“Madam, the funeral at Richards Manor has been postponed until tomorrow. The funeral has also been postponed for a day.” Madam Lilian had a gut feeling that something was wrong and her mind was already in a state of chaos. She had long since lost interest in public matters. Therefore, when she returned to the hotel, she sent Quina out to investigate the situation. However, she only rested for a while before Quina walked in.
Madam Lilian straightened and adjusted her glasses. Confused, she asked, “Why did they change the time?”
This was Vivian’s funeral. They had already announced the time to the public. It was very strange to change the date this suddenly, and it looked like they did not respect the deceased.
“Madam, it was changed, and it was announced to the public by Hansen, the head of Richards Manor. The specific reason has not been stated.” Quina agreed with a puzzled look on her face.
Madam Lilian closed her eyes. The light in her eyes flickered.
Vivian had always been a highly respected elder, and Hansen was her beloved grandson. There was no reason for him to change the date of the memorial service for no reason. That was disrespectful to the deceased. There was only one reason for this, that something was wrong!
When she was deep in her thoughts, the doorbell rang.
Quina opened the door.
A tall and thin man came in.
“Madam, Richards Manor is a mess these days. There have been a lot of accidents. Hansen has begun to reorganize the mess ever since he returned from the war-torn country. I suspect that the memorial service is postponed because of this. We found out that Vivian’s personal staff, Meroy, had been murdered. It seems that Richards Manor has indeed encountered some trouble.” The man entered the mansion and explained the events that he had heard in detail.
Madam Lilian was silent as she listened, her expression was exceptionally serious.
Meroy, the good-natured doctor, had been murdered. This was unbelievable.
“How could a murder case happen in such a rich and powerful family like Richards Manor? How could the security measures be so poor?” she asked in great surprise, with a little unbelievable expression on her face.
“Madam, that’s true. It’s because during this period of time, the master of the Richards family, Hansen, had gone to the war-torn country, and some bad guys slipped into the Richards family,” the man said. He wanted to speak. So, after hesitating for a while, he said, “Madam, today I investigated a rumor. It has something to do with Richards Manor. It sounds logical and reasonable. I think it’s very likely that these disasters of the Richards family were caused by these rumors.”
“Oh.” Madam Lilian was very surprised. So, she asked, “What rumor? Tell me.”
“Here’s the thing.” The man gulped and explained, “There’s a rumor saying that there’s a treasure called the Ocean Heart in Richards Manor. The diamonds on this piece of jewelry are extremely rare, and are the only few in the world. It’s dark blue in appearance. Its value attracts the envy of all passersby. Now that Vivian is dead, it’s said that she had handed this treasure to Jenna, Hansen’s wife. Since then, strange things have happened in the mansion. I’m afraid it has something to do with this.”
The man had just finished speaking when the expression on Madam Lilian’s face changed.
“The Ocean Heart.” Her eyes were a little dull. After muttering under her breath, she waved the man away.
Madam Lilian closed her eyes.
“Madam, what’s wrong?” Quina was surprised to see that Madam Lilian was in a bad mood, and could not help asking with concern.
Madam Lilian suddenly opened her eyes and there was a sharp gleam in them.
“Quina, something’s wrong. My granddaughter is in danger. Hurry, send someone to bring Jenna over,” she said urgently.
Quina was stunned. Realizing the severity of the matter, she immediately nodded.
“Wait. It’s better for you to pick up Jenna in person.” Just after Quina took a few steps, Madam Lilian ordered from behind. Quina’s eyes widened. To prevent Madam Lilian from worrying, she agreed.
It was not until Quina had left that Madam Lilian breathed a sigh of relief.
However, at that time, she began to pace back and forth restlessly in the room.
Memories of the past slowly resurfaced in her mind.
The Ocean Heart truly existed. It was no rumor. She was well aware of this.
In the museum in France that year, she had seen the extremely rare, beautiful, blue diamond in person. At that time, she had also been captivated by its beauty.
That auction had gathered all the rich businessmen and jewelry experts in the world. All these people came for the sake of taking a look at this rare diamond. It was big, with a weight of forty or fifty carats. It could be said that there were only a few of them left in the world.
That day, many well-known people came, which gave this diamond a mysterious aura.
Old Master Richards had been one of them.
Madam Lilian was standing on a podium in the museum when she saw Old Master Richards. Being rather observant, she realized the complexity of the current situation. The owner of the museum was one of her friends. At that time, the coup in Europe was a little chaotic. He was afraid that it would interfere with the Ocean Heart’s auction. So, he had specially invited Madam Lilian.
