Rising from the Ashes The Heiress They Tried to Erase

Chapter 1041:

“When I do count the clock that tells the time, and see the brave day sunk in hideous night…”

Those verses were unmistakably from Shakespeare. Even more striking was her father’s handwriting—bold, flowing, and refined in its elegance. That discovery made Maia hesitate, her doubts about her father’s education deepening. Clearly, her parents had not come from this place originally.

Without a word, Maia slipped the letter back into its envelope and walked out with Kathie, stepping onto the street once more. Chris stood at the entrance, his back to the door, surveying the surroundings. Watching Chris stand so alert, Kathie whispered under her breath, “Could a man like that really be only a bodyguard?”

Her gaze drifted beyond Chris to a crumbling house several rows away. “Maia, that’s the place your parents once lived. It’s been empty for years. A vagrant stayed there for a while, but I don’t know where they’ve gone now.”

Chris lifted his eyes toward the spot Kathie pointed out. The building looked charred, as though fire had eaten through its walls, leaving it more like wreckage than a home.

house used to be quite decent, Kathie?” Chris said

place had been passed down from a relative,” Kathie said, before lifting her hand to point toward the far end of the road. “Do you see that house? It once

owner’s son?” Maia

as a repairman in the neighborhood, and your father frequently visited him to get things fixed. If the man were still alive, it would have been easier. At least then you’d know exactly what your father once worked

now on

the shadowed grocery store, the atmosphere carried the weight of moisture and lingering age. Even though the sun shone brightly outside, it failed to illuminate the interior. The shopkeeper had deliberately avoided switching on the bulbs, clearly conserving the electricity bill. A single kerosene

shopkeeper noticed a presence at the entrance but continued his task, simply asking, “What are you here

when you were small. You once behaved with good manners. Why are you acting like your father now?

young man spun around, a trace of eagerness slipping into his voice. “Kathie! I assumed you had left this

back to meet you and ask a few

shifted toward Maia beside Kathie, scanning her from