Take My Breath Away

The next target on Sheffield's list was his eldest brother, Willis, who was having an affair with his secretary. With Sheffield's interference, Willis and his wife got divorced, splitting the custody of their children respectively.

As for Felton, his behavior changed monumentally after he witnessed how Sheffield had put Sterling behind bars and how he had driven Sandra back to her husband's home and forced Willis into divorcing his wife.

Wanda's husband swore to her in front of Peterson that he would change for the better from now on. For the sake of their children, they tried to live harmoniously.

The last one Sheffield had to deal with was Pierson. Sheffield made it clear to his brother, declaring straightforwardly that he had already gathered irrefutable evidence of his brother's crime.

If Pierson still insisted on continuing down this wrongful path, all the evidence of crime would be handed over to the police.

Pierson had witnessed the power of Sheffield firsthand, so he compromised and moved out from the Tang family's house with his wife.

In a glorious late autumn afternoon, Joshua and Terilynn had a grand wedding in a five-star hotel.

On their wedding night, a vengeful Sheffield got Joshua drunk out of his wits with the help of Gifford.

By the end of the night, Joshua was so drunk that he missed his chance to have a wonderful wedding night with his beautiful bride.

The next morning, when Joshua opened his eyes and saw that Terilynn wasn't in the room, he cursed Sheffield and Gifford, upon realizing what had happened.

After Terilynn's wedding, Carlos and Debbie went to South Africa for a much-awaited trip. They were supposed to return from their trip just before Evelyn's 31st birthday, but they couldn't make it on the day due to a delay in one of their connecting flights.

Fortunately, Evelyn's beloved husband was there to take over the job that his father-in-law had done for nearly thirty years. He prepared a quaint birthday party for Evelyn and carefully decorated the venue himself.

The guests of the birthday party ended up being mostly younger crowd, consisting of Joshua, Terilynn, Matthew, a few of their friends and the little girl, Gwyn.

Rather than throwing a big glamorous birthday party, Sheffield decided to organize a little get-together befitting Evelyn's elegant age.

The loving husband tied a scarf around his wife's eyes and led her inside the beautifully decorated living room.

"Okay! We're here!" He let go of her hand and slowly helped remove the scarf from her eyes.

The moment Evelyn opened her eyes, she was greeted with the sound of a few loud bangs. Countless colorful petals and confetti shot out and scattered around her.

Then, the blessings came one after another. "Happy Birthday!"

"Happy birthday, Evelyn!"

The triumphant birthday cake was a double tier vanilla and almond cake with the bottom tier enclosed in edible silver leaf and adorned with a single sugar magnolia to honor the name of the person whose birthday it was. A tiny crown was mounted on the top. Around it, there were small pieces of chocolate made into the shape of high heels and bowknots.

The cake was followed by a line of delectable desserts and refreshments. At the other end of the table were all sorts of gift boxes, big and small.

Gwyn was dressed in a fashionable, light camel colored suit with her hair in pigtails just above her ears. Holding a piece of paper in her hand, she walked up to her mother and handed it to her. "Happy birthday, Mommy! This is for you!"

Evelyn squatted down to the child's level and looked at the paper curiously.

In truth, it hadn't been long since the little girl began to take lessons in drawing, but somehow she managed to paint something for her mother. Evelyn was only able to make out a woman in a purple dress with long, black hair in the painting. However, it was hard to tell where the person's face was.

There were also a few hearts drawn around the figure with different colors.

Evelyn's eyes became watery as this was the first gift she had received from Gwyn. This was one of the many beautiful moments she had been looking forward to witnessing as a mother.

Evelyn had seen countless doodles lying around in Gwyn's room, but she didn't think her toddler would be making so much progress right under her nose.

Picking Gwyn up in her arms, she gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, "Thank you, my baby. I love this so much!" This was surely going to be framed and displayed in their living room.

Gwyn gave her mother a kiss in return and said, "Mommy, do you look good in this painting?"

"Oh, that's me. Sweetheart, thank you for making me look so beautiful in your painting. You did a great job, Gwyn. Thank you, honey!" Evelyn was elated.

Gwyn chuckled at being praised.

After they sang the birthday song, everyone took turns in giving her a gift.

Sheffield's turn came last, but he didn't reveal his gift to Evelyn even after everyone else had given her their gifts.

Just as Evelyn was cutting the cake for Gwyn, Terilynn called out to her sister. "Evelyn, please come upstairs with me."

Evelyn was taken by surprise, but she dismissed her confusion quickly. "Okay!"

As they were climbing the stairs, Evelyn asked, "What happened? Is something wrong?"

Terilynn giggled and replied, "It's nothing. I had to come upstairs to fetch something, but was afraid of coming up alone, so I wanted you to accompany me."

Terilynn's fear was justified as the Huo family manor was immense and as such, Evelyn didn't think too much of it.

Coincidentally, she needed to fetch something as well.

While Evelyn wasn't paying attention, Terilynn turned around and gave Joshua a signal with her eyes.

Immediately, the others went to their designated spots.

After the sisters went back to their respective rooms, Terilynn sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Evelyn to come to her.

Evelyn quickly grabbed something from her drawer and walked out quickly.

When they returned to the living room together, Evelyn noticed a pink-colored cloth covering the table where the desserts had been kept earlier. Realizing that something strange was afoot, Evelyn stood there in confusion.

Having noticed her confusion, Sheffield grabbed her hand and took her to the table.

As they stopped at the table, Evelyn looked at the pink cloth in confusion. "What's this?"

Sheffield let go of her hand and pulled the cloth down, revealing many gift boxes all wrapped in colorful paper.

Each box was numbered, 1 to 31.

"Whoa!"

"That's a lot of gifts!" The crowd hooted.

Sheffield turned to look at the birthday girl with a smile and said, "Evelyn, these are for you. All thirty-one boxes in total."

"Why so many...?"

"To make up for all the birthdays I had missed over the years."

Evelyn gasped, quickly covering her mouth with one hand to stop herself from crying.

Sheffield opened one of the gift boxes and explained, "I saw your one-year-old photo. Gwyn looks just like you when you were her age. So I tried to make a doll that resembles the both of you. What do you think?"

He dangled the doll in front of Evelyn. Indeed, it looked like a cartoon version of Gwyn. Evelyn's words came in choked sobs. "Yes, it looks like us! I am so happy!"

Sheffield felt relieved. "Let me show you the second gift. What were you doing when you were two? I bet you can't remember. Although I wasn't there, I have my own ways of finding out the truth. You were playing with your mom's violin. She showed me the pictures. So your second gift is a crystal violin."