The Apple of My Eye

"Irrespective of the problems you run into in the future, if you need my help, I'll do my best to help you out, but..." Charles Lu put his arm around Autumn Ye's shoulder and said to Rachel Bai, "I am a married man now. I hope that you will not disturb my life any more. I don't want my wife to misunderstand the relationship between us. Have I made myself clear now?"

Charles frowned and continued. "I am ready to forget everything that happened between us today and before, but if you keep coming to me like this, I won't continue being cordial with you anymore." "You..." Rachel's face turned pale. Probably she had never thought that Charles would be so ruthless to her. She smiled bitterly and asked him, "Do you really love her that much?"

During the days when Charles was with her, he had never been so determined to clarify his relationship with any woman. And now, he was so anxious to do so only to take care of Autumn's emotions. Does that mean Autumn holds a very important position in Charles's heart?

She looked at Charles. He lowered his head and looked at Autumn in his arms. With an unconscious smile on his face, he said, "Yes, I love her very much, so I won't allow anyone or anything to jeopardize our marriage. I hope you can understand that."

Hearing what Charles just said, Autumn felt a degree of warmth in her heart.

As she realized that she had misunderstood him, she felt really embarrassed.

As a matter of fact, it was not Charles that she didn't have faith in - she actually didn't have faith in herself. After all, her rival in love was a mega star, who was prettier and famous than her. In comparison to Rachel, Autumn always thought of herself as an ugly duckling.

But now, the ugly duckling actually defeated the white swan.

She smiled and lifted her head. Her smile froze a bit when she saw the injury and anger in Rachel's eyes.

If it wasn't for her, Rachel and Charles would still be together. In reality, she became the other woman in their relationship even without knowing it.

It didn't feel good being the other woman, but love is selfish, so she selfishly wanted to keep Charles all by herself.

Rachel smiled bitterly. She knew that it was definitely not the right time to offend Autumn. She quietly stood in front of Charles and asked, "You just said that irrespective of the requirements I have, you will do your best to help me. Do you mean that?"

"Yes." Charles hesitated a bit but nodded solemnly.

"I have my birthday on the 8th of the next month. Will you come?" Rachel looked at Charles expectantly and said, "You have always been with me on my birthday in all the years that we were together, and I wish to spend my next birthday with you too. Is that OK?"

"Oh..." Charles hesitated.

Given the current situation, it was no longer appropriate for him to celebrate Rachel's birthday with her.

"You said that you'd help me as much as you can. Don't tell me you can't even do such a little thing for me?" Rachel challenged.

Charles turned his head to look at Autumn. He wanted Autumn to say something on this. No woman would be ok to see her husband celebrating the birthday of another woman.

Naturally, she couldn't be so generous to tell Charles to do that either.

A flicker of grievance flashed in Rachel's eyes but it soon disappeared. She said, "Mrs. Lu, I will have my birthday party with my fans and several other friends. I just hope that Charles could be there too. Consider it as... our break-up ceremony. You can come along with him if you want to."

"I..." Having heard what Rachel said, Autumn thought it would make her look narrow-minded if she said anything to stop Charles. Before she finished the sentence, Charles interrupted, "OK. I will come to the party with her."

Autumn wanted to refuse, but she couldn't say anything now.

This was definitely not what Rachel wanted, but she couldn't take back her words. She stood in front of Charles with a smile and said, "Alright, I will wait for you both." "Anything else?" Charles asked Rachel.

"No." Rachel shook her head slightly and said, "I will get the letter of invitation delivered to you. I should leave now. You... please take good care of yourself and get well soon."

On seeing the look on Rachel's face, Autumn felt a little sad when she saw her leaving.

"Hey! Pack up now and let's go home." Charles patted Autumn on her head and said.

Autumn came back to herself and picked up all of Charles's stuff. On the way back home, she drove the car while Charles was relaxing in the passenger's seat.

Autumn got her driver's license many years back, but she was not a good driver at all. Seeing how tensed she was on the driver's seat, Charles was amused. "Relax. You are driving a car. We are not going to any battlefield. What are you so nervous about?"

Charles's words didn't make Autumn feel relaxed at all. Instead, she got more nervous now. "Don't bother me. I'm responsible for two lives in this car...

"Don't be afraid." Charles comforted Autumn. "Just drive. I will make sure you are well protected in case something really happens."

Charles coached Autumn to drive and comforted her all the way, till she finally parked the car in their yard.

Autumn eagerly hurried over to pull the door open for Charles. She helped him get off the car and said, "Be careful."

"Hey, hey, it is my head that was injured, not my feet. Do I look so weak to you?" Charles gave an amazed look to Autumn and said, "Don't worry. I am fine, really."

Gary heard them and came over. He only frowned slightly when he saw the bandage on Charles's head. There was no big reaction from him and he didn't even look very surprised.

"Grandpa." Autumn just lowered her head the moment she saw Gary. They kept Charles's injury a secret from him so he didn't stress too much. Now that Charles was out of the hospital, they couldn't keep him in the dark any further.

Autumn always thought that this incident was her fault, so she frankly accepted the mistake in front of the old man. "I am sorry, Grandpa. I haven't taken good care of Charles."

"Silly girl, don't say that." Charles dragged Autumn behind him. "Grandpa, it's my fault. I was careless. It has nothing to do with her."

"How bad is it?" Gary's brows were still knitted when he asked Charles about the injury.

Charles shook his head slightly. "I had four stitches. It's nothing serious now."