Chapter 825
Corinne’s mind went entirely blank. “What… what did you just say?”
Raleigh, Dalton, and Gaylord mirrored her reaction, absolute disbelief painted across their faces.
Moran and Granger were arguably even more shocked than the others.
After Stewart’s bombshell dropped, it took them a long moment to snap out of their daze. They stared at Thorne in total disbelief.
Vesta and Charlene… were actually half-sisters?
And Vesta’s mother had been a mistress who literally drove Charlene’s mother insane just to take her place?
They actually knew bits and pieces about Charlene’s mother, but they never in a million years imagined that the woman responsible for destroying her was Vesta’s mother.
Thorne had never once mentioned this history to them.
If what Stewart was saying was true, then…
Seeing Corinne and Raleigh’s horrified reactions, Stewart smiled, though his eyes remained deadly cold. “Judging by how stunned you two look, I take it Ms. Hawkins never shared this little detail with you.”
Vesta had never told them.
And they had absolutely never sensed this kind of toxic, blood-deep feud between Charlene and Vesta.
This revelation completely upended everything they thought they knew.
Corinne, Raleigh, and the others stared blankly at Vesta.
Stewart didn’t spare Corinne and Raleigh another glance. Instead, he looked from Vesta over to Maureen and Henley, then continued his story. Years ago, Charlene’s grandmother and Ms Hawkins’s grandmother were friends. But Ms Hawkins’s grandmother married a terrible man. Charlene’s grandmother took pity on her difficult life. She constantly
supported and helped their family,
even paying for both of her children
to get an education.”
“Because of this, Charlene’s mother and Ms. Hawkins’s mother essentially grew up together.”
“The Ross family helped the
Spencers in every possible way. In return, the Spencers bit the hand that fed them. They infiltrated the marriage of their benefactor’s daughter. To claw their way to the top, they used every dirty trick in the book to drive her insane and seized the Ross family’s assets. The outcome? Charlene’s grandparents were forced to take their newly
divorced, mentally broken daughter and their eight-year-old
granddaughter and flee far away from their home.”
As Stewart’s words hung in the air, the crowd erupted into absolute chaos once again. All eyes darted between Vesta, Maureen, and Henley.
Hearing the brutal truth, Corinne, Raleigh, Dalton, York, and Gaylord stood frozen, completely reeling. Granger and Moran were in the exact same state.
Feeling the sheer weight of the crowd’s stares, Vesta gripped her hands together tightly and kept her head bowed, hiding her face.
Maureen pressed her lips together, her expression looking downright dreadful.
But Stewart wasn’t finished. “Charlene’s mother used to be a brilliant, cheerful woman. She was the absolute apple of her parents eye. After the betrayal, she was forced to spend her days locked away in a psychiatric ward completely out of her mind: Charlene’s grandfather was already in poor health, and seeing his daughter destroyed broke his heart. He died of grief just a few years later.”
“You’d think the nightmare would end there. But ruining Charlene’s mother and driving her insane over a decade ago wasn’t enough. Over ten years later, Ms. Hawkins decided to pull the exact same stunt.”
Amidst the horrified gasps of the crowd, Stewart locked eyes with Vesta and scoffed. “Ms. Hawkins, should I assume that in addition to being heartless and ungrateful, being a homewrecker is also just a treasured family tradition?”
He let out another mocking laugh. “Your family certainly has a lot of ‘fine virtues.’ Honestly, in all my years, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a family as entirely shameless as yours. It really has been an eye-opening experience.”