Chapter 349 There Will Be a Way
This story uncovered Alexander’s unknown background—and the only people in the entire world who knew about his background were his biological parents.
Fiona was still talking about the past, her expression filled with regret.
“In the first few years after giving birth to Alexander, I would think of the unbearable past every time I saw him, and I felt sorry for Jeffrey. So in those years, I had been running around outside by myself and rarely came home, so Alexander had always been distant to me; we were alienated. But that was not the reason why I left.”
In fact, her original intention was not to hinder Jeffrey’s bright future, so she waited for a suitable time, and if he met a suitable person, she would take the initiative to file for divorce.
But soon, ten years went by, and he still stood by her side. Jeffrey didn’t change his mind, as if he didn’t care about his own love life at all.
“He loved you,” Courtney couldn’t help but blurt out. “Couldn’t you tell at all?”
Even if they had the status of brother and sister, there was no way he would keep being with her like this for more than ten years just because he couldn’t bear to see her virtue being defiled. Besides true love, there wouldn’t be other reasons.
“How could I possibly not tell?” Fiona’s eyes showed a faint self-mocking look.
“When you love someone, you can’t hide it. Every time I went home, no matter how busy he was, he would always pick me up at the airport or station. My favorite meal was always cooked at home, and even if Alex was not close to me at all, he would still always address me as Mommy.”
“Then why?” Courtney was puzzled.
“At first, it was because I despised myself. Jeffrey was the best man in the world. His temperament, character, and family background were first-class. While me, on the other hand, I gave birth to someone else’s child, so I don’t deserve him.”
Looking sad, Fiona slowly let out a sigh of regret.
“When I finally figured it out later, it was too late.”
Both of them fell quiet.
Though the story seemed to be over, Courtney was very uncomfortable hearing it, and she didn’t dare to ask any more questions and just sat there quietly while looking at the photos in the album. As Fiona was telling her story, they had finally turned to the end of the album. Sitting on the last page was a picture of Fiona holding Jeffrey’s arm as they stood at the top of the mountain. Both of them were smiling very happily, while Jeffrey only kept looking at her with nothing but tenderness in his eyes.
In the lower right corner, there was a gold-imprinted date. Seeing that, Courtney was stunned for a moment. If she remembered correctly, Jeffrey died unexpectedly not long after that day.
As it turned out, it was really as Fiona said—it was too late when she finally figured everything out.
Fiona stroked the old photo and said with a bitter tone, “I remember when this photo was taken. He told me that when Oliver was born, he would take Alex with him when he went back and take a family portrait with Dad.”
But it seemed that the heavens wouldn’t allow even this for our family.
After a long silence, Courtney suddenly thought of something Fiona said when the story began.
“Fiona, do you think Felipe killed Mr. Duncan?”
Hearing this, Fiona clenched her fists. Her clear eyes were instantly blood shot.
“It was him. One year, he got divorced and came back to look for me, but I didn’t go with him. In order to avoid him, I even made up excuses to go up to Mount May. I didn’t know then, but he followed me up the mountain. If Jeffrey hadn’t arrived in time, I would have tried kill myself along with Felipe, but he managed to run away. Unfortunately for Jeffrey, though, his car failed to brake on the way down the mountain; it hit the guardrail and rolled down the cliff—the police report identified that someone had done something to the brakes. I know that nobody other than Felipe would’ve done that.”
“Did you tell the police what happened?”
“Of course I did, but there was no evidence. Besides, Felipe ran away again at that time, and the police couldn’t even find out where he was, so it became a cold case just like that.”
Courtney knew what happened next.
Alexander told Courtney that he was thirteen years old that year. During the summer vacation, he saw a man come to talk to his mother. Later, his mother left with the man, and he followed. He overheard something about someone being pregnant in their conversation. He didn’t understand it at the time, but after his father died and the police checked it, he finally made sense of it all—or so he thought.
Thirteen-year-old Alexander contacted the hospital and found out the fact that his mother was pregnant. He was indignant, so at his father’s funeral, he kicked his biological mother out of the house.
After hearing the whole story, all the puzzles were solved. However, at this point, Courtney didn’t know what to say.
She originally knew that Fiona had her reasons, but no matter how big it was, she thought it could not compare to the pain Alexander felt from being shunned and ignored by his own mother since he was a child. In fact, she used to stand on Alexander’s side and felt that his mother was wrong.
But now, she was feeling sorry for Fiona. Her life had been too unfortunate. She was just a fair lady who was spoiled and pampered like a protected flower. She was deceived and gave birth to a baby, but after two days of happiness, her love was gone, and she was misunderstood by her own son and kicked out of the house by him, leaving her to survive with a child on her own. Courtney couldn’t imagine how much suffering she had endured all the while.
“So that man used Alexander’s background to threaten you, didn’t he?”
Fiona nodded and muttered, “I know you are a good person. I don’t want Alexander to know about all these. He has not had a mother by his side and was brought up by his father since he was a child. He had a deep relationship with Jeffrey, so if you let him know that Jeffrey was not his biological father, I don’t know how he would take the news. And as for my dad, he is too old, and this information will only do him more harm than good.”
“You think so much about others, but what about yourself, or Oliver?” Courtney frowned. “If there is really nothing you can do in the end, would you still not ask them for help? After all, Oliver is the child of you and Mr. Duncan.”
Now, Oliver was actually the only bloodline of the Duncan family’s generation.
But Courtney felt that in the minds of Fiona and Jeffrey, Alexander’s status was no less than that of Oliver. They were two people with very pure hearts, and the contention of the rich and powerful was probably nothing to them; she bet they had never even thought about it before. Otherwise, Jeffrey wouldn’t have taken Alexander in as his son in the first place.
“There must be a way.”
Fiona pursed her lips, as if she suddenly remembered something. “Yes, indeed. There is a way.” Her eyes lit up immediately as she thought of something, and she took Courtney’s hand. “Courtney, do me a favor. Go to The Rune Pawnshop at Melrose tomorrow. I have something for Mr. Quinn for valuation.”
“The Rune Pawnshop?”
“Yes.” Fiona quickly walked to the closet at the end of the bed. She opened the hidden compartment in the closet to bring out an ebony box and opened it in front of Courtney, revealing a pair of jade bangles inside.
“This was given to me by Alex’s grandma. Originally, I wanted to give one to you and another to Oliver’s future wife, but now, I can only give it to you, and you have to sell the other. The market value of this bracelet was 10 million decades ago, and I’m sure it will not be worth less than 15 million now.”
Courtney looked at the transparent bracelets and took them into her hands carefully.
“This was what Alex’s grandma left to you; are you willing to let it go just like this?”
“This is a small price to pay to save a life. I’m sure Alex’s grandma will understand.” Fiona was obviously reluctant to give it up, and instead only pretended not to care. “It’s been in that secret compartment for many years now. If I hadn’t suddenly remembered about it, I would probably forget to bring it with me after I sold the hostel.”
