Chapter 454 Mom, Save Me
Miss Ford had brought her own team with her.
The so-called team was mostly composed of Solomon staffers who had quit out of solidarity when she left.
In Miss Ford's own words, it was like moving from the left hand to the right.
"I need to see how they're settling in. When things settle down in a few days, let's catch-up," Miss Ford suggested to Fiona as they reached the garage. "I seriously have so much gossip to share with you!"
Fiona nodded with a laugh, "Let's plan for later then."
"Mrs. Rhoads," Miss Ford looked back towards Janna, her initial corporate sharpness faded, replaced by a playful respect towards an elder, "Since you've entrusted me with the entire sales department of the Rhoads family, I promise you, I won't let you down!"
"You're a good kid," Janna said with a nod and a smile.
Afterward, Miss Ford drove off.
Fiona took Janna by the hand, walking towards her car.
As they walked, Janna suddenly turned around to look back.
Fiona turned as well, puzzled.
Nothing was there, and she looked at Janna with confusion.
Janna's eyes were red, her sadness visible.
She looked back again as if realizing something, and suddenly, it dawned on her.
"Grandma..."
"I guess I'm still used to Stuart being right behind me," Janna managed to say, her voice choked with emotion, "I don't even want to think about whether he was afraid when the car went off the cliff. You know, he was always a bit scared of heights."
At amusement parks, Stuart would try anything except for roller coasters and drop towers.
"Grandma, I'm sure we'll find Stuart," Fiona consoled her tenderly.
But deep down, they all knew it was just something you tell yourself.
With cliffs that high and currents that strong, if Stuart didn't die on impact, being swept away into the raging sea, what kind of chance did he have?
Janna didn't respond.
She dared not even hope for Stuart to be alive anymore.
She only wished that he didn't suffer too much.
She wished that in his next life, he wouldn't have it so hard.
Once the company affairs were in order, Janna had to attend to her matters.
Fiona didn't want her to get involved, but on the seventh day after starting her recovery, Janna went alone to see Ken and Alice.
Ken came forward first.
Seeing Janna, he immediately burst into tears, pleading for mercy: "Mom, I know I was wrong. I got messed up by Alice, that wicked woman. Please forgive me! Jail is no place for a person. Eight of us crammed in a cell, sharing one toilet, eating food that's like dog shit. Mom, please save me! Get me out on bail!"
Ken's hair had turned mostly white.
For the first time, Janna remembered that Ken, too, had passed his fifties.
"Jane was such a good wife; had you stayed true, would your life have turned out this way? You've made your daughter, Chelsea, wander for over twenty years. A girl who should have been cherished like a princess has suffered so much hardship!"
"I was wrong! Mother, I know I was wrong! Please help me! I'll take care of her from now on, and I swear I will!"
"Bullshit!" Janna kicked Ken away fiercely. "You being nice to her? If you were, would you compete with her for the corporation? Or smear her birth in the press, calling her some illegitimate nobody? Ken, you're so utterly heartless and corrupt!"
Ken sobbed like a baby.
The door burst open again.
Pale-faced Alice was shoved into the room.
Upon seeing Janna, very much alive and sitting there, Alice cast her eyes down, muttering Dagmar's name along with a curse.
In cahoots with him, she could've taken revenge on the woman who abandoned her, all while securing untold riches.
Who would've thought that the foolish man had turned out to be so lovesick!
Otherwise, even if she couldn't secure the corporation, she could've brought down Janna and won at least half the battle!
But now she'd lost!
Completely and utterly lost!
"What? Are you here to gloat that you're still breathing?" Alice walked over, not even glancing at Ken, who knelt on the floor and sat across from Janna, her face twisted with mockery and defiance.
Since she had utterly lost anyway, there was no need to hold back her disgust and to grovel to this dying old hag.
Janna said nothing.
Her eyes, somewhat cloudy, rested on Alice.
"It's really quite astonishing. Your parents were such good people; you shouldn't have been so bad," Janna genuinely pondered, "How could they have spawned someone as venomous as you?"
The thing Alice hated the most was being compared to her parents.
She had tried.
But she couldn't do better than them.
Instead, it was Jane.
Some unknown foundling, who seemed more fit to be her parents' pride than she was.
Even knowing Jane was a fraud, people still looked at her with admiration, while towards her...
"It's that very look in your eyes." Alice locked her gaze with Janna's. "When I returned, I had to endure such stares every day. And why? Jane was the one in the wrong, not me!"
"So you wanted to destroy her, is that it?" Janna inquired.
"Wrong." Alice smirked, then pointed at Janna, "You are the one who's been ruining Jane!"
"Shut up, you wretch!"
Ken suddenly stood up and charged at Alice.
He was ultimately restrained by the officer standing behind him.
"You think you can keep me locked up here for long?" Alice said, her gaze on Janna was deranged, "This was all Charles's doing. At most, I'm guilty of failing to report a crime. If Dagmar testifies, what's one more charge of illegal confinement for me? That too because Charles left me no choice. How long do you think I'll get?"
"Mom, no, she's the one who made me do it!" Ken shouted with all his might.
"She manipulated you, and you'd kill your brother and Stuart, whom you watched grow up?" Janna Darwin rebuked sharply.
Ken froze.
"I…"
"You're asking how long you can stay here?" Janna looked back at Alice. "Just wait and see how long I'll let you."
Janna stood up, her movements decisive.
A sense of foreboding took hold of Alice.
"What are you going to do?"
Janna ignored her and strode toward the door.
Ken watched, his flicker of hope slowly extinguishing.
"Mom!!" He screamed hoarsely.
Janna halted at the door, her shoulders trembling slightly before drooping in a gesture of resignation. "You're my firstborn. I was so happy when you came into this world. It's a shame you've become like your father."
Ken was a mess, tears and snot covering his face.
"I thought there was a shred of humanity left in you, but you killed Chris and Stuart. You'll spend the rest of your life here, repenting for their deaths." "
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
