âDad, why?â Marco asked.
Holden lowered his voice. âYour mother wants to invite people from Wiltspoon to dinner. Do you
think thatâs a good idea? Even if sheâs trying to do something good, they wonât accept it. Theyâre set
on getting revenge for the previous matriarch.â
Noel added, âThey can only suspect that Mom was involved in the previous matriarchâs death, but
they have no proof.â
âTheyâre people of status,â Holden replied. âThey wouldnât do anything without evidence. If they did,
theyâd risk jail. They have more to lose.â Sage nodded in agreement.
Marco said thoughtfully, âI heard the previous matriarchâs assistant has returned. Heâs almost a
hundred years old and still alive. Heâs back in Jensburg and knows a lot about what happened. This
isnât simple. Plus, someone reported that Mr. Dunn had a private gun. Mom canât escape this. Heâs
her assistant, loyal only to her. No one else can command him. Dad, do you really not know if Mom
has a gun?â
Holden sighed. âI really donât know. Your mother never discusses things with me. The only thing she
talked to me about was the marriages of our three sons. She doesnât trust me enough to tell me
anything else.â
Holdenâs expression darkened. Despite his past mistakes, he genuinely wanted to build a good life
with Clarissa when they were young. But Clarissa was always so strict with him, always suspicious.
No matter how much he did for her, she never trusted him, even though they had been married for
decades and had four children together.
To Clarissa, Holden was just a means to have children. If medical technology back then had allowed
women to have babies through IVF without marriage, Clarissa probably wouldnât have even needed
Holden.
Eventually, Holden grew tired but didnât have the courage to act on it. He sought emotional support
elsewhere, though he never thought of divorcing Clarissa. He had invested too much in the
marriage to walk away. He planned to stay until Kathryn became the matriarch, hoping his patience
would pay off.
But when Kathryn was replaced, his feelings shifted. He loved Shiloh as much as he loved Clarissa.
He wanted to build a deep father-daughter bond with Shiloh, believing that when she became the
matriarch, his standing in the Farrell family would improve. But fate wasnât on his side.
The daughter he had loved for over 20 years, Shiloh, wasnât his biological child. Kathryn, his real
daughter, had grown up in the countryside and was already in her twenties when she returned. It
was too late to form a close bond. Holden had given all his fatherly love to Shiloh and couldnât easily
accept Kathryn. He couldnât even pretend to.
Kathryn, in turn, remained distant from Holden, despite being her biological father.
Holden felt as if fate had struck him hard, forcing him to face reality. He realized he couldnât rely on
Kathryn in his old age. Thankfully, he still had his three sons. As long as they were doing well, he
could still enjoy a good life, with food, drink, and the joy of grandchildren.
But that cruel woman, knowing the danger, still called him and his three sons back. Did she want
them all to die with her?
How vicious can she be?