Chapter 204

‘To start all over again is too much easier said than done, Jeremy.

‘For all the pain you’ve put me through and all the fatal scars and wounds you left me would never be erased!

‘The fact that I loved you is one of the past.

‘All I have left for you, is hatred!’

Right then, Eloise walked over with Meredith in tow. “You look happy, Old Master. What are you and this lady over here talking about?”

“What ‘this lady’? This is Madeline.” The old master emphasized with displeasure.

“She’s not, Grandfather. This isn’t Madeline. Madeline died three years ago. This lady is Miss Vera Quinn, she just looks like Madeline.” Meredith explained with a smile, then turned to look at Jeremy.

“Aren’t I right, Jeremy?”

Smiling, she was so sure that Jeremy would lean over to speak in her ear. Instead, he frowned in distaste.

The old master was infuriated, frowning as he stared at Madeline. “Nonsense! She’s Madeline!”

“She really isn’t Madeline, Old Master!” Mrs. Whitman had arrived to join the group. Glancing warily at Jeremy, she opened her mouth to speak anyway. “Just think about it, Old Master. Would we let her in if she’s Madeline?”

“You’re right, Mrs. Whitman!” Eloise agreed, sparing Madeline a belittling look. “We would have thrown her out already if she’s Madeline Crawford. That shameless and ruthless woman died three years ago!”

Hearing her, color began to drain from the old master’s face as his energy and spirit dampened.

Madeline faced Jeremy and frowned with concern.

Jeremy’s expression turned horrifyingly frosty. “Are you guys done?”

“Don’t blame Mother, Jeremy.” Meredith furrowed her brows and held Jeremy by his arm to persuade him. “Mrs. Whitman and my mom are right. She isn’t Madeline. Grandfather has to know the truth someday.”

Meredith gave Madeline a deep look. “You don’t have to pretend to be Madeline just to make Grandfather happy, Miss Quinn. What’s fake will never be real! Grandfather will know one day, and to delay the truth would only have him feeling worse.”

“Plus, you must know that the things my sister did were hardly good. Pretending to be Madeline will only garner you more looks of disgust and hatred.”

Hearing her, Madeline turned to look at her surroundings and smiled. “Oh? Is that so? Was this Madeline really that bad?”

“Of course!” Meredith ascertained in a heartbeat, her voice climbing a few decibels. “She threw away her dignity just to be with Jeremy! Not to mention how easy she was, having relationships with all sorts of men. Then, to hurt me, she even teamed up with someone to kidnap my and Jeremy’s son. Are you sure you want to be a double for such a person, Miss Quinn?”

“Shut up! Madeline would never do something like that!” Old Master Whitman knocked his cane against the ground in fury.

Meredith sighed with pity. “That’s the truth, Grandfather. Madeline was not as pure as you think. She even kidnapped your great-grandson. Jeremy is well aware of these things too!”

She asked rhetorically, “You saw it with your own eyes, didn’t you, Jeremy?”

Jeremy’s expression darkened, bile rising within him after hearing the events Meredith recounted.

He had realized the very moment he fell for Madeline that every ‘sin’ she committed could all be forgotten.

Not to mention how he had suspected if what he saw was the actual truth when Madeline lay in his arms on her dying breath. Perhaps everything he saw back then was merely what someone else wanted him to see. Perhaps everything he saw was false.

Meredith tugged on him with a coquettish tone in response to Jeremy seemingly ignoring her. “Why aren’t you saying anything, Jeremy? Unless you actually want Miss Quinn to replace Madeline? But what if Miss Quinn’s reputation gets tarnished for pretending to be such an evil woman?”

Crash!

Just as Meredith finished talking, the sound of a wine glass shattering on the floor sounded in the room.

“Are you alright, Sir?”

“A ghost! It’s a ghost!”

At his words, everyone’s gazes flew toward the direction of the man. Meeting their eyes was the sight of a server helping a man who had slipped and fallen.

Meredith spared a casual glance in that direction only for her expression to shift dramatically when she realized the man who had fallen was Tanner, and the ‘ghost’ he was pointing at was Vera Quinn!