Chapter 30
“Of course Healy is your only child.” Loraine paused, her composure flickering for the first time in a decade.
Blanche caught the small crack in Loraine’s ever-calm façade and felt a surge of satisfaction. She wanted to rip away that mask of false concern, her fingers tightening unconsciously.
Eddy interrupted her thoughts. “Mom, Blanche and I are planning to adopt.”
“So Healy won’t be our only child anymore.”
“I see,” Loraine replied coolly, though a faint unease crept into her heart. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Blanche was different than before.
She thought back to when her own mother, Sheila, had discovered her husband’s affair. Sheila had left him with nothing but a divorce settlement and took Laney with her, moving to Novandria overnight.
Sheila’s temperament had always been fierce-utterly intolerant of betrayal. Blanche was just as strong-willed; but since she was still here, Loraine figured she hadn’t learned anything yet.
That thought calmed her nerves a bit.
“Mom, please don’t bring up having another baby,” Eddy said quietly. After losing their second child, Blanche had been devastated, and the pain had nearly broken him as well.
She’d barely been able to pick herself back up.
He couldn’t let her go through that again.
Loraine could only nod, acquiescing. “I understand.”
“So, what’s the child’s name? Have you met them yet? When will you bring them over so I can meet my new grandchild?” Loraine asked, pressing on.
Blanche realized she had no idea what the child’s name was.
She remembered the snapshot of Healy with the little girl with short hair-was her name Clara?
“The agency just sent over a photo album,” Eddy replied calmly. “We haven’t met any of the children yet. Once we do, and if Laney is comfortable, we’ll start the paperwork. As for a name, we haven’t asked.”
Eddy clearly didn’t want to say more. Blanche decided to ask Healy about it later.
As the conversation droned on, Blanche’s mind wandered. Her gaze drifted to Hedwig, seated across the table.
Hedwig was usually the life of any family gathering, always chattering non-stop. Tonight, she was oddly quiet.
Recently, she’d messaged Blanche about wanting to lose weight before summer, saying she
3/2
was on a light diet. Yet tonight, she hadn’t stopped eating-and only the two greasiest dishes right in front of her, ignoring everything else.
Hedwig was several years younger than Blanche; she’d practically watched her grow up.
Blanche had the urge to check on her, but the memory of Ingrid’s betrayal flashed in her mind, making her hesitate. Her expression hardened as she stood, leaving the table to find Healy.
Healy and Tia were downstairs in the game room, not far from the tea lounge.
“…I wouldn’t have come back to her family if I wasn’t desperate for her brother’s investment.”
“Relax, even if we share a bed, I wouldn’t lay a finger on her.”
“You’re the only one I love, baby.”
Blanche froze. The flirtatious whispers drifting from the tea lounge were unmistakably Vincent’s. He was cheating on Hedwig.
Blanche’s first instinct was to storm in and expose him, but this was Hedwig’s battle. She should tell her first.
Blanche never wanted anything to do with the Simmons family again, but she knew the pain of betrayal all too well. She couldn’t stand by and watch her little sister-practically raised like her own-be deceived.
The study door was ajar. Blanche reached for the handle, but heard Hedwig’s voice from inside,
thick with tears.
“Mom, Vincent’s cheating on me.”
“I want a divorce.”
So Hedwig already knew. She’d come home for support.
Relief washed over Blanche.
The Yates were a prominent family in Eclipsed Haven, but in Novandria, they didn’t count for much. Next to the Simmons family, they were insignificant.
But with Eddy’s protective streak, Blanche knew her brother would never let his sister be wronged.
