"Eomma!" Sophie's innocent cute voice rang as she ran towards her mother Eunji.

Eunji spread her arms and scooped her up off the ground and carried her in her arms.

As soon as she was already in her favorite place in the world, Sophie threw her arms around her mother's neck as if her life depended on it.

"Baby! I miss you!"

Sophie giggled when she felt her mother's soft kisses on her cheek as it tickles her.

"I miss you too, Eomma!"

Sophie's soft little hands never left her mother's nape as a beautiful smile plastered on her arms.

Sophie then peeked behind her mom's back to see if someone was following her or not.

But she pouted when she saw no one.

Eunji followed her daughter's gaze and her heart was like being stabbed by a knife when she saw the sadness in her daughter's eyes.

"Baby, what's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing Eomma." Sophie looked down with a pout for a moment and then she looked back to her mother's face.

Though she didn't say anything about it, it was pretty obvious that she was expecting that her mom was being accompanied by someone.

"You smell kimchi baby. Let's go and finish your dinner, yeah?"

Though she felt bad for her daughter, she tried her best to avoid the topic as she didn't want to spoil her surprise for her.

She then looked at Layla who followed her granddaughter when she ran towards the living room to welcome her.

"You didn't message me that you'll be coming at this hour." Layla held her arm as they walked together towards the dinning room.

"I'm sorry Eomma."

Angelina was already sitting beside her daughter in the dinning table when Eunji came in.

"Where's Master Liu?" Eunji asked as soon as she sat down on her designated seat on the dining table.

"He left earlier. He didn't tell where he would be going though." Layla replied as she sat back on her place.

Everyone were so focused on their food and no one talked on the dining table.

After they had dinner, Eunji changed into a more comfortable clothes.

Since it was still early for Sophie to sleep, Eunji asked Karina to play with her for the meantime.

Meanwhile...

Eunji's heart was pounding hard as she walked slowly towards her mother's room.

**Knock! Knock!**

She looked down as she waited for her mother to open the door.

Layla answered her knock seconds after as she gently opened the door.

"Eomma, I think we need to talk." Eunji didn't beat around the bush.

"Sure. Come in." Layla voice was calm when she said that which made Eunji thought that it was for the better.

Eunji followed her and she sat on the bed and made herself comfortable just like Layla was doing.

Layla had just finished making her bed and she was already on her pajama.

"Are you calling an early night Eomma?"

"No. But I'll be sleeping later after I finish reading some chapters of this book. I was already about to start reading it when you came knocking."

Eunji looked at the book that she was holding and she kind of want to tease her mother a little especially when she saw the book title.

"Destined Immortal Love? Eomma, that's a fantasy romance genre book. It is one of Master Liu's unpublished written books right? I didn't know you have a thing with fantasy novels, Eomma. I knew because Master Liu showed that to me the last time."

"You're right. I happened to enter his library and bumped into this shelf full of these books. This story made me hooked after reading a few chapters, so I asked him if I could continue reading it in my room every night. And he was okay with it."

Layla then placed the book back on the empty space beside her as she looked at her daughter.

There's no way that they would be talking about the novel that she was reading.

Of course, she won't mind giving her a summary of what she had read so far but that was not it.

"Why does it feel like we're going to talk something heavy tonight?" Layla looked at her daughter who was clenching her fingers and then relaxing it after she heaved a sigh.

"How are you Eomma?"

"I'm fine. Why? Does the topic we are going to talk about now had a relationship with my health?" Layla smiled brightly to show that she was indeed okay.

"No Eomma. It's not related to it. I'm just making sure that you'd be okay after this talk."

"Then go ahead. I'm in all ears." Layla's face turned serious as she leaned a little towards Eunji.

"I...I had a confrontation with Ana the other day."

Layla covered her mouth with her hands as she was surprised to hear her other daughter's name.

She then reached out to grab Eunji's hand as she said, "You met her? How was she? Is she okay? Oh my god! My poor baby. Why did she not come with you then?"

"Eomma calm down or we won't be having this conversation tonight if you'd keep like this." Eunji stopped her.

As much as she wanted to know everything from her, Eunji didn't want to put Layla's health at risk.

Yes, her major reason why she was in a hurry to go back was to interrogate her about her birth. But as she saw her weak and fragile appearance, she could not dare to hurt her.

She had no choice but to find out the truth herself from those people then. And if Nathan's theory was right, then...so be it!

The feeling of worry was very evident from Layla's actions and it could not be faked.

"No! I'm sorry child. As a mother, I could not help but worry about your sister. You understand me right? You're already a mother yourself."

Of course she understood what Layla felt that's why she felt sorry for the latter.

How would she feel if she knew that the daughter she had raised for years was denying their mother and daughter relationship?

If Eunji would be asked that same question, she could never imagine the amount of pain she would feel from that.

