Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Aunt Julia nodded and continued, “After Harmony returned, she had a considerable amount of interaction with Mrs. Barker and even…met Mr. Barker in private.”

Even though the old lady had already suspected just as much, she still felt a headache coming on when she heard it from Aunt Julia.

“I was careless. She had been so quiet during her years abroad that I didn’t pay attention to her at all. I didn’t expect her to be brave enough to come back and show up so brazenly before Tim and Sammy.”

Old Madam Barker couldn’t help snorting, “She really has no idea how to read the room. I let her leave the country all those years ago and even gave her a prosperous life, but those evil intentions of hers still remained. Seems like I underestimated her.”

‘Let her leave the country…’

Samantha’s black pupils contracted slightly as her breathing got heavier.

The main reason for Harmony’s sudden departure to another country turned out to be none other than Old Madam Barker’s decision…

Judging from Old Madam Barker’s words, Harmony had most likely been told to leave the country, and in exchange for a prosperous life there, was neither allowed to return nor approach Timothy again.

However, Harmony had returned all by herself and met Timothy in private.

Old Madam Barker would not have done what she did back then for no apparent reason, not unless Old Madam Barker was not fond of Harmony. Timothy and Harmony had probably wanted to get together after growing up as childhood sweethearts and developing feelings toward each other, only for the old lady to play the role of a villain and destroy their budding relationship.

Furthermore, Harmony went to Barrkjaer Island before returning to the country, so that guess might end up ringing true—Timothy and Harmony had probably met in Barrkjaer Island and rekindled their old relationship, which was why Harmony returned and was so desperate to reunite with Timothy after that!

Samantha bit her lips tightly as her face turned pale.

She really did not want to let her mind wander in that direction, but the truth seemed to be leading her down that very path.

“Is someone outside?”

Samantha heard Aunt Julia’s voice.

Startled, she snapped to her senses and immediately turned around to make herself scarce. The last thing she wanted was for Old Madam Barker and Aunt Julia to know that she had heard their conversation.

Aunt Julia walked to the door and glanced outside. There was no one out there, so she turned around and headed back into the room.

Samantha did not want them to know that she had heard everything and decided not to go back to the old lady’s room. Her feet felt somewhat light as she walked up the stairs and returned to the bedroom.

She sat on the bed and hugged her knees as her mind went into disarray.

Bits and pieces of memories appeared in her mind, many of which were unsettling even though she had dismissed them earlier as though they were nothing to make a fuss about.

Samantha shook her head all of a sudden.

Overthinking was not something she ought to be doing. Dwelling on it continuously would only make her denounce Timothy for those accusations and that would be very unfair to him.

In any case, she wanted to hear what he had to say.

He was the one person she should place her trust in.

Samantha picked up her phone, clicked on WeTalk, and sent another message to Timothy: [Where are you?]

A few seconds later, she received a voice message, “Five minutes out.”

Samantha did not reply to the message. Since there were another five minutes before he arrived, she decided to just do other things to pass the time.

She clicked and opened her WeTalk Moments but was surprised to see that the first one was from Harmony. It had been uploaded five minutes ago.

It was a photo showing Harmony’s injured hand with some ointment beside it. The caption wrote: [I’m so glad you showed concern for me. <3]

Samantha frowned slightly.

Before she even had time to think about it, the sound of a car engine was heard downstairs.

Timothy had returned.

Samantha put down her phone and walked to the dressing table. She looked in the mirror, took a few deep breaths to sooth her emotions as well as calm her expressions and then did her best to be as natural as usual so Timothy would not notice that anything was wrong.

Timothy pushed the door open and walked in a few minutes later.

Samantha got up and walked towards him with a smile. “You’re back.”

“I am.” Timothy’s black pupils looked softly at her. His fingertips reached for her cheek as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ears. “Were you waiting long?”

Samantha shook her head. “No.”

She smelt alcohol on him and could not help asking, “Did you drink?”

“Yes. I had a social function earlier so I drank a bit.” Timothy was very particular about hygiene and frowned rather uncomfortably. “I’ll take a bath.”

Samantha felt that she could use that opportunity to figure out how to bring up the subject, so she nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll get the bath running.”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to go through all that trouble. I’ll do it myself.”

Timothy smiled affectionately and placed his phone down. He then unbuttoned his coat and shirt, undid his tie, then took off his pants, throwing them on the sofa in succession. He then stretched his long legs and walked into the bathroom.

The bathroom door closed and she could hear the running water.

Samantha checked his pockets one by one and made sure that there was nothing inside. She then picked them up and placed them in the laundry basket.

A cell phone notification was heard.

She thought it came from her cell phone, but she glanced at it and noticed that it was not hers. She then turned to the cell phone that Timothy had placed on the coffee table.

The notification was from his cell phone.

When she looked over, she happened to see a text message from ‘Bunny’ on the lit screen.

She had already confirmed that ‘Bunny’ was Harmony.

There was no way she could ignore it when that name popped up.

Samantha clenched and unclenched her hands as they hung on either side of her body. She walked to the coffee table and picked up the phone.

The unread text message said: [Thank you for the ointment…]

Reading the entire message would require her to click in, but Samantha had no intention of doing so at all. She could already guess the lovey-dovey contents in the remainder of Harmony’s text.

It was abundantly clear that Harmony was making her affections known in the photo she posted earlier, all because Timothy had brought her the ointment.

In that case, Timothy had obviously met up with Harmony despite saying that he had a social function to attend.

He did not tell her the truth…

If his relationship with Harmony was a normal one, then at most they were all childhood friends, like how Timothy was with Zachary and Jonathan. There was no reason to lie about a little get-together with one’s childhood friends, and it was not as though she could not be considerate of him if that was the case.

Unfortunately, he had flat out lied.

What could that mean?

Could it signify that his relationship with Harmony was really not as simple as it seemed?

There was a slight redness in Samantha’s eyes.

The sound of running water came to a stop and the bathroom door soon opened. Timothy walked out while wiping his wet hair and had only a towel wrapped around his waist.

Samantha sniffled, placed the phone down quickly, and turned to look at Timothy.

The man looked up at Samantha and noticed that something did not seem right with her. He frowned slightly and tossed the towel to one side before walking up to her.

His gloomy gaze landed on her face as he asked gently, “What’s the matter?”

Samantha lowered her eyes immediately and avoided making eye contact with Timothy. She quietly took a deep breath, suppressed her uncomfortable emotions, then opened her lips and went straight to the point without answering him.. “Timothy, do you…know Harmony Johnson?”