The fruit John had brought was picked up by Grandma Kristin and thrown across the room.
An apple rolled across the floor, spinning.
“Grandma!” Lillian rushed downstairs, not caring that Sophia had gone upstairs without permission.
Downstairs, Helen was covering her face, leaning into Peter’s arms, her face full of disbelief as she looked at the old lady. “Mom, I’m your daughter. How could you do this?”
“I don’t have a daughter like you!” Grandma Kristin shot back. “How dare you speak ill of Lillian! What right do you have to say anything about her? You’ve always been selfish, only thinking about yourself. Have you ever considered anyone else?”
Grandma Kristin added angrily,”When you were young, you got pregnant and wanted to abort the child for your career. In the end, when you kept the baby, you complained about the timing of her birth! You fought with Alvin, saying he restricted your freedom, that this marriage ruined your dreams.”
“You blamed all your failures in your career on a child! Is that fair?! If you left to pursue your career, you shouldn’t have come back! I told you back then-if you left, don’t come back. Now, what are you doing here?”
“Are you asking me to promote you to the media, to recognize how great you are as a daughter? To involve me in your family? What about my Lillian?! The piece of my heart? You didn’t care for her, and now you come here to mistreat her? You can’t even acknowledge her-how dare you call yourself a mother?”
Grandma Kristin pointed toward the door, shouting, “Get out! Get out and stay far away!”
“Grandma!” Lillian hurried over, wrapped her shawl around her, and gently patted her chest to calm her down. “Grandma, don’t get angry. The doctor said you can’t have extreme emotional swings.”
Grandma Kristin patted her hand and sighed, “Grandma knows, Grandma knows.”
Lillian turned her head and glared at Helen. “Are you going to leave or not? You’re not welcome here!”
Sophia, still with traces of tears on her face, was dragged downstairs by Conrad.
She was scared of Conrad and immediately ran over to Helen. “Mommy, these people are so rude. Let’s go.”
Helen covered her face, glaring at Lillian. “I should never have given birth to you!”
“Then why are you still here?” Conrad coldly interrupted before Grandma Kristin could get any angrier. “Aren’t you leaving yet, or do you want me to throw you out?”
Before the old lady could say more, Conrad’s indifferent voice sounded from the stairs.
When Conrad appeared downstairs, John and Helen were both startled.
They had followed Lillian for a while, even asking the neighbors about her.
They knew Lillian had come back here alone with Grandma Kristin.
But they had never heard that Conrad had come along!
John’s legs wobbled as he thought back to the time when Conrad had stormed their house with a group of people.
Conrad glanced up slightly. “Grandma Kristin isn’t happy. The doctor said she can’t get angry. Are you both deaf or just idiots? Don’t you understand what people say?”
Grandma Kristin quickly spoke up, “Conrad, I’m too weak. Take their stuff and throw them out. I don’t know them!”
Conrad raised an eyebrow at John.
John quickly stammered, “Mom, I’ll leave, I’ll leave right now!”
He didn’t even bother to take the supplements, pulling Helen along as he hurried out. “Let’s go!”
It was Conrad. They could do anything to Lillian, that shameless girl, but Conrad… that was a different matter.
Helen was reluctant to leave but shot a final, deep look at Lillian before following John out.
As soon as they reached the door, John spat on the ground. “Damn it, that little girl sure has connections.”
That Conrad, who had power in City N, had been under her control for so many years!
She really had that kind of ability!
John couldn’t help but wonder when Conrad would finally get tired of her.
Helen, fuming, adjusted her sunglasses and hat. “Let’s just leave. I don’t want anyone here recognizing me.”
It should have been something to be proud of-coming back home as a famous actress.
But now, she felt like a rat in the street. What a mess.
Helen held back her frustration until they reached the corner and got in the car. Only then did John speak up. “What do we do now? The old lady won’t agree, and without her approval, we can’t sign for the factory land.”
Alvin’s assets had been confiscated, but the land of Grandma Kristin’s old perfume factory, which had been given to her years before the incident, had remained.
After the crisis, they hadn’t been able to sell it for a good price. But in recent years, that land had become quite valuable.
John had only recently learned that the old lady had kept such a valuable asset hidden!
That plot of land was no small thing, and selling it now could fetch a pretty penny.
It seemed like if the old lady left everything to Lillian, John wouldn’t get a thing.
And Helen wasn’t just there for John.
A recent leak from someone close to the family revealed that Helen’s mother had been bedridden for three years, in a coma, while Helen, a highly praised actress, had been showing off her love life and vacations abroad without a care for her ill mother.
Now she was back, trying to rebuild her image, and her recent popularity had only fueled the fire.
Helen’s former rivals had all jumped on the bandwagon, and the story had blown up.
Helen’s PR team suggested that it would be best for her to do an interview with her mother to shut down the gossip. That’s when Helen decided to follow John.
Both of them had their own hidden agendas, but they both needed Grandma Kristin’s help.
However, as soon as John opened his mouth, Grandma Kristin wasn’t having it and started causing a scene.
“I don’t think you should bother. Don’t you see what’s going on here? If Lillian hadn’t said something, why would Mom be acting like this?” Helen, still unwilling to accept it, thought to herself, Mom always loved me the most. When she wanted to do something, Mom was always there to support her. But now? Mom actually slapped her and told her to get out?
She couldn’t believe it. After all these years, Mom had never slapped her before!
And all because she said that Lillian’s words couldn’t be trusted? What had she said wrong? What mother would treat her daughter like this?
Helen felt more and more aggrieved.
Not to mention, someone like Lillian, who was so ruthless and cold-blooded, even hurting Fanny without hesitation-Helen could already imagine how Lillian would treat her in the future.
Peter sighed. “I think you’re all going too far. When the old lady was ill, none of you were around, and now you show up asking her for things?”
“Brother-in-law, whose side are you on? Besides, you’re not even in the country. What do you know about this?”
Helen replied coldly, “Peter, you should trust me, you should be on my side. Right now, I really need Mom’s help. It’s not a big deal for her to join me for an interview, but she refuses. Mom wasn’t like this before; Lillian must have said something to her!”
Helen firmly believed that it was Lillian stirring up trouble.
“Now that Conrad is around, we can’t do much, but I don’t believe Conrad can stay around forever.” Just as John finished speaking, he received a phone call.
“Hello, this is John. Who is this…” John’s eyes widened. “Okay, okay, I understand. You can count on us.”
After hanging up, John excitedly turned to Helen. “Sis, don’t worry! We have a way to handle that old lady!”