The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

"I don't like that," Willow said.

As Willow spoke, I looked up and saw Jessica's son standing on the slide, staring at me.

His gaze lacked the cordiality of a friend's and instead held an unsettling maturity that didn't match his age. At that moment, he looked at me with pure disgust.

I had initially wanted to keep my distance from them. Aside from wanting to gather evidence to expose Jessica's true nature, I had no desire to contact them again. Yet they had come right up to me.

Perhaps it was because I had always endured their provocations and bullying in the past that they thought I was easy to push around. Now, they had even bullied Willow. If I didn't fight back, they would likely continue to push their luck.

Imasked my cold expression and gently said to Willow, "But if you run away when others are bullying you, they'll just double down on bullying you. Do you understand, Willow?"

Willow obviously didn't understand. She looked at Zane and asked, "Daddy, is that so?"

Zane nodded. "Exactly."

Cody got off the slide and was about to climb up to continue playing when I grabbed his arm. Upon seeing me, he showed no effort to hide his disgust. But I ignored him and asked, "What did you just say to my daughter?" He looked surprised. "She can't talk, can she?"

It seemed he hadn't expected Willow to tell on him. I suppressed my anger and said, "I'm sorry to tell you that not only can she speak, but she repeated everything you just said word for word."

After all, he was just a kid. Upon seeing my serious expression, he panicked and shouted, "Mommy, save me! Annalise is bullying me!" Jessica, who was far away, finally noticed what was happening. She put down her phone and walked over. "How old are you to be bullyin I retorted, "If your son hadn't said such nonsense to my daughter, I wouldn't even care about anything he does!"

Jessica immediately tried to downplay it. "It's normal for kids to have some conflicts-"

I wasn't about to give her that opportunity. "Apologize!"

Jessica clearly didn't expect my response. "What?"Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

"Ask your son to apologize to my daughter!" 1 stated firmly, leaving no room for negotiation.

When a child hadn't done anything wrong, the parent must stand by them. Otherwise, they might feel that their parents would rather

let them suffer than defend them. In the future, they wouldn't tell their parents about any issues they faced.

Seeing my strong stance, Jessica started to act unreasonably. "What if I refuse?"

She even took two steps closer, challenging me, "What are you going to do about it?

Thad just glanced around and noticed Zachary wasn't there. So, I had a way to solve the problem. "Now you are Zachary's mom, and you should be taking care of him over the weekend, right? Jessica was stumped by my question. 1 asked with a smile, "But where is Zachary?"

Her eyes darted away. "He is playing another game."

"That's impossible." Zachary was my

like

I replied, "If he had come out with you, he would definitely be right by your side. But he isn't, which clearly means you didn't take him

and I raised him. Although he did to

myself to know him well.

My voice grew colder. "I'm putting this out there. If there's no apology, I'll tell Steven about this. If he finds out yo beloved son, what do you think will happen to you? you neglected hus