221 Chapter 221

"Aunty, stay with us! Mom is so scary right now!"

"Yes, please protect us!"

"Um! Tony is scared, Aunty!"

Her nephews begged at her, and Chloe's willpower started to waver. Of course, she wanted to protect her nephews. She always had a soft spot for kids around her daughter's age.

But if she gave in and shielded them from Chelsea, that would only enrage Chelsea even more. It might place a big resentment in her heart because her boys chose Chloe instead of their mother.

"Go to your mother, Aaron, Mike, Nathan, Tony. She is just angry, but she's still your mother who took care of you," Chloe said while patting the heads of the boys one by one.

"But…"

"Don't worry, Aunty will come and visit with Boss Mackie soon, okay?"

The boys were still reluctant, but under their Aunt Chloe's coax, they finally released their tight hug on her waist and legs, then walked towards their Mom, who was still glaring at Aunt Chloe.

They looked scared, afraid that their Mom would yell at them. But Chelsea said nothing other than grabbed their hands one by one and yanked them to her side.

Chelsea's eyes hadn't left Chloe, and she said, "Don't you dare to get close to my children, you whore! You're a bad influence!"

Chloe opened her lips, ready to ridicule her sister again. But if she kept arguing with her, then everything would escalate again, so she just threw a simple smile and spoke in a very soft tone, so her nephews wouldn't be scared;

"Chelsea, watch your mouth, or you will lose everything."

Chloe finally turned around with her shopping cart, ignoring all the eyes staring at her. She acted as if there was nothing wrong as she went to the cashier, and the cashier looked at her with pity.

"Ma'am, I think you should treat your wound as soon as possible. The scratch looks bad on your face…" the cashier commented out of worry while bagging the groceries. "Do you want to buy antiseptic and bandaids?"

"Ah, thank you, please bag those as well," Chloe said with a smile.

The cashier was too distracted by how calm this lady looked despite having some bad scratches on her cheeks. So she bagged the antiseptic and bandaids before giving them to Chloe.

Chloe went out of the store and entered her car. She checked her face in the rearview mirror and realized that Chelsea had dug her nails into her cheek and made five horrible long scratches from the edge of her lips to the tip of her left ear.

The blood had dried out, and Chloe decided to just wash her cheeks with the antiseptic.

She soaked cotton with the antiseptic and started wiping the wound on her cheek in careful and slow strokes. She winced a few times but didn't stop as she knew the wounds might get infected if she slowed down.

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For many, a wound or scar— or even pimples on the face would ruin their days. But it wasn't all that concerning for Chloe because she was used to it.

"It's fine, Chloe, you've done this a lot, right? Vincent did this many times—"

Chloe stopped speaking when she realized she was about to open the pandora box buried deep in her heart. She shook her head and focused on cleaning her long scratch wounds. She put on a few band-aids to cover the wounds and called it done.

"Okay, it's time to pick Mackie up."

**

Chloe waited in front of the gate until the school bell rang and saw many kids coming out of the school's main gate.

Mackie looked around and saw her Mommy standing near the gate. Her face brightened, and she ran towards her.

"MOMMY!"

"Princess!"

Chloe crouched and hugged Mackie, who dashed towards her. Mackie didn't see anything wrong despite knowing that her Mommy's cheeks were covered with bandaids, something that she was trained to do since she was only four.

Chloe and Mackie entered the car, and Mackie just couldn't hide her excitement and asked, "Mommy, did you meet Daddy today?"

"Ah— I didn't, dear. He… is still busy…." Chloe replied, but she lowered her voice, hoping that her daughter would just drop it.

"Aww… then how did you get those, Mommy?" Mackie pointed at the band-aids around her Mommy's cheeks. "It's usually Daddy who gives you those band-aids, right?"

Chloe's eyes widened, and she stared at her daughter, who stared back at her with her doe eyes.

Chloe finally remembered that she had lied to her daughter many times. When Vincent… hurt her, she would cover the scars and wounds with band aids, and when her daughter asked, she said it was nothing— just a gift from her Daddy.

Chloe shook her head slightly as she tried to dispel the bad memories in her head, "This is not from Daddy, dear. I fell and hurt my cheek. But I'm okay now."

"AH?! Mommy, you should be careful!" Mackie said. She stretched her hand and caressed Mommy's wounded cheek, "Does it hurt, Mommy?"

"N—Not at all, dear. You know that I got this a lot from your Daddy, right?"

"Un! Daddy has a lot of bandaid gifts for Mommy!" Mackie said, still with her doe eyes staring at her mother innocently.

Chloe's heart was crushed once she realized she had to lie again. She wasn't sure if it was the right choice to lie.

'',

But what should she say? Mackie was so used to seeing her with bandaids or regular bandages. At her worst, Chloe was too desperate to keep her daughter's innocence, even if it would cost her sanity.

So she lied— a lot. Told her that Mommy was a strong woman who couldn't feel pain, so it never hurt, and the band aids were her Daddy's gifts.

'It hurts, my dear, a lot,' Chloe said in her heart since nobody would hear her woe, and she didn't want to tell anyone about this either.

'It hurts a lot, but I don't want you to know it.'

'Because I don't want to ruin your innocence….'