When Charlene walked through the door, she realized Irma Henderson was there.

Irma smiled as she saw her. “You’re back, Charlene.”

Charlene returned the smile, setting her bag aside before taking a seat next to the older woman. “When did you get back, Grandma?”

She knew Irma had spent the last few weeks down south to escape the summer heat.

“I arrived around noon today,” Irma said, taking Charlene’s hand. “I picked up quite a few local specialties while I was there and wanted to bring some over for you.”

After a few more minutes of catching up, dinner was served. Over the meal, Irma shared plenty of amusing stories from her summer getaway.

Irma and Helena Ross hadn’t seen each other in a while, so they had a lot of ground to cover.

Irma ended up staying until nearly nine o’clock before finally deciding it was time to head out.

As Charlene and Helena walked her out, Irma’s smile faded. She hesitated for a moment before speaking up. “I’ve heard about everything that happened over the last couple of days. Regarding the Hawkins family’s company, Lloyd and I already called Thorne. He promised he wouldn’t step in to help them, but…..”

But even if Thorne had agreed not to help the Hawkins family now, there was no telling what he might do once the storm blew over.

Charlene and Helena had already anticipated that possibility from the very beginning, even without Irma pointing it out.

They both knew that delivering this message was the real reason behind Irma’s visit today.

Irma clasped Helena’s hands, her eyes growing misty. “The Hawkins and Spencer families ruined Sybil, yet my ungrateful grandson… Old friend, I am so sorry. I know I have no right to even show my face here, but I couldn’t just pretend I was blind to it all.”

No matter what, she needed to make her stance clear to the Ross family regarding the recent drama.

Otherwise, she feared the decades of friendship she had with them would slowly wither away.

“We’ve been friends for years, there’s no need for that,” Helena said quickly, patting her hand to soothe her. “How could I not understand where you’re coming from?”

Knowing that Charlene and Helena understood brought Irma a great deal of relief. They chatted for another moment before Irma finally got into her car and left. Charlene headed upstairs to unwind.

While she was getting ready for bed, her phone chimed. She glanced at the screen, and saw a photo from the Henderson family’s butler showing Jasmine playing at home.

Over the past few months, Jasmine had called her almost every single day. On

some days, she would even call two or three times.

It was as if the little girl had an endless stream of things to tell her.

But ever since the night before last, Jasmine badn’t initiated a single call. Charlene had tried calling her yesterday morning but it went unanswered, and Jasmine never called back.

With those thoughts weighing heavily on her, Charlene sent a brief reply to the butler. She massaged her throbbing temples, set her phone aside, and finally tried to get some sleep.

Over the next few days, Charlene stuck to her usual work routine. The busy schedule made the time fly by.

On Friday, as Charlene walked into a seminar, she immediately bumped into Granger Harden and Moran Albright.

“You made it,” Granger said.

“Yeah.”

Moran, however, looked a bit uncomfortable when he saw her and kept his mouth shut.

Charlene didn’t bother greeting him either. Instead, she turned back to Granger. “I’m going to go say hi to a friend.”

“Alright, go ahead,” he replied.

Moran watched her walk away before muttering to Granger, “Thorne still isn’t back yet. Does he really have that much going on?”