Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 165

“What?” Julie suddenly turned her head to look at Kieran, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.

Kieran calmly drove, answering her, “At that time, Ben licked your neck, which led to an allergic

reaction. Of course, I was just a kid back then. I didn’t know you were having an anaphylactic shock.”

“So, what’s this got to do with you kissing me?” Julie looked at Kieran, waiting for his response.

Kieran shrugged innocently, “When I was five and learning to swim, I watched a first aid video. And I

thought mouth-to-mouth could save your life…”

“So you performed mouth-to-mouth on me…” Julie nodded, half understanding, “I’m really glad your

kiss didn’t kill me!”

“You should be thanking Ben for that.” Kieran said.

“Ben?” Julie looked at Kieran in surprise, then burst into laughter, “So Ben stopped you from performing

mouth-to-mouth on me?”

Kieran shook his head, “I still kissed you.”

Julie took a deep breath, “Can’t you tell the story in one go?”

“Then you can’t interrupt me when I’m telling it.”

Julie put her hand over her mouth, showing she would cooperate.

Only then did Kieran continue, “When I bent down to give you mouth-to-mouth, Ben ran home and

brought my grandmother. Just as I was about to kiss you, my grandmother picked you up and handed

you over to our family doctor. Then my mom called your mom to take you home.”

All Julie remembered was waking up and getting a serious scolding from Darcey. Darcey, in a bid to

prevent Julie from such dangers, confiscated all her comic books.

And it was precisely because Julie found it unfair that she later got involved in the incident of getting hit

for that ring. Since then, Julie frequently brought up the fact that she got hit in front of Kieran.

After hearing Kieran’s brief and clear description of the entire incident, Julie understood. She turned to

Kieran and asked, “So, the time after you won the interschool championship… was actually our second

time…”

“It was the third time.” Kieran interrupted Julie before she could finish.

Julie’s counting fingers froze in mid-air.

“The third time?” She extended another finger and looked at Kieran, “When was the second time?”

Kieran didn’t answer Julie’s question, but looked at her and said, “Do you remember the tombstone we

made for Ben?”

Julie suddenly fell silent. She remembered Ben, the big brown dog, and the hole she and Kieran dug

for him in the backyard of her villa.

To Julie, Kieran said, “Would you like to go back and see it?”

Julie looked at Kieran in shock. After her family went bankrupt, their villa was auctioned off by the court.

At that time, the Hernandez family was mostly under Lucian’s control. She wasn’t sure who the villa

was eventually sold to.

After marrying Kieran, he had asked her if she wanted to buy back the villa, but she declined. Firstly,

she didn’t want Kieran to do such a thing for her. Secondly, the villa held her childhood memories, but it

was also filled with painful past she didn’t want to relive. She was young and didn’t have the courage to

face hardships in life, so she chose to run away.

But now, Kieran suddenly brought up the topic, which surprised Julie. She asked, “Wasn’t the villa sold

in an auction years ago?”

Kieran didn’t answer her, but stopped the car in front of her old villa.

Everything here remained the same.

Kieran helped Julie open the car door, then led her out of the car.

Holding Julie’s hand, Kieran rang the villa’s doorbell.

Julie initially thought Kieran had bought back the villa, hence the visit. She didn’t expect him to brazenly

ring another person’s doorbell. Surprised, she grabbed Kieran’s arm, trying to prevent him from ringing

the doorbell and asked, “Are you taking me here to trespass?”

Kieran replied, “Aren’t we still outside?”

Julie pointed at the door and asked, “If no one comes to open, are you planning to take me in?”

Kieran shrugged nonchalantly, “Maybe.”

Julie held onto Kieran’s arm, pulling him towards the car while seriously saying, “Stop fooling around!

It’s so late, aren’t you afraid they’ll call the police?”

Kieran looked at Julie’s arm and seriously said, “I thought you were a superhero?”

Julie let go of Kieran’s arm and asked seriously, “Are you joking?”

Kieran admitted, “Yes, I am joking.”

