Mother's illness

If it wasn't for me, Samantha, who was a noble lady, wouldn't have had to work so hard.

I still remember that when she first heard that she needed $800,000 for the operation, she wanted to give up the treatment straight away.

"Cathy, I don't want the surgery, I don't want the treatment. I don't want to be a burden to you anymore..."

Samantha's desperate words still echoed in my ears.

She even encouraged me to pursue my own life and not raise money for her treatment.

How could I possibly leave her behind? She was my mother, the only family I had!

I hugged her in fear and cried, "Mother, you can't leave me! You are the only family I have left, if you refuse to treat me and die seriously ill, there will be no one to care for me and love me anymore, and I will be bullied ..."

It was after Samantha heard these words from me in the beginning that she was dissuaded from giving up on treatment.

At one time Samantha even tried to ask the Ackerman family, her mother's clan, for help.

But the Ackermans had nothing to do with Samantha when she married into the Bates family ...

Samantha has never spoken to me in detail about what happened back then.

But I can guess that my mother probably broke away from her mother's family back then to marry my father.

So now that Samantha was in trouble, the Ackermans would not help us either.

I knew at that moment that I would have to rely on my strength to keep Samantha and me going.

"Cathy, why are you wearing a gown? Off to some party?"

Samantha's voice brought my thoughts back to reality.

Looking at the look of concern on her face, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't told her about Richard and I's impending marriage.

I hesitated for a moment, weighing it over and over in my mind before finally making up my mind with the thought that sooner or later she would find out about it.

I adjusted my mood and said as calmly as I could, "Mother, I'm getting married in a month and a half."

After a moment's thought, I added, "The groom isn't Danny; half a month ago, Danny and Billie cheated on me behind my back, so we broke up."

"The groom is the second son of the Grants, Richard Grant. He's very nice, and tonight I'm just accompanying him to a charity gala."

"By the way, I also met Danny and Billie tonight, and Richard taught them a lesson when they bullied me."

After I said that, I subconsciously dropped my head.

I thought Samantha was going to scold me for sure.

Because Richard and I had only known each other for half a month and we were getting ready to get married, it was a bit rushed.

At that moment, the ward was incredibly quiet and I could even hear my breathing.

"Who did you just say Danny and? Billie?"

Samantha's voice suddenly became shrill, her cheeks flushed red with anger.

"Who are they to do this to you? It's just shameless! Vile!"

Before I could say anything else, she continued to curse viciously.

The main reason for Samantha's anger was that when Danny and Billie had come to the house, she had treated them as warmly as if they were her children.

Of course, it was what Danny and Billie did to me that infuriated her the most.

As far as I can remember, she was very protective of me and didn't want me to suffer in any way.

Whenever someone bullied me, even though she had received a fine education as a noble lady, she couldn't help but curse.

I said soothingly, "Mother, don't be angry. Richard has already taught them a lesson for me."

Under my reassurance, Samantha's emotions calmed down a bit, but her body was still shaking slightly.

After a moment, she suddenly asked, "The Richard you speak of, is it Richard of the Grant family? The man who is now in charge of the Grant family?"

Samantha was once a noble lady as well and knew a lot about the nobles, especially the several major noble families.

So I was not surprised that she knew about Richard, after all, the Grant family was the head of the nobility.

I nodded immediately, "Yes, that's him."

Samantha was silent for a moment and her expression suddenly became serious: "Cathy, did he give you the money for the operation you raised for me? Tell me honestly, did you agree to marry him to raise the money for my surgery?"

I took a deep breath and chose to tell Samantha the truth.

"Mother, I don't want to lie to you. I admit that I married Richard and the cost of the surgery was part of the reason, but the main thing was that he could and would protect me."

"When I first got together with Danny, it wasn't because I loved him either, it was just that I thought he was right for me."

"Richard was good to me, and after the wedding, we moved out alone and wouldn't get too involved with the Grants."

"So, Richard is the best thing for me at the moment."

I had never said these things to Samantha, and now I was telling her what I thought, actually so that I could convince her to accept my marriage to Richard.

I had stopped believing in love ever since I first met the girl who claimed to be my sister.

After that, as I grew up slowly and learned a lot about the sordid things in the aristocratic circle, I stopped having any expectation of love.

Cheating was so common in aristocratic circles that everyone seemed to have got used to such subterfuge.

Then I met Danny.

He was a lively and cheerful boy in his university days and was always very warm to me.

At the time I just wanted to live an ordinary and quiet life before I agreed to his advances.

However, in hindsight, I made a lapse in judgment.

Now, instead, I am prepared to leave the rest of my life in Richard's hands.

Although I don't know what will happen in the future and whether our marriage will work out, for now, it is the best decision I can make at the moment.

Perhaps Richard is only defending me in this way now because I am his fiancée, the woman who will soon become Mrs. Grant, and he wants to maintain such decency.

Of course, I couldn't let Samantha know about this speculation of mine. It was enough for her to know that Richard was good to me.

Samantha seemed to have been convinced by me.

She moved her lips noiselessly, but in the end not a word came out.