With watery eyes, she gently slid them onto my wrists, her fingers softly brushing over the calluses on my hands.
I let her hold my hand, emotions swirling chaotically beneath the surface.
When Chris married me years ago, she cried and apologized, saying their family was too poor to offer me anything meaningful as a bride price.
And now this.
Was she finally feeling guilty on her son’s behalf?
Did she truly believe the Eldridge family owed me?
Or had these ten long years just been her way of testing her daughter-in-law, and now that I had passed, the bracelets were nothing more than a hidden reward?
I could not be bothered to guess.
Instead, I answered steadily, “Mom, thank you for thinking well of me. I do not feel wronged.”
I was not being gracious. I was cold and beyond caring.
Meanwhile, Chris’s mother looked absolutely stricken with guilt.
Gemma’s lips trembled for a long moment before she finally managed, “Get some rest, child.”
In the end, she and Chris were still family.
How could she possibly choose me over her son?
After they all left, Melissa suddenly returned, claiming she had gotten her period.
She shut the door behind her with a sharp click and announced, “I don’t know what you’re planning, but I need to make something clear.”
Then, she pressed a hand against her lower belly, smug satisfaction written all over her face.
“My period’s been late for three months. And that whole ‘two-kid school quota’ Chris mentioned? That brain-damaged kid of yours was never part of it.”
A thousand knives seemed to slash straight through my chest.
I naively hoped that Chris or his mother still felt some guilt, but I never expected them to use Matty, the person I care about most, to manipulate me.
Seeing how devastated I looked, Melissa’s smile grew even more triumphant.
“Actually,” she went on, practically buzzing with excitement, “the place in the city isn’t some little three-bedroom. Chris is the CEO of Eldridge Tech—yeah, the one that just went public. We’ve been living in a luxury villa.”
She lifted her hand and flashed the massive diamond on her ring finger.
“See this? Chris put it on me at the wedding this morning. It’s worth dozens of times more than those bargain-bin bracelets you’re wearing.”
Her smile twisted, turning mean.
“Nadine, Chris and I are the real family. You’re just a dirty little gutter hen. Don’t even dream about turning into a phoenix.”