Nolan was trying to explain when Daisie ran down the stairs. “Great-grandpa!”
Nicholas was stunned when he heard Daisie call Thomas ‘Great-grandpa’ and looked at Nolan curiously.
Nolan nodded. “That’s right, Dad. Elder Master Clifford is Mom’s father.”
Maisie turned to look at them and suddenly recalled that Nolan had said ‘We might become relatives’
and realized that was what he meant.
Thomas was Natasha’s father, meaning Natasha was a Clifford as well.
Thomas and Nicholas sat in the middle of the room and talked. That was when Nicholas found out that
Natasha’s mother was Madam Knowles’ sister and that Natasha wasn’t an orphan. Instead, Simmone
had been attacked soon after giving birth to her.
Madam Knowles had adopted Natasha, knowing who she was.
Madam Knowles had been in love with Sam Knowles, but she had been forced to marry his father. She
had adopted Natasha, hidden her relationship with Simmone, and used the information about his
daughter to make Thomas a pawn in her revenge plot.
Thomas sighed. “If I knew that my daughter was with the Knowles, I would have done everything I could
to get her back so she wouldn’t have to go through any sad encounters.” It had never crossed Nicholas’
mind that Thomas Clifford was his father-in-law. He remembered that when he had suggested to
Natasha to help her reconnect with her family, Natasha had sadly smiled and said, “If they wanted to find
me, they would have done it already.”
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to. They had just been misled and missed the opportunity to do so.
Maisie walked into the courtyard, and Jackie called to her. She stopped and slowly turned around. “Mr.
Clifford… Oh, who are you to me now?”
She put her hand under her chin and pondered. “Younger cousin?”
Jackie was stumped by the word ‘younger’. He adjusted his glasses. “I remember that we’re the same
age.” “But Nolan is your older cousin, and I’m his wife, so ain’t I your older cousin-in-law?” At that point,
Maisie smiled. “So it’s not wrong to call you my younger cousin, right?”
Jackie hummed and put his hands into his pockets. “I wouldn’t know about this if Grandpa didn’t tell me.
It’s funny that the daughter Grandpa had been looking for was Nolan’s mother.”
“Yes, no one knew.”. Maisie looked toward the branches with no leaves in the courtyard. “I guess these
are all part of fate. Out of the billions of people in the world, we turned out to be related. If we had never
met Noilace and Tristan, we would have never found out about the relationship between Natasha and the
Cliffords. It’s just like how if I met someone else instead of Nolan, I wouldn’t know where I would end up
and how my life would turn out.”
Jackie followed her line of vision and looked toward the tree in the cold wind. “A simple choice could
easily change the outcome of things and the course of events. If I didn’t choose to change all those years
ago, I would still be that chubby boy that people looked down on.”
Maisie looked at him, raised her brows, and smiled. “You’re quite the melancholic one. I’m actually
curious why you stayed in Bassburgh.”
She initially thought that Jackie was trying to intervene in the affairs of the Knowles, but he didn’t.
Students who studied in private schools in Bassburgh were mostly from affluent families, and Zeta had
driven his car into their private school during Christmas so that people would think this car with a foreign
license plate simply belonged to one of the parents.
Clapel –
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