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"Harper!"
Elizabeth yanked her daughter’s wrist with a rough jolt. Harper winced in pain as her mother dragged her away from the crowd of socialites, who were still whispering and watching them from a distance.
"Grandma..." Jesslyn whispered in terror.
Hearing that anxious squeak, Harper instinctively gripped her daughter’s small hand back. They only stopped once they reached a far corner of the mall corridor, where it was significantly quieter.
Elizabeth immediately threw Harper’s arm aside. The middle-aged woman’s face was flushed with suppressed rage. "Harper, you are truly lowering your own dignity for the sake of that bastard child!"
Jesslyn’s body instantly stiffened behind her mother’s back. Realizing her daughter's reaction, Harper’s expression turned icy cold. "Jesslyn is not a bastard."
"Don't keep defending her!"
"Enough, Mother!"
Harper’s voice rose, sounding far louder and sharper than usual. The sudden outburst even caused Elizabeth to freeze in her tracks.
"Never speak that harshly about Jesslyn again," Harper asserted firmly.
Elizabeth stared at her daughter in disbelief. "You still dare to defend her after all the chaos she has brought into your life?"
"Chaos?" Harper let out a short laugh, though there was not a hint of humor in it. "Jesslyn has never been a problem in my life." Her gaze suddenly sharpened. "The problem all this time has been the Collins family."
"Harper!"
"You never cared about what I went through with Jesslyn all this time," Harper squeezed the little girl’s fingers, channeling strength to her. "And now, Jesslyn is the only family I have."
Those words slowly shifted the expression on Elizabeth’s face. "Have you gone mad, Harper?"
"Perhaps," Harper smiled faintly. "But at least I still have a conscience."
Elizabeth clenched her fists tightly. "You have truly disappointed this family."
"No, Mother," Harper shook her head slowly. "I just stopped hoping for anything from this family."
A sudden silence fell between them. For the first time, Elizabeth felt that the daughter standing before her had changed completely. The old Harper, who always begged for recognition from the Collins family, was gone. The woman standing in front of her now appeared far stronger and unshakable.
"You don't need to worry," Harper took a deep breath. "I can take care of myself." Her gaze remained steady, refusing to bow. "And I have never sold myself as you have accused me of doing."
Elizabeth’s face hardened even further.
"I didn't expect your mind could be so vile toward your own child," Harper offered a bitter smile. "Oh, I forgot." Her voice suddenly sounded incredibly calm. "Perhaps, from the beginning, I was never truly a part of the Collins family anyway."
With that, Harper turned around. She left no room for Elizabeth to retort.
"Harper! Wait!"
But this time, Harper closed her ears to it. She kept walking forward without once looking back, leaving her mother standing alone with a rigid face, struggling to contain her frustration.
A few minutes later, after moving far away from that corridor.
Harper rubbed her face roughly. Today had truly drained every ounce of her energy. Victoria, then Elizabeth—two massive problems back-to-back in a single day.
However, deep in her heart, Harper knew this was only the surface. If the situation was already this complicated, what would happen once she officially carried the name Vane?
A small touch on her fingers suddenly broke Harper’s trance. She looked down and saw Jesslyn still holding her hand tightly. The little girl’s face looked so anxious.
Harper crouched down to meet her eye level. "Sweetheart..."
Jesslyn bowed her head deeply. Seeing that reaction, guilt instantly struck Harper’s chest. She had been too focused on her argument with Elizabeth to notice that Jesslyn had been absorbing every terrible moment of it.
"Forgive Mom, okay?" Harper whispered softly.
Jesslyn looked up, staring at her mother innocently. "Huh?"
"Mom forgot that you must have been scared earlier."
Jesslyn shook her head slowly. "No, I wasn't."
"No?"
The little girl suddenly smiled shyly. "Because Mom was near Jesslyn."
Harper’s heart instantly felt warmed by her daughter’s words. She gently stroked Jesslyn’s black hair. "You... truly make it impossible for Mom to stay sad for long."
Jesslyn giggled.
"So..." Harper smiled along. "Someone said they wanted to buy a new doll earlier?"
Jesslyn’s round eyes instantly sparkled. "Yes, Mom!"
"Let’s go, then."
Within seconds, the little girl’s cheerfulness had fully returned. Seeing Jesslyn smile made the weight on Harper’s shoulders lift just a little. Whatever storms awaited her ahead, she would never regret the decision she had made today.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the situation at the Collins family’s main residence suddenly heated up.
Brak!
A thick document folder was slammed onto the desk.
"What is the meaning of all these reports?!"
Alexander Collins stood up from his executive chair with a grim expression. Before him, James stood with an equally shocked look.
"I also just received the validation report a few minutes ago, Dad," James replied listlessly.
Alexander immediately grabbed the document and read it rapidly. Yet, the further his eyes traveled across the lines of text, his facial expression transformed into something unreadable.
"This... this is impossible..."
James rubbed his frustrated-looking face. "I thought so too at first."
Alexander looked back at the sheets of paper in his hands. The name printed in bold there seemed to make his heart stop for a second.
Darian Vane.
Jesslyn Vane.
The vast study was instantly enveloped in a suffocating silence.
"So..." Alexander’s voice sounded hoarse and heavy. "Jesslyn is... Darian Vane’s biological daughter?"
James nodded slowly in confirmation. "And now, Harper has been moved to the Vane family’s main mansion."
For the first time in all his years leading the octopus-like Collins family business, Alexander felt he had just committed a fatal blunder.
Alexander wondered if casting Harper out of the Collins family was the greatest mistake he had ever made.
- Writer
