Unwanted Fake Wife The Top Billionaire novel Chapter 346

Sham Magkage Quit, Real Heiress Strikes Back

Chapter 346 Pay One’s Respects

[Have you landed?

[I’m here. I landed safely, so don’t worry.]

[Alright.]

Finished

Elena didn’t send anything after that, because she knew herself too well, and she was afraid that if she kept talking to him, she would only start wanting to turn right back around and fly to Eldoria again just to stay beside him.

Sophia was already waiting outside the airport.

The moment Elena came through the exit, Sophia started waving enthusiastically.

“Sister–in–law, over here.”

Elena pulled her suitcase toward her, and Sophia immediately reached over and took it.

Once they were in the car, Elena asked in a low voice, “Grandfather and Mom haven’t figured it out, have they?”

Sophia grinned, looking terribly pleased with herself.

“Of course not. I told them you had a short business trip, and they believed me.”

It was only recently that Sophia had found out Elena had been in Eldoria at all, and when Elena asked her to help keep it from Evelyn and the grandpa, Sophia had done exactly that without hesitation.

“Thanks,” Elena said, then took out the gift Declan had bought and handed it to her. “This is from Declan. He picked it out for you.”

Sophia gave a dramatic little huff.

“I don’t want it anymore.”

Elena looked surprised. “Why not? Didn’t your brother say you liked it?”

Sophia tossed the gift box onto the front passenger seat with all the pride of someone nursing a grievance.

“I don’t. Sister–in–law, let me tell you, Declan is so boring it’s unbelievable. I only said I’d treat him to dinner because he picked out something I liked, and he completely ignored me. I invited him to dinner.” The more she thought about Declan’s cold, unreadable face, the more wronged she felt.

She had never really been the sort to ask people out first, and yet she had invited him more than once, only for him to refuse every single time, to the point that she had started questioning her own charm. As Elena listened, she gradually began to understand more than Sophia herself seemed to. With a faint smile, she said, “He may not have agreed to dinner, but he does seem to know exactly what

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Chapter 346 Pay One’s Respects

you like.”

Finished

“Well, of course. We practically grew up together,” Sophia replied. “Actually, he’s pretty good in his own way. He’s just too dull. Not nearly as fun as Edmund.”

Elena knew she meant Edmund Grayson.

Sophia liked him, and whenever she had free time, she usually went out with him.

“Alright, enough about me,” Sophia said, quickly changing the subject. Then she glanced at Elena more cautiously. “Are you really going to the memorial service? I heard Catherine’s death was… pretty awful.”

After all, whatever else Catherine had been, she was still Elena’s biological mother, and Sophia was afraid of saying the wrong thing.

Fortunately, Elena’s face didn’t change much, and only then did Sophia continue.

“They said the nurse found her during rounds, already collapsed on the floor, and that she’d apparently been dead for quite a while. Isn’t that strange? It was three in the morning. She was in a vegetative state, so how did she suddenly get out of bed? And I even heard that when she died, her eyes were still open. It sounds terrifying.”

By the time she finished, Sophia had frightened herself enough to rub her arms.

“Maybe she just fell out of bed accidentally,” Elena said quietly.

She didn’t say anything more.

Her feelings were too complicated for easy words. She couldn’t truly think of Catherine as a mother, not after a lifetime without tenderness from her, but at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to celebrate her death either.

The only thing she could do was go and see her one last time.

That was all.

Catherine’s memorial service was held the next day.

Evelyn went with Elena, and Sophia came too.

r

“Mom, Sophia coming with me would have been enough. You really didn’t have to come yourself.”

Elena genuinely hadn’t expected Evelyn to accompany her.

Evelyn was dressed in a black qipao embroidered with subtle patterns in the same dark tone, and even without jewelry, she still carried herself with the kind of elegance that made her presence impossible to ignore.

“No matter what she was, she was still your mother in name,” Evelyn said lightly. “As your mother–in–law. I should be there. Otherwise people will start whispering that you aren’t valued in the Kingsley family.”

She said it as though it were nothing, but the warmth of it settled heavily in Elena’s chest.

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Chapter 346 Pay Onc’s Respects

Finished

With Evelyn’s status, no one would have dared criticize her for staying away from an occasion like this, but by coming in person, she was making something clear to everyone present: she was giving face to Elena, showing them exactly how much the Kingsley family valued her as their daughter–in–law.

Whatever the Hart family had done to Elena, Elena had still shown up and done everything with perfect grace.

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