Chapter 1442 New Year&##x27;s Surprise

After some time, Ethan finished placing the food that he had brought into the bowls. One was for
Estelle, one was for himself, and the last one left on the bedside table was for Estelle's father. Ethan
stood right beside him and said, "Uncle, happy New Year! I hope you like the food."

Seeing the sincerity of his actions, Estelle unconsciously raised her head to hold back the tears in her
eyes. It seemed inappropriate to cry at this moment. It was the first day of the new year, after all.

After a few moments, she was able to calm herself down. Then, she walked over to grab a bowl of
soup as if nothing had happened.

"Ethan, happy New Year. Thanks for bringing some food for us again."

"No need to thank me, Estelle. By the way, my mother also placed some coins inside the rice
dumplings as tradition. Everyone at home ate the rice dumplings, but none of us got any coins. It
seems that they are in this batch of dumplings. Someone here is about to be very lucky this year!"

Ethan lightheartedly replied while he took his own bowl of food from the table. He then briefly added,
"Well, let's eat! The food won't taste good if it gets cold."

Being visited by Ethan all the time seemingly caused all of the negative emotions in Estelle's heart to
fade away.

To everyone's surprise, the lucky coins were in Estelle's dumplings. Upon seeing how surprised and
envious Ethan's eyes looked, a joyous smile appeared on her face.

After they finished their meal, Estelle and Ethan agreed to go downstairs and look at the sunrise. When
they arrived outside, Estelle let out a heavy sigh and uttered, "It's hard to believe that it's already a new
year."



"Yeah, time went by so fast," Ethan briefly responded. Then he took a deep breath and thought to
himself, 'I guess a new game of cat and mouse is coming as well.'

In the meantime, Louis was in a rush to head back to the company. Since the holidays were over, he
had to deal with his business once again. Moreover, he had to keep an eye on Scott.

Similarly, Jacob kept a close eye on Darren. He ordered his people to report to him about even the
slightest of change in Darren's situation.

At the same time, Bonnie was reading random books in the study room of the manor.

She had no other option to entertain herself. The games she had on her phone was already too boring
since she had played them so much. She had been to every inch of the manor and, worst of all, Darren
didn't allow her to go out. So, books were the only things left to amuse her.

That evening, Darren came back home while Bonnie was trying to make a new dish she had just
learned.

Upon seeing the light in the kitchen, Darren placed his coat down on a chair and walked over to see
Bonnie in an apron.

Under the warm yellow light, the side of Bonnie's face looked gentle and charming.

Darren just stood there and watched her cooking. His legs even became numb from standing still for so
long. He then moved his feet and walked over to her side.

"What are you cooking? It smells so good,"

Darren asked out of the blue, causing Bonnie to be surprised. Then, he leaned over her shoulder and
sniffed the food even more.



She hadn't expected that he would be back home this soon, so she was completely flustered. She
wondered how long he had been standing there watching her, especially since she had just made a
foolish mistake while cooking.

At the thought of this, her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment.

"How long have you been there? I'm making some meatball soup right now," she said in a soft tone.

"I've been here since you started to shape the meat into balls."

When Bonnie turned around, Darren had a roguish smile on his face. It made him look quite attractive,
causing the atmosphere around them to feel a little romantic.

Bonnie didn't expect that Darren would simply stare at her quietly for such a long time. It was unusual
for him to have nothing to say, which confused her.

"Are you done? I'm quite hungry,"

Darren said, which somewhat ruined the romantic ambiance. He then went to the dining room and took
a seat.

"Oh, I'm almost finished," Bonnie quickly responded. She had indeed heard Darren say that he was
hungry, but she was still in a daze.

She took out a few meatballs and placed them into the bowl she had prepared beforehand. She then
poured lotus root powder into it and brewed it with water.

A few seconds later, she served the food right in front of Darren. It only took him a few minutes to finish
all of it.



She watched Darren like a hawk while he ate. She was a little worried that he wouldn't like what she
made, so she asked in a timid tone, "Do you want me to ask the maid to cook some noodles for you?"

