Robert explained hurriedly.
“The man who’d driven the car was Eden Lane. I took him somewhere to be tortured. He’s dead now… as for the rest, they’ve been punished as well. Wendy can rest easy. We didn’t let the real murderer go, and we didn’t let the people who’d sheltered him go either.”
As Robert finished, Maisie fell silent for a while, then spoke to her son.
“It’s almost time for dinner. Let me see your wife and my grandchildren. I’ve only seen their photos. I actually do want to meet them.”
Robert agreed immediately. They were living in the house in front, so Robert brought his mother to where Georgia and the children were resting, in a living room.
Right now, Georgia was lying down on the sofa with the children.
It had been an exhausting flight, but it wasn’t time to sleep yet, and dinner was about to be served, so they just lazed around on the sofa watching television.
Georgia was watching a superhero show with the kids.
Whenever she got bored, she took out her phone to check the entertainment news and read some articles.
The moment Robert brought Maisie in, Georgia jolted, then was at a loss at what to do next.
She didn’t know what to say.
The children sat up carefully besides Georgia, their postures formal, not sure what to do with Maisie, who’d just arrived.
“Why do I feel like I’m scaring you and the children?”
Maisie smiled at Georgia and the kids. Georgia blinked, then looked at Robert.
Robert showed Georgia an open-hearted smile.
She reacted right away and turned to Annie and Wesley.
“Annie, Wesley, we’ve left home for so long, and Grandma’s coming to greet us. You should greet her too.”
Wesley tugged timidly at Georgia’s hand and called for “Grandma” with a lowered head, not daring to meet Maisie’s eyes.
Annie’s instincts were sharp, and she sensed that the Grandma today was a completely different Grandma from before.
The old Grandma didn’t like her at all, but the Grandma of this moment wore a gentle smile, and looked kind and approachable.
Annie greeted Maisie with a bright call.
“Hi, Grandma, I’m Annie.”
Georgia also did her best to greet Maisie.
“Come sit down, Mom. It’ll be a while before the chefs finish their dishes.”
Maisie was relieved. She’d worried that she had some hateful grudge with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
But seeing her son and his wife and their children, it shouldn’t be too late to make amends, and there wasn’t anything that had happened that couldn’t be salvaged.
Maisie smiled and sat down next to the children, chatting with them about their interests and hobbies.
What did they like to do? What toys did they like to play with? What kind of fun had they had overseas?
Just scattered daily details, but it was clear that Maisie liked Annie and Wesley, and she was kind throughout.
Georgia stood next to Robert, murmuring in his ear.
“It’s rare to see your mother like this. If she could continue on like this forever, that would be so nice.”
“It is nice. Apparently, before my mother married my father, she’d been a gentle, talented woman, who enjoyed painting, traveling, and fine arts. From what the past servants said, in the ten years of married life before my father divorced her, they’d treated each other with respect. My father had been responsible to his family, and acted like he cherished his wife enough. Maybe those ten years put my mother in the fantasy of a happy marriage, which led to how she couldn’t bear it later on.”
Robert said that in a low voice. He and Georgia were standing by a window some distance away fro Maisie, and Maisie and the others couldn’t hear them.
Georgia felt a surge of emotion.
“Love really robs a person of reason. If that love is mixed in with hate and pain, it can even ruin the purity and happiness a person once had.”
“I won’t do that. We’ll grow old together.”
Robert took Georgia’s hand and said gently.
Georgia smiled, then grew curious.
“What did you say to your mother? What mentality does she hold now? Why did she suddenly decide to come over and meet me and the kids?”
But after being sure that Maisie was going to be living her, Georgia hesitated.
Even though Robert’s mother didn’t remember the past now, she felt that it wasn’t quite right to bring her own mother in to live under the same roof as Robert’s. Her own mother would feel a bit awkward.
And if Maisie somehow recovered her memory one day, she might think of it as an insult.
So she discussed it with Robert and put her mother someplace else temporarily.
Her mother was getting on in years now, so after she got out the car, the driver had taken her to another mansion on the hill.
It wasn’t a large place, but security was tight there.
If she wanted to see the kids, or if Georgia wanted to take the kids to see her, it was only a quarter hour’s drive or so, and it wasn’t too troublesome.
“My mother likes the feeling of living alone, but she lives nearby. It’s easy to go see her.”
Georgia couldn’t give out all those tangible reasons and only said that her mother liked living alone. Maisie, though, chuckled.
“I know the reasons behind it all. I’m just curious about your mother and feel like meeting her, seeing how beautiful she had to be to get that person to still give up all inheritance of the Simpsons after ten years of being married to me and divorcing me to chase after his true love. She must be an absolute beauty.”
Maisie sighed, and Georgia didn’t quite know how to take it.
“Never mind. I can’t remember, and it might be something angering. I might as well let it lie in the past. But if your mother is willing, please tell her that I’d like to meet her and chat. Don’t worry. I won’t attack her or harm her. Of course, such a thing needs her consent as well, but I hope you can relay the message for me.”
“I will.”
Georgia agreed to it right away. It wasn’t an unreasonable request.
Besides, she did need her mother’s thoughts on such a thing. If Casey didn’t agree to it, Georgia would of course help her refuse.
She wasn’t going to make the decision for Casey. It was a grudge from the previous generation, so the previous generation could resolve it.
Afterwards, Robert took Maisie to her little mansion to rest.
Georgia went to the bedroom, showered, then took up her computer and checked her recent mail. She gave Professor Lee a call.
“I’ve just come back to the country today, Professor. I’ll come by the MU labs probably the day after tomorrow. By then, I need to talk with you about some research projects and a few topics about the future curriculum. I’ve got a few selections here, and I hope you can involve yourself.”
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Daddy, Mommy had been in Prison
Update please...