After Mrs. Lander went downstairs, Elise lay down to rest.

She scrolled through her phone for a bit before drifting off to sleep. Her morning sickness had been hit-or-miss with this pregnancy, and it was only now, having hit the twelve-week mark, that it had finally subsided.

However, she had been quite lethargic lately, often sleeping away an entire afternoon. This time was no different; she only woke up groggily when Mrs. Lander came upstairs to call her.

Outside, darkness had already fallen.

Mrs. Lander stood at the door and said to her, "Madam, dinner is ready. Would you like to come downstairs to eat now?"

Elise sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Alright."

"Oh, by the way, Mr. Bennett called just now to say he won’t be back for dinner tonight."

Hearing this, Elise’s expression remained perfectly flat, entirely unsurprised. "I see. I’ll freshen up and head down."

"Understood."

Elise walked into the bathroom, rinsed her mouth, washed her face, and threw on a thin cardigan before finally heading downstairs.

The ground floor was brightly lit, and over in the dining room, Mrs. Lander was ladling soup. The dining table featured five dishes and a soup, all portioned for two and consisting of Elise’s favorites. But with Dylan not returning, it looked like a bit too much food for Elise to finish on her own.

As she sat down, she said to Mrs. Lander, "Why don’t you sit down and eat with me?"

"Oh, how could I!" Mrs. Lander waved her hands with a smile. "It’s against the rules."

"Dylan isn’t even here, and I don’t like eating alone. Just think of it as keeping a pregnant woman company and offering me some emotional support."

Mrs. Lander gave a sheepish smile. "It’s the same if I stand by your side to keep you company."

Elise truly didn’t want to eat alone. Back at her own place, she had Zoey to keep her company, but now that she was back at Dylan’s home, life had instantly reverted to the way it used to be. Although she had mentally prepared herself, sitting at this dining table again still made her instinctively recall all those nights over the past five years when Dylan hadn’t come home.

While those bitter, aggrieved memories kept her grounded, they certainly ruined her mood.

However, Mrs. Lander was clearly too accustomed to following protocol; asking her to sit down and dine with her employer was something she simply couldn’t adapt to. Elise decided not to force the issue.

She ate her meal in quiet solitude. Fortunately, the food was entirely to her taste, and Mrs. Lander had gone to the trouble of brewing fish soup. Elise managed a small bowl of rice and two bowls of the soup. By the time she set her utensils down, she realized a bit too late that she had overeaten.

To help her digestion, she went out into the courtyard alone to take a walk. As she walked, she scrolled through her phone.

Suddenly, she happened upon a video posted by a creator named ’Red Bloom.’ It was a clip of someone performing a ballad, though their face was kept out of frame. Elise watched the four-minute video twice through. In the end, she saved the video to her device and used her current burner account to follow ’Red Bloom.’

Curious, she clicked into the creator’s homepage. True to that specific video, this creator never revealed her face; whenever a full-body shot was required, she wore a fox mask. Consequently, one could only gather from the videos that she was a tall young woman with an exceptional aura.

But that alone was enough. The style of the videos and the crisp editing techniques made her content wildly popular, pulling in over five million followers on YouTube.

While Elise was browsing, the crying voice of a young boy suddenly echoed from outside the courtyard gates: "Mommy, Mommy, open the door—"

Startled, she turned her head to look.

The security guard had already opened the gate, and Robin’s tiny figure was sprinting straight toward Elise.

Elise froze for a fraction of a second, but as Robin lunged toward her, she quickly put out a hand to shield herself.

Noticing Elise’s defensive movement, Robin skidded to a violent halt. He explained through his tears, "Mommy, I’m sorry! I almost forgot you have a baby sister in your tummy. I didn’t mean to scare you."

Even though he was crying a total river himself, his very first instinct was still to protect the baby in Elise’s womb.

Elise’s heart absolutely ached for him. Letting out a soft sigh, she stepped forward and gently wrapped him in a hug.

"It’s alright, you don’t need to apologize. I know how much you love the baby in my tummy, and I know you’re going to be a wonderful big brother."

Clutching Elise tightly, Robin let out a loud wail and burst into a torrential sob.

"Everyone keeps saying I have the wrong mommy! They all say that the new woman is my mommy, but I don’t even know who she is! I only remember you as my mommy. I don’t want to live with her, and I don’t want to call her mommy..."

It was as if Robin had finally found a safe haven, pouring out every ounce of grievance he had bottled up over the course of the day.

"Daddy wants me to call her mommy, but I don’t want to, I really don’t! When I didn’t call her that, she started crying..."

Robin cried so hard that he was gasping for air. "And the moment she cried, Daddy thought I was being disobedient. Mommy, in my whole life, Daddy has never raised his voice at me until today. I think Daddy has changed too. I’m scared. I don’t want to live over there anymore, wahhh..."

Listening to Robin’s fragmented accusations, Elise felt an incredibly complicated wave of emotions.

She had guessed that Dylan wouldn’t want to disappoint Fleur, meaning he would be desperate to make Robin accept Fleur as his biological mother. She had fully expected this, and her heart didn’t stir in the slightest.

However, she hadn’t anticipated that Robin’s resistance toward Fleur would be this severe. She had assumed that blood was thicker than water and that a mother and son shared an innate bond; even if Robin couldn’t accept Fleur overnight, he shouldn’t be this repulsed.

Left with no alternative, Elise could only lead Robin inside first, and then she instructed Mrs. Lander to call Orchard Residence to inform them that Robin had run over.

Less than five minutes after Mrs. Lander made the call, Dylan returned.