Vincent Grant flicked the glowing red tip of his cigarette with a long finger. He held it but didn’t smoke, letting out a soft laugh. "What’s the big deal? I never planned on getting a divorce in the first place."
Miles Grant: "..."
The whole world knew they were getting a divorce. How could the man himself not know?
Shane Grant happened to be walking over with Lena Grant and Claire Grant just then. Hearing Vincent Grant’s words, he scoffed. "Vincent, you’re really sothing else. You don’t want a divorce, yet you’re seen everywhere with another woman, burning money to launch rockets for her."
"What a scumbag."
As his older sisters, with a much larger age gap, Lena Grant and Claire Grant couldn’t be as blunt as Shane Grant.
But they both silently agreed with what Shane had said.
Vincent Grant frowned slightly but offered no explanation.
’So things were fine as long as he alone understood them.’
’His actions toward Joanna Sherman were born from a youthful promise.’
’The n of the Grant family always keep their word. He had promised to help her launch her rocket, and he would see it through.’
’Once these next six months were over and Zenith was on the right track, he would pull back and return to his family.’
’No matter what Sophia Shaw had done six years ago, or even one year ago, he no longer wanted to dwell on it.’
Vincent Grant turned and walked away.
Shane Grant scoffed again. "If he knew it would end up like this, he shouldn’t have married her in the first place. He’s wasted so many years of her life!"
Lena Grant and Claire Grant nudged him. "Don’t make things so tense."
Their own mother was terminally ill. For the brothers to beco enemies at a ti like this would be a complete farce.
In the early hours of the morning, Sophia Shaw was startled awake by a sudden burst of crying.
Half-awake and half-dreaming, she seed to have returned to the year she was fifteen.
Her mother, with her in the car, stared with bloodshot eyes at another vehicle where Chad Jennings and Yvonne Sherman were locked in a passionate, inseparable kiss.
She was gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white and looked dislocated, her jaw clenched shut.
But her body wouldn’t stop trembling.
Her features were twisted, as if they might crack.
It was the first ti she had seen her father in such a despicable state. Her whole world ca crashing down.
Terrified by her mother’s ferocious expression, tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t dare let them fall.
She whispered, "Mom," and reached out to tug on the corner of her clothes.
The car shot forward, pinning her to the back of her seat. Before she could process what was happening, her body was thrown violently against the front windshield.
In the instant her head slamd forward, she saw the front of their car hurtling madly toward Chad Jennings and Yvonne Sherman...
The day she awoke in a daze, the first thing she heard was crying.
Sorrowful.
Subdued.
Restrained.
Desperate.
Fighting through a headache, she walked out and into another hospital room.
She saw a crowd of people gathered around a bed, which was covered by a sheet.
She didn’t know what had happened, but she saw that the hand sticking out from under the sheet was wearing the fishbone bracelet she had made herself.
That was the gift she had given her mother!
She rushed over like a madwoman and yanked away the sheet, revealing her mother’s broken, ice-cold body.
"Mom... Mom..."
Her mouth was wide open, but no sound would co out.
The mother who was so full of life in her mories had beco a cold corpse before her eyes after she woke up!
She couldn’t accept it!
They had just decided to go to her favorite restaurant together, planning to surprise her father, Chad Jennings...
This broken woman in front of her couldn’t be her mother!
Her grandmother, Frances Sullivan, pulled at her, crying, "Quick, kowtow to your mother."
"No, I won’t!" she struggled forcefully.
’Only dead people need to be kowtowed to. Mom is perfectly fine, why should I kowtow?’
’Mom is still alive, she’s just sleeping.’
’Mom will definitely wake up.’
Chad Jennings yanked her up viciously and kicked the back of her knees, forcing her to kneel before the bed.
"Take a good look! Your damned mother has stopped breathing!"
Chad Jennings grabbed her hair, viciously yanking her head down and forcing her face against her dead mother’s.
Cold.
Broken.
Stiff.
She would never smile at her again.
Never hold her.
And never again call her "my little princess."
"AH—"
Sophia Shaw was shaken awake.
She opened her tear-soaked eyes to et Vincent Grant’s sowhat cool gaze.
"Having a nightmare?"
The woman before him had long teardrops clinging to her lashes, her gentle face layered with sorrow and terror.
She had been crying out in heart-wrenching sorrow in her dream just now.
Vincent Grant knew very little about her and had no idea what she had dread of.
As Sophia Shaw ca to her senses, she turned her head and saw family mbers dressed in white milling about. Her heart sank.
"Mom, she..."
"She’s gone."
Even though she knew it was inevitable, Sophia Shaw felt a sharp pang in her heart.
She hadn’t even recovered from the death of her mother in the dream, and now she was plunged into the real-life passing of her mother-in-law.
