Chapter 291 Wonderful Night

Chapter 291 Wonderful Night

Gabriel knew Arabella was embarrassed and had struck him accidentally, but hearing Mary's words, he immediately played along, "As long as it makes her feel better, I wouldn't mind two more slaps..."

With that, he looked down at Arabella with a meek expression. "Still angry? Want to hit this side too?"

He deliberately offered his other cheek.

Arabella looked at his infuriating face, clenching her fists, really wanting to oblige him.

But Mary rushed forward holding Isabella, hurrying to intervene, "Stop, stop, whatever it is, just talk it out..."

Before she could finish, Isabella in Mary's arms saw her mother and immediately cried out anxiously, reaching her little hands toward Arabella.

Mary quickly said, "Isabella must be hungry, ma'am. Why don't you nurse her? I'll go make some solids."

Arabella took her daughter. Hearing Mary's words, she glared at a certain someone, both embarrassed and angry, "Nurse what? There's nothing left. Just make them formula..."

Mary had already turned to leave but stopped at these words, asking in confusion, "No milk? Did you pump this morning? Is it in the fridge?"

Arabella's face flushed red. Holding Isabella, she turned toward the bedroom, too mortified to answer.

Mary was even more confused, looking blankly at the master of the house.

Gabriel stood up, raising his fist to his lips and coughing, mumbling, "Uh... accidentally spilled it this morning. Better just use formula."

Spilled it?

Mary was puzzled, then suddenly had a flash of insight. Combined with their expressions, she understood completely!

This...

Really—

She must be getting senile not to have realized.

Gabriel had her and the nanny take the children out for a walk early in the morning—obviously to create time and space for him and Arabella to have their couple's time.

Mary coughed awkwardly and quickly said, "I'll go make the bottles right away..."

Gabriel followed into the bedroom and saw Arabella sitting on the armchair by the bed nursing, but clearly Isabella wasn't getting much milk and was protesting with whimpers.

He didn't dare approach, afraid of angering Arabella again, so he called out from a distance, "So... I'm heading to work. If you're too busy these next few days to watch the children, just have Mary take them back later."

Arabella remained silent, picking up her daughter to switch sides, hoping the little one could get a few more sips.

Gabriel touched his nose, not daring to say more, and quietly left, closing the door behind him.

As the bedroom door closed and silence fell, Isabella finally got a few swallows and stopped protesting.

Arabella sat in a daze, her mind full of those inappropriate images. She couldn't understand how pent-up Gabriel had been—every time he touched her, it was like he'd taken some kind of stimulant, going on and on endlessly.

Besides the endless physical entanglement, there were also his sincere yet seductive pleas at the height of passion—

"Move back in, okay?"

"Look how compatible we are in bed... if you just compromise a little, we could make it work..."

"The kids are growing up day by day, learning new things every day. You surely don't want to miss watching them grow..."

Rising and falling in those moments, he kept tempting her, but at that critical juncture, she couldn't spare the mental energy to think deeply.

Now, calming down to think about it while looking at her seven-month-old daughter in her arms—she had to admit, Gabriel's invitation was indeed attractive.

But what would going back mean?

It meant she'd have to depend on Gabriel again, live her life according to his arrangements. Perhaps after the novelty wore off, one day he'd fall for another woman, and just like when he'd been deeply in love with Emily, he'd start staying out all night again, start giving all his tenderness and patience to someone else.

Arabella didn't deny that in relationships she'd always been insecure, sensitive, and lacking in confidence. She was also timid, cowardly, and self-deprecating.

She couldn't think of any reason for Gabriel to like and be infatuated with her, except for her temporarily youthful appearance and her currently impressive nursing figure.

But beauty fades, bodies change. These chips that attracted him were fleeting.

Her wavering heart hadn't yet made a choice when her phone rang in the quiet space.

She stood up holding Isabella and found her phone. It was Ella calling.

It was almost nine o'clock and she still hadn't gone to the studio. She'd forgotten to let Ella know.

"Hello, Ella..."

"Are you on your way?" Ella asked urgently.

Arabella was startled and immediately became serious, "No, the kids stayed with me last night. I haven't left yet."

"That's good!" Ella sighed with relief. "Don't come yet. There are people gathered downstairs at the office building, and they seem to be looking for you. I don't know if it's related to what I told you about last night."

Arabella's mind buzzed!

What she'd mentioned last night?

That would be Jade seeking her daughter...

After being entangled by Gabriel tirelessly all night, she'd completely forgotten about it!

Still holding her nursing daughter, she panicked for a moment before quickly composing herself. She sat down on the bed, propping one foot on the nightstand to support the weight in her arms, and replied, "Got it. I'm nursing right now. I'll look into what's going on later."

"Okay, I'll update you when I have more information. Don't come here yet."

"Alright."

After hanging up, Arabella opened the video account.

Actually, Ella had logged into the backend last night and deleted many of the adoption-seeking comments, but the person clearly wasn't giving up and had posted many more, making even more followers aware.

Now those previously lukewarm videos suddenly had traction because of this incident, with every video filled with comments asking if the video blogger was an orphan, if she'd been separated from her mother for years, urging the blogger to respond.

Some well-meaning netizens commented that even if she wasn't that lady's biological daughter, given how much they looked alike, she should at least meet the lady to give her some comfort—spreading positive, heartwarming energy.

There were indeed similar short videos online that had gained attention—like a girl who'd lost her relative meeting an aunt who resembled her mother, with the aunt warmly giving her a hug; or a mother who'd lost her daughter coincidentally meeting a stranger who looked remarkably like her daughter, and they stayed in touch afterward...

The general public probably wanted to see another heartwarming story, so they were appealing in the comments for the video blogger to contact Jade and fulfill her wish.

Arabella looked at it all with growing irritation, staring at her phone in a daze, momentarily unsure what to do.

The daughter in her arms suddenly struggled, startling her back to attention. She realized she'd been blocking the baby's nose and mouth.

Frightened, she quickly tossed aside her phone and picked up her daughter to soothe her.

Mary knocked and entered, saying gently, "Ma'am, let me take the baby. Mr. Sterling said you haven't had breakfast yet. Go eat something."

"Okay." Arabella picked up her phone and went out to eat.

Sophia sent her messages on Facebook—two screenshots of exactly what Arabella had just been looking at.

Sophia asked: [What should we do? Do you want to respond?]

Arabella was eating and found typing too slow, so she simply called.

"Hello, Arabella."

"Yeah, I'm still eating breakfast. I probably won't go to the studio today. Ella told me to wait for updates, and I haven't figured out how to handle this yet."