Buying My Forever Wife novel Chapter 315

Inside a high-end restaurant.

Ivy sat obediently and rigidly across from Eleanor, with Stella sitting quietly beside her.

Eleanor studied the two of them.

She had to admit, both the young woman and the child possessed striking features.

If Ivy hadn't been in her early twenties, Eleanor might have suspected she was the child's biological mother.

Before the waiters even brought out the food, the older woman sat poised with an air of aristocratic elegance.

"Ivy, are you aware that because of you, my granddaughter is in prison and my daughter was banished overseas by her own brother?"

Even though her youngest son was famously ruthless and impartial, prioritizing facts over bloodlines.

Watching him tear his family apart time and time again just to avenge some girl...

As the family matriarch, it didn't sit right with her.

Ivy kept her head bowed, one hand tightly gripping Stella's while the other twisted her own pant leg. Cold sweat prickled her spine.

"I know, but I'm not the reason Alaric punished them. They were the ones who bullied me first."

Eleanor couldn't deny the logic in that.

Her granddaughter had framed Ivy by poisoning her youngest grandson, nearly killing the boy.

And her daughter, in a misguided attempt to avenge the granddaughter, had kidnapped Ivy and snatched the child.

But if Ivy didn't exist in the first place, none of them would have committed those crimes.

Eleanor stared her down, her aged face taking on a formidable edge.

"Yet they are all gone from my side because of you. Do you truly feel no remorse?"

Ivy lifted her chin, meeting the older woman's gaze with unwavering conviction.

"I did absolutely nothing wrong. Summer Vance provoked me first. I ignored her repeatedly, but she wouldn't let it go."

Alaric was a man of principle. If he didn't know she was innocent...

Why else would he choose justice over his own family to protect an outsider like her?

Because of this, she refused to cower before Eleanor or shoulder the blame for things she hadn't done.

It wasn't her fault, and she wouldn't pretend otherwise.

Eleanor remained perfectly poised, pressing her lips into a thin line as she studied Ivy coldly.

She stared with a piercing intensity, as if trying to strip away Ivy's defenses and read her soul.

What if Alaric really did prefer men, and this child was born via a surrogate they hired abroad?

The child might even biologically belong to the Miller heir.

Otherwise, the family simply couldn't fathom why Alaric, a man who had never shown interest in women, would suddenly bring a child home and insist on being her father.

Desperate to 'fix' her youngest son and secure the Foster bloodline...

After a long moment of scrutiny, Eleanor spoke in a low, measured voice.

"How about we make a deal?"

Confused, Ivy looked at her. "What kind of deal?"

Eleanor reasoned that this was the only woman her son had ever kept close.

And admittedly, the girl was quite stunning.

As long as she could help turn her son into a 'normal' man, Eleanor didn't even mind letting her marry into the Foster family.

Reaching this conclusion, Eleanor made her offer.

"I want you to seduce Alaric. If you can make him fall in love with you and successfully bear his child, the title of Mrs. Foster is yours. Once you deliver his baby, I will personally give you a $500,000,000 inheritance bonus and throw you the wedding of the century."