Darnell didn’t want to correct her address and simply said, “Go back if you’re enough of the fuss.”
Elaine immediately ran away.
The ancestral hall was immediately prevailed by silence.
Darnell looked towards Dolores and addressed in a low voice, “Aunt.”
Dolores, who had been closing her eyes, slowly opened her eyes. Her voice was a bit shaky as she
said, “Is what you instructed Vincent to tell me true.”
“They’re all true.”
Dolores said after a while of silence, “I just have one condition: don’t tell Clarence about the truth.”
“He will find it even though I don’t tell now. Moreover, the reason why those people led Clarence to
Riverside is to let him find the truth.”
“We should postpone it. The later, the better.”
Darnell said, “Vincent has come back to City N to investigate this matter. I guess we will get some news
in several days.”
Dolores sighed emotionally, “What can we do even if we find out who the persons behind this are. It
indeed has happened and we can’t change it.”
“Aunt, please rest assured. I will keep an eye on him and I will stop him if he wants to take any
dangerous actions.”
“The troubles in City N and Riverside are all caused by the pushiness and the choice I made before.
I’m sorry to the James family. And…”
“Aunt, you don’t have to blame yourself. Things would not have progressed to what they are today if he
didn’t covet the powers of the James family and deceive you.”
Clarence father, Dempsey Conrad, went to Riverside for business negotiations thirty years ago and got
to know Dolores accidentally. Then he pursued Dolores with various means. At that time, Dolores
surnamed James. She had been living in the James family and had never left Riverside because of
those unwritten rules. Therefore, she developed a keen interest in the handsome man from City N.
As time passed, many of the James gradually felt that inexplicable rule unacceptable and wanted to go
out of Riverside to have a look at other places.
After getting to know Dempsey, who told her the world outside was so wonderful, Dolores gradually
yearned for leaving Riverside as she had been constrained in the city for too long.
At that time, Dempsey indeed did many touching things to please her.
Being moved, Dolores gradually consolidated her belief in leaving Riverside and following him to City
N.
It was not only for freedom but also for love.
But she didn’t expect that Dempsey had a wife and a son in City N. When she followed him to City N
with excitement, Dempsey tried all means to let her persuade her father to expand his businesses in
Riverside to City N, which would help to improve his forces and interpersonal relationships at the same
time.
Having no choice, Dolores could only tell him that she had cut the relationship with the James family
when she left Riverside.
And that the James family would not recognize her as a member of the family and would not expand its
businesses to City N.
Only until then did Dempsey realize that the James family didn’t allow its members to leave Riverside.
His expression immediately turned hideous and he didn’t visit Dolores for several days consecutively.
Dolores couldn’t figure it out. When she learned she was pregnant, she wished so much she could
immediately tell him about this good news and went to the Conrad Group to find him after leaving the
hospital.
In the company, she saw Joanna and Justin who was only several years old at that time.
Dolores felt as if being struck by lightning and froze on the spot with a pregnancy examination report in
her hand.
Associating with Dempsey’s indifference in recent days, she immediately figured out what was going
on.
Dempsey’s ambition was not satisfied although he was quite successful in City N. Even though the
Perez family was quite powerful, it was still insignificant comparing to the James family.
Dempsey had made a plan when he first approached Dolores. He thought he could let Dolores follow
him to City N first, and since Dolores was the only daughter in the family and her father spoiled her a
lot, his father would not let her live in City N alone.
In that case, as long as the James expanded its business to City N, everything would be under his
control.
He just needed to infiltrate into the family’s forces slowly and one day even the Riverside would be
under his control.
As long as his plan came to success, he would get rid of the Perez family at any time.
Never had he expected that the James family would have that rule.
His efforts in the past months were all in vain.
He bore some hatred towards Dolores at that time, complaining why she didn’t tell him in advance.
After figuring everything out, Dolores didn’t ask him for any explanations. She returned to the house,
packed her things and left.
Even though she knew it was a fraud, she couldn’t go back.
She hesitated for a long while and finally decided to deliver the child in her belly.
She could by no means return to the James family and the child was the only belief that encouraged
her to live.
Dolores James changed her surname and went to a place where she thought no one would be able to
find her.
Dolores, a rich lady who had never worried about money and livelihood, immediately became a single
mother who lost all supports from her family and could only make a living by herself. She gritted her
teeth to go through a long, hard time.
Although life was bitter, the child grew up day by day.
They lived in that place for several days.
Until one day Dempsey appeared in that broken alley in a business suit…
It had been many years and Dempsey still showed no regret on that matter. It was just that he seemed
to have grown old as some of his hair was white.
He told Dolores that his son’s legs were broken in a car accident and he was paralyzed and could only
sit in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Therefore, Justin couldn’t shoulder the responsibility of taking
charge of the Conrad Group.
He persuaded with a carrot-and-stick approach, saying that he would cultivate the child to be the heir of
the Conrad Group after taking him back to the family. If Dolores refused it, he would have another
illegitimate child. However, in case that other Conrads would find the child and make use of his identity,
he would kill the child himself.
Dolores was sleepless for several nights. Looking at the shabby house, she covered her face and burst
into crying.
She didn’t know why things would progress to what they were now. Her child was supposed to grow up
as an apple of many people’s eyes; however, he suffered a lot as he had to live with her in this place.
Dolores agreed to Dempsey’s proposal and sent Clarence back to the Conrad family. Then she left City
N without hesitation, just like how she left Riverside before.
Dempsey did cultivate the child as the future heir of the Conrad family as he had promised Dolores.
However, he was afraid of the forces in Riverside at the same time, feeling that the James family would
recognize the child one day.
This was the reason why he constantly wanted to control Clarence and why he had some scruples
about him.
But in the end, he got nothing. Instead, he was paralyzed all over.
Dolores pulled herself out of her memory and looked at the ancestors’ tablets in front of her.
Right at this moment, there came some footsteps from the door.
Darnell said, “Aunt, I have to go.”
Darnell walked to the door of the ancestral hall and looked at the person, but he didn’t say anything in
the end and left in strides.
Standing at the door of the ancestral hall, Clarence fixed his eyes on Dolores’ back and only walked
into the hall several minutes later. He then kneeled behind Dolores.
Hearing the sounds, Dolores turned around and said in a low voice, “You don’t have to kneel.”
Clarence said blandly without any expressional change, “I’m not kneeling before them.”
He added, “Since you’re kneeling before them, I can’t just stand here.”
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