The Heiress Nobody Saw Coming

Chapter 678 Giving a Heads-Up in Advance

Lynette wiped her eyes. After she finished speaking, Zachary and Sophia fell

silent. They exchanged a glance, and from the look in their eyes, they understood what the other was thinking.

"We want to be part of this too," Zachary said. "We'll provide targeted sponsorship, but we do have some conditions.

"We'll put together a full proposal once we're back, and we'll assign a team to follow up. Mr. and Mrs. Holden, may I officially represent the Holt family in joining your charitable work?"

He smiled slightly, his gaze sincere and steady as he looked at Marcus and Natalie. "We truly care, and we'd like to do whatever we can to help."

Natalie smiled warmly. "We'd be honored. Having the Holt family involved is a blessing for us. Really, thank you."

She reached out to shake Zachary's hand, but Marcus gently held her hand back and extended his own to Zachary instead.

Natalie noticed what he did and found it a little amusing, but she didn't say anything.

"Sophia, what about you?" Natalie turned to her. "Do you want to be part of this with us?"

Sophia nodded enthusiastically. "Absolutely! Nat, you helped me before, and now I want to help other girls who are struggling too."

"Great. Then let's do it together."

"Yeah. Together."

There was a new energy in Sophia's smile now-brighter, more determined. "Zachary and I talked, and we've decided to stay here a few more days.

"Sue told me there's an even smaller village over the mountain you haven't reached yet. We want to go check it out, but Mr. Cole advised against it."

"I don't think you two should go there alone, either," Natalie said, her expression serious. "I worked with some officials before to scout a path into that area.

"The truth is, they're even harder to deal with than the people in Ashford Vale. At least in Ashford Vale, we could still use force to take control if necessary.

themselves on fire, turning themselves into human fireballs to attack us. They're not afraid of pain or death. We still haven't figured out a safe way

glancing at Zachary. His face had darkened too after hearing

really is." Natalie sighed. "That's why we've focused all our efforts on Ashford Vale so far. That other village... we've had to put it on

if they reject us or

if they respond with violence, with death threats, or try to take us down

our priority is always our

then we won't go. We'll just focus on

soon. I'll be taking Lynette, Sue, and Ann with me. As for Daniel and Denzel, they've already spoken to Taylor. They'll stay behind for a bit, help their families out, and

the time. "Let's grab something to eat, then we'll hit the

"Sounds good."

called for Lynette, Sue, and Ann, then took Marcus with her. Together, they headed

food was simple, but most of it was made from fresh, organic

gathered their things and called for the three girls. Elijah helped carry their bags. They then

supply runs into Ashford Vale, so Natalie and her team had traveled light this time and hadn't brought much with them. They would be traveling light on

onto the path leading out of

as they could remember, this was their first

we live up to everything you've done for us," they said, their voices full of excitement

the more emotional they became. They couldn't stop themselves from making promises to

repay us," Natalie said. "First, you need to live well-really live. Only when you can stand on your own can you

reached out and gently patted

still a long road ahead. The outside world is amazing, but it's also full of temptations. Life out there won't be as hard as it was in the village, but

to keep up with others, to

this now so you'll be mentally

sight of who you are, if you give in to temptation or go down the wrong path, the

girls nodded

worry, Ms. Natalie. We'll stay true to ourselves. We won't let you down. Mr. Cole already warned us about a lot of this,

The fact that you've come this far in such a

is tough, but no

as painful as being traded away just to bear