Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 60

Julie wasn’t sure if Kieran was involved in the matter and it wasn’t easy to ask him directly. So, after

hesitating for a few seconds, she finally said. “I just want to confirm if you actually don’t know which

hospital Sansa is in

She didn’t know why she was so certain, but she believed that Kieran would understand her meaning.

After a while, Kieran’s voice came from the other side of the phone. “Don’t use the donation money in

Sansa’s name, because I didn’t donate anything”

It seemed that Kieran already knew about this.

1 see” With that, Julie hung up the phone.

Kieran, on the other side of the phone, turned his gaze to Karl’s face and asked, “Have you figured out

who made the donation?”

Karl shook his head. “The other party was very secretive, and we haven’t found any clues yet.”

“Call Ivan over, and you can leave now,” Kieran told Karl.

A few minutes later, Ivan appeared in Kieran’s study, Karl said you wanted to see me?”

“Wheres your handwriting practice?”

Ivan presented his practice book to Kieran like a treasured item, “I practiced for an extra half an hourl

Can I have my phone back now, dad””

So now he remembers to call him dad? Kieran expressionlessly opened the practice book, took a look,

and then sternly said, “Hand over your phone to me now!!”

The practice book, filled with Ivan’s handwriting from the past two and a half hours, was indeed

impressive. But whats with these messy scribbles of Kieran is single?

Upon hearing that his phone was going to be confiscated, Ivan quickly cowered his pocket, then looked

at Kieran with an innocent face. The teacher taught us to be honest!”

“And so!” Kieran looked at Ivan, “Saying that I’m single is being honest?”

Although he wasn’t wrong. But Ivan didn’t dare to defy Kieran’s authority. So he could only pout,

Kieran, you’re just jealous that the woman who kissed me is prettier than the nanny you hired for me,

so you’re confiscating my phone!!

Hmm,” Kieran nodded. “There is that reason”

Kierans frank admission left Ivan speechless for a moment. After stuttering for a while, Ivan finally said

to Kieran, “Karl said that you have symptoms of being single. I don’t know what that means, but being

single is something Shawna taught me! Can you not take my phone considering I’ve learned a new

word?”

Ivan tried to please Kieran by tugging at his sleeve. From the time he was born until now, he had never

tried so hard to please Kieran.

“Give me your phone, I’ll give it back to you tomorrow morning,” Kieran said to Ivan,

Upon hearing this, Ivan knew that this was the biggest concession Kieran was going to make.

So he could only reluctantly take his phone out of his pocket and say, “You cant delete my photos!”

“Well, go to bed now!

After getting Kieran’s assurance, Ivan finally left reluctantly.

Kieran glanced at the phone handed over to him and casually placed it on the table. Just as he was

about to start working on his computer, his phone suddenly vibrated Kieran glanced at the phone and

then picked it up.

There was an unread message on WhatsApp. Kieran curiously opened the message. Someone had

sent a smiley face emoji.

Without a profile picture on WhatsApp, Kieran casually clicked on that person’s status, which only had

two updates, one from five years ago and the most

recent one

The status from five years ago read. Waiting for the flowers to bloom and fall, the song ends, the

people scatter, the heart cools.

The most recent one read. Flowers bloom endlessly, old acquaintances meet but do not recognize

each other.

The date of the status from five years ago was the day Julie formally proposed a divorce to him and the

day they signed the divorce agreement.

“Waiting for the flowers to bloom and fall’, in Julie’s world, she was the leaf and Kieran was the flower

This was something Julie had once said.

In their second year of high school, they went camping in the wild. There was a field of wildflowers near

the camp. Just as it was getting dark in the afternoon, Julie secretly picked a bunch of flowers.

Although the arrangement was not very beautiful, it looked pretty decent when wrapped in plastic

wrap

With the fiery wild roses on the outside wrapped in a layer of grass and then another layer of lotus

leaves

She presented the flowers to Kieran like a treasure, shyly yet assertively saying to him, “This is for you,

accept it!”

Julie was very bold at the time, which caused some classmates to tease her, “Isn’t it usually flowers for

a beauty? How come when it comes to Julie, it’s the beauty giving flowers?”

