Redemption Marriage

: Will your family accept the Santiagos' daughter? With Jessica's question, Grandma Nelly's tears fell. "You have really suffered over the years." Without a clear understanding of why she had said so or what might have prompted her to say so, Jessica did the only thing that seemed feasible at the moment.

She calmly patted the old lady's back, giving her tto pour out her pent-up emotion. Taking a glance back into the past, she couldn't recall when the old lady had ever cried.

Even in times when she would cry, complain, or languish bitterly about her predicament, her mother's death, her father's heartlessness and the peril she was passing through, Grandma Nelly would always keep a strong front, making her believe all had been well.

When she returned to the countryside barefooted, in tattered clothes with bruises on sparts of her body, she only sighed and said, "Nora had expected this." At that time, Jessica just stared at her as she tried to understand what exactly her mother had expected, but no matter how she thought about it, it was never clear even at this moment.

It seems her life as a child had been really protected and shielded, that she never understood the seriousness of every matter she had encountered and to say she is just left with her mother's unjust death and her father's infidelity in marriage.

After stime, Grandma Nelly dabbed her tears away and sat up to face Jessica. "My granddaughter, I think it is tyou understand the circumstances surrounding you." Jessica stared at her. She had taken this trip to find out the situation of things surrounding her true identity, but surprisingly at this moment she felt her heart burdened and heavy.

She felt the urge to keep the truth at bay as she felt the trepidation that the truth she learns will definitely disrupt her peaceful life.

Yet another part of her wanted to know the truth. While she was still contemplating on the best choice to make, Grandma Nelly's voice snapped her out of her daze.

"I was never your Brown family grandmother like you were told." This declaration felt like a thunderclap, it reechoed through her mind multiple times yet couldn't find a place to settle.

Her mouth opened to speak but then she closed it again, not knowing exactly what she wanted to ask at the moment.

It seems everything she was made to understand was a lie from the beginning to the end.

Grandma Nelly nodded lightly in acknowledgement of whatever thought that might be swirling in her mind. "I was just your mother's nanny who had taken care of her and watched her grow in the Santiagos family." Jessica raised her head to meet her gaze. It was as though she was seeing her for the first time. She couldn't believe this reality.

How cshe never suspected her to have lived in the Santiagos'? How cshe never noticed any trait in her to prove she was a nanny? Why had she never lived in the Brown family if she had followed her mother from the Santiagos' family? Why had she not visited the Brown family? Was she also part of a plan made by her mother to keep her safe? Why was George, the person who had sent her out to go live with her grandmother? Was George aware of her existence yet kept silent? How cshe had always known the actions and activities going on in the Brown family? Jessica felt lost. She couldn't decide the particular question to ask her, she couldn't make out the one she could deem more important.

She struggled to find her voice, which only managed to cforth as a whisper. "Are you saying that you are not a Brown family member?" "Yes, I am living in this countryside just to serve as your guardian." Jessica stared at her, dumbfounded. "My guardian?" she murmured. "But as long as I remember, you have been living here." Grandma Nelly shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, because everything has been taken into consideration by your mother." Nora had passed through fire and evolved into a precious gold, but the cold hands of death didn't let her live. Jessica felt her heart tightening as the truth gradually dawned, yet she couldn't believe the truth she sought to be the lies she dreads.

Grandma Nelly sighed. "Jessica, certain things are not exactly as you see them." Seeing her serious expression, she understood the old lady was not joking in any aspect. She felt several emotions coursing through her heart.

"A nanny of the Santiagos' family?" she thought.

"Not blood-related, yet closer than blood," she murmured to herself.

"How long have you stayed with my mother?" "As long as she was still in the womb," Grandma muttered.

"Ah!" "Then, what... what... what happened? "Why... why... did she... leave the Santiagos'?" Grandma Nelly took a deep breath. "Why had Nora left the Santiagos' family?" she murmured.

Her gaze flickered into the distance as a vivid memory of the past played out before her.

Nora Santiagos had been born into the Santiagos' family at the tthe Santiagos' family were struggling. Amongst the major families of the four empires at that time, the Santiagos seemed to be at the bottom.

To put it mildly, they could be considered poor.

They had been disregarded and embarrassed, they had been insulted and manipulated. Their nwas like a reproach amongst the power players.

Matilda, from the middle class, had borne the shwith so much dignity that even her Nelly had revered her so much. With determination, she strived to make the family better.

In the bid of attaining her goal, she had brought in Nelly as a maid to help her while she dabbled into m everything and anything that would earn the Santiagos' family a ticket for survival. While she (Nelly) helped her run the affairs of the household.

Her husband wasn't left out of the picture. Both of them had laboured hard.

With her birth, favour seemed to have om shone its bright light on them, them, m making them smile, and it began its growth-but not in any way was it to be compared to the powerful families. Yet she had been treated as the princess, adored by all. She had grown without burden, shielded and protected from the pains and manipulation of the world.

Enrolled into a prestigious school for the elites, she met the bane of her life, Josh Anderson.

The young heir of the Anderson family. He was prided as the prince, yet held in the clutches of the family.

One evening, he visited Santiago's it hto make his intention known. For sfamilies) it might have been arelief and an opportunity, but for the Santiagos it was different. The situation had prompted a mixed reaction from the members of the family, noting their place and situation among the elites.

The first day of Josh Anderson's visit to the middle-class family of the Santiagos was still as vivid as any memory. At the mention of his family's name, Matilda's face paled, her gaze narrowed, and her breath hitched.

Her exact words: "My son, will your family accept the Santiagos' daughter?"