hapter 972
Ginny and Rick walked into the back garden and stopped.
Ginny turned to face Rick. “Rick, whatever you have to say, you can say it here.”
Rick replied, “Ginny, back when you and Sharon were classmates, did she ever tell you about our family?”
Her brows lifted slightly. She caught the unspoken meaning behind his words.
Was he implying that Sharon had revealed her identity just to befriend her?
A trace of irony flickered through Ginny’s mind, though none of it touched her face. She smiled lightly. “No. When we first met Sharon, none of us knew anything about her background.”
“Is that so?” Rick’s tone was even, but disbelief shadowed his features.
Ginny frowned faintly, though her voice remained as soft and fluid as water.
“Of course. We pieced it together ourselves. During school holidays, all of us went home. Only Sharon never did. She stayed outside, working part–time jobs to pay her tuition and living expenses.”
She held his gaze, lips curved in a polite smile, but her eyes brimmed with scorn. 1
“There were several times she fainted from low blood sugar, overworked and exhausted. We were baffled. Why would she need to earn her own tuition and living expenses? Didn’t she have family to rely on?
“But as time went on, we realized we had never once seen her receive a phone call from home. The only family she ever mentioned was her mother–and she passed away not long after Sharon entered university.”
The truth was, Shayla had left Sharon a considerable sum of money. Even after leaving the Kalen family, she hadn’t been destitute. But when Wendy’s family faced a crisis, Sharon and John lent them everything. That was why Sharon took on so many jobs.
Ginny herself had once offered to lend Sharon money, but Sharon refused, insisting she could manage–that it wasn’t yet to the point where she needed help. And manage she did, enduring those harshest of years.
“Once, after Sharon fainted,” Ginny continued, “I picked up her phone to try and contact her family. The man who answered–perhaps it was Silas–didn’t even let me speak. He said, ‘If you had the backbone to run away from home, why bother calling now?‘ Then he hung up before I could explain. “Later, I dialed another number–what I believe was Scott’s–but no one answered at all.”
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Chapter 972
134
+25 BONUS
Rick’s throat tightened. “Why didn’t you call me? Or my father?”
Ginny shook her head. “We couldn’t. Sharon’s contacts listed only classmates and friends. The two numbers I tried came from her call log–and even those had no names saved. It seems she deleted every trace of you from her phone.
“As for you and your father…” Her tone sharpened. “There weren’t even call records. Which means you never called her before.”
Her expression cooled.
Once, nearly everyone in their circle had said marrying into the Kalen family was the greatest fortune a woman could hope for. The Kalen family had model heirs and heiresses, paragons of high society.
Back then, Ginny had been elated at the thought of such a marriage. She had believed that if she weren’t exceptional enough, the Kalen family would never have considered her.
But the more she came to know them, the more unsettled she grew.
Was marrying into the Kalen family truly a blessing–or a mistake?
Her thoughts shattered as Rick’s voice cut through the night, low and edged with fury.
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