From Broken to Beloved-Chapter 112- truly happy

Lucca got back up from the floor and went to the bathroom, washing the tears from her face.

Standing in front of the mirror, she stared at her own reflection. As if nothing had happened, she curled her lips into a smile once more. Really—what was there to be afraid of when it came to Bert? What could he possibly do to her?

No matter what, she was now the young lady of the Channing family, the chief jewelry designer of Channing Jewelry.

Because Lucca herself had been despicable and filthy enough to attempt to kidnap Catherine and have others do such unspeakable things to her, she naturally assumed that Bert would use the same methods against her. But tactics that low and dark were beneath him—Bert wouldn’t even deign to touch them.

To Bert, destroying a person’s mind was far more satisfying than harming her body.

After getting up early, Catherine prepared breakfast. She and Renata ate quickly, and then Catherine got ready to leave for work.

Just as she was about to head out, she received a call from Bert. She thought he might have something important to discuss so early in the morning, so she answered—only to hear his clear, easy voice on the other end asking, 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"When are you coming down?"

Catherine froze.

The way he asked that...

Could it be that he was already downstairs at her place?

Her heart filled with joy all at once. Her voice trembled slightly as she asked,

"You’re downstairs at my place?"

He replied softly,

"Mm. I’ve been here for a little while. I’ll give you a ride to work—I’m heading to work myself anyway."

There was a faint hint of humor in his words. Catherine suddenly didn’t know what to say. Her chest felt so full that no words would come. She stood dazed in the entryway for a second, clutching her phone, then quickly bent down to put on her shoes. With the phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, she answered him lightly,

"I’ll be right down!"

After slipping on her shoes, she pulled the door open and ran straight out.

Renata, hearing the commotion from the bedroom, came out to take a look and realized Catherine had forgotten her bag on the cabinet by the entryway. She hurriedly grabbed it, opened the door, and called out to her,

"Cici!"

"You forgot your bag!"

Living on the second floor, Catherine had already run down to the first floor and was just about to exit the building when she heard Renata. She looked down and realized she really had forgotten her bag. Embarrassed, she hurried back upstairs to get it.

She had been so focused on getting downstairs quickly so he wouldn’t have to wait—and on seeing him as soon as possible—that this was the result.

When she came back up to grab her bag, Renata asked in confusion,

"Why are you in such a rush? There’s still plenty of time, isn’t there?"

Her daughter had always been steady by nature and very punctual. When going to work, she usually left well ahead of time, so there was no reason for her to be rushing as if she were about to be late.

"He came to pick me up. He’s waiting downstairs."

Catherine replied with just that sentence, then grabbed her bag and hurried off again.

For a moment, Renata even forgot that her daughter had a boyfriend now. It took her a second to realize that the "he" Catherine was referring to was Bert.

Bert was actually coming to pick her daughter up for work?

He even did things this trivial?

In Renata’s mind, as the head of a company, Bert should have been extremely busy—someone whose thoughts revolved around work all day long. Things like driving a girlfriend to and from work were what ordinary couples did. Seeing Bert do something like this felt oddly unreal to her.

After closing the door, Renata returned to her bedroom and looked down through the window. She happened to see Catherine, bag in hand, climb into a black car with a bright, happy expression on her face. Through the front window, Renata could vaguely make out that the man inside the car was indeed Bert.

Renata couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her daughter smile like that—sweet and radiant. That happiness was coming straight from her heart, which was why it looked so genuine when it appeared on her face.

It was obvious that this relationship with Bert truly made her feel cherished and joyful.

After Catherine got into the car, the two of them lingered for a moment before Bert drove away.

Renata glanced at the car. It was clearly not the same one Bert had driven the last time he took them home after shopping. If she remembered correctly, that one had been a Mercedes.

The car Bert was driving today, judging by the brand, was only a mid-priced model. It was low-key black, blending in effortlessly among the many vehicles in the neighborhood and drawing no attention at all.

The tension in Renata’s expression eased slightly. She thought that Bert had deliberately switched to a more understated car to pick up her daughter, so as to avoid neighborhood gossip.

After all, the apartment complex where she and Catherine lived was just a regular, middle-class residential area—not a villa district or a luxury neighborhood where the wealthy congregated. In a place like this, if a young woman were constantly being picked up and dropped off in a luxury car, given the current social climate, people who saw it would inevitably start making unkind assumptions. Was she being kept by someone? Or was she someone’s mistress?

Clearly, Bert didn’t want such rumors to fall on Catherine.

That realization significantly changed Renata’s impression of him. Regardless of whether he and her daughter would last in the long run, from the way he treated Catherine now, it was clear that he was protecting her. And the reason he was so meticulous in that protection was probably because he truly cared about her.

Renata couldn’t help thinking—if only Bert’s feelings for her daughter could last.

With a mature, steady, and considerate man like him by her side, even if Renata were to leave one day, she would have nothing left to worry about.

When Catherine sat down in Bert’s car, the happiness on her face was impossible to hide.

Yes, she was truly happy.

Being cared for by him with such thoughtfulness—how could she not be?