"No need. "I'll take her." Jeremy's deep eyes turned to his younger brother. Zephyr had always been obedient and deferential to him, but he was now holding Cindy's hand possessively. Everyone in the living room froze. Wait— What? Of everyone, Cedric reacted first and most anxiously. His eyes widened. "Zephyr! What... what is this? You and Cindy—you two..." Zephyr looked completely calm, tightening his grip on Cindy's hand. "It's exactly what you see."Jeremy's breath hitched. So his earlier feeling wasn't wrong. His memory also suddenly sharpened. In the past, Cindy always sat with Doris when visiting. Today, she sat next to Zephyr. Turns out, they really were a thing. Cedric's face darkened. He gritted his teeth. "When did you two start dating? Why didn't you mention it?" This brat! Trying to give me a heart attack! Quietly dating Cindy behind our backs? Doesn't he know Cindy is supposed to be his future sister-in-law? And we just went to the Blackwood Manor today to propose to Arthur! And now we come home to find my younger son with his granddaughter! If Arthur asks later, I'll lose all face! "Not dating," Zephyr said, interlacing his fingers with Cindy's. Doris, who had been stunned, asked numbly, "Then what—" Zephyr stated clearly, "We're already married. Legally." The living room fell so silent you could hear a pin drop. Everyone except Zephyr and Cindy was frozen. Cedric's mind short-circuited. Wh-what did this brat just say? "Dad, Mom, Jeremy. I'll take Cindy for a walk in the garden first. You all can sit and talk." With that, Zephyr led Cindy out to the garden. Garden lamps lined the path, illuminating the area brightly. Vast flower beds came into Cindy's view. She had arrived in a hurry tonight, pulled by Zephyr straight to the house without noticing the garden's beauty. After admiring the view, Cindy looked worriedly back at the house. "Was that a bit much tonight?" As far back as she could remember, Zephyr had been the "good boy"—obedient to his parents at home, respectful to teachers at school. In other families, older brothers deferred to younger ones. In the Knight family, it was the opposite—the younger brother deferred to the older. Whatever Jeremy wanted, Zephyr would never compete. Unlike her brother Jethro, who, though excellent, had shown a cunning and rebellious streak since childhood, Zephyr had almost no rebellious phase. Before, Cindy thought it was just Zephyr's good nature. Then Clara's words had cracked that illusion. No. It wasn't. Zephyr yielded to Jeremy in everything because he understood his and his mother's position in the Knight family. If he dared show the slightest disobedience, the slightest desire to compete with Jeremy, his father would severely reprimand his mother. For his mother's sake, he was forced to mature at a young age. Thinking of this, Cindy felt a pang in her heart and tightened her grip on Zephyr's hand. Zephyr stopped walking, his large hand completely enveloping her smaller one. He pressed his lips together. "I can yield in other things. But you? I won't yield an inch." Earlier that day, near the end of work, his mother had called, asking if he was coming home for dinner. Zeph figured he still needed to head back and cook steak for Cindy. She'd had a great appetite lately, and every night she ate a lot of the dishes he made. So he turned his mother down without thinking. Doris sighed, "Ah, looks like I'm eating alone again tonight." Zephyr instinctively asked, "Dad and Jeremy aren't coming back either?""Didn't say, but most likely not. Probably having dinner with Mr. Arthur Blackwood." Zephyr's fingers, typing code, froze. Alarm bells rang in his head. "Dad and Jeremy went to see Mr. Arthur Blackwood?" "Yeah," Doris complained. "They're still scheming! Trying to bypass Clara and Cindy, get Mr. Arthur Blackwood to agree to marry Cindy to Jeremy. Your dad is getting more old-fashioned. Doesn't he realize what era this is? Even for a business alliance, at least Cindy should agree. Tsk." There was a pause on the line. Doris called his name several times before Zephyr snapped back to attention. "Mom, I'll be home for dinner tonight. There's something I need to tell you." "What is it?" "I'll tell you face-to-face." After hanging up, Zephyr immediately called Cindy. His Adam's apple bobbed. "Cindy, I'm sorry. Logically, we should visit your family first. But the situation is urgent. Could you come with me to the Knight Villa tonight? To tell my mom about us?" Cindy had no objection. She immediately canceled her dinner plans with Darcy, went home, gathered some choice items from Clara and Jethro's collections as gifts for her first meeting with her mother-in-law, and came straight over.