Chapter 378 You Are a Bit Different Today

Chapter 378 You Are a Bit Different Today

For some reason, Caspian felt a terrible tightness in his chest!

Like there was a breath stuck there, unable to go up or down.

Caspian lit another cigarette. While smoking, he typed out a message, but just as he was about to send it, something felt off, so he deleted it.

After a moment, he typed it again, then deleted it again...

After going back and forth like this several times, his already irritable mood grew even worse.

His eyes flickered coldly as he hit send.

[Come back. Qiana needs you.]

Caspian's message sank like a stone into the sea, with no response.

Coralie still hadn't sent any word at all.

In the study, Elijah looked at Caspian leaning back in his executive chair with his eyes closed, and asked tentatively, "Mr. Romanov, what should we do now?"

"Send people to find her," Caspian said in a low voice. "There's a huge difference between her coming back on her own and me bringing her back. If she wants to dig her own grave, she can't blame me for not being nice about it."

Elijah could sense Caspian's suppressed anger. Worried he might actually do something to Coralie, he passed this message along word for word to Harriet.

"I understand," Harriet said. "Don't worry, I won't let Caspian do anything crazy."

"Okay."

Although they sent quite a few people to search, there was still no news of Coralie.

Caspian was completely enraged. Not only did he send more people, he also posted a bounty on the black market.

Under these circumstances, unless Coralie stayed hidden and avoided all contact with the outside world, it would be very difficult for her to hide.

Harriet was worried about Qiana, so she brought Della to the Romanov family villa.

"Harriet." When Mason saw Harriet, he couldn't help but burst into tears. "You're back."

"Grandpa." Harriet's lips curved slightly. "I'm fine, please don't be sad."

"I'm glad you're okay," Mason said, choking up. "Now we just don't know how Coralie is doing."

"I believe she'll be fine."

Harriet sat with Mason for a while, then went upstairs to see Qiana.

When Qiana saw Harriet, she immediately smiled.

Harriet picked her up tenderly. It was just time for her feeding, so Harriet took the bottle and fed her.

Qiana was very cooperative, gulping it down eagerly.

"Ms. Getty, Qiana really likes you. She's never drunk this well these past few days."

Harriet couldn't put her down. "Of course Qiana likes me. I like Qiana too."

"Without Ms. Walker here, Qiana is so pitiful." The nanny asked sympathetically, "Ms. Getty, can you contact Ms. Walker? Please ask her to come back soon."

"I've tried contacting her, but there's no response," Harriet said. "With Coralie gone, thank you for taking care of Qiana."

"This is our job. We don't mind working hard, but Qiana is quite dependent on Mr. Romanov. We're all worried he won't be able to handle it, since he has to work during the day and take care of Qiana at night. You don't know—Qiana has been so fussy at night that she's cried herself hoarse."

Harriet said, "Qiana seems to like me quite a bit. How about this—Della and I will stay overnight and see if I can take good care of Qiana."

"That won't do." The nanny immediately objected. "How can we let you take care of Qiana? You need to take care of your own health."

"My health is fine, and it's just for one night. Let's try it."

Harriet and Della staying over made Mason the happiest—he even ate more at dinner.

"Caspian, Harriet, there's something I want to discuss with you both." Mason took a sip of red wine and said, "Harriet is divorced now. It's not appropriate for your mother to continue living at the Lancaster family villa. Since it's close by anyway, let's just bring her back home."

"Grandpa, I've already thought about this and went to the Lancaster family villa to ask Mom's opinion." No matter how busy Caspian was, he would often make time to visit Sloane at the Lancaster family villa.

Although Sloane's mind hadn't cleared up, she had her own sense of awareness.

"Mom refuses to leave. She says Harriet will come back soon, so she'll wait there for Harriet."

Harriet's nose tingled. "I'll go see Mom tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll go with you tomorrow."

After dinner, the nanny and servants took the two children for a walk in the garden.

Harriet and Caspian followed at a distance behind them.

"Qiana was very happy today, smiling the whole time," Caspian said. "Harriet, thank you for bringing Della to keep her company."