With that, Kieran suddenly leaned down, kissed Julie’s lips, and stroked her long hair.

At this moment, the door opened.

Julie came back to her senses, ready to explain to the person who opened the door that she got the

wrong place. But when she looked up, she saw a woman in her forties.

She looked familiar. Julie thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered that this woman was

Ivan’s former nanny.

While Julie was still in shock, Kieran had already led her by the hand and walked into the villa with a

smile.

Kieran said to the woman who opened the door, “Helga, Mrs. Hernandez and I will be staying here

tonight. Could you prepare two rooms for us?”

Helga immediately nodded with a smile and turned to prepare the rooms.

It wasn’t until Kieran led her into the backyard that Julie remembered what she wanted to say, “Did you

really buy this villa?”

Kieran didn’t give a clear answer.

Julie asked again, “When did this happen? I remember the court sold the villa to an anonymous rich

man. How did you find him?”

Kieran stood in front of an old locust tree in the backyard, holding Julie’s hand, and calmly replied, “I

am that anonymous rich man.”

Despite the absence of stars in the sky, it seemed to Julie that she saw twinkle of stardust in Kieran’s

eyes.

He said, “I knew I’d bring you home one day, so I bought this mansion.”

“But you were broke back then. How did you manage to buy it?” Julie let go of Kieran’s hand and asked

him.

Although the question might not sound romantic, at the time of the mansion auction, all the assets of

the Hernandez family were indeed controlled by Lucian. Though the price of a mansion was a drop in

the ocean for the Hernandez family, Kieran was in no position to afford it.

Kieran laughed and said to Julie, “I struck a deal with Lucian. He agreed to buy the mansion and then

transfer it to me, and I promised to take over the company before I turned 22 to relieve him of his

burden.”

As for what happened afterwards, Julie was already in the know.

Kieran crouched down, pointing at the tombstone under the old locust tree and said to Julie, “My dad

used to say, you can tell a person’s character from their handwriting. One look at your writing and I

knew you were a super-heroine who could throw a punch.”

Julie gave Kieran a smack on the head, “You’re the one who taught me to write this way! You dare

make fun of me?”

Although Julie was allergic to dogs, she was very fond of Ben. After getting to know Kieran, Julie,

though not daring to touch Ben, often went to the supermarket to buy treats for him.

Ben seemed to recognize Julie’s scent. Once, when Julie was chased by a stray dog, Ben ran out and

scared it away.

But the lifespan of a dog is different from that of a human. Ben had lived with the Hernandez family for

many years, but in the end, he reached the end of his life.

Ben left this world after being euthanized. Julie insisted on burying Ben. She was young then. She had

heard that those buried in the ground could go to heaven, so she was convinced that Ben had to be

buried after his death.

Padgett Abraham adored Julie. Although Darcey forbade her to bury Ben in their backyard, Padgett still

dug a hole in the backyard with Julie.

Ben’s tombstone was actually just a piece of wood that Julie found.

It read “In Loving Memory of Ben”.

Kieran had held Julie’s hand and taught her to write these words, one stroke at a time.

Years later, looking at these childish letters, Julie felt a lump in her throat.

“I wanted to bring you back home long ago, but you refused me then.” Kieran gently brushed off the

dust on the tombstone.

Back then, Julie thought Kieran was just asking for her opinion, whether she wanted to buy back the

mansion, but he didn’t tell her that he had already bought it.

Kieran always worked in silence. He would quietly make decisions and then quietly carry them out.

He rarely explained his intentions and plans to others before starting something, which often led to

unnecessary misunderstandings. But when he finished, it always turned out he was right.

However, sometimes, even if his decisions were correct, the misunderstandings already caused could

hurt others, and these wounds were something he couldn’t mend.

That was the case between him and Julie. They could never tell who was right or wrong, but the

distance caused by misunderstanding now seemed like a deep chasm that separated them and made it

impossible to go back to the past.

After a moment of silence, Julie finally crouched down and caught Kieran’s hand that was wiping the

tombstone..