Eunji gave it a thought if she should pursue this matter or just stop before she would hurt her mother. She could feel like someone was poking her heart with a thousand silver needles as she looked at Layla's worried expression.

"Don't worry Eomma. I understand where you are coming from. But I hope you'll also understand where I am coming from so please calm down."

Layla nodded and Eunji watched the latter who was taking a couple of deep breaths.

Eunji also inwardly heaved a sigh before she continued talking to her mother. She was making sure that she won't be overly emotional all through out this conversation which was definitely a hard thing to do.

"She's not with me because she found out something about her and me. About our birth."

Layla frowned as she looked at her daughter.

"Eomma, please be honest with me. Please!" She pleaded to her mother as she pushed the lump forming on her throat back.

"I...don't understand. What about your birth? I gave birth to you both. I even passed out because of exhaustion."

Eunji looked at Layla as she studied her body language if she was pretending or not.

Or she could just use hypnosis right away on her in finding out the truth but she decided not yet because she's not an enemy. She had treated her as her mother and she was hoping that Layla would be true to her and not give her a lie.

A crease appeared on Layla's forehead as she looked at her daughter. She looked at her with those kind of eyes which were genuinely looking for answers, too.

Eunji bit her inner cheeks as she looked away from her mother who was now shaking her arms while demanding for answers. Layla's eyes were starting to turn red with big beads of tears wetting her eyelashes.

She looked away as she knew she too was on the verge of crying. But she wanted to hold it back.

"Eve! Tell me! What the h*ll are you talking about?!"

Layla voice was trembling as her tears were now cascading down her cheeks.

Layla was clearly not faking it.

Eunji looked back at Layla's eyes with a smile and in a moment, Layla stopped what she was doing and her eyes turned blank.

Eunji could not find the strength to speak to ask her mother in this state.

Eunji could no longer stop her tears from not falling as she felt bad for her mom. She was sure that if ever she would speak, her voice would tremble.

However, the seed of wanting to find the truth was already buried deep in her heart and it had taken the opportunity to seek answers.

Eunji subconsciously composed herself as she find the courage to blurt out the question she had been dying to ask the moment she had seen her earlier.

"Eomma...am I really your daughter? Answer yes or no." Eunji felt like suffocating as she could not breath.

Though her eyes had turned blank, Layla was firm with her answer.

"Yes, you are my daughter."

Eunji made a hum as she wiped the tears which where still messing up with her mother's eyes.

"I know Eomma. I'm sorry if I make you upset over nothing. I'm such a bad daughter, yeah?" Eunji chuckled as she made fun of herself.

She believed her mother but she wanted to know the truth, too. There's a great chance that Layla had no idea about this topic. That her mother was innocent.

She just happened to ask that question to a wrong person.

Eunji heaved a sigh as she gently continued, "Forget that we have this conversation tonight. Ana's fine and healthy. There are issues that we sisters have to settle first before she could finally reunite with us. Don't worry Eomma, I'll knock some sense to her thick and rusted skull so she would realize everything and she would come with me next time."

Eunji gulped as she tried to swallow the gulp inside her throat so she could finally calm down.

"Nod if you get what I mean, Eomma." Eunji gently said and Layla responded.

Eunji then made sure to wipe the tears from her mother's cheeks before her hypnosis wore off.

However she could never deny the fact that they had both cry.

Eunji looked at the book beside her mother and an idea popped up in her mind.

When the hypnosis wore off, Layla frowned as she could still feel the heaviness in her heart. She could even feel her eyes sore and puffy from crying.

As she looked at her daughter, Eunji's eyes were no better.

Did she suffer from black out?

"What's wrong Eomma?"

"What happened to you? More like...what had just happened?" She queried.

"Oh! We have been talking about the story and you started to become emotional and you affected me too."

"Really?"

Layla was frowning and pouting at the same time.

"Come on Eomma! I'm telling the truth, you know. I have already read that book and there's a part there that's really heart breaking...that I was bawling while reading it. You had just told me that part and see? I'm still emotional right now."

Somehow Layla believed her daughter because of how convincing she sounded when she explained.

"So...why are you here again?" She asked.

"Is it odd to have a bonding moment with you, Eomma?" She pursed her lips outwardly.

"Of course not! In fact, I love it." Layla reached out to her daughter and wrapped her arms around her for comfort.

"How I wish our every nights would be like this just like back in the day when you both sisters were still little." Layla continued.

"Me, too Eomma. However, things had become complicated as we grew up."

"And it's our fault that it happened. As one of the adults...as one of your parents, it was us who forced you both in this cruel world."

"Eomma, don't say that. And besides, it's already in the past." Eunji was rubbing her mother's back as she tried to coax her.

"Eomma, I don't want to promise but I'll make sure to give this family a happy ending."

Eunji decided to hide the matter about Ana for now. She thought that it was for the better.