What had happened back then…
Even Mrs. Landis didn’t know the full story. All she knew was that after Herman left, Iris had suddenly packed up her things one day, moved out of the Hunt Manor, and moved into the small villa here.
From then on, it was as if she had suddenly become cold-hearted, and no longer cared about Justin.
But Mrs. Landis still remembered that one day when the five-year-old Justin, who didn’t understand anything at all, suddenly ran all the way to the villa, crying and shouting for his mother.
But Iris had refused to open the door. She had stayed in the house and merely said, “Go back. I don’t want to see you.”
“Mom, open the door!”
Outside the door, the five-year-old Justin tried his best to knock on the door, but as though she had hardened her heart, she never opened it.
Justin was just as stubborn. He shouted, “If you don’t open the door, I won’t leave!”
Later, it started to rain.
It was storming, and the winds were howling in the heavy rain. The bodyguard gave him an umbrella, but he pushed him away. The stubborn little boy kept standing on that rainy night.
Justin had a very determined look in his eyes. He didn’t believe that his mother would really ignore him.
Neither did he believe that his gentle mother would suddenly become so cruel and hard-hearted.
But later, cold and hungry, he finally fainted from exhaustion. Even when he had collapsed onto the ground, he kept his eyes open with the last vestiges of his strength and stared at the door.
What disappointed him was that from beginning to end, the door never opened once.
From then on, Justin understood that Iris didn’t love him anymore. After visiting a few more times, he rarely came again.
But he didn’t know that Mrs. Landis had seen with her own eyes that the entire time he was in the rain, Iris had also stood in the rain in the courtyard inside the villa.
When the bodyguards outside exclaimed in shock after he fainted, Iris had rushed to the door. Both her hands had been on the gates, but she never opened the door.
Her tears had mixed together with the rainwater on her face, and she wept silently with her mouth open. That was the most painful night of Iris’ life that Mrs. Landis had ever seen.
She was a hundred times sadder than when Herman had betrayed her.
In her opinion, Iris didn’t actually love Herman at all-or rather, she didn’t love him that deeply. After all, theirs had been a political marriage.
She had given all her love to Justin.
But for some reason, mother and son had to be separated. They had clearly been so close once upon a time, yet they were like complete strangers now.
Mrs. Landis simply didn’t understand what had happened. She stared at Iris, only to see tears all over her face.
Mrs. Landis panicked. “Ma’am, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?”
Iris covered her face with her hands.
Before coming, she’d thought that since so many years had gone by, everything must be okay by now, right?
Besides, Nora had once tried to persuade her and had told her that her son had already grown up. Perhaps her troubles were nothing more than trivial matters to him.
That was why she had, after a long internal struggle the day before, come to the Hunt Manor today with the clothes she had carefully selected for the three children.
Deep down, she wanted to repair her relationship with her son. She could also see that, although her son was surprised to see her, he was not hostile towards her. But little did she expect that… that man would come back!
As expected, those thoughts of hers were all just wishful thinking.
She should just stay in that small villa her whole life like someone’s trapped canary and live out her life all by herself.
This was the price she had to pay for that incident back then.
Without any hope, there would be no disappointment.
The little spark of hope that had finally ignited after much difficulty had suddenly been extinguished that evening.
Iris lowered her head. “Don’t ask anymore, Mrs. Landis.”
Seeing how sad she looked, Mrs. Landis sighed.
At the Hunts’.
When Justin and Nora entered the living room, they found that Cherry had gone to the bedroom upstairs. Herman and Lauren were sitting on the sofa, drinking the tea that the butler had just handed them.
Justin seemed utterly heartbroken by Iris. There was sadness on his face. He took Nora’s hand and sat opposite Herman and Lauren.
Herman said, “You saw that, didn’t you? Your mother is a cold-hearted person. Justin, she has always been so selfish. You should have already become accustomed to it a long time ago, right?”
Justin raised his head suddenly, piercing light shooting out of his eyes. “Why are you here?”
Herman narrowed his eyes. “This is my home. Of course I was going to come back someday! Besides, my agreement with your mother back then was for me to leave the Hunts for twenty years! Don’t worry, I know that the entire Hunt Corporation is now in your hands. Even if I’m back, I won’t be able to take anything back from you… I’ve been doing my own business abroad all these years, and have my own assets, so I won’t covet your money. I came back just to visit you, as well as your grandmother along the way.” After saying this, he stood up and started walking out. “I will go and say hi to your grandmother first. I will stay at her place tonight.”
The fake Lauren said pretentiously, “Justin, this is our gift for the children. Cherry is afraid of strangers, so she didn’t accept the gift. You can give it to her later.”
After the two left, Justin looked at Nora. “Why don’t you go upstairs first? I will deal with these gifts.”
Nora had been worried that he would misunderstand Iris, and end up being moved by Herman’s few words. It was only then that she realized that he actually disliked Herman that much. She was relieved.
She nodded and went upstairs.
After she went upstairs, Justin picked up his cell phone and answered a call. Sean’s voice came from the other side: “Boss.”
Justin’s gaze was very cold. He lowered his eyes slightly and asked, “Have you looked into it? What did she say in the car after she left…?”
Sean then recounted the conversation between Mrs. Landis and Iris in the car and told him how Iris had reacted.
Justin lowered his eyes and listened quietly.
Sean said tentatively, “Ma’am seems to be having some difficulties, and she is not indifferent to you. Although she speaks disdainfully about the videos sent to her in the past, she has actually kept them all…”
Justin knew all this, of course—because he was the one who had gotten them to send those videos!
All he wanted to know right now was—why?!
Sean was still reporting his discoveries. “The gifts that Ma’am brought for the children were all carefully selected and prepared a month in advance. After hearing that you have another child, she even prepared an additional gift overnight to make up. She was actually planning to tell you some kind of truth when she took the initiative to visit today… but it seems like she has regretted it. It seems that the change in her emotions only took place after your father returned.”
“Okay.”
Justin understood what Sean was saying. He raised his eyes and looked ahead of him dispassionately. Then, he slowly said, “If you can’t get anything out of my mother, then try the other side.”
“Yes, sir.”
