Chapter 3
When the butler handed me the tablet, the press conference on screen was already in full swing.[]
Summer wore a brand–new white dress, sitting beside Caspian, crying her heart out for the cameras while clutching a yellowed photograph.
Supposedly a picture of her mother with my father from way back.[]
“I never wanted to take anything from my sister,” she sniffled, shoulders shaking delicately. “I just… I just wanted to be able to call him Dad, even though he’s gone.“]
Camera flashes exploded across her face, capturing every angle of that fragile, helpless look.[]
Caspian sat beside her, perfectly timing his offer of tissues, his eyes practically overflowing with sympathy as he spoke:
“Summer’s had it rough all these years. Her mother’s dying wish was to see her daughter acknowledged by her family.“]
“As Aria’s fiancé, I can’t stand by and watch her make a mistake she’ll regret forever by turning her back on family.“[]
I stared at Summer’s tear–streaked face on the screen.]
Suddenly, another face flashed through my mind.]
Twenty–something years ago, there was another face streaked with tears just like that.[]
A woman kneeling outside the ornate gates of the Sterling estate, clutching a little girl, begging my mother to give them a chance to survive.
I was only four then, pressed against the second–floor window, watching that woman in her faded shirt with her forehead pressed to the cobblestones while the child in her arms screamed.]]]
Mom stood inside the gates the whole time without saying a word, just watching.
Later I learned that woman was Summer’s mother, and the crying child was Summer herself.]
That night, Dad knelt outside Mom’s bedroom door, his voice raw as he tried to explain, saying it was just a moment of weakness.
Mom spoke through the door: “So what are you planning to do about it?”
Dad said, “I’ll cut all ties with them. They’ll never set foot in this house.“[]
Mom laughed softly, and that laugh was bone–deep exhausted: “Cheating is never just one person’s fault, but I won’t tolerate betrayal. Starting tonight, you’re sleeping in the study.”
From that day forward, my parents kept separate bedrooms.
Mom continued managing Sterling family affairs, staying polite and distant with Dad.]
And Dad actually kept his promise–for the next twenty–plus years, Summer and her mother never appeared in front of us
Chapter 3
again. I’d almost forgotten they existed.[]
Turns out they weren’t forgotten. They were waiting.[]
Waiting for my father to take his last breath, waiting for Sterling Industries to pass to me, and then they came crawling back over his dead body.]
On the tablet, Summer was still crying, saying her mother made her promise never to cause trouble for the Sterling family.[]
I looked at those eyes that were identical to that woman from my memories, and suddenly I was smiling without making a sound.
Like mother, like daughter.]]
Back then, her mother knelt at our gates, swearing she only wanted scraps.]
Now she sits at press conferences, tears streaming, saying she just wants to be acknowledged.]
Too bad for them–they picked the wrong target.]]
My mother had the backbone to make my father sleep in the study for twe, and I’m no ]
either.[]
I’ll never let outsiders take so much as a penny of what’s mine.[]
I tossed the tablet back to the butler and walked to the floor–to–ceiling windows, looking down at the blooming in the garden.]
camellias
“Mr. Ravencrest sure has a warm heart.“]
“Taking care of Sterling family business personally. People might think he had married into my family.“]
The butler kept his eyes down respectfully. “The media’s already running wild stories, saying you can’t accept your own sister, and claiming… claiming your father wronged them back in the day.“]
“Let them write whatever they want.“[]
“It’s just a press conference. I’ll hold one tomorrow too!“]
ཉིད་དང་གཉིས་མནང་
