"Esmae, I'm in prison now. I can't get rid of the thorns all over my body. I have to lie to everyone, even Teddy. But to you, I don't want to. I want you to know that I've always loved Arthur. I won't change now, and I won't change in the future. This is my heart, and you have been forcing me to kill it. This is very painful. It's really painful."

For the first time, Lucia was blandly confessing to Esmae the harm she had done to her, not because she wanted Esmae to feel guilty about it, but because she wanted to tell her that it was impossible for her to forget Arthur!

Esmae glared at Lucia, and was speechless with anger.

Perhaps it was true that she had repressed herself for too long in front of Esmae, and Lucia had lost her composure when she complained,

"Shouldn't you be the one who know how much one loves someone? If you can forget your love for someone so easily, why do you have to bear a grudge against Edwin and Sophie for so many years? Isn't it because you can't forget him..."

Pow! A slap sounded, and Lucia was slapped in the face, stopping her voice.

Esmae looked at Lucia's fair face and saw her palm print. She felt sorry for Lucia, but she didn't regret the slap. She withdrew her hand and reprimanded her sternly,

"What happened between me and Edwin, Sophie, is not for you to judge! How can you understand the hardships and suffering of my years! I hate them not because I can't get Edwin out of my head, but because they deserve to pay for what they've done. Why should I forgive them?"

Stubbornly not lifting her hand to touch her stinging cheek, Lucia turned back to look at Esmae and insisted,

"But Esmae... People are people, because they know how to be grateful, polite, can forget. I mean, everyone is gonna do anything wrong in their life. Even you do things wrong, right? People can have a bond with each other because they get along with each other through mistakes and forgiveness. It's not right for Edwin and Sophie to hide their relationship from you, but their original intention was not to hurt you, or even your family. Sophie has been looking for you for decades and carrying the guilt for decades. Isn't that enough?"

"No!" said Esmae, with her eyes glowering. She did not listen to a word Lucia said, and she said in a cold voice that there was no doubt about her decision,

"I don't need to talk about my grudge with them anymore, but I won't allow you to be with Arthur. You can call me dictatorial, call me cruel. In short, it's impossible! I saved your life six years ago, and today you're gonna do what I tell you to do! We leave in two days! Prepare yourself!"

With that, Esmae looked no more at Lucia, turned and walked straight out of the room, leaving her alone with the emptiness and helplessness of the room.

The door slammed shut. Lucia raised her hand to her cheek and lowered her eyes. Her vision gradually became blurry, and tears welled up in her eyes. Lucia gradually calmed down.

On the other side, Esmae, who had already walked out of the room, looked up at the hand that she had slapped Lucia with as soon as she closed the door. She looked complex. She loved Lucia, not only because she had suffered, and because she was a polite, grateful girl. Lucia, on another level, could be regarded as her original self, so her compassion was even greater.

If Lucia fell in love with someone who was not a descendant of Edwin, Esmae will be there to support her, but she had chosen the wrong person.

No one could understand the depth of her feud with Edwin and Sophie, and she couldn't let it go easily, because it involved her parents. Even though what Lucia had just said had shaken her a little, still, Esmae was fixated on her decision.

No change!

That night, at dinner, Esmae announced her decision to accompany Lucia home two days later for her engagement party with Spencer. That was behind Theodore's back, of course. Theodore's diet needed to be prepared differently, and the medical staff took it to his room in person.

When Esmae said this, Reynolds was the one who reacted most strongly. He stood up straight at the table and asked Esmae,

"Mom! Are you really going to let Lucia marry that Spencer?!"

Reynolds had always regarded Arthur as his greatest love rival because he had no respect for Spencer, and he was shocked that his mother had actually announced today that Lucia was going to marry Spencer.

"Reynolds! Behave yourself!". Chris had always doted on his wife, and when he saw his son questioning her, he immediately called out to remind him.

As usual, Chris can intimidate his son's behavior, but it didn't seem to be working today. Reynolds still stared at his mother, asking,

"Mom, I thought this was just a way for you to separate Lucia and Arthur, but how could you really let Lucia marry such a wicked person? Lucia won't be happy in the future!"

"Shut up!" After an afternoon of displeasure with Lucia, Esmae slapped the table and scolded her son,

"Lucia has no opinion of her own. Why are you objecting here?! What position do you have to object to?!"

Esmae rarely lost her temper like this. Shawn and Helena were both upset, but Reynolds was unfazed. He turned to Lucia, who was sitting next to Helena,

"Lucia! Say something! If you don't want to, say it, say it! I'll be on your side!"

Lucia seemed to shut out everything around her, and even more deaf to Reynolds' words. She slowly pushed the food into her mouth with a knife and fork, chewing it slowly, so that no one could tell what she was thinking.

"Lucia!" Reynolds was chagrined, for Lucia's silence.

"Enough!" Annoyed by Reynolds' persistence, Esmae stood up and pointed at Reynolds. "Go to your room right now! Don't ever mention it again!"

When they were young, Esmae would tell them to go to their room if they didn't behave well, but that hadn't happened since the siblings became adults. Today, Esmae was using this technique again, which showed how angry she was.

Seeing her mother's angry eyes and Lucia standing still, Helena quickly got up and took Reynolds by the arm,Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

"Reynolds, why don't you stop pissing mom off and go to your room?"

Reynolds was outraged, but Lucia's silence made him even more outraged. In a fit of pique, he actually turned away from the table and headed upstairs, where the atmosphere was stifling.