ebookslot Chapter 653 - 624: Wife and Mother
Chapter 653 - 624: Wife and Mother
Seeing Sienna Thornton’s reddened eyes, Simon Forrester knew she had achieved her goal for this trip. He didn’t ask her what the aunt-in-law had said, because he knew it must have been something very cruel.The car sped eastward back to Brimfield, but halfway there, a serious accident had occurred ahead, and there was a complete traffic jam on that stretch of highway.
The car was stuck midway, surrounded by vehicles with no way forward or back.
By then, it was fully dark, and the wind was howling outside.
Simon Forrester got out of the car, fetched two bottles of mineral water and some biscuits from the trunk, and returned to find Sienna Thornton awake.
"Why have we stopped here?" she asked groggily.
Simon Forrester handed her the water and biscuits. "A large truck collided with a car up ahead. It’ll probably take a while to clear. Have something to eat first to hold your stomach over."
Sienna only drank a little water before curling up with her clothes still on in her seat. The heated leather seat was soft and wide, wrapping around half her body.
The car was running with the heater on, and the window was lowered by a five-centimeter gap to let in some fresh air. Occasionally, a chilly spring breeze slipped through the gap, bringing a hint of cold.
Sienna stared expressionlessly at the line of cars ahead.
After half an hour, seeing the unchanged line of cars, she suddenly said, "Call your mom, see if our son is asleep."
"Okay."
Simon Forrester picked up his phone and called Sylvia Langley.
Upon hearing that the child had a muddled meal, drank milk, and was now sound asleep, Simon gave a few instructions and then hung up.
Sienna, sitting beside him, heard the conversation clearly, felt reassured, and didn’t ask further.
Simon put away his phone, taking her hands resting on her legs, holding them firmly and tightly.
"If you’re tired, sleep a little longer," he said.
Sienna shook her head. "I can’t sleep right now."
"Then I’ll chat with you."
"Okay."
The two of them chatted about family matters, and Simon suddenly recalled a few years ago, on a similarly cold night, when he drove the same car, taking Sienna, her right leg in a cast, back to Wrayhaven.
"That time, before taking you home, I never imagined your home was like that," he smiled.
She weakly curled her lips, "What did my home seem like to you back then?"
Simon Forrester’s thoughts drifted back to the late autumn of 2018.
"Back then, although I knew you’d taken out loans to attend Harvard, I thought at least you came from an intellectual family. Otherwise, at such a young age, how could you have such ambition and confidence to travel alone to the United States to study?"
Sienna smiled helplessly, "It turned out not only was I from the countryside, living in a bare home, but my ’parents’ were also uncouth. So your impression of me was almost entirely overturned, wasn’t it? After all, previously, I’d always appeared before you as a powerful, elite woman."
Simon Forrester shook his head smiling, gripping her hands even tighter.
He turned to look at her.
The dim, yellow light from the car ceiling light cast downward, and she saw a deep galaxy in his eyes.
He turned to face her, raised his hand to stroke her cheek, and slowly leaned in, kissing her gently.
A moment later, he held her in his arms, laughed, "I thought you were a bit pitiful at that moment, and understood why you were so strong. I tried to understand your sharp tongue, your competitiveness. Later, I realized that when a man begins to pity a woman who already moves his heart, he’s already in love with her..."
At these words, he suddenly remembered something he had never told her before.
"You know, once I went back to Brimfield alone, living in a house full of traces of your life, carrying worry, pity, and longing for you in my heart. The feeling was peculiar, one I’d never encountered before."
She lay in his arms, silently shedding tears.
Many years later, she understood that during those dangerous times in Raines Village, she wasn’t fighting alone. At least far away, there was a man worrying about and longing for her.
That feeling brought warmth and strength.
And now, the same was true. In the coming confrontation with the Grant Family, this man was still by her side, facing it with her. The confusion that had coursed through her veins disappeared. Suddenly, she felt grounded and certain.
She smiled, moving back to her seat, though her hand still clasped Simon Forrester’s.
Looking at the still unmoving line of cars, she asked thoughtfully, "Do you think I’m making too much of this, that it’s unnecessary?"
He answered surely, "No."
She glanced back at him, smiled slightly, then looked ahead, "Before, I thought I was just that, just an illegitimate daughter. I had to accept it because it’s an unchangeable fact, even though I didn’t like it. But after marrying you, I often worry. During holidays, when seeing your relatives, I worry they’ll talk behind your back, saying you married the illegitimate daughter of a neighbor’s son-in-law."
Simon Forrester chuckled, shaking his head, raised her hand and kissed the back of it. "I don’t care, nor am I afraid of others’ gossip."
She sighed, her voice lowering, "But I care. Especially after our son was born, sometimes thinking about certain things makes me upset."
Simon Forrester went to hold her, kissed her temple.
"I think about how he’ll eventually marry, and what if the in-laws privately investigate our family history, discover I’m an illegitimate daughter? Even more seriously, if they happen to ask old neighbors who know the truth, and they say to the in-laws, ’Oh, that grandson’s grandmother was a mistress when she was young! She only married him after the first wife died! And his mother is an illegitimate daughter!’..."
At this, Sienna choked up again, her throat blocked uncomfortably.
Simon comforted her softly, "In thirty years, social customs will be more open. Who will care to investigate family backgrounds? By then, the children will fancy each other, open a marriage registration app, and get married online! Parents would only find out afterward, so there’d naturally be no talk about investigating families."
He sounded like—by then, kids wouldn’t need to tell parents about marriage, free to marry whoever they want.
Sienna, exasperated, cried for real, pounding his chest sobbing, "That’s not okay! What if our son marries some unsavory woman? I’d cry myself to death!"
Simon laughed, "I’m just kidding. Even if technology advances that far, you should trust that our son wouldn’t do anything so disrespectful to his parents."
This sounded a bit better, and Sienna stopped crying.
She let Simon hold her, nestled in his arms murmuring. Her soft, pleasant voice echoed in the small car, which Simon enjoyed greatly.
She said, "I used to think reputation wasn’t important, as long as I lived freely, happily. But after becoming a wife and mother, I can’t just think about myself; I must consider more, farther. Because if my reputation is bad, it affects my husband, descendants... So whenever there’s an opportunity, I hope to shed this illegitimate daughter identity... Can you understand my feelings?"
She looked up at Simon Forrester.
Simon Forrester looked down at her at the same moment.
He closed his eyes briefly, nodded, "I understand and sympathize. But I must tell you, I don’t care about your reputation. But if doing this makes you happy, I will support you. Not only because I’m your husband, but because you’re not wrong in this."