Forced Marriage: My Wife, My Redemption by Lilyheart

Chapter 352: Did you believe it?

While Jessica stared at her, waiting for explanations, Grandma Nelly slowly reached for her walking stick and stood up with effort.

With cautious steps, she made her way to the wardrobe, opened it, and bent over her stick as she reached into the farthest corner. From that hidden space, she pulled out an old steel safe, the surface scratched and dulled by time.

She fumbled through a bunch of jingling keys in her hand until she found a small golden one. Sliding it into the keyhole, she turned it with a faint click, the safe opened.

Nelly inhaled deeply, her breath shaky as she sifted through stacks of neatly arranged but yellowing documents inside the safe.

Finally, she retrieved a sealed yellow envelope, the weight of its significance almost visible in her trembling fingers.

"Yes... here it is," she murmured, the words heavy with both relief and dread.

Turning around, she walked slowly back toward Jessica, who was sitting upright now, her eyes trained on the envelope, her body tense with anticipation.

Nelly kept her right hand firmly on her walking stick while extending her left arm toward Jessica as she handed out the envelope.

The envelope appeared heavy both in mass and meaning as it passed into her granddaughter’s hands.

"You take a look at this," she said softly.

Jessica stood slowly, stretching her hands forward to receive the envelope. Her fingers trembled as they made contact. She stared at the large, bold letters ’CONFIDENTIAL’ stamped across it:

She turned the envelope around several times in her hands, her heart thudded with a mix of fear, curiosity, and uncertainty. She glanced at Grandma Nelly, silently asking whether to open it now or wait.

Nelly only shrugged, offering no guidance. "The choice is yours," the gesture seemed to say, though it weighed like a mountain.

"Grandma..." Jessica started, but Nelly gently lifted a hand to stop her mid-sentence.

"You don’t have to force yourself. Just as your mother instructed at the time of its delivery. This envelope was to be given to you once you were married, and especially now that you’re about to become a mother."

She paused with a sigh. "I’ve fulfilled my duty to protect it until you are ready. But I can’t tell you when to open it. That right belongs to you alone."

"Did she say anything about what’s

low. "I am quite

held the key to a vault of ghosts while

she would tear it open at that moment, Jessica did

beside her

she said,

worries. It’s yours to handle, in your own time at your own discretion." she said with a faint

in visible relief, but just as she began to settle back into her chair, when she thought Jessica wouldn’t be having any

gaze

stick as her gaze dropped. Her eyes grew misty, shrouded with pain, her

shuddering breath. "Technically... yes," she admitted, voice cracking under the weight of

by a throbbing headache. All the other information and even the secrets that might’ve been hiding in that envelope might not be as

were two?" Her voice was barely

was lost even before it could see the light of the

voice heavy with sorrow and regret "he was lost... even before he could see the light

shocking, yet it was more

nanosecond. Her thoughts spiraled in a thousand directions, questions continually popping up, clamouring for

"Who was the twin?

"Why was it lost?"

"How was it lost?"

"Who was Julian?"

really the twin or someone

has her mother never mentioned her as

of the Andersons

was the major

they

more pressing, "Had her mother really known of the existence of her

her shocked changing expression,

tone was anxious

was my mother aware... of the twins?"

slumped. "She discovered you were twins when she went for an ultrasound scan, and in several of