novelraw Chapter 372: It Turns Out She Lost Her Mother as a Child, She Doesn’t Love Her Less
Chapter 372: It Turns Out She Lost Her Mother as a Child, She Doesn’t Love Her Less
Delphine suddenly reached out and grabbed Beatrice Carter’s hand, a wave of despair surging through her. She looked at her, broken and in pain, and asked, "My mother... she’s gone?"
Beatrice’s meticulously maintained, fair and soft hand was being painfully squeezed by her. It was the first time in years she had seen such an expression on Delphine’s face. She was so startled that she couldn’t even move, and she carefully replied, "Yes, so she entrusted you to me, asking me to raise you. The name ’Delphine’ was chosen by her as well. She thought life’s joys were found in simplicity, and she... she loved you very much."
Her body seemed drained of all strength as she collapsed to the ground. She lowered her face, her expression ashen. The pain of suddenly losing her mother overwhelmed her, stabbing her heart. Her head throbbed with an endless, sharp ache. Sitting on the floor, her large eyes welled with tears, and she silently began to cry.
So, she had lost her mother in childhood. She cried until she started laughing. Twenty-three years had passed—not that she didn’t want to love her, but because she simply couldn’t. Her entire life had been displaced, starting from her early years. Beatrice had taken her to the South Seas, where she bore the brunt of Ignatius Leclair’s hatred and revenge. Everything that followed was merely a continuation of a misaligned life that began long ago.
Suddenly, she was struck by a profound clarity. She let out a low, hysterical laugh. What did the affairs of the Leclair estate have to do with her? She was, at her core, nothing more than an outsider.
"Who is my biological father?"
Beatrice was startled by the madness on her face. Her entire body went rigid, and though she wanted to pull herself back, she dared not move. Her heart pounding, she nervously replied, "I don’t know. Back then, Rosy didn’t say anything. She was just a single woman, heavily pregnant and wandering. That man must have been a scumbag."
Her voice grew smaller and smaller. For some reason, Beatrice felt increasingly anxious. This young woman before her, plainly the child she had taken in and raised in the countryside, now exuded a certain intimidating aura. Even though her own mother had been a gentle and kind woman, she never possessed such an air. It was as though she’d seen a ghost.
Delphine cast her a glance and rasped, "Tell me everything you know. Since I’ve already discovered something about my biological parents, I’ll find a way to confirm it. If there’s anything you’re hiding from me, as for the Leclair family..."
The unspoken words carried a faint undertone of indifference and menace. Once she realized she wasn’t Beatrice’s biological daughter, everything from the past began to make sense.
Back when they still considered themselves mother and daughter, the last thread of familial bond had already been exhausted. And now, with even the blood relation gone, she found she couldn’t even summon a sense of resentment anymore. Beatrice’s adoption of her was a kindness. But precisely because of that, she endured a nightmare life that was never hers to begin with. Debts of gratitude and grievances canceled each other out in the end, leaving absolutely nothing.
"So, once you know everything, will you leave the Leclair family?" Beatrice cautiously asked.
Delphine’s heart felt like ice. Coldly, she replied, "Tell me everything as it happened, and I will naturally leave."
"Well, actually... back then, I found your mother on the side of the road," Beatrice finally began, slowly recounting the events of years past. "She was pregnant with you then, already seven or eight months along. I could tell at a glance she’d been abandoned by some scumbag. She was homeless, so I just brought her in."
Beatrice felt a bit guilty. Her heart wasn’t as charitable as she made it seem. At the time, she herself had been someone’s mistress. When the wife found out, she’d been beaten and forced into a miscarriage. That furious wife had stripped her of every valuable thing she owned. Penniless and destitute, she happened to spot Rosy. Beatrice’s sharp eyes, trained from her time in nightlife circles, could immediately tell Rosy came from a very wealthy family. That was why she brought her back home.
Rosy, too, had nowhere else to go at the time. She stayed in the small apartment Beatrice shared with others and paid a substantial amount for rent and living expenses.