Chapter 491
The next morning, Celeste and Betty went to the cemetery. Looking at the tombstone, Celeste recalled the look of Lorenzo with his gray hair. Compared to him, the Rodriguez family members generally looked quite young. When Isabelle got divorced back then, Lorenzo was only in his 50s, and there wasn’t much gray hair on his head yet. Celeste clearly remembered that less than a year after Isabelle’s accident, Lorenzo’s hair had turned completely gray. He passed away from illness.
It wasn’t until last year that she learned the illness was related, at least in part, to the long years of bottled-up grief and anguish in his heart. If he hadn’t fallen ill, perhaps he might still be alive today. Betty’s eyes reddened thinking of how, before he passed, he had still been worrying over his most beloved Isabelle; thinking of how, after so many years, Isabelle still hadn’t managed to pull herself together and start anew as Lorenzo had hoped. Supported by Ivan, she crouched down and gently caressed the tombstone.
“Lorenzo…” —- Perhaps she had wanted to say their precious daughter still hadn’t recovered, that she had let him down. But those words only came to her lips, but came out. She only stroked the tombstone in silence, tears sliding down. Celeste’s eyes grew red as she let go of Jordyn’s hand and turned her face away. Sensing the sorrow in the air, Jordyn lifted her gaze at Celeste, her eyes full of confusion. “Mom?” Celeste shook her head and said nothing. More than an hour later, they finally left the cemetery. The Rodriguez family still had a few relatives and family friends in the area.
Each year when they returned, they would usually visit them together with Betty. This year, when they arrived at the Joulin family’s residence, the family matriarch, Eleanor Fyre, who was about the same age as Betty, paused when she saw Jordyn. 1 “This is Cel’s daughter… Jo, right? Haven’t seen her in a few years, she’s grown so much!” Celeste nodded and told Jordyn to greet her properly.
—- Eleanor paused, then couldn’t help asking, “Did your husband come back with you this time?” > Last year, when Jordyn hadn’t come along, Celeste and Betty had said that Trevor was working abroad with the child. Now that the child was here, but her father… In all their years of marriage, Trevor had only accompanied her back once to pay respects at Lorenzo’s grave. 5 That was a few years ago, when her relationship with him had just started to warm up again.
1 With Jordyn still present, and with her not knowing about the impending divorce, Celeste simply said, “He’s busy with work.” 2 Seeing how lightly Celeste spoke of Trevor, Eleanor didn’t press further and quickly changed the subject. After a while of chatting, she seemed to recall something and whispered, “! heard that the Lockets and the Shaws moved to Baumond and have been doing very well. 5 “That granddaughter of the Locket family and her supposedly very capable boyfriend-apparently, their relationship has only grown stronger. A few days ago, both families even came back to Youtopia.
From what I heard, the two are about to get married. 3 —- Normally, if someone mentioned the Shaws or the Lockets, Betty and Celeste wouldn’t think much of it. But today, with everyone already in a somber mood, they fell quiet when they heard it. After a long silence, Betty said, “I know.” Eleanor looked worried. “I heard that the granddaughter’s future husband comes from quite an extraordinary family.
2 “With those two families gaining such an advantage, once they’ve made connections in Baumond, they won’t come bullying you, will they?” 3 For the moment, the Lockets and the Shaws still didn’t dare to provoke them directly. 1 But if Wynn really married Trevor… Then, things would be uncertain. 4