Chapter 376 Slept properly

“I haven’t slept properly for days.” Agnes was tormented by the mistakes she had made in the past; remorse and grief overwhelmed her senses.

Not knowing what else to do, she could only go to Alana and beg for her forgiveness, hoping to ease the agony in her heart.

Alana gave a faint smile. “Didn’t you bring this on yourself?”

“I...” Agnes felt another pang in her heart, and tears streamed down her face like pearls on a broken string.

“Lana, won’t you give Mom a chance?Mom truly knows she was wrong. Just tell me what it will take for you to forgive me... I’ll do anything you ask.”

Alana remained unmoved; her heart was even calmer than she had imagined.

She had cried, suffered, and struggled, but after realizing all of it was meaningless, she had gradually taught herself to accept it.

She had already convinced herself that this mother was dispensable... or even nonexistent.

She said calmly, “It’s still the same as before: I don’t need you to do anything for me, nor do I need any compensation from you. Just don’t disturb my life anymore.”

Agnes’ expression twisted in agony; it felt as though a hand were squeezing her heart so hard it left her gasping for breath.

If she wouldn’t even accept an apology, what other way was there for her to win Alana’s forgiveness?

How could she possibly restore their mother-daughter bond?

Alana took Stephan’s hand and continued calmly to Agnes, “By the way, let me introduce you. This is Stephan Hudson, my boyfriend.”

“We’ve already met each other’s parents, and we’re going to get married.”

“I really like him... I love him. I want to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him. If you have even a shred of conscience left, then wish me well. Stop teaming up with Darla to stand in my way and tear us apart.”

Agnes looked at Alana and Stephan’s hands clasped tightly together, and the determination on their faces.

She gave a bitter smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t break you two up anymore...”

“I hope so.”

She took Stephan’s hand and walked away.

Stephan didn’t say a word the whole time; this was a matter between Alana and her mother, and he didn’t feel it was his place to get involved.

Besides, he thought she was handling it well.

No resentment, no hatred... she was striving to let go of the past and start anew.

Agnes watched as Alana and Stephan walked away together. She wanted to say something, but felt powerless to do so.

Could it be that she truly could no longer win back her daughter and restore her to the way she once was?

********

As soon as Miranda and Darius returned home, they told Joan what had happened at the hospital.

Miranda chattered on bitterly.

“I never would have guessed that man’s family was so wealthy... they just handed over a five-billion-dollar dowry without batting an eye, and they even said they’d give her several properties worth over a hundred million each, plus cars and all that!”

“Oh my, it’s like they’re just giving away money... it’s making me so jealous!”

“Our whole family could work for hundreds of lifetimes and still not earn that much money, yet they just hand it over like that!”

Joan couldn’t believe it. “All that money was given to Alana as a dowry?”

“Five billion!

“That’s five billion... more money than she’d ever dared to dream of in her entire life! And Alana just married a man and got it all so easily!”

Miranda nodded. “You bet!”

“Tell me, isn’t that whole family blind? They had to pick Alana, a girl with no parents, to marry their son, while when I tried to set you up, they turned their noses up at you!”

Joan stamped her foot, her heart filled with a mix of bitterness and jealousy. It felt like every good thing in the world had fallen into Alana’s lap.

Why didn’t she have Alana’s luck and land such a wealthy man?

What on earth went wrong?

Joan gritted her teeth. “Mom, with all that dowry money, didn’t Alana think about helping our family pay off our debts?”

Miranda snorted coldly, “She wouldn’t dream of it, she’d love nothing more than to see our whole family starve!”

Joan stamped her foot again. “That’s outrageous! After all, she’s lived with our family for so long and even took our family name!”

“You bet. Now that she’s rich, she’s forgotten all about us relatives. What an ungrateful bastard!”

Darius said impatiently, “Enough already. Let’s not bring up these upsetting things. We still haven’t raised the remaining 40 million, so we can’t pay back Agnes yet. And you guys still have the nerve to be all sour and jealous of Alana? If we can’t raise the money, our whole family will end up in jail!”

Joan pouted, “Dad, Grandma won’t give us any money. No matter how hard we try, we can’t raise that much!”

Darius was equally exasperated. Pointing at Miranda and Joan, he scolded the mother and daughter, “It’s all your fault, you two! You spend money like water every day, buying everything under the sun with no sense of restraint. The moment you run out of cash, you swindle and cheat Agnes out of money. You’ve swindled her out of tens of millions... how on earth are we supposed to pay it back?”

Miranda laughed bitterly. “Oh my, you’ve used quite a lot of that money I swindled, haven’t you? How many cars do we have in the family? Which one did you buy with your own hard-earned money? Wasn’t it all spent using Agnes’ money?!”

“Fine, fine, fine. Even if you did swindle the money, you should’ve at least shared some with Alana. You couldn’t have kept it all for yourself!”

“If you’d been nicer to her back then, maybe Agnes wouldn’t be holding it against us for swindling her out of money. Besides, Alana’s getting married now, she’s getting over a billion in dowry. She might even be grateful for how we treated her before and give us a cut if you had treated her well!”

“You’re so stingy... you wouldn’t give her a single penny back then, and you’re always bossing her around. Now you’ve completely ruined a great opportunity, and our whole family is going to be left out in the cold!”

Miranda was livid. She planted her hands on her hips and sneered, “Oh, so now you’re blaming me? Didn’t you just go along with everything I did?”

“Why didn’t you stop me when I was treating her badly back then? Now that Alana has shot to the top, turned from a sparrow into a phoenix... you just want to suck up to her and get your hands on that ten-billion-dollar dowry. If you’d known it would turn out like this, why didn’t you do something back then? You should’ve stopped me right away and treated Alana well!”

“Her uncle, my foot! You’re just as bad as me... birds of a feather!”

When it came to the art of verbal abuse, Darius was no match for Miranda.

Besides, Miranda was right.

If he’d known this would happen, why didn’t he stop it in the first place?!

They hadn’t known back then that Alana was capable of this, had they?

There was no way to turn back the clock, so they could only swallow their bitterness and resentment.

The couple argued for a long time, fighting so fiercely that everything went haywire. Only after they finally calmed down did they sit down together to figure out how to resolve the situation.

The one who tied the knot must be the one to untie it.

They’ll have to sit down and talk this through with Agnes.

They’re all family... surely Agnes wouldn’t go so far as to make things completely impossible?

Darius personally reached out to Agnes, intending to have a heart-to-heart with his younger cousin.

As her elder, Agnes should give him some face.

The call connected.

Darius couldn’t wait to say, “Agnes, it’s your big brother. I don’t see you as my cousin. You’ve always been like a sister to me. Everything can be worked out. Don’t be so ruthless with your big brother. Can’t we just let the money go?”

“We’re all family. You’ve married into a wealthy family now... you’re not short on money. Why are you still haggling over tens of millions with your older brother and sister-in-law? There’s no need to make such a scene, you know?”

Agnes frowned. “Dear Big Brother, who are you trying to impress with this preachy attitude? Is this how I want to be? I truly regard you both as family and believed you would help me take good care of my daughter. But not only did you fail to do so, you embezzled the money I’ve given her over the years, and even deceived me... claiming that under your care, Alana lives a happy and fulfilling life every day!”

“Did you ever truly treat me like a younger sister, like family? Now Alana blames me and resents me, she won’t even acknowledge me as her mother. I’ve done so many wrong things to her that I don’t have the face to look her in the eye. All of this is your fault... how am I supposed to forgive you?!”

“There’s no room for negotiation on this matter. You either pay back the money or go to jail!”