The next day, Director-General Linton held a meeting within the Treaty and Law Department, announcing that he would be promoted to Deputy Minister on March 1st, while the position of Director-General would be filled by the former deputy, and the deputy’s position would be taken by the head of the Legal Division Two. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The announcement was quickly posted, and the entire staff of Legal Division Two went wild with joy, as if it wasn’t just Sienna Thornton’s promotion, but an overall promotion for their division.

Sienna was quite happy too. She originally intended to invite her subordinates to celebrate together, but considering Simon Forrester had returned to the country yesterday and was dealing with his uncles at the old estate, who wanted to hammer his father, she thought it must have been exhausting for him. So, she planned to comfort him well that evening.

When she returned to Fenmore Hill and didn’t see the car Simon had driven out today, she knew he hadn’t come back yet.

The lights in the villa’s living room were left on, probably by the part-time cleaning aunt when she left. The soft yellow lights in the vast villa alleviated the sense of emptiness.

It was late February, early spring, and Brimfield was still cold, especially since they lived on a hill where the mountain wind was strong, and at night, the wind roared outside.

Sienna took a bath and heard movements in the dressing room. Coming out, she saw Simon had returned. He stood in front of the display case, removing his watch, tossing his wallet and phone onto the cabinet.

"You’re back?" She tied the belt of her bathrobe, walked up to him with a towel wrapped around her head, naturally taking over the suit he had just taken off. "Have you had dinner?"

"Not yet. I’ll make dinner soon. What do you want to eat?"

He pressed his hand on his tie and loosened it, while she hung his suit up and turned back to help him untie his tie.

"Anything. I’ll eat whatever you make." By this time, Sienna wasn’t experiencing nausea from pregnancy anymore and wasn’t picky about food.

"Alright." Simon bent down and kissed her cheek.

He went to cook while she slowly blow-dried her hair and changed clothes in the room. Once she was all cleaned and warmed up, she went downstairs to assist in washing and cutting fruits.

Simon was busy at the stove, and Sienna was handling fruits at the kitchen counter. They chatted casually.

On the first day of the trial, Zane Forrester’s case exploded within the Chinese community in the United States, and soon, Sylvia Langley in Franland also heard about it. Instead of immediately heading to the United States to save her husband, she went back to her family’s home to inform her brothers. The next day, dozens of her brothers, cousins, and distant siblings rushed from the South and even various parts of the world to the Forrester Family’s old estate.

Old Master Forrester learned then that his son was in trouble in the United States and currently embroiled in a court case. The elderly man was worried sick about his son, pacing in anxiety, which led to the scene of Simon receiving a phone call from Old Master Forrester in the United States.

"Have you called your mom to see how she’s doing?" Sienna asked while slicing an apple.

Simon was adding cream into the pot as he made cream mushroom soup.

"I did. I said I wanted to pick her up, but she wasn’t willing." Simon said. "She sounded normal, but having the brothers come over to demand answers must mean she’s quite angry."

"Your mother has been strong all her life. Even if she’s truly upset, she’ll never show it to others. She used to cry over trivial matters, wanting others to accommodate her. But with something this major, she won’t cry in front of people."

Simon chuckled, turned to stand beside Sienna, and sliced mushrooms, "You sure know her well."

"Of course, because I’m a woman too."

They chatted for a while longer, then Simon’s phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. He was slicing fish fillets, gave a tilt with his hip, "Your hands are clean, help me grab the phone."

Sienna quickly washed her hands, dried them, and helped him retrieve the phone.

The call was from a Los Angeles number.

Simon signaled her to answer and put it on speaker. She complied.

The person was one of Simon’s informants within the overseas Forresters: "The prosecution has confirmed charges against Carly’s ex-boyfriend. The guy confessed everything."

Upon hearing, Sienna immediately paused her activity.

"The guy said Carly’s roommate tipped him off, saying Carly would be spending the night at a hotel with a boss. So he rushed over to the hotel, booked a room, and called Carly to force her into his room, where he raped and beat her, threatening her against reporting to the police, or else he’d kill Carly’s whole family. Carly initially didn’t want to report it, but after she fainted, her roommate called the police independently. Carly feared her family would face retaliation, so she lied to the police during questioning, shifting all the blame onto Chairman Forrester."

Simon didn’t react, while Sienna mouthed to him, asking if she could speak to the person on the phone.

He nodded, so Sienna asked, "Did Carly give a statement?"

"She did."

"Did Chairman Forrester actually invite her upstairs that night? Otherwise, why would she tell her roommate that?"

"Yes, but Carly ended up going to her ex-boyfriend instead. Chairman Forrester was stood up."

Stood up, so he arranged for a friend’s wife to come over for a rendezvous.

Sienna: "..."

Simon: "..."

After hanging up, the two didn’t speak for a while, silently continuing their tasks.

The knife rhythmically hitting the chopping board emitted crisp sounds. Simon placed the sliced mushrooms into the boiling soup, covered the pot, turned around, leaned his hands on the edge of the kitchen counter, stared silently at the counter for a moment, and sighed, "This issue is over now. Let’s not involve ourselves further; let Grandpa and my mom’s brothers handle the rest."

"Alright."

The two tacitly didn’t mention Zane Forrester’s matter afterwards. Because the Forrester Family’s old estate was crowded and filled with gossip at that time, Simon didn’t let her go back, so Sienna spent her weekends at Melinda Linton’s house. Simon continued to spend Saturday daytime at the old estate and spent most of the other time, apart from work, with her.

Though spring had returned to the earth in March, Brimfield held remnants of chilliness in the warm spring breeze.

As March rolled in, Sienna and Simon’s lives returned to normal.

Sienna spent the entire March busy with work. Since her strong suit was negotiation, the new Director-General assigned her tasks related to trade wars and legal team management, and since she was limited on energy and with maternity leave approaching, she urgently needed to cultivate a team of elites capable of leading.

Simon was also recently busy selecting a team in preparation for formally intervening in the management of the overseas Forresters.

In early April, Sienna was five months pregnant, and though she wasn’t visibly pregnant, her belly had started to show. Simon had reminded her several times to buy maternity clothes, but she hadn’t yet—partly too busy, partly uninterested in dressing up—and instead picked out some loose skirts and tops from her wardrobe which fit well enough.

Soon it was time for the Qingming Festival, traditionally when people pay respects to their ancestors’ graves. Simon wanted Sienna to rest well at home and let him handle both family visitations, but Sienna insisted on joining him. He had no choice but to agree.

The Forrester Family and Thorne Family’s grave visitations were rescheduled because of them, one on the fifth, the other on the sixth.

On the night of the fourth, Simon picked Sienna up from work at the Treaty and Law Department. The two had a lovely dinner outside, then went shopping for fruits and pastries for the upcoming grave visitations.

Just as they left the mall and hadn’t yet reached the car, Simon received a call from the old estate. Old Master Forrester urgently said on the phone that Zane Forrester, as soon as he disembarked, was taken away by the Langley Family’s people...

The elderly man feared his son would truly be beaten to death by his furious wife and her family, and urged Simon to quickly go rescue his father.