{"id":2763,"date":"2026-09-28T19:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/chapter\/capture-your-heart-224\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T19:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:48:20","slug":"capture-your-heart-224","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/chapter\/capture-your-heart-224\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 224"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter 224<br \/>\nCapture Your Heart novel Chapter 224<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Esme&#8217;s fifth birthday. William waits at the doorway for Esme and Karin to show up.<\/p>\n<p>But for Esme&#8217;s beg, Karin won&#8217;t take his suggestion. She recalls what happened last night\u2014<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mom, tomorrow is my fifth birthday. Can you stop your work to play with me?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She nods. &#8220;Okay.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Will William join us? He agreed to take me to Hyde Park if only you agree.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No. I can take you to Hyde Park if you want, but William is too busy, and you can&#8217;t bother him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But he said he wouldn&#8217;t be busy. Just let him join us, please. He can hold me in his arms if I&#8217;m too tired to walk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Looking at her face filled with anticipation, Karin is left in a dilemma as she neither wants to frequently meet William nor lets her daughter down. &#8220;If you get tired tomorrow, we can call a cab.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Too boring! Others can have their parents by their side, but I\u2026&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esme instantly covers her mouth with her palms as she realizes she has said something hurts her mother. Noticing her mother&#8217;s darkened face, she lowers her head. &#8220;Fine, I don&#8217;t want William to join us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Karin feels her tears welling up as she finds she can&#8217;t fail her this time. Esme has been suppressed her true feelings for Karin for the last five years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If William&#8217;s not busy tomorrow, we&#8217;ll invite him to join us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Really? You&#8217;ll let him in if he&#8217;s available?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Karin nods. &#8220;Of course.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hooray!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esme happily scurries to the living room and calls William to tell him the good news.<\/p>\n<p>What a sunny day for fun!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Happy birthday!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>William gives Esme a beautiful gift, and she takes it with a smile. &#8220;Thanks!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Have your mom given you any gifts?&#8221; William asks Esme in whisper when Karin is not around.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not yet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esme answers in whisper, too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where to go?&#8221; William asks Karin<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know! I&#8217;m the boss today!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esme pats her chest with her hands.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fine. Where do you want to go?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hyde Park is the first, and we&#8217;ll go to Buckingham Palace. Then the London Eye, Tower of London, and\u2026&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Too many places.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Karin levels Esme with a disapproving look.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How many places we can visit in a day?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Two, at most.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esme frowns and gives her decision unwillingly. &#8220;Fine. Hyde Park and the London Eye.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When they went to Hyde Park, Esme screams happily in William&#8217;s arms. She used to want to come here, but Karin was afraid she&#8217;d be too tired.<\/p>\n<p>At noon, William drives them to Hutong for lunch. Karin says with confusion, &#8220;The place is too fancy for lunch.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Never will they imagine whom they&#8217;re going to run into. Neither will the three people walking out of the restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Destiny can be so magical that it can separate a couple as easily as it can make them meet again. Karin&#8217;s heart is squeezed when she runs into Troy and Molly\u2026<\/p>\n<p>She has imagined innumerable scenarios where she&#8217;ll meet Troy again, but none of them are like this\u2014She&#8217;s with William and Esme, while Troy&#8217;s with another woman. Life is such a drama, isn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p>They both quickly pass by each other as their hearts are broken when their eyes meet. An unexpected reunion ends up in bitter silence.<\/p>\n<p>Karin almost runs to William&#8217;s car as she wants to run away from Troy. It&#8217;s the first time she has cried in tears in Esme&#8217;s presence. She&#8217;s too agonized to hold back her tears.<\/p>\n<p>Troy&#8217;s indifferent gaze stings her eyes. She knew it&#8217;s chuckle-worthy to draw 9,999 circles of saving their love in the first place, but she never thinks that she&#8217;d lock herself in the circles she drew.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mom, why are you crying?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esme nervously reaches out her hands to wipe away Karin&#8217;s tears. William also stares at the woman in tears as he can&#8217;t believe Karin still cares about Troy after five years. It seems that she&#8217;ll care for Troy forever.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m fine. It&#8217;s just I&#8217;m too happy for your birthday.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When she looks down, tears drop on the ground. Painful as it may feel, she can&#8217;t tell others about it.<\/p>\n<p>In a suite of Hutong, Molly asks Troy discreetly after debating with herself, &#8220;Do you know the couple we just came across?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No&#8221;, he answers coldly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But why do I think you may know them? You just stiffened when you met them, didn&#8217;t it?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just have lunch first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, he doesn&#8217;t like the topic as his eyes go colder.<\/p>\n<p>Molly knows that he hates to be questioned, so she instantly redirects, &#8220;When will Robert come here?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-2763","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/2763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/icuow.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}