You Are The Apple of My Eyes
Chapter 401 James Was Scared

If her mother managed to take the watch away from her, Nina would have no way of contacting John ever again.

If she couldn't contact John, then she was afraid she wouldn't be able to wait for him to come and fetch her.

Anne remained unmoved by her daughter's pleas. The bodyguards forcefully pulled on Nina's last finger. With the last line of defense broken, they took away the thing that Nina was protecting with all her might.

One of the bodyguards handed the watch to Anne.

The other let Nina go.

Nina sank down to the floor, her strength gone. She hadn't seen John for only a week, but she couldn't bear it anymore. Now that her watch was taken away, she wouldn't be able to contact him anymore. How could she stand it?

"Mom, please give me back the watch." Nina's eyes turned red, and she rushed toward Anne and clung to her arm. "Mom, I beg you. I can't live without him. I will go crazy if I can't contact him."

Anne's understanding of Nina was limited to what she could remember from two years ago, so her threats seemed empty.

In Anne's memory, her daughter had never been such a sentimental person. How could she go crazy because of a man?

"Nina, you are still young. You don't know what love is." Anne brushed off Nina's hands and reached out to pat her head. "Don't talk nonsense. Have a good sleep. When you get better, I'll ask Vicente to take you out for a walk."

'No, that's wrong.

I know what love is.

John has taught me what love is.'

With tears in her eyes, Nina shook her head. "Mom, I don't like Vicente. The man I am in love with is John. Please don't do this to me."

Anne's temper flared up as soon as she heard the man's name. How dared he teach her daughter to cry!

Where was the strong, brave Nina?

"I am doing this for your own good," Anne scoffed. "Stop saying all the time that you love this John! What's so good about him that you miss him so much? Is it because he used to treat you well? It's easy to replace his kindness to you. What if, one day, he treats you shabbily?"

"No, he won't." Nina shook her head firmly. "He won't."

"You are not him. How do you know what he will or won't do? If you bet your happiness for the rest of your life on the fact that a man treats you well, then you lose. Once he starts treating you like trash, you end up with nothing," Anne admonished her daughter angrily.

"Besides, I won't let you marry a man so far away from home." After saying these words, Anne swept out of the bedroom, leaving Nina to weep alone.

Tears welled up in her eyes and overflowed. Nina raised her hand and wiped them away, but more tears started falling as she did so. She just stopped wiping.

Anne stood outside the door and waited until she could no longer hear any movement. She quietly pushed the door in and stepped inside her daughter's room once more.

Lying prone on the edge of the bed, Nina fell asleep exhausted, her tear tracks fresh on her face.

Anne sighed at the pitiful sight. She bent down to move Nina to the center of the bed, tucked her in gently, and wiped the tears from her face with a hot towel.

The sensation of the warm towel against her skin made Nina smack her lips and call out, "Honey..."

Anne stopped wiping and looked down at Nina, a flash of pain in her eyes.

Her daughter had really grown up.

Nina was no longer a girl who knew nothing about life and love-she had now blossomed into an elegant young woman.

In Lexingport City

When James opened his eyes in the morning, he reached out to touch his phone, as was his wont, opened WeChat, and sent a voice message to Emma. "Good morning, honey."

"Good morning, James. Remember to have breakfast." Emma went out to work with the crew again. This time, there was still no scenes for the male supporting role, so the two of them had to live apart temporarily.

James sat up from the bed and looked down on his screen properly. He saw a lot of messages on his phone and began to read them.

As soon as he switched to the group chat, he found the message from Nina. He did a double take and rubbed his eyes, thinking, 'I'm not awake enough for this.' With his hand shaking, he clicked on Nina's name and read the last sentence.

"I'm going to tell your uncle John about this in his dream.' What dream?" Suddenly, James' body stiffened.

"Visit Uncle John in his dream? What the..." Something flashed through James' mind, and his expression cracked. Everything clicked in his mind as he scrolled through the previous messages.

"James, thank you for your money and house. I've received them. I'm the richest person in the underworld.

Many of the ghosts here envy me. Ah, and I have many followers now the Beggars' Sect is growing stronger."

'Were the messages from the underworld? Sent by the ghost of Aunt Nina?'

James felt a gust of cold wind blow across his phone screen. There was a chill in the air inside the room that morning, and a shudder ran down his spine.

"Ah!" James yelled. From his frozen state, he sprang into action. He threw his phone away from him, jumped out of bed, and ran outside.

"Ghost! Help! Dad, Mom, Dora, help me! There's a ghost! Help!" James was screaming all the way from the second floor to the garden, waking up everyone in the house.

Angela poked her head out from her bedroom and asked, "Why are you shouting so early in the morning?"

James raised his head, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw his mother's messy hair.

His face was pale.

"Mom, there is a ghost!" James craned his neck and looked behind his shoulder.

Angela angrily closed the window and went to the garden with her husband to ask her silly son what the ruckus was about.

"It's daytime. Where does the ghost come from? Don't be afraid. Mom is here." Angela went up and pulled the petrified young man inside the house.

James was afraid of nothing but John, as well as ghosts.

It took a long time for James to recover from his shock. He found himself sitting on the sofa, and Dora was thoughtfully pouring some hot water into a cup for him. "James, don't be afraid. There are no ghosts in the daytime."

After gulping down several mouthfuls of hot water, James calmed down a lot and explained to them in a low voice, "I really saw a ghost. Aunt Nina told me that she was going to visit Uncle John in his dream." His family stared at him, their eyes full of doubt. What he said was impossible.

Knowing that they would never believe him without any proof, he asked Dora to go and fetch his phone from his room. James opened his WeChat and showed them the messages.

"If you don't believe me, see for yourself. Aunt Nina replied to my message in the middle of the night. She said that she had received the money I burned to her. Also, she said that the ghosts there all envied her, and that she had many followers." Torn between curiosity and fear, James stretched his neck, wanting to see the messages again. However, he quickly drew back just before his eyes saw the messages. "Was it really a ghost?" Daniel asked suspiciously.

Angela glanced at him and said, "Bite your tongue. Just call John."

"Okay." Daniel called his brother through his son's WeChat. Soon, the man's deep voice came from the other end of the line.

"What's the matter?" Surprisingly, the voice sounded warmer than it did a few days ago when they last talked.

Before they could say anything, James asked in a trembling voice, "Uncle John, did Aunt Nina appear in your dream last night?"

There was silence for two seconds.

James seized the opportunity to explain, "After a person dies, the ghost will visit their friends and family in their dreams. Did Aunt Nina appear in your dream?"

Judging from the voice, John knew that James was afraid. Nina was probably unaware of James' ungodly fear of ghosts and scared him with her messages.

"I saw her last night," John answered truthfully.

When James heard this reply, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. "Listen to Uncle John!" he cried out. "I told you that Aunt Nina said that she would appear in Uncle John's dream. Ghosts are real. God, help me!"☐☐☐☐☐