I went to my mother's grave.

She had been gone for many years.


I knelt before the tombstone, looking at her gentle smile in the photo, my heart filled with mixed emotions.

"Mom, why did you do this?"

"You manipulated everyone, what was it all for?"


No one answered me.

Only the cold tombstone stood there silently.


I sat at the cemetery for a long time, until it grew completely dark.

Blake's calls came one after another, but I didn't answer any of them.

I didn't know how to face him.

Just as I was about to leave, an elderly voice sounded behind me.

"Are you Vanessa James?"

I turned around and saw an old man leaning on a cane.

His hair was gray, but his spirit was vigorous, with eyes so sharp they seemed able to see through one's heart.

"And you are?"

"I am Blake's grandfather," the old man said.

I was stunned.

The top aristocratic family in the Capital...

The old man walked to my side, looked at the photo on the tombstone, and sighed.

"Your mother was a clever woman."

"She found me years ago, told me about Blake's origins, and presented sufficient evidence."

"She made a deal with me."

"She would help me find my grandson, and I would ensure your lifelong security."

I looked at him in disbelief.

"So, Blake falling in love with me was also part of your plan?"

The old man shook his head: "Who can plan matters of the heart?"

"I merely brought him to your side, gave him an opportunity to be near you."

"It was he himself who developed genuine feelings."

"Child, everything your mother did was for you."

"Victor Foster has evil intentions, and Howard harbors hostility toward you and your mother. As a vulnerable woman, if she didn't find a powerful backer, you two would never be able to secure your position in the Foster family."

"She was protecting you in her own way."

After hearing the old man's words, my face was already streaked with tears.

So, I had been wrongly blaming my mother all along.

It wasn't that she didn't love me; she loved me too much.

For my sake, she was willing to manipulate people's hearts and plan every step carefully.

And I had been living under her wing all along, enjoying the peace she exchanged with her life, yet knowing nothing about it.