###Chapter 4
Before I could react, my son Daniel rushed in front of me. He immediately started scolding me.
“It’s raining so hard outside. Why didn’t you pick up the kids?”
Only then did I remember. So many things had happened today that I forgot to pick up my twin grandson and granddaughter from school. I was the one who always picked them up, so the school bus did not wait for them.
Seeing the two small figures behind him, soaked through and shivering, guilt filled my heart at once.
I was about to apologize, but Daniel did not stop.
“This is so annoying. And you even caused that ugly scandal. Do you know how much effort Dad put in to suppress it? Did you really do something shameful?”
I looked up at him in shock. Even my own son thought of me this way.
“I didn’t do anything!” Shame and anger made my voice shake.
My daughter-in-law wiped the children’s hair and glanced at me sideways. “No wonder Dad doesn’t like taking you out. You don’t dress well, you can’t even pick up the kids properly and now you’ve embarrassed the Hawthorne Family.”
My eight-year-old granddaughter, Dyna, shouted, “I want to change my grandma. I want Grandma Margareth to be my grandma!”
“Grandma Margareth is pretty and gentle. She buys us lots of gifts. Unlike you, you are stupid and ugly and today I got laughed at in school because of you!”
My son’s face turned completely dark. “Mom, can you just stop causing trouble for once?”
I stood there, frozen, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over me.
These were the children I raised with my own hands. Their faces twisted and blurred before my eyes, so strange that it made me dizzy.
A small warm hand quietly held my cold, shaking fingers.
I looked down. It was my grandson, Leo.
He looked up at me with bright eyes. “Grandma, it’s okay. I know the way home. No matter what others say, you’re the best grandma.”
“Stop it.” Dyna threw her schoolbag at me. “I’m starving. Go cook! I want Hawaiian pizza. If not, I’ll go find Aunt Margareth!”
I gently rubbed Leo’s soft hair, then looked up at the others—their faces full of dislike, as if everything was only natural.
Suddenly, I did not want to tolerate anyone anymore.
I looked at my granddaughter calmly. “No need to change. She is already your grandmother.”
Then I turned and walked upstairs. I took out the marriage certificate.
The moment my son and daughter-in-law saw it, their faces changed. “You… where did you find that?”
Their faces showed panic, embarrassment, guilt—everything except surprise.
So they had known all along, yet had conspired to hide it from me. Even worse, they had sided with their father, working to keep me from my own life.
I took a deep breath. Strangely, I did not feel much disappointment. Only anger was burning in my chest. I walked quickly back to my room and started packing my luggage.
Daniel chased after me and blocked the doorway. “Mom, can you stop making trouble?”
I did not stop packing. “I’m not making trouble. I’m giving you what you want.”
Seeing that I was serious, he became nervous. His tone softened. “It’s just a piece of paper. Why take it so seriously?”
I looked at his face, so much like Richard when he was young and suddenly laughed.
“Take it seriously?” I felt it was unbelievable. “How can you even say that?”
I pushed his arm away from the doorframe and picked up my suitcase. “Don’t call me Mom. Legally, Margareth is your mother.”
My cold tone, colder than ever before, made the children start crying. My son grabbed his hair in frustration and shouted, “At your age, if you run away, who knows what ugly rumors will spread again? You’ll regret this sooner or later!”
“No rumor can be worse than being stabbed in the back by your own family. You should go and please Margareth instead.”
“I didn’t expect Hermione to still dislike me so much. Forget it, I’ll leave!”
Margareth’s tearful voice suddenly came from the doorway.
Richard followed behind her and pulled her into his arms. “No. Where do you think you’re going?”
Margareth pretended to push against his strong chest, her crying even more pitiful. “The world is big. There’s always a place for me. It’s better than staying here and being pointed at by Hermione, accused of ruining someone else’s family.”
“You did nothing wrong. The one at fault is this unreasonable woman!”
Richard’s eyes were like knives cutting into me. “You don’t need to attend the Hawthorne Group banquet in a few days. I’ll let Margareth go in your place.”
The hatred in his eyes was open and clear.
My whole body turned cold. I threw the marriage certificate at him with force, my voice hoarse.
“I’m unreasonable? Then what is this?”
