The Heiress Nobody Saw Coming

Chapter 518 Cannot Avoid It

Natalie sat across from Hector and Charlene. She glanced around the room but didn't see Charles or Sheldon.

"Where are Grandpa Charles and Sheldon? I don't see them today."

"Mr. Holden Senior left The Herbalist's Sanctuary early this morning with Sheldon," Hector said. He had woken up slightly earlier than them and had heard about it from Matias.

Joshua had instructed Matias to care for them, so when Charles and Sheldon left, Matias was the first to know.

"Do you want me to call Matias over and ask him for details?"

Natalie looked at Marcus, who had just come back with some food. After a brief moment of thought, she shook her head. "Let's ask Marcus first."

"After all, Grandpa Charles is his biological grandfather. Let's see what he has to say."

Charles leaving so suddenly-right after she had brought Charlene over last night -was a little too well-timed.

"What's wrong?" Marcus sat beside Natalie and noticed the serious expressions on both her and Hector's faces. "Did something happen?"

"Grandpa Charles left early this morning," Natalie said with a cold expression. "I just brought Charlene here last night, and now he's gone first thing in the morning. What perfect timing that is."

Marcus' face darkened immediately. Without even touching his food, he took out his phone, got up, and walked away to make a call.

The phone rang for a long time before Charles finally picked up. "Hello, Marcus. What's wrong?" His tone was calm, with no hint of guilt or hesitation.

"Grandpa, didn't I ask you to meet Charlene today? Why did you leave so early?" Marcus forced himself to stay calm, trying to keep his tone even.

"Marcus, I don't want to meet strangers."

"Do you not want to meet her, or are you afraid to?"

"Marcus, I've been away from home for a long time. I miss it, so I decided to go back," Charles said, clearly trying to change the subject. "If there's nothing else, I'll wait for you to bring your mother home.

early this morning and have been on the road for a while now. I'm tired and need to find

hung up before Marcus could say

actions made it obvious that he was

put down her cutlery and walked over to

ran away. He said he missed home and

guessed as much," Natalie said, completely unsurprised. "Don't be mad.

behind Grace's schemes will have to show up sooner or later. But Grandpa Charles running away like this just confirms that he knows Charlene's family. And the

deep breath. "I might've had doubts if he hadn't run. But now that

"Yeah. Since that's the case, let's have Charlene stay with Hector for now. We'll eat first,

Marcus calmed down and returned to the

Natalie and Marcus as if she wanted to say something. But every time she opened

After finishing, they only said goodbye to Hector and

as they left, Charlene glared at Hector angrily.

he didn't like the way she kept staring at Natalie and

You should know what's

with food. If you were any older, I wouldn't have been so

After a long pause, she

was just fangirling over my favorite couple! What's wrong with that? Can't I admire good-looking people? And the reason I only stared at Natalie and Marcus —not you is because

I might have been a little too enthusiastic, but I didn't

yelling at him, she spun

Charlene! Stop

anything happened to her while

Marcus arrived

refused to eat or use anything unless it had first been checked by Connie. Otherwise, she didn't feel safe. After years of being harmed by others, she had developed a deep sense

"Mom."

"Laura."

handed Natalie an artwork she had been working on. "Nat, look. I painted this while I had some

was a little

She wanted to do something with her time, but Connie was afraid she would tire herself out, so she had given her a sketchpad and pencils