Chapter 309: Too Kindhearted
But if she really went ahead with that plan, things would only get more complicated.
She and Alexander Mitchell had divorced, and suddenly continuing to bear a child within the Mitchell family, while Isabella Harrington was about to become the new Mrs. Mitchell, was too absurd to even contemplate.
The only way to simplify matters was to have the baby quietly on her own, to minimize the situation.
"Ava, do you hate Alex?" Scarlett suddenly asked.
Ava Anderson paused, then sat up straight. "Grandma, why do you ask that all of a sudden?"
"Just answer Grandma, do you hate Alex?"
Ava Anderson lifted the corners of her lips slightly, a calm expression in her eyes. "Grandma, I don't hate him."
"You really don't hate him? After all the wrong he's done, he's made you sad."
"Yes, he has made me sad. But he's just... not in love with me. If not loving someone is wrong, then perhaps we're all at fault because we can't love everyone in the world."
"You always make excuses for him, completely disregarding yourself, you're just too kindhearted," Scarlett said.
Scarlett liked Ava precisely because of her altruism, her kindhearted nature.
But sometimes Ava's goodness made Scarlett's heart ache.
Kindhearted people often leave happiness to others and take sorrow upon themselves.
They swallow their grief quietly, presenting a cheerful face to the world while licking their wounds in solitude.
"Grandma, he's spoken up for me too," Ava Anderson took her grandmother's weathered hand. "That's why you grabbed that cane and gave him a good thrashing. You really didn't hold back, he was howling in pain at home."
She imitated the scene with a hint of drama in her last few words.
"Really?" Scarlett suddenly laughed, her mirth surprising considering her grandson was the injured party, "He had it coming; he should've been taught a lesson. If he'd tried to pin the blame on you, I would have broken his legs on the spot. Luckily he didn't, so right now he just has a sore back which is relatively benign."
"Grandma, please don't do this again. Alex is actually quite pitiable. He grew up without his parent's care, alone. You know how Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell were; Alex must have had a hard time as a kid."
Ava defended Alexander Mitchell, not wanting her grandmother to be rough on him, but mainly because she knew that deep down, it didn't sit well with her grandmother either when she punished Alex.
Scarlett sighed, "Yes, but no matter how his childhood was, when you're grown-up and you do wrong, you have to be punished for it."
"But he's already been punished. You did beat him up good, and he's not even mad at you—nor at me. When Mia blindsided me with her cruelty, he pulled me behind him to protect me. I never expected him to do that. We're divorced, and yet he stood up for me like that—it was incredibly noble."
Ava still felt the impact of that moment.
To be willing to quarrel with his own parents for her sake, to protect her in such a way, even post-divorce, was genuinely rare.
"Really? Mia suddenly turned on you? Was she particularly vicious?" Scarlett queried.
Ava nodded, "Yes, Grandma. I don't know what got into her. She wasn't like that before, and it's been bothering me."