She pushed Vincent Grant away and walked out.
Skye Sutton’s coffin had already been prepared and was now resting in the small courtyard.
From upstairs, people were carefully carrying Skye Sutton’s body down the stairs.
A white sheet covered the body completely, leaving only a faint, shallow outline.
When the body was placed in the coffin, the family mbers all knelt in unison, their cries shaking the heavens.
No matter what this woman had done in life, her children were truly heartbroken at her death.
Sophia Shaw put on the mourning clothes Eleanor Crawford handed her and knelt before the coffin. Thinking of her own mother’s death, tears stread down her face once more.
The Grant family couldn’t hold a large, public funeral service.
As the sky began to lighten, the group escorted the hearse back to Crestfall.
Sophia Shaw rode in the sa car as Cedric Grant and Vincent Grant.
She didn’t say a single word the entire way.
Cedric Grant was also in a terrible mood. He kept trying to inch closer to Sophia Shaw.
Sophia Shaw didn’t spare him a single glance.
As they were nearing the cetery, Sophia Shaw’s phone suddenly buzzed.
She looked down and saw a ssage from Joanna Sherman:
You should kowtow a few more tis to your "dear" mother-in-law. If she hadn’t threatened to kill herself, Vincent Grant would never have married you. You wouldn’t have even been qualified to worm your way into the Grant family.
Sophia Shaw let out a soft laugh.
She handed the phone to Vincent Grant.
Vincent Grant hesitated for a mont before taking it.
As he read the ssage, his eyes darkened.
A mont later, he used Sophia Shaw’s phone to dial a number.
"Joanna, don’t ever say things like this again."
Joanna Sherman: "..."
She had assud it was Sophia Shaw calling and was even planning to say sothing harsh to provoke her.
’Sophia Shaw actually showed the text to Vincent Grant!’
’That bitch!’
Joanna Sherman’s heart pounded with alarm, but she was unwilling to admit fault in front of Vincent Grant. She said icily, "Was I wrong? Vincent, if your mother hadn’t threatened to kill herself back then, would you have married her?"
"But she isn’t the reason we missed our chance."
Joanna Sherman felt as if soone had suddenly dropped a stone in her heart, making it heavy and sore.
’What did Vincent Grant an by that?’
’He doesn’t bla Sophia Shaw anymore?’
’Is he blaming for going abroad instead?’
A sudden, indescribable panic gripped Joanna Sherman’s heart. She cried out, "Vincent..."
"That’s all for now."
Vincent Grant hung up.
He handed the phone back to Sophia Shaw. "I’m sorry."
Sophia Shaw looked at him.
’Joanna Sherman had hurt her not once or twice, but countless tis.’
’And he, her accomplice, thought a single apology could smooth everything over?’
Sophia Shaw opened her mouth, wanting to properly question him.
But in the end, she didn’t say a word.
’On a day like today, it wasn’t the right ti to talk about such things.’
’Everything could wait until after the funeral.’
When Skye Sutton’s hearse arrived in Crestfall, the Suttons were already waiting at the cetery gates.
After a simple farewell ceremony there, the body would be sent for cremation.
Skye Sutton’s parents had already passed away; only her two older brothers remained.
The funeral ho attached to the cetery had already prepared a venue for the farewell ceremony, the entire hall filled with pure white chrysanthemums.
A portrait of Skye Sutton hung in the center.
The photo had been taken shortly before her death.
A woman who had been sharp and acerbic her whole life was, in death, showing a rare smile.
Sophia Shaw gazed quietly at the photo, unable to stop her thoughts.
’She had used her own health to force Julian Grant to never again et with the one he truly loved.’
’But she knew better than anyone that while you could keep the man, you couldn’t keep his heart.’
’That must be why she was sharp as a knife, constantly stabbing his heart to shreds.’
’But wasn’t her own heart also shattered to pieces by those sa stabs?’
’Her final smile was perhaps one of relief, that she could finally escape this suffocating and painful life.’
Sophia Shaw thought.
’She wouldn’t be like Skye Sutton.’
’She wouldn’t turn against her own body just to keep a man’s heart. Or against her own soul.’
’She could live without a man, but sacrificing her body and soul? That wasn’t worth it.’
Skye Sutton hadn’t wanted a big affair, so the farewell ceremony was just the two families gathered together, sharing mories of her life.
All the Grant n went out to handle the arrangents for Skye Sutton’s cremation and burial, leaving only the female relatives in the mourning hall.
The Suttons, along with the Grant family’s daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law, all gathered around Old Mrs. Grant, talking in low voices.
Sophia Shaw also stood in the crowd, not speaking, just listening to them talk.
After so ti, a sudden commotion was heard from outside.
Sophia Shaw looked up, and when she saw who was walking in, her expression turned utterly ghastly.
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