Your Gold Digger is Actually A True Heiress by Vera Fiore

Chapter 14

The day Rosalind left the hospital, the snow had just cleared, leaving the trees along Harley Street crystalline with frost under a pristine blue sky.

Randolph drove to collect her himself. The couple sat in silence, the atmosphere heavy with unspoken words.

Young Thalia sat in the back, drawing pictures on the foggy window, her heart light with joy.

Mum was finally coming home.

She drew their family of three on the window, her face bright with happiness.

Seeing the drawing, Rosalind’s eyes filled with tears. She turned away quickly, composing herself before managing a smile. “Your birthday’s coming up, darling. What would you like?”

Still drawing. Thalia answered brightly, “I’d love a Beagle figurine, Mum.”

“A Beagle?” Rosalind’s voice was gentle. “Like… a real dog?”

“No, no,” Thalia shook her head. “It’s a ceramic one. Victoria says there’s this lovely pottery studio in Marylebone where we can paint our own. She and James went last week and made the sweetest figures.”

Rosalind smiled softly. “Then that’s what we’ll do, darling.”

On Thalia’s twelfth birthday, snow fell over London.

Mother and daughter walked hand in hand into the studio, where they’d pre–ordered an unpainted Beagle figure. The owner brought out their piece, and they began painting together.

It was their first collaborative art project.

The result delighted Thalia–her Beagle looked even lovelier than the sample.

They left for the patisserie nearby.

Walking through the falling snow, Rosalind carrying a cake box in one hand and holding Thalia’s hand with the other, she suddenly stopped. She turned to look at her daughter, love and longing in her eyes.

“Thalia, darling, I love you. So very, very much.” Her voice was soft, almost lost in the winter wind.

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Thalia’s nose was pink from the cold.

Her mother often expressed her love, so she noticed nothing unusual. “I love you too, Mum!”

Rosalind’s eyes welled up again.

Her precious girl was only twelve. How would she manage without her mother?

She turned away quickly, continuing their walk before Thalia could see her tears.

They crossed through the busy streets to the car park where Randolph waited.

saw her father smoking, grief

desolate, but when he spotted

thought she’d imagined

rough as he said, “Welcome back.”

a soft “mm.”

Randolph cooked

as Thalia, wearing a paper crown, made her birthday wish and blew

crisis came during dessert.

cake, she suddenly began coughing

her own cake falling

arms, voice breaking, “Darling, don’t do this.

right now.”

frantically called 999 while Thalia stood paralyzed, mind blank.

happened? Everything had been fine moments ago. Why

she could come

Wasn’t she better?

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ambulance arrived

Thalia saw her mother

form words, she mouthed something Thalia

“I’m sorry”

burst into tears, running out into the snowstorm.

please don’t

to leave immediately, not

until it disappeared from view.

Rosalind

her through

didn’t know this at the time.

the snow, and their housekeeper had carried her home.

Thalia burned with fever, crying

they told her her mother was

couldn’t bear to see her mother’s body at the hospital. She couldn’t

shell.

told herself that as long as she didn’t see it, her mother was still alive, just

bright woman who lit up rooms with her smile lived

spent days clutching the ceramic Beagle, refusing food and crying silently when she wasn’t sleeping.

The light left his eyes, his hair grayed rapidly, and

diagnosed

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Chapter 14

remarry–he’d loved her

another?

two years later, he married her

boarding school dorm immediately. Even during holidays, she’d shut herself