Reborn to Flee My Fiance's Obsession (Fiona and Soren) novel Chapter 301

"Looks like Elijah has no intention of sending Ms. Selina away," Fiona said.

Pearl followed right behind her. "Back then, Young Master Elijah did the same thing with one of Ms. Rita's maids. He took the girl for himself, and then... Rita was weighed down by it for a long time."

She stopped there on purpose and said nothing more.

After Selina attached herself to Elijah, she had naturally spent a lot of money digging into his past. She already knew that last year, Elijah had gotten involved with one of Rita's maids. Later, that maid had died for no clear reason at all.

She had originally assumed Rita was the one behind it. But from the way Pearl said it just now, that probably had nothing to do with Rita.

And with Elijah acting this cold now, Selina had a hard time not pushing that old matter onto him instead. Could it have been him?

The thought made her uneasy. To get into the Wagner Estate, she had been willing to shove her own child into cold water just so she'd have an excuse to claim the child was gravely ill. If she could do that for a place in the household, then for power, why wouldn't Elijah turn that kind of hand on her too?

Fiona didn't spare her another glance. A person like that always measured everyone else by the same crooked yardstick. Once suspicion took root, it was never that easy to press back down.

If Fiona moved against Elijah herself, Rita would probably blame her for it. But if Selina made Elijah suffer a little, that had nothing to do with Fiona.

Selina wasn't kind, but Elijah was even worse.

*****

That night, Joanna came to Bamboo Lodge.

"You're still the one who keeps Rita in mind," Joanna said with a sigh. As the mother-in-law, it wasn't easy for her to step into this matter. If she was even a little careless, her son-in-law would think she was meddling. Fiona handling it was much more appropriate.

Besides, Prince Zephyr clearly had some interest in Fiona. Right now, he held a slight advantage. If his marriage with Fiona was settled, then one day she would be Her Majesty the Empress. In Jexburgh, there was currently no one who dared deny the Niven family face.

And for the moment, Joanna hadn't come up with a suitable way to deal with it either.

After that, she started complaining again about how the Wagner Estate had done nothing.

But Fiona thought about her previous life. Hadn't Joanna treated Yolanda the very same way back then? She had favored the concubine who had borne a child and made Yolanda suffer plenty.

Now that it was her own daughter instead, she couldn't bear even a trace of it.

Fiona smiled at her. "Auntie Joanna, from now on, you'd better treat Yolanda a little better too."

Joanna couldn't help going a little quiet.

She had once wanted to find a concubine for her own son too. She had even pushed her daughter-in-law to help her son take one in. With that sitting in her chest, she couldn't very well keep complaining about the Wagner Estate.

After a few more idle words, Joanna took her leave.

Fiona's trip to the Wagner Estate still reached Zephyr's ears.

A few days later, the Imperial Palace sent a royal physician over to the Wagner Estate.

That eased some of the bitterness in Elijah's chest.

If this sister-in-law of his ended up marrying Zephyr, then he would be tied to the royal family by marriage. At that point, what future would he still need to worry about?

Still, she had no wish to see the mistress live comfortably either.

"Save it," she said.

"Don't worry. I'll give you an explanation." Elijah said it absentmindedly.

After Fiona read Rita's letter, she gave instructions for Elijah's words to be passed along to Selina's ears "by accident."

But Fiona wasn't free to handle everything herself.

On the fifth day after her return to Jexburgh, Zephyr came to the Niven family.

"Fiona."

The moment Zephyr saw her standing there safe and whole, the tightness in him finally eased a little. During these past six months in Jexburgh, her health had stayed on his mind almost constantly. He had been watching for any sign that the serious illness might have left something behind.

Fiona had known he would come sooner or later, so she wasn't surprised.

She greeted him with perfect courtesy. "Cousin Zephyr."

Zephyr looked her over carefully.

Ever since he had started thinking about marrying her, other women had lost some of their pull. There were countless beauties in the Prince's Estate, but he had rarely stepped into their courtyards anymore.

What kept coming back to him instead was the sight of her bandaging his wounds, the way her hands had moved, gentle from start to finish.