Chapter 416

“Huh?” Claire blinked, caught off guard by this new twist in the story.

Padgett cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. “Alright, that’s enough. Let’s not keep going with this in front of Claire. She shouldn’t have to listen to all this mess p>

But Claire wasn’t the least bit bothered. If anything, she seemed interested. “Grandpa, I’m fine. Seriously. I am a girl, after all. If I can learn from grownups and all their past mistakes, maybe I won’t get fooled so easily in the future p>

Padgett thought that over for a second and realized, honestly, she had a point.

Since he went quiet, Claire turned to Karla. “So Karla, was that other kid Yolande p>

“No.” Karla shook her head.

“That pregnancy didn’t make it p>

“Nobody really knows what went wrong with your uncle back then p>

“They only had Yolande after they got married p>

Karla took her chance to slip in a bit more real-world advice for Claire, and Padgett let her talk. With Claire’s mom gone, having someone tell her the truth about life was probably a good thing.

“When Yolande was first born, hardly anyone cared about her,” Karla said quietly.

Now that she thought about it, she and Ophelia had gone out of their way to spoil Yolande because life had been so harsh on her as a kid.

Back then, Tiffany was obsessed with competing. Ophelia had twins, and Karla had a son, so Tiffany was determined to keep up with them. She desperately wanted a boy of her own. As soon as she found out she was pregnant with Yolande, she was running around everywhere, trying to find someone who’d secretly tell her if it was a boy or a girl.

Eventually, Padgett couldn’t just stand by. He laid into his younger brother-Tiffany’s father-in-law—about how it didn’t matter if it was a son or daughter. “Let a girl come first, a boy later, or vice versa, whatever. Both are family.” Only when everyone made it clear this wasn’t a big deal did Tiffany simmer down.

Still, deep down, she was hoping for a boy. And one time, Owen joked that she was having a girl, and Tiffany pretty much lost it.

She caused a huge scene, enough that Karla ended up yelling at her before Tiffany finally left the house in a huff.

“Tiffany would stop anyone she saw and fish for clues, asking, ‘Do you think I’m having a boy or a girl? Of course, everyone knew what she wanted, so who would risk saying it was a girl p>

“But when Yolande was born and turned out to be a girl, Tiffany started shouting at

the hospital, insisting someone must have switched her baby p>

“It was honestly lucky our side of the family didn’t rush right over to visit. If we had, she would’ve blamed Ophelia or even me for sure p>

Claire just listened, half amused, half speechless. Tiffany was in a class of her own, honestly.

“But now she seems to dote on Yolande just fine,” Claire said, confused. “How’d she go from that to being a good mom p>

Karla smiled. “It’s because our family always loved girls. Yolande spent so much time at Ophelia’s house when she was little, and everyone there treated her like their own realized that if she wanted toget

any

along with Ophelia-and not be left

out-she’d have to treat her own

daughter well, too p>

Karla gave a little shrug. “Honestly, Tiffany’s great at pretending. Whether she really loves Yolande or is just putting on a good show for everyone, in the end, she got what she wanted p>

If Claire hadn’t come back to the Churchill family, Tiffany surely would have used Yolande to wring even more out of the family. But nobody saw Claire’s return coming.

Now, with Claire back in the picture, Tiffany was panicking and showing up at Ophelia’s house practically every other day.

“I don’t think Yolande turned out much like Tiffany,” Claire said, thoughtful. “She doesn’t seem shallow at all p>

Karla chuckled at that. “That’s only because she spent almost her whole childhood at our place. If she’d grown up with just her mom’s ideas, I shudder to think what she’d be like

now p>

Claire nodded. “Yolande really drew the short straw, having a mom like that p>