Single Mom's Sweet Husband (Charlotte)

Avery stood in front of the French window while he held his phone to his ear. "I just saw Shane drive away. Have you guys gotten into an argument?'1

"I want to ask you for a favour."

"Oh?" Avery raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Does it have anything to do with Shane?"

"I want to see Christopher."

Avery was stunned. He stiffened and replied, "No way, don't be silly! Why do you want to see Christopher? You've just had a lover's quarrel with Shane, haven't you? What would you..." Avery shook his head fervently as he did not know what else to say.

"Don't worry. He won't lay a hand on me. Just help me sneak an email to him, alright? Tell him that I'll be waiting for him at his mother's temple at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."

"That's..."

"Listen, his mother will be there. He won't do anything to me in front of his mother. Don't worry."

Avery sighed and said, "Why must you see him? Don't you think you should ask Rick or Peter for their opinions first before you do this?"

"I don't want to ask them. I just want to meet up with Christopher face to face. Please don't tell anyone else about this."

"Charlotte, why do I feel like I'm about to become your accomplice? I thought that all of us were standing together, but now, you're suddenly asking to go meet Christopher by yourself..." Avery didn't want to doubt Charlotte, nor did he want to question her decisions. However, this move was simply too risky.

He didn't even understand why she would take such a risk. Did she just want to see Christopher?

What was she planning to achieve after the meeting?

Avery had a headache just thinking about this. He really wanted to find someone to vent out his frustrations but he was afraid that he would disrupt Lottie's plans.

"I can't just stand by and watch Shane turn himself into a criminal." After saying that, Charlotte hung up the phone. It was obvious that she didn't want Avery to ask any more questions.

Avery sighed and immediately went to find Christopher's address which wasn't very difficult to get hold of. After tracking his email down with Charlotte's, he was able to send a message to Christopher without pinging his IP address.

After sending the message, he got a reply in less than a minute. "Who are you?"

"Charlotte."

"You are not her."

"Avery."

"We have nothing to talk about."

"You sure?"

"If you think it's not safe for her to come meet me by herself, you can come too. Here's the address. Just tell me ahead of time and I'll get someone to pick you up. I'll even send you to an excellent spying spot where you can watch me and Charlotte meet. You can even listen in on our conversation."

Avery hated Christopher. But when he saw that message, he found that Christopher seemed to be acting decent for once with his offer. He didn't sound like a murderer at all. This piqued his curiosity as to what happened between Shane's grandmother and him that made Christopher want to kill her.

Soon, he sent a message back to Christopher, "I'll be there. Where do I have to wait for the pick up?"

"Sharktooth Road. The driver will take you to a place with a good view of us. If you think it's necessary, bring some bodyguards with you if you want."

"You' re not planning to harm me or anything, right?"

"You tell me, Avery. You're a wise fellow, aren't you? You're not as cute as the rumours seem to imply."

'There were rumours about me being cute?' Avery thought.

Avery frowned a little and continued to type, "You' re really annoying. I can't wait to see your stupid face."

Meanwhile, Christopher was grinning maniacally on the other end. "Looking forward to it."

Avery let out an unexpected laugh at that.

It seems that things have taken an interesting turn.

The next day.

Charlotte arrived at the place that they had agreed upon.

There was a lake in front of her and a temple behind her.

On the other side of the lake, there was a park. Many children could be seen wandering around and playing with each other while they were accompanied by adults.

At 9:30 a.m..

Christopher finally arrived and walked up to her. "I didn't think you would willingly meet up with me for anything. Elaine has already lost the ability to make life difficult for you, so if you're here to talk to me about that, it won't be necessary."

"It's not that. I'm just here to tell you that if Shane asks you out for a meal one of these days, you'll have to watch yourself." Charlotte didn't look at him.

"Oh?" Christopher burst into laughter as his eyes brightened. "Are you warning me in advance for old time's sake?"

"I just don't want my beloved to become a criminal."

"Oh? Is he planning to deal with me like how he dealt with Augustus?" Christopher squinted as he gazed upon the lake. He stretched out, picked a stone off the ground, and threw it into the lake.

The stone skipped on the surface of the lake five times before sinking to the bottom.

Charlotte widened her eyes and gasped in shock. "You know what happened to Augustus?"

Christopher picked up another stone and threw it into the water again. Unfortunately, this time, the rock only skipped thrice before sinking.

He shrugged his shoulders with a smile and said, "I know everything about Shane. As his nemesis, of course I have to know him inside out. In fact, I think I might even understand him more than you do." Charlotte was struck speechless by that.

"You didn't come here just to tell me this, did you? You wanted to exchange favours. You're going to ask me how I killed Mrs. Fuller Senior, aren't you?"

"That's right. Aren't you worried that I might be recording this entire conversation? You just admitted to murder."

"There is no proper evidence to support that claim. Even if I admit that I've killed Mrs. Fuller Senior, the police will need to investigate that claim to arrest me. Unfortunately for them, they won't be able to find anything because there is no evidence left."

Charlotte sighed and gave up on goading the man. "I'm not recording you, alright? That is my show of trust to you. If we don't even have the most basic form of trust between the two of us, I suppose we can just leave it at that. There's nothing for us to discuss anymore."

"Alright, since you've chosen this place as our meeting spot, I'll believe that you weren't recording me."

"So? Are you going to tell me how you did it?" "Well, since you've asked so nicely..." Christopher sat down on the grass comfortably and began to explain, "Mrs. Fuller Senior was a woman who took great care in protecting her dignity. She didn't want an illegitimate child like me, but because she didn't want me to cause her any trouble, she showered me with plenty of care over the years. I only killed her because she was begging for it. She came to me willingly that day on the empty rooftop. I knew that she wanted me to do it so that I would live the rest of my life feeling guilty and restless for being a murderer. Unfortunately for her, I thought she deserved to die.

"If it weren't for Raina and her, my mother's life wouldn't have turned out like that, and I wouldn't have to live my life like an orphan. When Shane was born, he had everything he could ever want. He was even capable of killing Augustus at the age of twelve, but what about me? I was worried about how I was going to survive in the Gibson Family at that age! We have the same father, but why did I get treated so differently?"

"If someone from the Fuller Family had been willing to take care of me, things wouldn't have turned out like this."

"I understand why you wanted to take revenge, but I didn't think you were planning to kill them!" Charlotte interjected.

Christopher shook his head with a smile and said, "What better vengeance is there other than death itself? You cannot possibly envision the satisfaction in killing someone that has treated you like dirt all your life. It feels great."

Charlotte became silent.

"Are you scared of me now?"

"I was just thinking... If I hadn't stood by Shane at that time and trusted you as Zoe did instead, would things have turned out differently?"

"Zoe..." Christopher muttered her name to himself.

The ones who had loved him, he would always remember.

Zoe used to love him without reservation. Unfortunately, she was not suited for someone like him. He knew that she could live a great life without him, so there was no need to drag her into his mess. Perhaps, he had been reluctant to accept Zoe into his life because he cared too much about her.

"I heard that Zoe is going to get married to Peter. I'll make sure to send her an extravagant gift during her wedding. I guess that can be regarded as my last act of kindness towards her." Charlotte looked at Christopher silently. It did not feel like he was a stranger to her at all.

On the contrary, he still felt like her old friend.

She felt that this person next to her right now was no different from the Christopher that she had first met.

She suddenly realised that perhaps Christopher might have always been like this since the beginning. However, no one was willing to notice it, no one wanted to notice him.