Chapter 1813
After saying this, little Lea bounced up and down, leading her mom outside by the hand.
Only Ellinor and Marlinie were left in the hospital room, exchanging awkward glances.
Marlinie was the first to break the silence. Her voice was incredibly gentle as she smiled and said, “Ellinor, you probably… don’t remember me, do you?”
Ellinor simply stared at her mother, not saying a word.
Marlinie sighed in self-reproach. “I’m the one who should apologize. I’ve left you alone all these years and only found you now… I’m sorry…”
Ellinor watched as her mother’s tears fell. Her own eyes reddened as she stared at the bandage on her mother’s forearm, asking, “How did you get hurt? Is it serious?”
Marlinie was taken aback. She looked down at her own wound and shook her head. “No, it’s nothing too serious.”
Ellinor looked into her mother’s eyes. Her emotions were a complicated mix of bitterness and love. She was no longer a child, so it seemed she couldn’t just throw herself into her mother’s arms anymore.
“Two days ago, when Bertha invited me to come see you, why didn’t you show up? Were you hiding from me?” Ellinor’s voice was trembling slightly.
Marlinie quickly shook her head. “No, no! Ellinor, how could I hide from you?! I just felt too ashamed to face you. I haven’t been the mother I should have been, so I didn’t know how to face you.”
Ellinor’s eyes reddened even more. “Then why… why did you leave me alone back then? Why didn’t you ever come back for me? I’ve been waiting for you this whole time!”
Tears streamed down Marlinie’s face. “I didn’t mean to… Back then, someone was trying to kill me, and I thought it would be too dangerous to keep you with me, so I temporarily left you with Arnold for safety. Later, I went looking for you! I really did! But Arnold told me… told me you had died! He even gave me an urn of ashes. I thought… I thought you were gone…”
Ellinor knew it. She knew she was not an abandoned child. She knew her mother would never abandon her.
All these years she had refused to believe she was abandoned, so she never gave up on finding her mother.
Today, finally, she saw her mother and received answers.
Having found the answer, Ellinor somewhat awkwardly held her mother’s hand. “So, who was trying to kill you back then?”
Facing this question, Marlinie’s face paled even more. She seemed to be avoiding it.
Ellinor, however, had an idea. “Was it the Howards? Were they trying to kill you?”
Marlinie’s eyes were bloodshot. She slowly choked out, “Ellinor, actually, the Howards were targeting me, not you. You shouldn’t care about…”
Ellinor held her mother’s hand tightly. “At this point, does it matter whether the Howards were targeting you or me? They’re the reason we were separated!”
Marlinie took a deep breath. “I don’t want to judge others, but don’t count your brother with them. He shouldn’t be with them. He cares about you a lot.”
Ellinor scoffed. “To me, there’s no difference.”
Marlinie didn’t want to pass the grudges of the older generation onto her children. “Ellinor, your brother was still a child back then. He had his limitations, so we can’t blame him.”
Ellinor looked at her mother. “You don’t want me to settle the score with the Howards?”
Marlinie gave her a bitter smile. “What score to settle? It’s been so many years; I don’t want to bring up those things anymore. I came back this time because Bertha told me she saw someone who looked a lot like my daughter. Now that I’ve found you, I’ll leave this place again and let the past be the past.”
Ellinor frowned. “Leave this place? You… you’re leaving me again?”
