Chapter 427: Chapter 427

The tea room was bathed in soft golden light, the sun filtering through sheer curtains that swayed gently with the afternoon breeze. Light, soothing music played from a gramophone. The delicate clink of fine china echoed in the air as Molly took a measured sip of her Earl Grey black tea, her manicured fingers resting lightly on the porcelain handle.

Across from her, Sally leaned back against a plush velvet-textured chair, swirling a spoon through her cup with lazy amusement as if a throwback memory manifested,

"Would you look at that, sister? The world is truly full of surprises," Sally mused, setting her cup down with elegant precision.

"After all that fuss at the dinner banquet, I thought that Geneva had that household in check.... I can’t believe the mistress of the prestigious Thornston Estate could look on as this happens! There have been no comments from them, nor any way to control what is going on! Talk of that nonsense!"

At that moment, all sophistication dropped off as Sally scrunched her face in disgust at the memory as well as what was happening in the media....

"Who would have thought that the girl Geneva advocated for and hand-picked for Ian would be that promiscuous! Eloping with not just her personal assistant but an old boyfriend too?! This is scandalous! I never thought that this would ever happen in our lifetimes!"

"Why are you surprised? With such looks, I actually commend her for using it for her own benefit... and I don’t fault her for that! Hahahahahahahaha," Molly covered her mouth with a white hanky and laughed to her heart’s content, dabbing her eyes in the process.

"Ma! That’s why I said that you should give her to me!"

"Yh, me too! You let all that goody go to some useless and poor assistant! That could have been me! If she did not want Ian, I was ready for her!"

"Useless fools! Why would it be you old fools! She clearly prefers the younger, fresh blood... Can’t you see from the type of men she eloped with?"

Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest, said in no particular older. The two women, Sally and Molly, rolled their eyes, wondering when the three boys would grow up and mature enough to face the situation.

Instead of their three boys looking at the company and the business in its entirety, the three were just regretful and fighting a mere woman!

"The puzzling thing about the company should be nothing more than a sinking ship by now, yet it continues to float."

"Yh, of course, it’s the Thornston Industries that our forefathers built! Do you think that it would succumb just because of a few scandals?"

Sally let out a dry chuckle, lifting a perfectly arched brow. "That aside, I suppose our dear nephew must have been more competent than we gave him credit for. He is a force to be reckoned with.

A pity, really. If only he had the decency to die quickly, we’d have no loose ends left to worry about."

"Do you know what is wrong with him anyway? He was not in that accident, so it strange that he is comatose..."

"Isn’t it love sickness? What else? If a grown man goes for a woman nearly half his age... then that should tell you more about his state of mind, especially when he doted on her that much..."

"Heeeeehehhehee.... He did not follow the ’step into love’ initiative but was stupid enough to fall for such a woman with loose morals!"

Molly smirked, the corners of her lips curving with cruel amusement. "He’s always been a fighter. Let’s see where and how that story unfolds... But all that resilience... it won’t change his fate. We’ll just have to step in and make sure that the story is written how we want it to. Sooner or later, that company will crumble without him at the helm... and that is precisely what we want..."

Sally placed her cup down with a soft clink, her emerald ring catching the light as she smoothed out a non-existent wrinkle on her silk blouse.

"And when that happens, our boys will step in and save the company in the nick of time, then no one would question their competence!"

"This is what should have been ours all along. That other boy—what was his name again?"

Molly feints forgetfulness, as if that would drive her point about how they thought Ian was irrelevant. The thing was that, if Ian was there, they would have all been mute and not dared to discuss him.

Ian drove the fear of the unknown in them.

Molly waved a dismissive hand. "He’s hardly worth mentioning. He’s just a feather in the wind, directionless and utterly unreliable...."

As if doubting her own sentence, she added, "In times .... but then.... Did you mean....?"

Her sister sighed theatrically.

"It’s such a shame, isn’t it? If only our dear little brother had listened to us all those years ago. Perhaps his family wouldn’t be in such chaos now. But then again," she chuckled, taking another sip of her tea,

"it’s so much more entertaining this way, don’t you think?"

Molly smirked, raising her cup in mock toast. "To poetic justice. Karma is always alive and works in the best of ways!"

Their laughter rang through the sunlit room, light and airy, like the very picture of sophistication ... twisted by the shadows of their intentions. The three boys watched their mother and aunt with disinterest.

"Maaaa! When are you going to help us find Shelby?! The longer it takes, the colder the trail will be!"

"Oh, shut up and grow up!"

The telephone rang just then, its sharp chime cutting through the peaceful hum of conversation. A maid in a crisp uniform hurried over and picked up the receiver.

"Yes?" she said softly, listening intently.

"This is the right residence; how may I help you?" Her expression remained neutral, but a flicker of something... hesitation, perhaps.... passed over her features. After a brief pause, she turned and stepped forward, then presented the receiver to the closest woman.

"Madam, it’s for you," she said, her voice carefully composed.

Molly paused midway to her mouth with a teacup, then raised a perfectly arched brow. Setting her cup down with deliberate grace, she reached for the receiver, curiosity glinting in her eyes.

"Who is it?" she asked, though she already felt that whatever was on the other end of the line would be very interesting.... And it was....

She raised her eyebrow and laughed long and hard,

"Isn’t it great that such a breeze for this gift?"

"Tell me about it, sister... My interest has been piped!"

Kate placed her phone down and frowned,

’Did I do the right thing?’ She wondered; her expression was an intriguing blend of her old and new dispositions. Kate, as she had started calling herself, bent to pick up the garden sheers that she had dropped. She continued to trim her ornamental hedges absentmindedly. This was a hobby she had adopted after she had lost her memory.

Her newly found sunny disposition softened the sharp edges of her once-stern persona. Some things were hard to get rid of after years of training. The warmth in her eyes was undeniable, yet a flicker of her old authority still lingered like a shadow that refused to fade completely. It was as if she stood at the crossroads of who she had been and who she was becoming, balancing grace with the remnants of an iron will.

"I did the right thing!" Kate murmured, just as a neighbour greeted them as he passed. Despite her age, she was a hot eligible partner, according to the people who lived around but Kate had no interest in that.

She had been having strange, fuzzy dreams since returning from that dinner party. Fragments of faces, hushed voices, and fleeting sensations drifted through her mind like whispers in the dark, never quite forming a complete picture. The confusion gnawed at her, but even in the haze, her training took over, keeping her grounded and forcing her to hold onto the last thread of rationality and calculation.

"Katie, make sure that the visitors are cared for.... Prepare the room for Shelby! ... Do you think that my grandson will love this knitted shirt?"

These had started as whispers but kept becoming more and more, especially after that visit. Kate could only attribute this escalation to when that woman visited her. Kate did not know the person, but that person had seemed so warm .... Dark hair and a beautiful figure with warm eyes.

It had been a short visit that Kate did not remember much, but it was a focal point in her newfound life. The woman did not tell her much, and even at that moment, Kate was unsure why she had visited.

She still didn’t remember much, but there was a shift. A feeling. As if her subconscious had already pieced together enough for her to act, even if her conscious mind hadn’t caught up yet. And after that visit... her doubts had all but vanished.

"I did the right thing!" Kate told herself again,

"If that man is an imposter in that big family, then it’s only right that I tell those poor sisters about it!" Katie nodded, feeling self-righteous,

All her memories were not back yet, but Katie could not stand the possibility of the thought that the most powerful man on the island was being deceived by his wife. It was precisely because she was unsure of what she was remembering that she had told the sisters so they could investigate.... Besides, it was always better to be safe than sorry!

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