"No one's company can replace a mother's," Harriet said with a smile. "That's why even after the divorce, I had to keep Della with me."

"Her mother isn't as responsible as you." Caspian's expression turned cold. "She was the one who schemed to get pregnant with Qiana. She knew Grandpa values family, so she knew that once she got pregnant, he would want her to have the baby. She thought that as long as she gave birth to this child, she could control me."

"But what she didn't expect was that after Qiana was born, I still refused to marry her, so she came up with this stunt of disappearing without a word to get my attention."

"She knows very well how dependent Qiana is on her. Without her, Qiana won't be okay, and the household will be in chaos. That's when her value becomes apparent."

"Qiana has been nothing but a tool to her from start to finish. If she cared about Qiana even a little bit, she wouldn't have just walked away."

Harriet listened quietly to Caspian's accusations before speaking. "Caspian, I won't say that children are every mother's life, but for most mothers, their children are more important than their own lives. I'm like that, and so is Coralie."

"You're not a woman. You don't understand how much determination it takes for a woman to abandon her child."

"Just like you don't love Coralie, so you'll never understand her love for you, or how deeply you've hurt her."

"How have I hurt her?" Caspian sneered. "Was it me who set things up when she climbed into my bed? Or was it my doing when she got pregnant?"

"From beginning to end, she was the one scheming against me. I just don't like her, and somehow it all becomes my fault?"

Harriet stopped walking, turned around, and looked at him seriously. "If you don't like her, why did you sleep with her?"

"Even if she poked holes in the condom, if you hadn't touched her, how would she have gotten pregnant with Qiana?"

"So I think when it comes to this accident with Qiana, you're responsible too. In fact, you just wanted to have your fun without her getting pregnant—your problem is even bigger."

Caspian was stunned by the lecture.

He looked at Harriet suspiciously. "Harriet, why do I feel like you're a bit different today?"

"Really?" Harriet smiled. "I'm just telling it like it is."

Caspian didn't press further and stated, "I really didn't want her to get pregnant, so I used protection every time. She was the one who tampered with it, which led to Qiana. Since she gave birth to Qiana, shouldn't she be responsible for her? I'm responsible for earning money to provide Qiana with excellent living conditions, and she's responsible for taking care of Qiana. But she hasn't fulfilled her responsibilities, which makes her irresponsible."

"How do you know she doesn't want to take responsibility?" Harriet asked back. "Okay, you say you don't like her, that you two are destined to never be a family, so you can only separate. Let me ask you, if Coralie was willing to let you go, would you let her take Qiana?"

"Qiana is my daughter. Why should she take her away?"

Harriet smiled.

Coralie really understood Caspian best. Without even asking, she knew he would never let her take Qiana.

"Caspian, don't you dislike Coralie and the fact that she schemed to get pregnant with Qiana?"

"I don't like her, but Qiana is my child, so she must stay with the Romanov family."

Harriet muttered under her breath, "You really are domineering."

"What did you say?"

"I said, you bossy types are all so domineering," Harriet said honestly. "In an ordinary family, even if this went to court, the child would be given to the mother first."

"Coralie isn't that stupid." Caspian sneered. "Even if she sued me, she wouldn't win."

Harriet let out a long sigh. "So you won't marry Coralie, you just expect her to be a free nanny at the Romanov family taking care of Qiana, is that it?"

"Who told you she's free?" Caspian sneered. "After I slept with her, Grandpa wanted me to marry her and treat her as the future wife of the Romanov family heir."

"I don't like her, but I've never had a habit of mistreating women. From then on, my personal account transfers her one million dollars every month. After she gave birth to Qiana, Grandpa mentioned it to me, so I increased it to two million."

"You all keep saying how much she loves me, but taking care of me is her job. After all, she's getting paid dozens of times more than the servants at home."

Harriet looked at him. "Coralie told me you give her money every month, but she's never used any of it. Have you looked around the house? Maybe before she left, she already returned the money to you."

Caspian was dismissive. "How is that possible?"

"Why not?" Harriet grabbed his wrist. "Come with me."

The two came to the master bedroom. Harriet rummaged through the nightstand drawer and quickly found a letter. "Caspian, this looks like a letter from Coralie to you."

