The next morning, Kenzie was in very high spirits since her father had agreed to her conditions, though he too had his conditions when agreeing with her.

She had a naughty smile as she looked at Daryl’s keys with squinted eyes. She had it with her since their last formal gathering with some of her friends. Daryl forgot to take his keys back, which she had borrowed to show off to her friends, boasting how faithful her fake boyfriend Daryl was by giving her his keys so she could crash in and out of his apartment anytime.

‘Friends?’ she mused, with a wry smile because of the possibility that some of them collided with those guys who drugged her, playing a hideous prank on her. Sarah was on it already and all she had to do was wait for the trial to begin.

She bit her lower lip with a bashful smile as her thoughts went back to her visiting Daryl today. She quickly prepared to go to Daryl’s apartment. She heard from his secretary that he was still on sick leave and she believed he was just in his apartment so she wanted to pay him a surprise visit.

She first stopped by their kitchen and asked the chef if the porridge she had asked him to cook was ready.

“Let me taste,” she muttered excitedly and their chef scooped some out for her to taste.

“Oh, it’s so tasty. Please pack it up beautifully cause I will take it with me now…” she told the chef who nodded with a smile. She even hummed as she watched their chef pack it up beautifully for her.

Kenzie then left home to go to Daryl’s apartment.

Daryl was almost cooking his breakfast when he heard footsteps coming close from behind him. He turned around and unconsciously dropped the spatula since he was cooking an egg, sunny-side-up.

“Kenzie?! How did you get in?” he whispered in shock. He even blinked several times and unconsciously pinched himself to make sure he was not hallucinating and dreaming at all.

Then he recalled his keys were still with her, making his face crumple.

“Didn’t you know that what you are doing is invading someone’s privacy?” he complained as soon as he managed to get himself back on track from the shock.

Kenzie gave him an awkward smile as she whispered, “I’m sorry. I thought we were close enough to pay you a surprise visit like this. I brought porridge since I heard you are sick. Besides… I want to properly thank you for helping me out last time,” she whispered bashfully, blushing hard.

Daryl heaved a deep sigh and finished cooking to face Kenzie who sat comfortably on his kitchen counter and brought forth the porridge and bread she brought.

“Try this. Our chef made this and the stuffed meat is delicious as well,” Kenzie uttered with a smile.

She was about to stand and get him a spoon and fork but Daryl signaled her to remain seated. She pouted her lips while she watched Dary grab his own spoon and fork, and put on a sulky expression.

Still pouting, Kenzie complained, “Can you at least pretend that you are happy to see me? It’s so early and your face is like a smashed potato…”

Daryl looked at her, expressionless, and asked, “Did you eat breakfast already? Do you want some juice or coffee?”

Kenzie smiled brightly and said, “I’m good. I always have breakfast with my dad. Just eat your breakfast now…”

Daryl sat and nonchalantly commented, “I would have contacted you anyway to get my keys back. You see my privacy is very important to me.”

With a twitched mouth, Kenzie handed him his keys.

“Didn’t you make a duplicate?” Daryl commented in a jest, making Kenzie gulped.

“Ah never mind… I’m planning to be tech-savvy so I will just activate my passcode.” Daryl brought up with a grin. He had deactivated his passcode since using the keys made him feel homier whenever he arrived home to open his apartment, for some reason.

Kenzie stared at him and unconsciously deciphered, “I bet there’s a story why you still use the keys?”

Daryl smiled and nodded. Kenzie’s heartbeat just stopped because of that genuine smile from Daryl.

“It reminds me of my mom…” Daryl opened up as he started eating.

“Hmm, you’re smiling. I can’t help myself from smiling too, whenever I remember my mom,” Kenzie commented with a smile.

Daryl’s eyebrows collided because he had heard that Kenzie’s mother died after giving birth to her.

Kenzie smiled knowingly seeing his expression. “Well… I heard a lot of good things about my mom through my dad and have seen a lot of photos of her especially from when she was pregnant with me. She even left a diary of her pregnancy for me to read…”

Kenzie paused as her expression suddenly became solemn when she added, “…knowing she won’t be able to stay by my side… ”

“I’m sorry,” Daryl whispered. He suddenly pitied Kenzie at the thought of how sad it was for her not to have met her mother. He was at least lucky enough to spend several years with his mother before the accident happened.

Kenzie smiled and said, “It’s okay. I feel like I already met her, just by hearing my father’s stories about her.”

Curious, Kenzie asked, “By the way, what’s the story behind these keys that remind you of your mother?”

“Oh that… Wait… Why are you really here?” Daryl suddenly changed the topic as he suspiciously stared at Kenzie. To be honest, he was still bothered by her presence.

His stare suddenly focussed on her lips while Kenzie was unconsciously biting and wetting her lips. Suddenly the memories of that kiss they two shared vividly flashed through Daryl’s mind.

‘No!!!’ He alarmingly mused as his eyes widened. He abruptly shook his head to remove the unnecessary thoughts while Kenzie on the other hand, was contemplating whether to tell Daryl about her intention to start work at Sy Law firm because she wanted to be close to him.