How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

Chapter 574

Lucinda still found the whole thing utterly baffling.

Standing beneath the colonnade, she gazed out at the rain tracing thin, silvery lines through the dusk. Her expression tightened with frustration. "I've heard bits and pieces-Mr. Ferguson was apparently involved, too. Jarrod, don't you think you owe me an explanation?"

She simply couldn't make sense of it.

Waldron hadn't been just anyone; Jarrod had pulled strings with his own great- uncle to bring the man into the picture, all to help Sylvie. He'd gone to considerable lengths-if things had unfolded normally, even at worst, Sylvie should never have ended up in a mess.

So why, in the end...

Why did Sylvie's troubles end up tied to Waldron?

If you traced it back, Waldron was practically introduced to Sylvie by the Howard family. Now, with Sylvie in crisis, Waldron had stepped forward and admitted his own involvement. If people started digging, the Howard family would inevitably be implicated, dragging them into scandal for no good reason.

"If I had accepted Sylvie into the family like everyone suggested, and then this happened, the Howard family would be the ones saddled with all the blame. What on earth were you thinking?" Lucinda's voice was crisp, her anger barely contained. She set aside the gossip circling about Elodie these past two days; this, more than anything, infuriated her. If she'd made the wrong choice back then, she'd be the one wading through this mess.

Jarrod shot her a sidelong glance, then turned to look out at the darkness beyond the veranda, silent.

Lucinda's face hardened. “You never should have dragged the Howard family into aiding Sylvie in the first place. Whether she succeeded or failed should've depended on her own abilities, not our support. Now that you've made that connection, how do you think it makes me look? If anyone finds out we helped her, and it becomes fodder for gossip, do you think the Howard name will survive that unscathed?"

Only then did Jarrod lower his gaze, thumbing through his phone. "Isn't this exactly what you've always wanted?"

at him

weighing your options. If you're so eager to reap the benefits, shouldn't

his impassive

"You-" Her voice trembled.

Jarrod said nothing more. He turned and walked back inside, leaving her

took Lucinda a long moment to recover,

but... it was too blunt, too harsh. If she hadn't hesitated back then, she would've been

face darkened as she

was when

confirmed the rumors about

it at first-she'd

now-

Mrs. Silverstein... her identity has been

Lucinda's expression finally changed.

Elodie had hidden this from everyone. Now, it felt as though she'd been slapped, forced to realize

long before Octavia appeared in the

at Elodie, eyes wide with a mix of shock and discomfort, but in the end, she crossed the room. "You really are something. Never once told us

her contact details. Even apart from Elodie's background, Octavia couldn't get past that

at her, her gaze

felt a hint of relief. Elodie was so competent, and still her sister- in-law-having her on the family's

pressed her lips together. "I guess I can't blame you for keeping something this big from me. But you know finals are