Forced Marriage: My Wife, My Redemption by Lilyheart

Chapter 282: It is your fate...

After dinner, Lady Matilda motioned for everyone to remain seated. The clinking of cutlery ceased, and murmured conversations died down.

"Before we disperse," she began with commanding calmness, "I believe it is time Jessica is properly introduced to the family. She should understand the Santiago family tree."

What followed was a deliberate rundown of names and relations. Uncles, aunts, cousins—everyone took their turn, and Lady Matilda clarified the bloodlines as though each connection carried weight.

Jessica listened attentively. Her mind filtered through the names and titles, but it was one revelation that struck her most.

Lady Matilda had only two children—her mother, Nora, and a younger son, Donald. Jessica’s heart skipped. Her mother had been the eldest. The firstborn.

So that was it.

The secret tension in the air. The barely concealed hostility. It all made sense now.

Her presence had disrupted more than routines—it had threatened the silent ambitions that had festered in this house for years. Her arrival had shaken old plots from their slumber and forced hidden motives into motion.

She cast a quick glance around the table. Her eyes lingered on each face. Some wore false warmth, their smiles too tight, their eyes too shifty. Others barely concealed their disdain. A few—just a handful—looked sincere, though even their sincerity felt cautious.

Donald, her uncle, looked strangely alone despite being surrounded by his own blood. A sheep among wolves, she thought. No wonder Lady Matilda had retained control even at her age—there was no one else strong enough to hold the house together.

Subtly, Jessica reached for her phone under the table and typed out a message to Ethan.

"I need a clear report on the following people. Immediately."

She listed the names she sensed were more than they seemed. There was no room for naïveté. Not here.

As she hit ’send’, Lady Matilda’s voice rose again, steady and resolute.

"I’ve been growing tired lately," she said, her tone unflinching, "and Donald alone cannot handle the affairs of the Santiagos. So after much thought, I’ve come to a conclusion—Jessica, being a Santiago, will step up as Vice President to support her uncle."

silence that

trembled slightly, and her phone nearly slipped from her grasp. She turned

feared this. Feared the weight those exact words would

look of pure venom. Their stare

think I can

"You don’t have to worry. The decision is

think you’re being unfair?" Cassandra broke

Matilda raised

defiantly. She refused to keep quiet while Jessica, a stranger to their inner circle, was placed above

her mother. Nora was my

dared challenge her further, but discomfort

will be an official welcoming banquet. And with it,

of muffled

announcement? A banquet? When had she agreed to any

glance at Lady Matilda and she saw the exhaustion hiding behind the steel. The woman looked so tired,

stood. "Please excuse me. I’ll take

stares that burned into her back. As she exited, Jessica and Donald’s

think you should go see her," he said quietly to Jessica, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "She definitely wants to speak with

at him, her voice low. "Aren’t you upset about what she

you thinking about?" he

forehead. The gesture triggered

it as a hobby to flick her forehead and the night before she died was

her mother’s necklace, and Nora had flicked her forehead with the same words—"What are you thinking

in her mind: "When the time

stirred in Jessica’s

was always better at business than me. You stepping up... it lets

His smile was genuine—relieved.