Cole listened to his father as though he was listening to an intoxicating story. "So, is my uncle really mentally ill?"Henry frowned and sighed. "There are different levels of severity to mental illness. Even if your uncle was ill, he had not had another episode since then. How else did he succeed afterward?""His business took off, but his love life did not. Avery divorced him and refused to hand over the custody of her children. Do you really think it's because they don't love each other? Maybe she's known about his illness the entire time and decided not to be with him!" Cole guessed.Henry considered his words thoughtfully."Dad, we already have nothing. We have nothing else to lose. Even if we side with Charlie, what exactly can Elliot do to us? I don't have any more money that he can take anymore!" Cole found his determination in desperation. "I have to work with Charlie."Henry took his glass and drank all the wine in it."Tell Charlie about this, and then what?" Henry scowled.

He had never publicized their relationship when Shea was still alive. It was a decision he made to keep her from the interference of the outside world; not even Avery understood him and thought that he hid Shea away from others' knowledge because he was ashamed of her intellectual disability.He had never once been ashamed of Shea; she would have died long ago if he felt ashamed of her.With Shea gone, he no longer had to worry about someone bothering or hurting her. Upon deciding that he would hold Shea's funeral, he started making arrangements on his own.When news got out, Hayden told Mike that he wanted to attend Shea's funeral.Mike immediately called Chad to ask if they could go."Mr. Foster is the one who drew up the guest list, you and Hayden are not on the list," Chad said in a troubled tone.Mike lifted an eyebrow. "Is Avery on it? If her name is on it, then Hayden and I will attend the funeral as her representatives.""No," Chad said directly, "he only invited some of

"He said that he has something to hold against you, but he won't use it thoughtlessly because he needs to reserve it for the right timing," Wanda said hastily, "as for what's the right timing that he was talking about, I have no idea. Charlie is a sly man. I haven't known him for long, so he doesn't really trust me. But we are content with our partnership so just give me more time and I will find a way to get that box back to you.""You already know that the box contains something that would post a threat to me; why would you give it back to me should you ever get your hands on the box?" Elliot said sarcastically.Wanda froze. Her mind went blank as she dazedly tried to think back to what she had just said.Why did Elliot sound as though he had been provoked?"I just wanted to know if Charlie has the box. Now that it's confirmed that he does, you are useless to me," Elliot gritted out coldly, "Wanda Tate, whatever you are plotting, I know everything."Wanda was scared senseless at

Mike summarized the incident in simple wordings and sent it to Avery while attaching a photo of Elliot that he took in secret along with the message.It was ten at night in Bridgedale. Avery had just gotten into bed and had yet to fall asleep.When she saw the message Mike sent, she tried to picture the reason behind Elliot's action, but her lack of imagination left her helpless in figuring out why he would suddenly attack the Tierney siblings.'If it was done to seek revenge from Chelsea for causing me to go into delivery early, why would he burn Charlie's apartment down, and why did he choose to do so at such a time?''There has to be something else that happened between him and the Tierney siblings.''Had it been any time in the past, I might have confronted Elliot to ask him what happened between them, but I no longer have the energy for that.''Taking care of the three children has taken up eighty percent of my time, and what little was left is reserved for treating Adrian's

Zoe's story was nothing but an enormous lie, yet he was even more laughable than her. At least Zoe knew that it was a lie from the start, but he had believed her story up until now."Avery Tate, why would you do this to me?" Elliot mumbled as he quietly sobbed, "why?"All he received in response was the sound of the wind blowing.On the way home, Layla muttered in confusion, "why isn't Dad happy when he finds out that Mom was the one who performed surgeries on Shea?""Layla, would you be mad if your brother lies to you?" Mike tried to explain with a metaphor. "Your dad wouldn't have been upset if he had known about it all along.""Why didn't Mom tell him, then?""Because your mom didn't want anything to do with him at first. She was afraid that if she gets involved with him, he would come and take you and your brother away from her. By the time their relationship improved, it was too long in the past for her to mention."Layla still seemed slightly confused by Mike's explanation