's nanny but also Noah's wife.

When Julie was pregnant, she could only stomach the meals cooked by Shannon. After her miscarriage, when Kieran was by Bertha's side every day, it was Shannon who took care of her.

Although the Hernandez family paid Shannon, she was genuinely kind to Julie.

"Shannon, is that really you?" Julie asked, then ran towards Shannon. She bent down and hugged Shannon.

Shannon gently patted Julie's back, simply saying, "Mrs. Hernandez, it's good that you're back! Mr. Hernandez has been looking forward to your return. Now you're finally back."

Kieran was looking forward to her return?

That was probably the funniest joke Julie had ever heard.

She didn't mention this to Kieran on the night because she thought Kieran would try to quell this matter, just like when Elliot proposed to her.

The more Julie thought about it, the more anxious she felt.

"Did Kieran and I last night..."

"Did you see the news?" Daphne's words hinted that what Julie feared had indeed happened.

Julie had no choice but to say to Daphne, "I haven't seen the news, but regardless, the truth is certainly not what the news is reporting. Kieran and I..."

"Julie..." Daphne suddenly cut her off.

Julie could almost predict what Daphne was about to say next. She was probably going to say that Kieran was a jerk. He broke her heart, and now he's still bothering her like that; it was just too much.

After all, Daphne has always been unconditionally supportive of Julie.

Unexpectedly, this time Daphne said to Julie in a serious tone, "Julie, you know, I've liked Mr. Hernandez before you divorced him. The only difference between us is that I saw him as an unreachable star, and you saw him as your world. I've been thinking a lot lately. Do you think Mr. Hernandez is really into you since he's so clingy?"

After a moment of silence, Julie asked Daphne, "Are you okay?"

"I... I'm good... I just think he just lost his image a bit in front of you. But a person only loses their image in front of the one they love, right? Actually, about your divorce from Mr. Hernandez, I always felt something was off."

"What's off?" Julie paused before asking Daphne, "Daphne, are you... still half-asleep?"

Julie thought Daphne was talking nonsense. That woman, who was then defending Kieran, compared to the one who used to confront him with her, was completely opposite and felt unfamiliar to Julie.

However, a confident voice came from Daphne on the other end of the phone, "Julie, even though I haven't experienced what you've been through, I know you still love Mr. Hernandez. Unless you lose your memory, you will never forget him in your life. Even if you hate him, it's because of love that you hate. If a person's heart is dead, there would be no love or hate, but you're different, Julie. You can't lie to yourself."

"Daphne, I want to hang up now. What's up with you?" Julie frowned, unable to accept Daphne's sudden change of attitude. She asked worriedly, "Is Kieran holding a gun to your head and making you say all this?"

"Do I look like someone who'd be easily threatened?" A confident voice came from Daphne on the other end of the phone.

Julie finally believed that Daphne was not under threat.

"Then why? Why have you suddenly changed everything you've stood for?" Julie asked coldly.