How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

Chapter 692

Elodie Thorne glanced down at Jarrod Silverstein's hand wrapped around her

wrist. His face remained as calm and composed as ever; even as he spoke with Sprague Silverstein, there was a faint, polite smile on his lips, revealing nothing of his true thoughts.

Sprague chuckled and turned to look at Elodie standing just behind Jarrod. "See? Jarrod is still as protective of you as ever. It's only natural you're not that familiar with the rest of us-we've been away for years."

Their grandmother chimed in, shuffling closer with a gentle nod. "That's true. Sweetheart, you and Jarrod were married for, what, about a year before you moved abroad? It's been nearly three years since we last saw you."

The Silverstein family's business empire stretched across continents, with investments in every corner of the globe.

Everything was meticulously managed in separate divisions.

Elinor rolled her eyes playfully at Elodie. "When I called Mother the other day to ask about you, I was genuinely surprised! Elodie, you never let anything slip before. How did you manage to keep things so tightly under wraps?"

Before heading off to take her evening tonic, their grandmother couldn't resist adding, pride evident in her voice, "Our dear Elodie has always been even- tempered and discreet. It wasn't her decision to keep things secret-those were instructions from above."

Just then, Lucinda Howard walked in.

Elinor immediately brightened, her smile dazzling. "Sister-in-law, you truly are lucky! What a wonderful daughter-in-law you have such a credit to the family. In our circles, heiresses are a dime a dozen, but someone like Elodie? She's a real gem."

was, after all, a point

Jarrod decided to marry Elodie—a woman with no powerful family behind her-you were

the only real contenders within the Silverstein

benefit to the table, had caused quite a stir-especially among the extended family, who had watched the whole spectacle with barely concealed amusement

to

right about her from the start. Truth be told, sister-in-law, you weren't too pleased back then, were you? Almost mistook a pearl for

feeling a

Elodie had been hiding

onto the sofal and replied coolly, "You say you have an eye for people, but if Sprague hadn't stepped aside back then, who

in the air, chilling the

said what they were really thinking, but

Elinor's smile faltered.

furrowed

Because...

back then was far more complicated than anyone

so perfectly as to set

fact, at the time, Sprague-the eldest Silverstein son-had been Malcom's