“Nonsense, I call this flowers for a handsome guy in my heart, Kieran is the flower, he’s the flower and

I’m the leaf. That’s why I’m pursuing him. I’m the leaf waiting for the flower to bloom! If he blooms, I’ll

be the first to see it. If he withers, as the leaf, I’ll catch his petals. How romanticr

The silly things Julie did back then are still fresh in Kieran’s memory. It turns out that she had already

decided in her heart at that time: Waiting for the flowers to bloom and fall.

Kieran felt a twinge in his heart.

Looking at the post date of the status flowers bloom endlessly, old acquaintances meet but do not

recognize each other, Kieran immediately remembered that it was posted on the night of Bertha’s

suicide by jumping off a building. That day also happened to be the day he and Julie reunited after a

long separation,

In Kieran’s memory. Julie was not a literary person, but rather noisy, Julie, who was once referred to as

Kieran’s shadow by Elliot, was best at pestering him with various strange and shameless excuses. She

always managed to present the most boring things in a lively and exaggerated way.

He rejected her countless times because he really didn’t like noisy women. But she was like a warrior,

the more failures she faced, the more courageous she got Later, he didnt know when, but he gradually

got used to this silly girl’s carefree and enthusiastic presence in front of him.

Kieran went back to the chat screen and responded with a smiley face.

As Julie was leaving today, she shamelessly added Ivan on WhatsApp. She promised Ivan she’d keep

in touch. After dinner, she found herself bored, lying in her hospital bed, and the thought of the

adorable little boy crossed her mind.

“Are you still up, little guy?” a playful and affectionate voice note came from the other end of the line.

Kieran had typed Not yet’ on his phone and was about to send it, but suddenly paused.

Since Ivan can’t read much, wouldn’t he give himself away if he replied in text? But if he used a voice

note..

“I’m Ivan’s father” Kieran sent this message straight away.

Julie was drinking water when she saw the message and almost choked. As she hesitated, a message

came from the other end of WhatsApp. Who are you?”

After considering how to introduce herself, Julie sent a text message “My name is Julie Abraham, I’ve

met Ivan a few times, we became friends. Don’t worry, I’m not a bad person.”

“Oh,” Kieran sent back a single, indifferent word, which made Julie a bit nervous.

She suddenly remembered Ivan’s evaluation of his father. She thought it was incredible how mature the

little guy seemed for his age, and knew it must have to do with his parents’ upbringing and

environment. As Julie was contemplating whether she should do something for Ivan, another message

came through Are you the woman Ivan keeps asking me to marry and bring home?

Marry? Well, that’s awkward..

Julie felt she needed to clarify something: “You don’t have to take a kids words seriously, sir.”

“Are you married? Kieran, holding his phone, let a smile touch his lips.

Julie was taken aback by the message and weakly replied, “I was”

“Are you divorced then? Kieran asked further.

Julie honestly replied, “Yeah”

“Coincidentally, I’ve been divorced once too. Kieran quickly shot back.

Julie was taken aback by the response.

Then another message came through: “Did you divorce due to incompatibility?”

Incompatibility? Julie gave a self-mocking simile and didn’t answer the question. Instead, she shot

back, ‘So, sir, did you get divorced because you and your ex were incompatible?”

For Julie, because she didn’t know who was on the other end of the line, the stranger Kieran felt like

someone she could open up to. People are like that, often finding it easier to pour out thoughts that are

hard to express in front of friends and family to strangers. So on WhatsApp, Julie felt no need to hide

anything

Reading Julie’s message, Kieran pondered and replied, “No, it’s because my wife didn’t need me

anymore.”

Feeling that this wasn’t expressive enough, he sent a sad face emoji. Kieran swore, this was the most

shameless thing he’d ever done.

Julie didn’t expect this response, so it took her a while to reply, “Oh.

Kieran imagined Julie on the other end, probably wearing an awkward expression. The thought made

him laugh. He quickly typed, “So what’s the reason for your divorce?”

Julie didn’t really want to talk about this, so she simply replied, “Because we realized there was no

future together”

Kieran held his phone, typed a few sentences, then deleted them all. Finally, he sent another question:

“So, Ms. Abraham, have you considered remarrying?”