Chapter 92 The Reading of the Will
Alice looked super bummed out.
She grabbed Ken and dragged him over to where Joshua was.
Joshua was gonna be sent to the funeral home.
He'd left instructions: no memorial service, just cremation, and his ashes buried with his wife.
"These old geezers are basically calling me useless!" Ken's face was red with anger.
He thought he wasn't as sharp as those business whizzes, but he still had a decent brain.
He just needed a bit more luck.
"What's up with the heir thing? Your mom can't be serious about handing the whole family biz to some outsider, right?" Alice was getting jittery.
She never thought that after all these years, Janna would dig up the truth about what went down back then.
Because of that, Janna had cut ties with them.
But Alice figured, no matter what, Ken was Janna's eldest son. She wouldn't ditch her own kid for some woman from over twenty years ago.
"I can't get any scoop on the company's stuff. How would I know to who she's passing the company on to?" Ken was just as freaked out, scratching his head.
Seeing how chummy that woman was with Janna.
Ken had never seen his strict mom be so soft with any kid. And she listened to Fiona so much.
Seeing this, Alice's eyes welled up, and she started to cry, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't fallen for you back then, and if you hadn't been with me, none of this would have happened."
Seeing her like that, Ken quickly tried to comfort her, "How is this your fault? If anyone's to blame, it's that nasty woman Jane. After all these years, she still wants to frame you for hurting her!"
Alice stayed quiet.
She leaned into Ken's arms, silently crying.
She thought, 'Does he really think that idiot Jane is capale of framing her? Hilarious. Besides, she's been dead for years, her ashes must be dust by now, right?'
Meanwhile, Fiona set out a bunch of tasty breakfast stuff from the nursing home cafeteria in front of Janna.
Janna looked kinda out of it. "Sorry you had to see this."
"Their jokes have nothing to do with you." Fiona pushed the milk towards her. "Drink it while it's hot."
Janna took a sip and felt a bit better.
Fiona took a bite of bread and thought for a moment.
She asked, "That old friend, her name was Jane?"
Janna replied, "Yeah."
Fiona nodded. "Seems like Joshua and his wife were really tight."
"More than that. If it weren't for their young daughter, Joshua would've followed her in death." Janna sighed and shook her head. "So, when Alice was brought back home, Joshua was actually in a lot of pain."
Fiona ate quietly.
Janna added, "Alice's adoptive parents were awful. She went through a lot and didn't even finish elementary school. But Jane grew up in luxury, got the best elite education, and eventually married into the Rhoads family."
Hearing this, Fiona could kinda get why Joshua was hurting.
Janna said, "Jane also felt super guilty and treated Alice really well, doing almost everything she asked. But Alice fell for Ken and insisted on marrying him. There's no true love. My son, apart from his looks, is good for nothing!"
"And then?" Fiona asked.
"Then..." Janna frowned, looking really pained. "That day, I caught Jane and her childhood sweetheart in bed."
Fiona's hand froze.
"Back then, I had no clue Alice was already with Ken. I thought she was cheating, didn't listen to her side of the story, and kicked her out. This whole mess became gossip in the upper circles." Janna's eyes welled up. "It wasn't until this year that I found out Alice had bribed the servant to drug her and then set me up to catch them! I can't even imagine how humiliated and desperate Jane must've felt!"
Fiona felt a knot in her stomach.
She felt a bit queasy.
"Did Joshua know the truth?" she asked.
"That guy was Joshua's student. When it all went down, he rushed to explain to Joshua. Jane was like a daughter to Joshua, and that guy was also his student. He knew their characters. So he didn't believe Jane would have cheated and argued with me. Two years later, Alice married my son. Joshua probably figured something was up and cut ties with them. I always thought Joshua was biased towards Jane."
Honestly, Fiona thought Janna was pretty ridiculous in this whole thing.
She probably trusted her son way too much.
Alice must've worked her butt off to pull this off.
There were plenty of ways to frame someone.
"Did Jane go back to Joshua after leaving?" Fiona kept asking.
She really wanted to know what happened to Jane and still hoped she was alive.
Otherwise, it would be too much of a win for that cheating couple.
Janna shook her head. "No, I heard she went to find her real parents."
"Weren't they supposed to be jerks?" Fiona frowned.
Janna said, "The jerks are Alice's adoptive parents. I didn't get the full story, but Alice's adoptive parents aren't Jane's real parents."
If they were those jerks, they wouldn't have been so hard to find.
This was getting weird and complicated.
Maybe it was fate protecting Jane, keeping her hidden from these people.
Joshua was cremated that day.
Alice had insisted on holding a memorial service and inviting all the big shots Joshua knew.
But Joshua's legal team showed up just in time.
They shut that down.
After the cremation, as it got late, Janna saw Fiona constantly checking the time and got ready to leave with her.
Just as they were about to go, Joshua's lawyer, Zackery Fields, ran over. "Ms. Rhoads, I finally found you!"
"What's up?" Janna asked.
"Mr. Kelly's will is to be read, and according to his wishes, you must be present," Zackery said seriously.
Fiona felt it was kinda awkward for her to be involved in the will stuff.
Plus, Darwin had been bugging her.
So she left first.
A bit later, in the conference room, Alice looked super pissed.
If they were gonna read the will, why did Janna have to be there?
Even though Joshua was low-key, he was a whiz at investments. He'd racked up quite a bit of wealth.
Once everyone was there, Zackery started reading the will, "According to Mr. Kelly's wishes, his assets are split into three parts: one part to set up a charity fund to help trafficked kids get back home."
Alice lowered her eyes, not sure what she was thinking, her hand clenched into a fist, nails digging into her palm.
Zackery continued, "One part to Nick Palmer's research lab!"
"What?" Ken jumped up, furious and shocked.
Nick the person Jane was having an affair with.
Zackery ignored him.
He went on, "The remaining movable assets and all of Mr. Kelly's real estate will go to Jane Kelly's daughter."
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