Chapter 320
Grace attempted to persuade him: “I only need five minutes. I just want to check on her and ask a few questions?
The guard remained
unmoved. “Mr. Harding gave explicit orders: no visitors allowed.”
After fifteen minutes of pleading and insistence, Grace finally wore down the guard’s resolve.
“Five minutes, not a second more,” he reluctantly conceded.
Catherine had no idea what was happening outside. Confined in the damp, dark basement for days with minimal food, she was weak and disoriented.
When she heard Grace’s voice, it took considerable effort just to lift her eyelids.
Seeing her daughter, Catherine immediately perked up, dragging herself to the door with what little strength remained. Tears streamed down her gaunt face.
“Grace, my darling girl, you’ve finally come to see me!” she cried, clutching the bars. “You don’t know how cruel your father has been. He’s kept me in this hellhole, barely feeding me, forcing me to live like a rat!”
She pressed closer to the door. “You’re my daughter. Please help me. If you find a way to get me out, I’ll love you twice as much, I promise!”
Grace observed her mother coldly. During her own periods of confinement, Catherine had often brought her food. Now she expected the same favor in return.
But Grace’s response was unexpected. “Yes, you did help me,” she said with a sudden bitter laugh. “But was it really for my benefit? Or were you trying to ruin me?”
Catherine stared at her blankly.
“You thought I wouldn’t figure it out?” Grace continued, her voice hardening. “You never liked me. You deliberately encouraged my worst behaviors, making everyone see me as unreasonable and spoiled. You wanted me to become useless so Isabella could waltz in and become the daughter you truly wanted, didn’t you?”
Reflecting on her mother’s influence over the years, Grace suddenly felt like a pawn in someone else’s game, manipulated and controlled, all to serve Catherine’s purposes.
Catherine remained silent, her expression cycling through shock, denial, and finally–for just an instant–relief at being discovered.
“So Isabella is your daughter, and I’m… what?” Grace pressed, her voice slightly trembling. “We’re both your daughters, but you’d sacrifice the Harding family fortune for her, yet refuse to apologize to Father for my sake?”
During Richard’s imprisonment of Catherine, Grace had been anxious, frantically seeking ways to rescue her mother.
She had approached her father, asking if this punishment was simply because Isabella was Catherine’s secret daughter.
Richard had left without answering, which planted a terrible suspicion in Grace’s mind.
“Am I not Father’s child either?” Now she voiced her deepest fear.
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Chapter 320
Catherine’s eyes widened with alarm. “No! You are your father’s child, without question! If you don’t belleve me, get a DNA
test!
She reached through the bars, trying to touch Grace’s hand. “Using you against Sophia was deliberate, yes, but not becaus. you aren’t Richard’s daughter. I just didn’t like her, and you were young, easily influenced. I did spoil you, but I never intended to ruin you. I just wanted you to be treated like a princess.”
After confirming she was indeed Richard’s daughter, Grace’s tension eased slightly. She looked at her imprisoned mother with tearful eyes and sighed deeply.
“If what you say is true, if I am still your daughter, I won’t abandon you. But I need to ask Father exactly what you did that made him so angry.”
She looked down at her hands. “Without a mistress, this home is falling apart. The staff are slacking off, the gardens need pruning, and there’s dust all over the cars in the garage. Though it’s still the same house, everything has changed.
Grace met her mother’s eyes one last time. “I hate to admit it, but I finally understand how important Sophia was to this family. With her, this was a home. Without her, it’s just a building.”
Without waiting for Catherine’s response, Grace turned and walked away, leaving Catherine’s gradually dimming gaze
behind.
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