Chapter 35
Ella felt a bit guilty and avoided Samuel's gaze.
She could only lie for now. "Yes, they've been with me since birth. In their hearts, I'm their mom."
Samuel asked again, "So you had them with you when you were studying abroad?"
Ella nodded.
Samuel didn't think much of it, just felt that Ella had raised her best friend's children while studying, which must have been quite difficult.
He said, "The kids are great, but Aurora said she really misses you and wants you to come see her."
Ella immediately seized the opportunity. "I miss them too. If there's nothing seriously wrong with me, could you maybe take me to see them?"
Even though she didn't know if it would work.
As long as she could see her own children, Ella was willing to try anything.
Joshua wouldn't be back for three days, and there was no way she could actually wait that long.
"Sure, I was just planning to go chat with Dorian anyway."
Seeing Karen coming over with the medicine, Samuel gestured to Ella, "Drink your medicine first, then we'll go together."
Ella was desperate to see her children. She quickly took the medicine from Karen and drank it down in one gulp.
Seeing how anxious she was, Samuel felt a bit helpless.
"Slow down, don't choke. Even though it's a bit late to go now, you can stay overnight there. We're not in a rush."
Ella nodded.
After handing the bowl back to Karen, she urged Samuel to leave.
Samuel didn't think much of it and went outside to gentlemanly open the car door.
But Ella got into the back seat instead. She deliberately used Joshua as an excuse.
"I'd better sit in the back. You know how Joshua is—he tends to overthink things."
Sitting in the back, the estate guards wouldn't be able to see her, which would let her enter the estate smoothly.
Otherwise, if the guards saw her, they definitely wouldn't let her in.
If that caused a scene, Samuel would know everything.
Samuel thought that made sense.
There should be proper distance between men and women, and besides, Ella was married. Sitting in the back was just to avoid giving others the wrong idea.
He didn't mind and drove toward the estate.
Half an hour later, the car easily entered the estate. The guards didn't even look.
Ella breathed a sigh of relief and headed straight into the house after getting out.
By the time they arrived, Aurora and Dorian had already gone to bed.
Patricia was about to return to her room when she saw Ella coming. She went to greet her and proactively reported, "Ms. Garcia, you're back! Aurora and Dorian just went to sleep. You don't know how unhappy Aurora has been these past few days without you. It took me forever to get her to sleep."
"Thank you for your hard work."
Ella still pushed open the children's bedroom door.
It turned out only Aurora was asleep. Dorian wasn't sleeping at all.
Hearing the noise, he sat straight up.
In the dim glow of the night light, seeing it was Ella, Dorian lowered his voice and called out happily, "Mommy, you're here! Are you feeling better?"
He crawled to the foot of the bed, wanting Ella to hold him.
Ella reached out to hold him. Seeing Aurora wasn't moving, she must be asleep.
She first went over to kiss Aurora, tucked her in, and, after making sure Aurora didn't have a fever anymore, she carried Dorian out of the room.
In her arms, Dorian couldn't help kissing her, then touched Ella's somewhat thinner face, saying with concern, "Mommy, are you better now? Do you still feel sick anywhere?"
"Much better, Mommy's fine."
Ella also kissed Dorian, holding him in her arms. Thinking of Samuel downstairs, she asked Dorian, "Do you really want to learn from that Samuel?"
Dorian nodded vigorously, his big eyes shining.
"Yes! I think Mr. Harris is great. Yesterday when he brought me here, he bought me a phone and a tablet, and got Aurora lots of pretty clothes and dolls."
Too bad Ella didn't want to find them a father, otherwise he would really have taken a liking to Samuel.
Ella figured having the child learn from Samuel shouldn't be a problem.
That way, if Joshua went crazy again in the future and wouldn't let her see the kids, she could still get into the estate through Samuel.
She carried Dorian downstairs.
Seeing Samuel, Dorian enthusiastically waved at him, "Mr. Harris, you came too! I missed you so much."
Samuel came over and took him from Ella's arms, gave him a big kiss, and couldn't help pinching his chubby little face.
"I missed you too. The first time I saw you, I knew we had a special connection from a past life."
Dorian laughed.
Remembering that Samuel was a doctor, he asked about Ella's condition again, just to be sure.
Only after hearing Samuel say she was fine did he relax.
The three of them sat in the living room chatting for a while.
As it was getting late, Ella prepared to take Dorian back to his room to rest.
But Samuel said, "I'm not planning to go back tonight either. There are spare guest rooms here, so I'll stay. Let Dorian sleep with me, and you can stay with Aurora."
Ella hesitated a bit.
But Samuel had already picked up Dorian and was heading upstairs, kissing him as if he were his own child.
Ella watched their backs, feeling somewhat puzzled.
This Samuel had only just met Dorian—wasn't he being a bit too enthusiastic?
Besides, he was a doctor, so he should be able to tell the child's real age.
But he didn't ask anything, which made Ella inexplicably uneasy.
She went back to the room to stay with Aurora.
During the three days Joshua was away, Ella stayed at the estate with the children.
Samuel acted like he had nothing else to do and chose to stay as well.
All day long he was either teaching Dorian medical knowledge one-on-one or playing with him.
He was so caring and attentive that if you didn't know better, you'd think he was the child's father.
Thinking about the child's father, Ella froze.
She remembered that four years ago, at Joshua's birthday party, Samuel had been there too.
After she drank some wine someone handed her, she became disoriented and wanted to go back to her room alone to rest.
When she was leaving, Samuel saw she wasn't in good shape and personally escorted her to the hotel room.
In the middle of the night, she felt someone violating her.
But her whole body was weak, and she had no strength to resist.
After it was over, she didn't even get a clear look at the person's face before she fled that guest room in panic, dragging her aching body.
So was that person that night Samuel?
Because only Samuel knew where she was and could get into her room.
Ella sat frozen on the sofa, hardly daring to think about it.
At that moment, Samuel came from the back garden holding her Aurora and Dorian's hands, sat down beside her, and lovingly held Dorian close again.
The way he acted—how could it not be like a father's love for his child?
Ella was so frightened she broke out in cold sweat, her heart tightening with anxiety.
She couldn't accept that the rapist from four years ago was this Samuel right in front of her.
Even more, she didn't want him near her children anymore.
Ella quickly spoke up, "Dr. Harris, why don't you take me to work first."
In front of the children, she couldn't get angry.
Samuel definitely knew the children were hers.
He was a doctor—how could he not see that the children were actually three years old?
The reason Samuel was pretending not to know anything was definitely to win the children's affection, and then fight for custody later.
The more Ella thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
Samuel agreed and kissed both children several times before putting them down.
Then he went out to start the car.
Ella pulled the children close, her voice trembling slightly as she spoke.
"Aurora, Dorian, you stay here and listen to Patricia, okay? Mommy will come back to be with you as soon as she's done with work."
Aurora and Dorian were very obedient. Ella had been with them for three days without going to work—they should be satisfied.
The siblings personally saw Ella and Samuel off to the car.
As Samuel drove away, he clearly noticed something was wrong with Ella.
He asked, "Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Why is your face so pale?"
Ella didn't want to look at him. Her face turned cold as she said, "From now on, please stay away from Aurora and Dorian."