The Secret Heir Return To Wealth And Love

In the brief silence that followed on the other end of the line, Jacob's voice came through with a resolute, "Understood." After hanging up, Rosalynn was about to hand over a selection of tomatoes to the stall owner when Hilaria intercepted her.NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.

"Look at this bunch you picked," Hilaria commented without a preamble, promptly choosing another batch herself. As she carefully selected the tomatoes, she asked, "Is it the Strand kid?" "Yeah, he's back," Rosalynn nodded.

Once Hilaria was satisfied with her choice, she handed the bag to the vendor with an air of nonchalance and mentioned, "His mom had an incident."

Rosalynn blinked in surprise. "What happened?"d2

"She lost it," Hilaria said, glancing sideways at Rosalynn. "I heard it was after she ran into an acquaintance. She started eating, then broke down crying, beating her chest in distress, and after that, she just lost her wits. She doesn't speak much, just chuckles to herself every now and then..."

"When did this happen?" A memory of Erica mentioning she had run into Jacob's mother the previous night suddenly surfaced in Rosalynn's mind.

"Just a couple of weeks ago," Calvin said, picking up the bag of tomatoes that had been weighed.

Linking arms with Rosalynn, Hilaria guided her toward the butcher's stall. "I did some digging, and it seems she ran into Erica."

"Erica did say yesterday that she had seen her," Rosalynn added.

Hilaria shook her head. "Mrs. Strand always had too much control, and with generations of nobility behind her, she never really opened her eyes to see the times we live in. She's fallen from grace these past months, probably saw too much ugliness. When she bumped into Erica, saw her happily married, and then thought about her own son, who was deeply hurt and went missing because of her meddling... it must have triggered her breakdown."

The reality wasn't far from Hilaria's speculation. Lenora had arranged a meeting with some old acquaintances, hoping to swallow her pride and seek their help. But instead of help, the ladies showed up dripping in jewels and spent the entire time mocking and ridiculing her, as if they were returning all the arrogance she had shown them in the past.

In better days, Lenora would have slammed her fist on the table if they had so much as raised their voices to her. But that day, she pretended not to understand their jibes throughout the afternoon. However, at the end, they still burst her bubble.

"Mrs. Strand, it must be hard being pushed around like this, isn't it?"

"You treated us far worse back then, and we are all civilized people. We couldn't behave like you."

"And you, if you hadn't stopped Jacob from being with that girl, would the Strand family really be in such dire straits?"

"Her name was Erica Lawrence, right? My children have met her too, and they say she couldn't be nicer. All those nasty things said about her online were lies. Frankly, if it hadn't been for the scandal breaking out when it did, Ms. Lawrence would've already married into the Carter family, and I would have wanted to make a match for my son."

"Exactly, a virtuous wife is the key to a thriving career. Otherwise... well, Mrs. Strand, you are a case in point. Mr. Strand adored you all his life, and still, he ended up being ruined by you."

"But we shouldn't bite the hand that feeds us. I know your family is under pressure from all sides. If it weren't for your son's friends helping you out, you'd be out in the cold. Here's some advice: while there's still interest in the Strand Group's shares, sell them and take the money to live abroad and avoid your enemies, right?"

"Yeah, what's the use of pretending to be strong when you don't have the capacity?"

Listening to these words, the only thing Lenora could manage to utter was, "My son Jacob will be back soon!"

Naturally, that was met with further ridicule.

"Come on, we all know that Jacob doesn't even acknowledge you as his mother anymore..."

The tea party ended in discord, and Lenora sat for a long while before settling the bill and leaving. She was already deeply affected. Stepping outside, she realized it had started to rain. The driver went to fetch an umbrella while she stood there alone, watching the deluge pound the earth.

And then, a familiar figure caught her eye - Erica dashed through the rain into the hotel lobby.

Lenora felt a surge of joy and was about to greet her when...