The floor was tiled with celadon. Dolores felt like she was walking on cotton, she felt light and didn’t feel
safe. She didn’t know what was waiting for her.
The more she got closer to the truth she was looking for, the more nervous she got.
She didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing.
They walked into a large yard and their footsteps echoed all around.
The echoes bombarded their heart. A woman was standing in front of a long narrow table. Her back
was facing them. Her hands were together and she looked like she was praying.
A big red door with engraving was wide open.
Kevin patted Dolores’ shoulder as they reached the door, signaling her to wait by the door. Dolores
nodded as she understood what he meant. She stood there and didn’t go forward.
Kevin walked past the tall threshold and walked into the house.
“How dare you come to see me?” The woman sounded slightly angry.
Dolores trembled upon hearing her voice, this woman was indeed Victoria.
Dolores clenched her fists that were on her sides.
Who Victoria exactly was?
Her head was filled with questions and nobody was giving her answers right now.
Kevin stood behind Victoria and looked at the centre. The memorial plates of the Forbis family’s
ancestors were placed in a row on the long narrow table.
“I cannot let the craft-manship that has been passed on for generations in the Forbis family to die like
that…”
“You’re wrong!” yelled Victoria. She turned around and said, “Did you know that we were the ones who
made the promise in the first place…”
She then noticed Dolores standing by the door. She paused.
Her voice was trembling as she said, “You, why are you here?”
She turned around and looked at Kevin, “Is this the heir you are talking about?”
The blood on her face drained and her face turned green. She breathed in and out hastily and her body
was shivering as if she was going to pass out the next second.
“Yes,” said Kevin as if he didn’t notice Victoria being mad. He said firmly, “You cannot tell your son your
secret, but can you at least tell your daughter-in-law? I thought you wanted her to inherit the craft to
make Gambiered Canton Gauze since you gave her our family’s jade bracelet heirloom? You don’t
wish the Forbis family’s Gambiered Canton Gauze to disappear off the face of the earth as well, right?”
Dolores raised her hand and looked at the jade bracelet on her hand. Didn’t this belong to the Nelson
family?
Didn’t Victoria say what she gave to her was originally from her grandmother?
Why did it become something from the Forbis family?
Victoria frowned. Her nice facial features looked slightly ferocious, “Do you know that you will bring her
trouble like that?”
“I know, but I cannot let the Forbis family disappear without a trace just like that.”
Kevin wasn’t backing off. He took a step forward and grabbed his sister’s shoulder with both hands,
“I’m getting old and will not have much longer. I never wish for much, but I don’t wish to see the the
Forbis family’s going down just like that, without a trace.”
Victoria clenched her fists on her sides, “Even so, you shouldn’t hide it from me and decided on your
own!”
Kevin turned around and had his back against her, “If I were to tell you first, you wouldn’t have agreed
to it. You don’t care about the Forbis family anymore anyways, all you care about is your son and your
husband.”
The more he talked the angrier he got, in the end, he questioned his sister sternly as he looked at her,
“You don’t care about the Forbis family from the very beginning, and only care about the Nelson family,
right?”
Victoria closed her eyes. She tried to calm her raging emotions down and didn’t want to let them loose.
When Kevin called her and told her that he found someone to inherit the craft to make Gambiered
Canton Gauze, she got mad and quickly rushed over. She would never have thought that it would be
Dolores.
“Don’t get so mad, this is how it is now and there’s no turning back,” Kevin calmed down a bit and his
voice softened, “I know that you have suffered in the past few years too. Even if nobody else can tell, I
can. I think God is giving us this chance, he lay this out for us. Your daughter-in-law is even a fashion
designer, this is fate!”
Victoria couldn’t say anything back.
He sounded convincing, but they still had to keep their initial promise.
She couldn’t even bear to think about what was going to happen if they were to be found out.
“I think I should leave you guys alone, you guys must have something to say to each other as in-laws.
I’ve cleaned the room in the west wing, you guys can stay there tonight. Call me when you need me, I’ll
be in the front yard.” He then left and as he walked past Dolores, he put his hand on her shoulder,
exerting some force as he said, “Just ask her about anything that you want to know.”
He looked back and looked at his sister, “Your daughter-in-law is great. She learns fast and is good
looking. I’d seen her children, they looked like Matthew. Although you cannot reveal your identity, there
is nothing to feel regretful about.”
Kevin sighed and was feeling helpless about the past.
Dolores obtained a lot of information from their conversation, but she still didn’t know the whole story.
At this moment, she had a lot of questions for Victoria.
But she was interrupted by Victoria the moment she opened her mouth. Victoria looked exhausted. She
looked like she was about to pass out due to the sudden change in the situation.
“Let me rest a bit.”
Victoria was wobbly as if she lost energy in her feet. She couldn’t stand properly.
Dolores walked over and helped her, “I’ll help you to the room in the west wing.”
Kevin did mention that the room was all cleaned up. Victoria might be able to get some rest there.
Victoria was really tired, she held onto Dolores' arm. They walked out of the lobby and headed to the
room.
As Dolores opened the door, she was taken aback, The room looked like a modern girl’s room. The
walls were painted in pink and light colours and there was a white princess bed. The curtains had
ribbons on them and there was a round-shaped girly looking dressing table in the room. The cupboard
was filled with dolls.
Every corner of the room was decorated fondly.
It was clean, but Dolores could tell that no one had lived here for a long time.
Victoria was also taken aback the moment she stepped into the room. She felt melancholic, “This was
my room that my father fixed up for me. He wanted to remind me, to never forget about the Forbis
family and how well he treated me.”
Not only that, but he was also telling her to continue to pass on the family’s craft no matter how risky it
was.
As it was passed on for generations.
She was from the Forbis family.
And it was her duty.
Dolores helped Victoria to the bed and put a pillow behind her so that she could lie back comfortably.
Victoria held Dolores’ hand, signaling her to sit down.
Dolores abided and sat on the bed.
Victoria looked at Dolores as she held her hand, “You must have a lot of questions for me.”
Dolores nodded without hesitation, she first made a guess, “Are you Matthew’s biological mother?”
This was her assumption from listening to Victoria’s and Kevin’s conversation, but she wasn’t entirely
sure.
Victoria looked at her and paused for a long while as if she was fighting with herself in her head. In the
end, she nodded and gave Dolores a firm answer, “Yes.”
Dolores took a deep breath. What happened in the past, that Victoria couldn’t even tell her son that she
was his mother?
What happened that they couldn’t acknowledge each other?
As a mother, she knew how a mother felt about her children.
She knew that Victoria probably suffered a lot.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Dolores looked at the jade bracelet on her hand. She planned to tell
Victoria about how she met Charles, “When I was in danger, a man named Charles White rescued me.
He saved me because he recognized the bracelet and thought that I was your daughter. He said he did
that because his adoptive father told him to. His father is Nathan White, I’m guessing that you should
know him as well.”
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