The Second Life of a Discarded Heiress

Chapter 549

At that moment, everyone in the Saunders family was sitting in stony silence, their faces drawn and pale. Beneath the shock and disbelief in their eyes, there was a deep well of worry and heartbreak.

Monica and Wade stared down at the floor, looking ghostly white.

Only now did Monica truly understand what Hilda had meant.

It really was too cruel-asking someone who was already drowning in their own pain to empathize with someone else's suffering.

Especially when her own sister had endured even worse.

An eleven-year-old child, sent away to a place like that... No one really knew how she'd survived.

But everyone understood, in their hearts, that Citrine must have gone through unimaginable hardship just to stay alive.

After a long, heavy silence, Hilda finally spoke, her voice thick with guilt. "If I'd just watched Citrine more closely back then, the nanny wouldn't have taken her. She wouldn't have suffered at the Iversons', and she never would have ended up at Mirage Cay. This is all my fault-I failed her."

The Saunders family looked at Hilda, wanting to comfort her, but none of them could find the words. The same bitter regret weighed on every heart in the room.

Verona Heights.

away, Raymond rolled up his sleeves and cooked a full dinner for his daughter-four dishes and a pot of

for the meal, but just as he walked into the living room, his phone began to

was his own, Sawyer hurried over to grab

the phone on

about to put it back down when a

screen.

I shouldn't have meddled and tried to force you to empathize

Hilda was Citrine's biological mother, Raymond had thoroughly investigated the

saw Monica's name and

over the housekeeper. "Could you go wake Citrine and tell her dinner's ready? I have

word, Raymond grabbed

drove straight from Verona Heights to

he arrived, the entire Saunders family was gathered in

surprise to see him

everything about Citrine-including the truth about her real father. Now everyone knew Raymond was Citrine's father-the man Hilda had had

her parents that it had all been a mistake and that neither she nor Raymond had known the truth back then. As a result,

from Hilda how

elderly couple actually found themselves

and Inez nodded to each other before Herschel called out, "Let's get some tea ready for