Caspian frowned, stepped forward and took the white envelope and opened it.

Inside was a handwritten letter and a bank card.

As Caspian read the letter, his expression grew colder.

"Caspian, what's wrong?"

"You were right. All the money I gave her over the years, Coralie didn't touch a cent of it. It's all in this card, returned to me."

"So do you still think you haven't misunderstood Coralie?" Harriet sighed softly. "If she wanted to leave, she could have taken this money and started a new life. But she didn't. Maybe this is the only way she could prove that she wasn't after your money, that she simply loved you."

Caspian didn't speak. He just sat down on the nearby sofa, pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Harriet walked up to him. "Caspian, as Qiana's aunt, of course I hope she can have a complete and happy family. But as your sister, I hope you can find love. However, if you really can't fall in love with Coralie, no one can force you. As Coralie's friend, I don't want her to spend her whole life loving someone who doesn't love her back, so I think she's right to leave. At least now she's willing to start letting you go."

Caspian froze.

Harriet didn't say anything more and turned to leave the master bedroom.

Caspian smoked several cigarettes in a row, but couldn't calm the restlessness in his heart.

Coralie leaving without a word wasn't her putting on an act—she was preparing to give up on him?

For some reason, Caspian felt like something indescribable was quietly slipping away from his life.

This feeling made him very uncomfortable, yet he didn't know how to ease this discomfort.

Harriet went downstairs and continued walking with Qiana and Della for a while before taking the two children back to the room for baths.

By the time she finished telling two stories, Della was asleep.

Harriet tucked Della in and quietly got up to leave, going to the nursery next door.

Qiana was drinking her milk. When she saw Harriet come in, she smiled happily.

"Let me feed her."

Harriet took Qiana and let the nanny go rest first. She would stay with Qiana to sleep.

Caspian didn't appear all night. Harriet didn't know where he went.

But Qiana was fairly calm that night. Even when she woke up, she didn't cry for long and fell back asleep after being soothed.

Harriet breathed a sigh of relief.

When a child doesn't eat or sleep well, it affects not just the adults, but her own health too.

Qiana had indeed lost weight recently and was in poor spirits, listless all day.

Harriet put the sleeping Qiana back in the crib and lay down to sleep herself.

The room had good soundproofing, so she didn't hear the master bedroom door open.

Caspian walked into the master bedroom. Nothing had changed in the furnishings, and the servants had cleaned it thoroughly.

But he felt like something was missing.

Caspian sat down on the sofa, staring at the neat bed, and suddenly realized what was missing—Coralie.

Mason treated her as Caspian's future wife and required her to live in the master bedroom.

He could only move to the study in protest. The master bedroom was basically just Coralie living there alone.

In the past, whenever he came in, Coralie would immediately come up to him joyfully, helping him take off his coat and bringing him tea and water.

And he only came to the master bedroom to sleep with her.

Actually, Harriet was right. Even if Coralie had tampered with the condoms, if he hadn't touched her, she wouldn't have gotten pregnant with Qiana.

He didn't like Coralie, but he never sat down to talk with her properly, and never let her leave earlier.

He didn't like Coralie, yet he let her stay here and slept with her every few days.

Come to think of it, he really was pretty terrible.

Caspian laughed at himself and leaned back tiredly into the sofa.

The drunkenness surged up, but there was no longer anyone who would bring him a bowl of hangover soup.

The next morning, when Harriet came downstairs with the two children, Caspian was already sitting in the dining room talking with Mason.

"Grandpa, Caspian."

"Harriet's here, we can have breakfast now." Mason said cheerfully. "It's all your favorite foods."

"Thank you."

The family sat down to eat.

Harriet looked at Caspian and asked, "Caspian, where did you go last night?"

"There was a drinking event. I went to do some business socializing."

"Drinking is bad for your health. You should go to fewer of those events."

"I know." Caspian smiled. "I'll go with you to see Mom in a bit."

"Okay."

After breakfast, the two of them took Qiana and Della to the Lancaster family villa.

Before the car even reached the Lancaster family villa, Caspian saw Tristan's car parked at the entrance from a distance.