Stephanie burst into the Winslet mansion with her eyes red for the effect. All it required was he innocent act and my biological parents would immediately succumb to her demands. “Mom! Dad!” she shouted with fake tears streaming down her eyes making as mascara was smeared over. “A–Alexander is not picking up my calls. I–i went to the Hamilton estate but he refused to see me and the butler said…” she sobbed looking pitiful “He said that…Alexande postponed the our wedding! What am I supposed to do now?”
Stephanie rushed into my biological mother- Margaret Winslet’s arms, burying her face in the expensive cashmere shawl. “I don’t know what to do… I am scared. He has just gone silent everything was going perfect but now it’s like he hates me mom! I knew his marriage to sister Lavina was because I left abruptly and married another man but now I am back and-”
“You are back then what?!
Are you going to seduce your brother–in–law and wreck your sister’s household?! You left Alexander and now he is Lavina’s husband so how can you be so shameless and even arrange a marriage with him without us knowing!!”
Fredrick Winslet sat on the head’s chair, hs voice was loud making the servants stunned, even the madam who loved Stephanie more than her own biological daughter- me, said nothing as Fredrick scolded harshly in anger.
If someone was to listen closely it almost sounded like he was drawing a line with Stephanie. “D–Dad? I–I didn’t….i–it was sister Lavina who divorced Alexander first.” The news was like ar explosion making Fredrick stunned while Margaret looked horrified.
“L–Lavina divorced? T–Then where is she living now?” Stephanie’s heart burned in rage as she barely controlled her face from distroting.
“Mom, I have asked all my friends and even hired some detectives to search for sister…I will bring her back.” she said through gritted teeth.
“And my marriage with Alexander is not related to sister….he proposed me on his own and now he is not even picking up y calls.”
Margaret didn’t hold her this time. She didn’t stroke her hair or whisper soothing words like always.
Her hand trembled as she clutched a sheet of crisp ivory paper, her entire mind fixated to that.
[LETTER OF NOTICE–SEVERING TIES WITH BLOOD RELATIVES
Applicant: Lavina Winslet
Cut off contacts with: Fredrick Winslet and Margaret Winslet and Winslet household]
A scene appeared in my biological mother’s mind: Stephanie’s graduation.
I had topped the university and received a gold medal, but my parents didn’t attend. They were too busy organizing Stephanie’s summer pageant, which they said was “a more social event.”
And then, that winter I caught my first flu as a teenager, shivering in bed with a high fever. Margaret had walked in, dropped medicine on the table taking a look at me and left. Frederick
had simply said,“Get better soon, we have a charity gala.”
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- DD.
Now, Margaret sat trembling.
Stephanie frowned. “Mom? Are you even listening to me? What’s that in your hand?” Stephanie moved closer looking closely.
“Lavina…she has severed all familial ties.” Margaret said. “She… she has declared herself no longer our daughter.”
“What?” Stephanie laughed, cold and shocked. “That’s insane! Sister has always been dramatic…but to think she will stoop so low-”
“Shut up, Stephanie!” Margaret’s voice cracked. Stephanie stopped mid–sentence, absolutely stunned. This was the woman who loved her more than her life and now she was reprimanding
her.
“Just go to your room.”
A servant came forward and took Stephanie away despite her anger. Margaret rose to her feet and walked down the hallway with the letter clutched to her chest.
She stopped outside my bland room. The door creaked open slowly, revealing a space that had never felt like home, just a corner where I had existed…survived in misery.
Margaret stepped inside, taking in the sparse collection of books, the worn jewelry box, and a few folded clothes left neatly in the drawer.
A scarf I had knitted myself as a child for my biological mother’s birthday and yet she barely noticed sat in a corner collecting dust.
A cracked photo frame still held a photo of a little girl with mud on her cheeks holding a cake with only one candle.
Tears fell silently from Margaret’s eyes.
“She took nothing….my poor daughter…mother was wrong!” she murmured, her knees buckling as she sat on the edge of the bed. “We refused to give her a dowry, and yet she asked for nothing…”
Frederick appeared in the doorway.
“I know she wasn’t raised by us…” she whispered “and I always thought… maybe that was why she seemed distant. Why she didn’t lean in when I hugged her or look too happy when I bought her gifts. I thought we just weren’t close enough because we didn’t raise her…”
She looked up at her husband, her eyes red.
“But to break all ties?” Her voice cracked. “Was I such a horrible mother?”
Frederick was silent for a long moment before sitting beside her.
“I remember when she won that national–level competition at sixteen and came running home with a trophy.” He stared at his hands. “I told her to place it on the shelf in the storage room because guests were coming and Stephanie’s party decorations were more important.”
Margaret let out a strangled sound.
“I told her not to eat dinner with us that day because she had mud on her skirt from walking in the rain,” she whispered. “She just nodded. Didn’t argue.”
They were both quiet now, the weight of their sins filling the room.
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“She had every right,” Frederick said hoarsely. “And maybe… maybe it wasn’t distance. Maybe she was just enduring us.”
Margaret bent forward, sobbing into her palms.
“I thought I was being fair… I didn’t even realize I was breaking her.”
Frederick placed a trembling hand on his wife’s back, his voice hollow.
“She wasn’t distant, Margaret. She was just lonely.”
Finally, Margaret lifted the phone with shaking fingers.
“Please pick up my son!” she begged.
When the line connected, her voice cracked. “Adrian please bring your sister back! Lavina has gone please!.”
pm
Chapter 16
