Chapter 818 Events of That Year
While the Smiths were preparing to deal with Lucas, Lucas had just left the auction venue of Emerald International and returned to the Stardust Corporation.
But when his car arrived at the entrance, he found a familiar-looking black Mercedes-Benz parked nearby.
Seeing his Jaguar approaching, Florence immediately opened the rear door of the black Mercedes-Benz and stepped out, seemingly having waited for Lucas for a long time.
Lucas frowned. What is this woman doing here again?
When Lucas got out of his car, Florence walked over and said, “Lucas, I need a word with you. Shall we find a place to chat?”
This time, Florence finally stopped behaving arrogantly and ordering him around.
But Lucas still felt that he had nothing to say to her.
“If you have anything to say, you can say so here. I still have something to do, and I don’t have much time to listen to your nonsense,” Lucas said calmly.
Anger instantly surged in Florence’s heart.
She had already lowered her pride and spoken to him politely, yet he was still being so hostile and disrespectful to her, his mother-in-law!
But once she thought of her purpose for looking for Lucas, she could only suppress her anger.
Lucas noticed all the subtle changes in her expression.
Florence took a step back and said politely, “Okay, what I want to tell you is very important, and I can’t let others know about it. If possible, could you please come inside my car to talk?”
Lucas glanced at her and thought that she might have something to say about Cheyenne, so he nodded and got inside Florence’s black Mercedes-Benz.
Florence was furious to have been left behind.
She took two deep breaths before walking back to her car and opening the door to get in.
Andy, her personal bodyguard, consciously got out of the car and stood a short distance away from the door, giving the two of them enough space to talk.
“Lucas, first of all, I’d like to apologize for my previous impulsiveness and arrogance! Please forgive me!” The first thing Florence did was apologize to Lucas.
This was beyond Lucas’s expectations.
But because Lucas didn’t have a good impression of Florence, he found her apology a bit pretentious and didn’t believe that she was sincere.
“You didn’t ask me to come here just to say this nonsense, did you?” Lucas said indifferently.
Florence immediately tightened her grip, wishing she could strangle him to death.
She had painstakingly swallowed her pride to apologize to this kid. But he didn’t reciprocate at all and even said that she was speaking nonsense!
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, there were tears in them. “Lucas, I am Cheyenne’s biological mother, and I truly hope to be able to reunite with her so that I can also make it up to her properly. Please help me persuade her!”
Lucas snorted coldly. “When you met her yesterday, Cheyenne asked you several times why you abandoned her, but you kept avoiding her question. There was no sincerity from you at all. You even tried to take her back to the Howards by force. Why should I help someone like you?”
Florence lowered her head sadly. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell her, but… the truth is too cruel. I don’t want Cheyenne to be sad. That’s why I can’t tell her!”
Lucas raised his eyebrows and looked at Florence, waiting for her to continue.
Florence slowly said, “I didn’t intend to talk about these things again. But now, I have a request for you, so I can only tell you the truth so that you know that I’m not hiding it from Cheyenne without reason.
“As the daughter of the helmsman of the Howards, I enjoyed a life of luxury and was respected by everyone, but all this changed after I met that man.
“When I was young, I thought love was the most beautiful thing in this world, so when I fell in love with him, I was willing to give up my wealth, status, and family in order to be with him!
“I left everything behind and followed this man to a faraway place completely unfamiliar to me.
“But this man deceived me. When I was overjoyed to be pregnant with our child, he suddenly left without saying goodbye, and I never heard from him again!
“Do you know how hopeless and miserable I felt when I was pregnant and all alone in a small rental room, waiting for a person who would never return?!”
ST
SOI
Two streams of tears rolled down Florence’s face.
Florence gritted her teeth and cried bitterly.
Lucas didn’t know whether what Florence said was true or not, so he only remained silent.
“Later on, I relied on the meager amount of money I had left to painstakingly give birth to the baby, but little did I know that her birth was the beginning of a nightmare!
“You know what? After I gave birth to Cheyenne, I struggled to feed her and take care of her alone. At the time, I was a spoiled heiress who had never done a single chore in my life. I had no idea how to take care of a newborn.
“Moreover, I was all alone in a small room, enduring the severe pain after giving birth. I didn’t have a single person to take care of me. Instead, I had to take care of a baby who kept crying every day while constantly thinking about a man who treacherously abandoned me. I was living a nightmare of regret and pain every day!
“So I developed postpartum depression and wanted to die! And the worst part was that I hated my baby! At the time, I felt that it was her father’s fault that I was in that hellhole, so I hated him and his child!
“There were even times when I almost killed my child!
“I was on the verge of losing my mind and breaking down!”
Florence’s face was full of agony. She couldn’t take it any longer. She covered her face and bawled loudly while shivering with lingering fear.
Lucas’s heartstrings were tugged by Florence’s current behavior.
He couldn’t help thinking of his wife, Cheyenne.
When he left, Cheyenne had been pregnant with Amelia, and she had to give birth to her and raise her alone. Cheyenne must have experienced the same thing back then.
“Later, I couldn’t stand this pain anymore, and I was afraid that I would end up killing my own daughter, so I could only carry her out and put her on the road in front of a hospital, hoping that some kind soul would take her home.
“I hid in the corner until I saw a couple carrying her away before leaving in a daze.
“Can you imagine the dilemma and agony of wanting to kill your own daughter and having no choice but to ruthlessly hand her over to someone else?
“But these things are only a small part of the matter. What happened next is the true despair that made me want to die immediately!”
Florence wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand and choked with sobs as she continued speaking.