Sweet Love 2x: Miss Ruthless CEO for our Superstar Uncle-Chapter 154: Are You Going to Have Babies?

When they stepped out of the study, the hallway air felt warmer. The quiet of the room they had just left followed them for a few steps, as though the study itself had settled again the moment the door was closed behind them. Gio carried the document box carefully against his side while checking the screen of his tablet with his other hand.

"These should be enough for the property manager," he said.

Arianne nodded once. "We’ll send copies later."

The conversation ended there.

They returned to the living room. The tall windows along the far wall allowed the afternoon sunlight to fall across the polished floorboards. Dust moved lazily in the beams of light, rising whenever someone crossed the room.

The piano stood near the window exactly where they had left it earlier. Its dark wooden surface reflected the light softly. No one spoke about it.

Lily wandered toward the shelves along the wall, her curiosity already pulling her in another direction. Leo followed a few steps behind, his tablet held loosely against his chest.

"Look," Lily said suddenly. She had opened one of the low cabinets beneath the shelves. Inside were several large photo albums stacked neatly beside one another. "These are pictures."

She dragged the first album out and carried it to the coffee table with both hands. The book was heavy enough that the table gave a soft thump when she set it down.

Leo climbed onto the sofa beside the table. He opened the cover carefully.

The first page revealed a photograph of a newborn baby wrapped in a white blanket. The child’s eyes were closed, one small hand resting near her cheek.

Lily leaned closer. "That’s a baby."

Leo typed quickly and turned the tablet toward the others. Aunt Aria baby.

Lily read the message aloud with obvious delight. "Aunt Aria was a baby!"

Franz leaned slightly closer to see the photograph. The resemblance was already there. The shape of the eyes. The small curve of the mouth. Even as an infant, the features were unmistakably Arianne’s.

Lily turned the page.

The next photograph showed a slightly older baby sitting upright on a blanket in the garden. But someone else held the child.

"Aunt Estella," Lily said.

The photograph showed Aunt Estella kneeling in the grass, one arm around baby Arianne while the other steadied her small hands. Aunt Estella looked younger in the image, though the warmth in her expression was exactly the same.

Leo typed again. He turned the tablet toward the room. Aunt Estella hold baby.

Lily read it out loud. "He says Aunt Estella was holding baby Aunt Aria."

Aunt Estella laughed softly from the armchair near the window. "That’s true," she said. "I did that quite a lot."

Lily turned another page. Nearly every photograph on the next few pages showed the same pattern. Aunt Estella holding baby Arianne in the garden. Aunt Estella feeding her at the dining table. Aunt Estella guiding the toddler’s hands while she stood near the piano bench.

Lily looked up. "You were always with Aunt Estella."

Aunt Estella smiled gently. "Your Aunt Aria kept me very busy."

Leo studied the photographs carefully.

Lily nodded. "You carried her everywhere."

Franz watched the pages turn slowly. The photographs revealed something very clearly. Arianne had not grown up surrounded by the usual images of parents and child. Aunt Estella appeared in nearly every frame.

Arianne stood quietly near the coffee table watching the twins flip through the album. Her expression remained composed. But Franz noticed she did not step closer.

Lily turned another page. "Oh."

The photograph on the next page was different. A woman sat in a chair beside the garden window. Her dark hair fell loosely over one shoulder, and she held a young Arianne in her arms.

Ysabella Conway.

The photograph felt different from the others. The way Ysabella held the child seemed almost tentative, as though she had been caught off guard. Her expression was gentle, but there was a hesitation in the way her hands supported the child.

Leo looked at the picture for several seconds before typing. He turned the tablet toward Franz. Mama holding.

Lily read it. "He says your mom is holding you." She looked toward Arianne. "That’s your mom, right?"

"Yes," Arianne said. Her voice remained calm.

Aunt Estella leaned forward in her chair to look at the photograph. "That one was taken during a family gathering," she said. "Arianne’s grandmother insisted on it."

Lily studied the picture again. "Maybe someone took it when she wasn’t looking."

Aunt Estella smiled faintly. "That would not surprise me."

The page turned again. The next set of photographs introduced another presence. Gabriel Summers.

In the first image he sat across from young Arianne at a desk. Papers were spread between them. Gabriel pointed at something on the page while Arianne held a pencil carefully above a notebook.

The next photograph showed them standing beside a chalkboard. Numbers covered the surface. Columns of figures written neatly in white chalk.

Lily tilted her head. "Are you doing homework?"

Arianne stepped closer to the table. "My father preferred to teach on Saturdays."

Lily read the message. "He’s teaching you something."

Gio leaned over the back of the sofa to look. "That must have been when he started teaching you finance."

Aunt Estella nodded. "Every Saturday afternoon."

Lily frowned slightly. "Every Saturday?"

Aunt Estella chuckled. "Her father believed your Aunt Aria would inherit the company one day."

Another photograph showed Gabriel handing a stack of papers to a young Arianne. The papers were filled with numbers. Even in the image, the structure of the equations was visible.

Franz studied the photograph quietly. The interaction between father and daughter looked more like a lesson than a family moment. Arianne sat with her back straight, listening carefully. Prepared. Focused.

Leo turned another page. More photographs appeared. Arianne standing beside a chalkboard. Arianne writing numbers into a notebook. Arianne reading a book that looked far too advanced for a child her age.

Leo typed again. He turned the tablet toward the others. Lots homework.

Lily laughed. "You did a lot of studying."

Arianne said nothing.

The pages turned slowly. Occasionally a photograph showed Arianne standing beside Gabriel at a formal event. Even as a child she carried herself with the same composed posture she had now. Straight shoulders. Calm expression.

Leo typed again. Serious.

Lily read it aloud. "You were serious."

Gio gave a quiet laugh. "She still is."

Lily flipped to the next page. The photograph that appeared there was different from the others.

Toddler Arianne ran barefoot across the garden lawn. Her hair moved freely around her shoulders, and she held a small wooden toy in one hand. The smile on her face was bright and unguarded.

Lily grinned. "She’s so little."

Leo studied the picture. Then he typed slowly. He turned the tablet toward Franz. Baby like Aunt Aria.

Lily read the message carefully.

"He says a baby might look like Aunt Aria."

She turned toward Franz and Arianne. "Are you and Uncle Franz going to have babies?"

The room fell quiet for a moment.

Gio nearly lost his grip on the document box. "Lily—"

Aunt Estella laughed softly. "Children ask the most direct questions."

Leo continued typing. He lifted the tablet again. Girl baby.

Lily nodded enthusiastically. "A baby girl would be nice."

Gio rubbed his forehead. "You two are planning very far ahead."

Franz didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained on the photograph. Toddler Arianne stood barefoot in the grass, holding the wooden toy with both hands while sunlight fell across her hair.

For a moment he glanced up. Lily sat cross-legged on the floor beside the table, leaning forward with her chin resting on her hands while she examined the picture.

The resemblance between the child in the photograph and the little girl sitting beside him was easy to imagine.

Franz lowered his gaze back to the image.

The thought came quietly.

A daughter might look like that.

Arianne reached forward and closed the album gently.

"That’s enough exploring." Her tone was calm rather than strict.

Leo nodded once.

Lily slid off the sofa. As she stepped away from the coffee table, her eyes drifted across the room. They stopped at the piano beside the window.

The instrument stood exactly where it had been earlier. Sunlight rested across its polished surface.

Lily looked at it for several seconds before glancing back toward Arianne. But she didn’t say anything yet.

The album remained closed on the coffee table. One corner of a photograph peeked slightly between the pages.

The quiet house settled around them once more.