Flash Marriage to a Stunning CEO (Alistair and Richard)

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Chapter 171 Her Goodbye?

Mabel was still burdened by guilt over not protecting Caroline.

To Alistair, that was simply unacceptable. She was a

grandmother, not a guardian by law, and she had already given Caroline everything she could.

Without her presence, Caroline's childhood might have been even more suffocating and bleak.

"Please don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault," Alistair said softly and then hesitated before asking, "Do you remember when you first got sick?"

Mabel thought for a moment. "I believe it was when Caroline had just started eighth grade. Right at the beginning of the school year."

Alistair's heart gave a sudden jolt.

In Caroline's memories, after Mabel fell ill, Paige had taken over her care--though "care" was hardly the word. It was control, plain and simple. The real breaking point came when Giselle went through her room and opened the belongings her mother had left her. That act lit the fuse.

From that moment on, Caroline and Paige had been at odds. And during the year Mabel spent in the convalescent home, Caroline had been stuck under Paige's thumb, surviving under

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Chapter 171 Her Goodbye?

her rule.

Okay, maybe "surviving" was a little dramatic.

That was just his own mental exaggeration.

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Caroline had never described exactly how she got through that year. She'd only mentioned what had happened between her and Paige, leaving out the rest.

But knowing her, she would never have bowed her head just to make life easier. And Paige was the type who thrived on dominance, with a need to control every little thing.

Two people like that under one roof? Someone was going to suffer. And it didn't take a genius to know who that someone was. Caroline, barely in her teens, hadn't even grown her wings

yet.

Then, without meaning to, Alistair found himself thinking about that house in Chicago, the one not far from his own. The one with the child who'd been locked upstairs.

At first, he'd ruled Caroline out because the child had been assumed to be a boy. But now he wasn't so sure. That assumption had been based solely on the short haircut. No one had ever confirmed the gender. The two women living there had kept to themselves, rarely speaking to anyone. Who was to say the child hadn't been a girl?

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had been a girl... why couldn't

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system had bound him to her, ever since they'd gotten married, Alistair

with something as flimsy as low blood sugar. It

those memories belonged to a younger version of her, he hoped her

gave him now matched up

his tone casual, Alistair asked, "Do you know what really happened between Caroline and Paige? What caused their relationship

answer echoed what Caroline had told

hadn't even met Paige back then. All he knew came from/Caroline, and of course he believed every

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Chapter 171 Her Goodbye?

Mabel, though, things weren't so

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sides

had never

blind. Paige told him Caroline was unruly and dangerous, that she needed to be sent away to one of those behavior correction

shot up.

didn't match

Chicago had been just that—a house, an ordinary residential unit. There was nothing official or clinical about

if the Ashbourne family had wanted to commission a

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Chapter 171 Her Goodbye?

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could ask more, Mabel's tone shifted. Her fingers wrapped around his, and her eyes

sick. Maybe she was, in a way. Maybe she just couldn't face what happened, and her mind chose to forget it." Mabel paused. "Alistair, I need you to promise me-don't ever tell

course he wouldn't. Caroline had already

chose silence proved she didn't want Mabel

gave her a solemn

a heavy stone had been lifted from her chest. "That's a

was still lost in thought when she changed the subject

to do with that, not

shook her head. "You already told me. I believe you. You don't need to keep saying it. If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have let you anywhere

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Chapter 171 Her Goodbye?

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that and how much faith

talkative that day. What started as

foods, her newest hobbies, and how

the longer she

into his mind, uninvited and