"No, thanks, I'm going upstairs to rest. I have to do something early tomorrow. Good night," Darren
replied after he wiped his mouth with a napkin. He then picked up his coat and went upstairs.

"Okay. Good night," Bonnie mumbled while she watched him go upstairs. Then she cleaned up the
table and kitchen before going back to her own room.

The next day, Darren left quite early to go to the company.

Bonnie woke up to the sound of his car leaving. She got up and sighed, a little worried at the thought of
not knowing when she could possibly go back home.

On the other hand, Darren wasn't doing so well either. He was inexplicably irritated when he looked
through documents that showed the state of his company. Almost all of the papers showed a downward
spiral to bankruptcy. Darren had taken charge of the KING Group in hopes of bringing himself up, but
the damage which the group had received in the past made it impossible for him to do so.

He had honestly thought that taking back the company to deal with Jacob was a good idea, but he
hadn't expected that the KING Group would basically be a useless company.

It wasn't that he wanted to give up, but it would take a lot of painstaking effort to establish the company
once again. And there was no guarantee that it would even happen.

He would have to use all of his past experiences and wits to restore the company to its former glory.

Back in the hospital, Estelle came to visit her father right after getting off work.

Her father's condition had been getting better in the past few days. The doctor reminded her that she
needed to take good care of him so that he would wake up soon. That was why she had been coming



to the hospital every single day.

Ethan had even hired three nurses to help Estelle. The plan was for two nurses to stay with her father
during the day, and the last one to be with Estelle at night.

No one had any objections, so they did their work with contentment.

One evening, Estelle told her father some interesting things that had happened during her work. It was
something she did all the time as a way to bond with him.

"Miss Wang, you seem to have a really good relationship with your father," the night shift nurse said.
The nurse saw Estelle holding her father's hand and talking to him all the time. And every time she did,
she couldn't help but smile.

"When I was a child, my father loved me very much. Whenever I was bullied by others, I would go
home to tell my father. And he would help me teach them a lesson," Estelle replied with a giggle. She
couldn't help but smile while she recalled her past memories with him.

Out of nowhere, she felt her father's hand move. She was ecstatic and quickly exclaimed, "Dad! Dad!
Are you awake?"

After shouting for quite some time, her father still lay dormant in bed. Estelle felt a little silly and a bit
disappointed. She had honestly thought that her father had woken up.

"Miss Wang, don't worry. The doctor said that your father should wake up soon. Let's just try to be
patient."

The nurse could only help Estelle by giving her words of comfort.



"Okay, I know. You can go to bed now. I'll take care of my father," Estelle replied with a faint smile and
took the basin of water from the nurse.

Upon seeing this, the nurse simply agreed and turned around to leave. She then went to the cubicle to
rest.

Estelle gently wiped her father's face and softly said, "Father, you've been asleep for so long now. Why
aren't you waking up? Don't you want to see your daughter again?"

Her voice had a bit of anxiousness as well as a hint of restraint. Perhaps, it was because of her pride.

She lowered her head to rest for a bit, but as she did, her father's eyelids moved a little. It was quite an
unfortunate timing.

A few days later, the Lantern Festival arrived. Estelle bought some small dumplings and ate them with
the night shift nurse. She also placed some in a thermal cup so that she could have them for breakfast
the next day.

As night fell, the city lights shined brightly like stars.

But Estelle was not in the mood to look out of the window. As usual, she cleaned her father's face with
a damp cloth. After that, she leaned over to gently touch his face and whispered, "Father, please wake
up already. I miss you so much."

A teardrop slowly fell from the corner of her eye onto her father's neck.

"Estelle..... Estelle, why are you crying? You don't need to cry. I'm here."

A hand slowly touched Estelle's face.

Estelle slowly opened her eyes to see if what she had just heard was true.



"Dad... Dad! Are you awake? Can you hear me?"

She still couldn't believe it. She had been looking forward to this moment for so long. Now that it was
right in front of her, it seemed too good to be true. Had her father finally woken up? In a wave of
confusion, a faint voice responded, "Yes, Estelle. Please don't cry anymore. I'm right here. From now
on, I will always be here to protect you."


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