Chapter 348 Midnight

Hiram's heart was overwhelmed at the sight of the three of them having dinner together.

"Look, it's Daddy! I think you haven't eaten yet. Come, have a seat and I'll get you a plate of food. We're having noodles!" Rachel said cheerily as she stood up.

When she was cooking for dinner earlier, she wasn't sure if he would show up to dinner or not, but she cooked enough food for him anyway. That's just how Rachel was.

So she was surprised to find that he really did come home for dinner.

Hiram nodded as he walked towards the dining table to take a seat.

She glanced at him, beaming. It had been a while since they had dinner together and she felt a lump in her heart at the lackluster amount of time they were spending together especially that she looked forward to dinner the most. It was when she was the most relaxed.

She always was happy when Hiram was around - she just exuded this specific kind of joy that only came out when she was with Hiram. What she noticed though was that she didn't realize she was exuding it until it was gone.

She fetched him his food along with some steamed buns that Fannie had made the other day. She heated it up before serving it.

The twins were also giddy that their father was joining them for dinner after a long while. They were so excited, in fact, that they finished their food and not a single crumb was left on their plates.

It was part of Rachel's duty to do the chores and as she finished washing the dishes and putting them away, she was just closing all of the lights in the first floor when something made her pause. By the staircase was a figure just standing there.

"The kids sleeping now?" She mused, wondering how long he'd been standing there, lingering.

"No, they're being told a bedtime story now," he responded.

When he saw that the kids were engrossed in the story, he silently stepped out of their room.

Rachel nodded as she slowly tried to make her way up the stairs.

But Hiram was unmoving - he wasn't showing any indication that he would follower her upstairs.

When Rachel finally reached him, she paused and looked at him but she couldn't make out his face in the dark,"Are you... Are you going out at this hour?"

Rachel finished. She knew that she overreacted sometimes, especially the day Patrick died which sent a different message to Hiram.

But she was honest with him, she never did fall in love with Patrick, and she swore that to her grave. She admitted, though, that sometimes her heart beat faster when Patrick looked at her but that was it and nothing else. More so compared to how much she loved Hiram.

"Mhm, okay," Hiram responded rather dryly as he brushed past her and went on his way.

Rachel turned around to watch him walk away. She decided to let it go, she took a deep breath to calm herself down, and continued her way to the second floor.

She peeked into the twins' rooms to check if they were asleep - they were sound asleep, tucked in their beds.

She silently walked in to turn off the story teller and place it back on their bed

“Who does she think she is? I won’t marry her even if she is the last woman on earth,” said Hiram Rong.

“Marry into a family with tens of billions of assets? How lucky I am! I won’t be so foolish as to break off the engagement. At worst, I can receive money as part of the divorce settlement,” said Rachel Ruan.

Their great-grandfathers made a pact about their engagement a hundred years ago...

room as long as he was back.

She had been thinking about this the past few days and she realized that what she said to him was going too far.

She thought it was ignorant of her to blame him for the explosion. She also learned a few days ago that the nearest Streams Company branch was the one required to rescue people when the explosion took place.

And Hiram's company had already given compensation to a couple of victims and their relatives.

The one on top carried the most weight - and he was dealing with a lot of stuff right now. He had to consider a lot of things before making any decisions, especially in his position. More so, he tried his very best to make it up to everyone.

She was only so frustrated because he wasn't sharing anything with her and this was causing so many problems, far worse and far many than he would've realized.

When she thought about things rationally, she realized how much weight he was carrying on his shoulders - far more and far heavier than she imagined.

As Hiram stepped into the bedroom, he frowned when he realized Rachel wasn't following behind him. Disappointed, he threw himself on the bed.

He felt something had under his body and when he checked what it was - it was Rachel's phone.

Rachel didn't lock her phone and he opened it accidentally.

He saw the forum that Rachel was visiting earlier. He scrolled through to try and find out what Rachel had been searching and posting recently.

'What should the wife do when the husband is mad at her?'

'How to make one's husband answer her call when he is mad at her?'

'Is there any software that could make people answer your call automatically?'

Hiram burst into laughter as he read through these. How naive of Rachel to have time to think of all these things?

Hiram continued to scroll through Rachel's phone when he found something he didn't like. The smile disappeared on his face when he saw what it was.

It was the list of victims from the explosion.

Apparently, she had searched it more than once.