“Baaaaaa…”
Jian and Nian both woke up, and they started flailing their hands towards Nana for milk. Their stomachs were grumbling with hunger.
Nana shook Jinhai away and immediately got up from the bed to their crib. She picked Jian in her arms, who stared at her with big, black eyes.
“Aboooo?”
He softly touched her chin and smiled. “Baaaa baaaa….” He giggled.
Nana’s eyes turn moist and cheerful as she saw him laughing. Nian, in the crib, was just as cheerful. She gently clutched him a little tighter in her arms. The thought of never seeing her twins again shot a sharp pain in her chest. It felt as if somebody was hammering her heart mercilessly.
Their innocent gazes and melodious giggles had already taken root in her heart. How could she bear to part with the children she carried in her womb for almost nine months? During her pregnancy, she was eagerly waiting for the time to see her child and finally hold him in her arms.
And now, not even a month had passed by; she was already forced to separate from them.
Nana protectively held Jian and covered Nian with her body. “I will not let you take them away from me.” Her lips were trembling, and her eyes had turned wet.
“Baaaaa…?”
Jian sounded a bit concerned.
Jinhai noticed everything, and of course, it pained him to see her in pain. Only God knew how tough it was to threaten her like that. He didn’t want to do it, but he didn’t want Nana away anymore.
Just once…once she comes back, everything will settle down in a few days, he thought. She will be angry with me, but once we start living together again, everything will slowly go back to normal.
Nana glared at him. “I will not be helpless! I will tell my Dad about it. They wouldn’t let you get away with the agreement. That is a fraud.”
Jinhai got up and walked towards her. “Do you think I would have taken this step if I knew that somebody could defeat me? You can try all you want but tomorrow, the twins are going with me. If you want to live with them, then if course you can, but you have to return to Liu villa.”
Jinhai bent and picked Nian.
“D-don’t touch him!” Nana said.
“Why not? I am the father.” He swayed Nian in his arms, and he giggled.
Nana bit her lip hard.
Jinhai slowly said. “If you come back, then I will do anything you want. I am willing to change my ways for you. If you don’t like me handling the Underworld, then I will give up on it.”
Surprised, Nana looked up at him.
“If you didn’t like me handling Suyin’s death, and if you are so troubled with my ways, then I will leave the Underworld. Once I find the man who was hiding the Tangs, and once I find his true purpose in trying to attack me and finish his chapter off once and for all, I will leave the Underworld for you. I promise I will only handle Liu Corps. I will cut off all my connections with the Underworld.”
Nana was silent.
“I can leave everything for you, even my business. But don’t ask me to live without you. That is the only thing I cannot give up on. If I feel anybody threatening with it, even if it is you, then I won’t hold back.”
She trembled. For the first time, she didn’t know whether she should be angry at him for lying to her or feel helpless for threatening her.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I simply love you. I love you too much to bear our separation even for a moment. Do you remember what I said to you that night when the Liu family had come for dinner at Natsukashi? When we were alone at the storage?”
Nana remembered it. It was a few days after the incident in the Chen banquet.
“You said that I am crossing my line. I will say the same thing I said at that time.”
Jinhai put Nian back in the crib. He took Jian from Nana, and she protested, but he ignored it. He put him back in the crib too. Then he pulled Nana in his arms and inched his closer to hers until they were only a few centimeters apart.
“Don’t make any line. Either I will cross the line and come to your side, or I will pull you to make you come to mine. Either way, I won’t let any line separate us.”
He grabbed her chin and kissed her hard on her lips.
“Mmppf!”
Jinhai parted away. “Even if that line is you yourself.”
Nana trembled in his arms.
“You have time, still eight hours, to be exact. Think carefully, wife. If you don’t agree to come with me, consider this night as your last with the twins. See them and love them as much as you can because tomorrow I will be taking them with me.”
Jinhai let her go. Nana was silent for the whole time.
“Good night, my little wife.” Jinhai smiled. He turned and reached the door. As soon as he turned the knob, he heard Nana say from behind him.
“I will come with you.”
Jinhai stopped. His heart thudded loudly in his chest.
It worked. Even if the trick was cruel, he didn’t mind. It gave him the end result he wanted.
Jinhai narrowed his eyes and turned back. He walked back to her and lifted her chin.
“Say that again.”
Nana said in an impassive tone. “I will come back with you.”
Excitement and joy bloomed in his heart.
She agreed. She really agreed. Nana will come back with me!
Nana gritted her teeth, and her gaze dimmed. She clenched her fingers into a fist. “But you will not let the twins be away from me. You will not let me not meet them.”
As a mother, Nana didn’t have to think twice before agreeing to his deal. If it came to Jian and Nian, she was ready to agree on everything. She would rather die than be separated from her beloved children. If she had to live with Jinhai under one roof in exchange, then so be it.