Having been invited, she brought some people to the scene to maintain order.
However, when she brought guests here, France’s temporary government suddenly gave the order that the treasure could not be auctioned without giving any reason.
Therefore, the scene that day was very chaotic. Many people had come to see the Ocean Heart. However, if news leaked out, then the scene would probably be out of control.
After seeing Old Master Richards in the crowd, Madam Lilian had other plans.
This diamond had been found by Old Master Richards when he went on a business trip in a small country in the southwest region at a young age. At that time, the Richards family was in a difficult period. It was also the time when Old Master Richards first started his business. He had no choice but to sell this diamond in France in order to make the payment.
In fact, Old Master Richards regretted selling this diamond when the treasure appeared in front of everyone’s eyes. This was something that everyone wanted.
At that time, he made up his mind to redeem the treasure regardless of the cost. He waited till that year’s Provinten auction. The Richards family’s business had also reached a new level after all his hard work. More importantly, Trevor and his wife had already expanded the Richards Group. Hence, that year, he brought a huge sum of money to France.
Later, he learnt that the government banned the auction of this treasure as soon as they knew its worth. At that time, he was extremely disappointed.
However, there was always a way out. At this time, Madam Lilian actually bought it from the government agency through political means and gave it to Old Master Richards.
Old Master Richards was both surprised and happy at the time. Back then, Lilian did not come to see him in person. Her identity was special, and she did not want to see him either. She was afraid that he would be implicated.
At that time, she did it out of selfishness.
When she left A City many years ago, she once entrusted her daughter to Vivian. She hoped that she could help take care of her daughter. Hence, she secretly returned the jewelry that belonged to Old Master Richards to him. She also hoped that Vivian would take care of her daughter for her sake.
What was more, even if Old Master Richards found this jewellery, it belonged to the country. It was not out of the ordinary to give it to him. It could be considered as having done a good deed for the country.
Due to all those reasons, she did that at that time.
At that time, when Old Master Richards returned home, he gave the jewelry to Vivian and told her about it.
However, he didn’t know about the relationship between Madam Lilian and Vivian. He didn’t even know that Madam Lilian was Johan’s daughter-in-law.
After Old Master Richards retrieved the jewelry, he then passed away after a few years.
Vivian quietly kept the jewelry and did not mention it to anyone else.
Later, when Madam Lilian had been injured, she called Vivian to ask about her daughter’s whereabouts. Vivian just said that she had no clue and sent her away. At that time, Madam Lilian’s heart sank into the deepest waters of the ocean. She stopped thinking about Richards Manor, and completely forgot about the jewelry.
Madam Lilian was pacing around in the room. Her steps were anxious, and there was unease in her heart, which was evident by her furrowed eyebrows.
After auctioning the Ocean Heart and giving it to Old Master Richards, she had heard rumors about it. Such beautiful jewelry was always associated with beauty and evil. In the past few decades, it had been stained with peculiar and tragic experiences.
It had always brought the new owner bad luck.
Madam Lilian once heard that when Old Master Richards sold this treasure to a rich businessman in France, he was insanely happy. Later, he spent a huge amount of money to craft it into the Ocean Heart. In less than a year, he died of a strange disease.
Then, the treasure was resold. That time, it was a high-ranking official in France who gave it as a present to his wife. However, his wife only wore it once and died. Then, their son was beaten to death by political opponents.
After that, the treasure had been sold several times and bought by a banker. Coincidentally, the banker soon married a French actress. In just a few years, the actress went bankrupt. She then sold the treasure because she was poor.
As a result, from the Europeans’ view, this treasure was cursed.
Over the years, Madam Lilian was busy in politics everyday and never paid too much attention to this treasure. These legends were only heard some time later. At that time, after hearing these rumors, she regretted buying the treasure for Old Master Richards.
When the Old Master Richards died, she did not know about it. Later on, because of Vivian’s ‘heartlessness’, she gradually forgot about it.
If not for the fact that her subordinates had inquired about this news that day, Madam Lilian would never have thought of these past events.
That time, Madam Lilian, who usually wasn’t superstitious, was in a state of panic. Meroy’s death in particular made Madam Lilian’s heart jump.
She had never felt this way.
She paced back and forth anxiously in the room. She was so restless despite being an experienced politician. Unease enveloped her, which nearly drove her crazy.