Chapter 529 - 529: What Do You Know?
Selma Payne’s POV:
I hadn’t seen Teresa in a long time. Her children had already grown up, and her increasingly haggard face was obviou.
“This is the price of being a mother.” She smiled bitterly. “Raising a child is not like caring for a plant. You just have to water and fertilize it. As the children grow, they are no longer as obedient as they were when they were young. Sometimes, 1 regret it. I shouldn’t have arranged for the age gap between the children to be so small, giving them a chance to go crazy together at the same time now.”
“Is Daniel not helping you?”
“Of course he does, but he’s very busy with work and can’t help me anytime and anywhere. Now that he is in a high position, he has to go on business trips or carry out dangerous missions occasionally. 1 don’t want him to worry about his family.”
To be honest, even though we were both mothers, I couldn’t empathize with Teresa.
Most of the time, my children were cared for by my mothers and nannies. The anxiety I could feel from the children was more or less mixed with political factors. Rather than worrying about the children, I was more worried about the hidden dangers behind certain things.
For a moment, 1 wanted to ask Teresa why she didn’t hire a nanny or something like that to help her, but when I thought about it, I was shocked by my thoughts – what a snobbish suggestion!
If 1 couldn’t give Teresa a feasible suggestion, I’d just have to remain silent and wait for her to finish venting her stress. 1 wouldn’t give this anxious mother any more pressure with luxurious ideas.
After a while, Dorothy called us for lunch. Teresa returned to her senses and said apologetically, “1 was only talking about myself. It’s annoying to talk so much. I’m really sorry…”
She seemed to be truly upset about this. I quickly consoled her, “No, not at all. I’m very happy you can share your life with me. The children are a little mischievous but very cute, aren’t they?”
Teresa only smiled and then fell silent.
There weren’t many rules in private gatherings, and I didn’t have to care about things like eating and sleeping. Teresa would bring her child back to her mother’s house in a few days. Dorothy was very curious about the foreign plants and herbs in the Silver Moon Pack, so she asked about them.
“Speaking of which, it’s been a long time since I’ve been involved in the Silver Moon Pack’s business,” Teresa said. “Taking care of the children has already squeezed all my time out of me, so I don’t have the energy to wrangle in the business world. But if you’re curious, 1 can ask my father for a catalog of the current season’s products. It has everything in it and is much more detailed than an oral description.”
Dorothy thanked her happily and asked Teresa what she would do when she returned.
“It’s just a routine to connect the children and their maternal grandfather and to let the Silver Moon Pack’s people meet the heirs and wear down their eager ambitions.” At the mention of this, Teresa’s brows, which had not smoothen, furrowed even deeper.
“After 1 got married, people always persuaded my father to cancel my right of inheritance and adopt a nephew from the side branch to inherit the Silver Moon Pack’s family business. Of course, my father wouldn’t agree, but I can’t convince those old-fashioned old things with words alone, so I had to take the children back to the Silver Moon Pack regularly to stabilize the situation.”
Dorothy and I looked at each other and fell silent.
Although the battle for the successor deeply hurt me, I couldn’t give any valuable advice to Teresa.
Our situations were completely different. The only thing I could encourage her to do was to defend her rights. Power would not come to you by itself. You had to do everything you could to grab and defend it. There was no other shortcut.
“However, the children are also looking forward to this trip. The Midnight Opera troupe will be performing in the Silver Moon Pack, and they’ve always wanted to see the charm of the top opera actors with their own eyes. That’s why my father decided to provide the Midnight Opera troupe with all their food and lodging in exchange for the children’s welfare.”
I knew the Midnight Opera House would perform at the Silver Moon Pack, so I sent more people to monitor Tilly. The Silver Moon Pack was a very special area with a mix of people. There was a chance that someone who should not be there would sneak in, and Tilly might give herself away.
The subordinate in surveillance sent me a steady stream of information from which I could construct the image of a female opera singer so clear that it was a little rigid.
Mara’s warning had always been in my mind, which made me look at Tilly even more suspiciously.
1 didn’t know if it was appropriate for Teresa and the children to make contact with an opera troupe with suspicious people, but for safety’s sake, 1 still reminded them indirectly, “Perhaps distance can be beautiful. If we let the children get too close to the opera actors’ lives, their impression of the actors and the characters they play may be disillusioned, which may not be conducive to children’s growth.”
“Do you know something?” Teresa was a little puzzled. “I heard that the Midnight Opera troupe’s tour’s first stop was at the Spring Rain Pack.. Are they bad news?”