Natalia nodded.
"That's not right," Ariana frowned. "Logically speaking, with the mistress and her bastard daughter already taking her place, she should have had an inkling of what was going to happen to her and left her own daughter something more than just a necklace."
"Grandma, you mean..."
"See, if I was your mother and I knew my enemy was gunning not just for your father but the properties of the household, I would have transferred a portion of the property to your name first. That way, even if something were to happen to me, you wouldn't be as worse off as you could be. Wouldn't you agree?"
Natalia blinked.
It wasn't that she hadn't wondered about it before, but her mother was already dead, so it was pointless to wonder.
And as far as she knew, when her mother was still alive, a lot of property under the Hawkins name had already been taken over by Philip and Clara.
Kiera had been a mild-mannered lady, and she didn't like to squabble.
Because of that, even though that mother and son duo had developed an increasingly voracious appetite, eventually even changing the Hawkins name to Dawson, she hadn't spoken up.
And she didn't know if it was an illusion or not, but Natalia had always felt that her mother had something on her mind.
Sometimes, she'd unconsciously display feelings of guilt towards Philip.
That might have been why Philip's behavior grew more and more rampant.
Natalia frowned, deep in thought.
Unwilling to allow her to linger in the sorrows of the past, Archie interrupted the topic.
"All right, it's time for lunch. Enough with the doom and gloom. Here, Natalia, try this hairy crab."
As he spoke, he peeled a crab himself and put it in Natalia's bowl.
Natalia recovered her wits and nodded.
On the other side, Anne chimed in. "Daddy, I want to eat the crabby too."
Archie looked at her and scraped off a little bit of crab roe for her.
The girl looked at the tiny chunk of crab roe in her bowl and raised a fuss.
Pouting, she huffed, "I don't want it! I want a crabby that Daddy peeled, as big as Mommy's!"
Then she pointed at Natalia's bowl.
Natalia found it hard not to laugh at that.
Archie grew stern.
"Don't you know your own body? The doctor says you can't eat too much seafood. I'm cutting you some slack for your Mommy even letting you have this much. If you don't want it, give it back."
And he really stretched out his hand to take her bowl.
Seeing that, Anne snatched her bowl away.
Her bright eyes watered as her pout grew, looking especially pitiful.
"Bad Daddy, stealing my crab. I'm not sitting with Daddy anymore."
With that, she hopped off the stool and ran up next to Natalia, sitting down next to her.
"I'm sitting with Mommy now."
She deliberately looked up to smile at Natalia.
Natalia felt her heart melt as she patted her head in a comforting gesture.
She put some meat in Anne's bowl, soothing, "If you can't eat crab, Anne, how about some roast meat? Roast meat is good too."
Anne nodded and spooned the meat into her mouth, eyes crinkling in satisfaction.
"Thank you, Mommy, the meat Mommy gives me is good."
As for Archie – "..."
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