The Lane family was rather nice to me even though Christopher wasn’t around. Darius kept topping up my plate with food but Julia had a conflicted look in her eyes when she looked at me. She probably wasn’t expecting my mom to be an old acquaintance of hers.
Julia asked me to go for a walk with her in the garden after the meal. Shelley wanted to join us, but Julia immediately rejected her request by saying, “Go check Darius’ closet and see if he needs any new clothes. The weather is turning cold soon; you should get him some extra coats.”
“But I already had one tailored yesterday…” Shelley stopped mid-sentence when she realized what was going on and continued by saying, “I mean, I’ve already checked his closet yesterday and we just need to decide on which design to go with today. I’ll get to it right away. Have a nice day, you two!”
I could tell that Julia had something she wanted to talk to me about, so I followed her into the garden. Julia tended to her garden often as she loved her flowers a lot. The place was filled with beautiful flowers in full bloom.
She then stopped in the center of some lilies and knelt down to touch them. “Look at the flowers. They’re all blooming in such bright colors, showing their most beautiful sides to the world. See these two flowers over here? They are quite similar in size and look the same at first glance, but there are tiny differences between each individual flower. This one is growing in a suitable spot, so it blossoms nicely. The other one is growing on the side and hasn’t been receiving enough nutrients, so it won’t last long even if it does blossom. The same principle applies to marriages.”
I was able to read between the lines and immediately understood what Julia was implying. “Are you saying that my marriage with Chris won’t last long because of my mom, Mrs. Lane?”
Julia thought she would need to beat around the bush before getting to the point, only to have me do the exact opposite. Since I had already addressed the issue, she decided to cut to the chase. “I’m glad to see that you’re on the same page! Had I known that you are Isabelle’s daughter and Robert’s niece, I would never have agreed to you marrying Chris in the first place!”
“Why is that, Mrs. Lane? I don’t understand why the grudges of the previous generation should affect the next!” I exclaimed with a sigh.
Everyone kept telling me we should not be together, and I was getting really sick of hearing that.
“I’ve been through a lot more hard times than I have good times, but meeting Christopher made me realize that all of my sufferings have occurred so that he could come into my life and bring me happiness. My life is only complete with him in it, so why can’t we be together? Why can’t I be happy? Am I just fated to live a miserable life forever?”
Julia let out a wry smile when she noticed the anger in my eyes. “Because you’re Isabelle’s daughter, that’s why. You’re a good kid, really. It’s a shame you are a descendant of the Anderson family.”
I looked her in the eye and asked in a questioning tone, “Are you trying to separate us again, Mrs. Lane?”
“You may not know this, but your mother has a long and messy history with the Lane family.” Julia frowned as she said that, her eyes glancing at Darius’ room from time to time.
“Are you referring to my mom’s history with Darius?” I asked.
This time, it was Julia’s turn to be shocked. “Your mother told you about something like that?”
I shook my head. Mom had barely spoken to me ever since she returned as she was busy with work all the time and behaved rather mysteriously, much to my confusion. The only thing she talked about the most was my Uncle Robert. She would also often remind me that the Lane family was our enemy.
“I’ve long since known about the history between Mom and Darius. Darius told me about it himself.”
The look on Julia’s face turned grim instantly. “Darius knew about it but never told us? If he had said it earlier we wouldn’t be in such a messy situation. Did you know that your mom approached Darius with bad intentions?”
