Chapter 1246

Thinking of this, Aurora found it all absurd.

Grace prided herself on being fair, but when it came to her two daughters, she had never once been fair.

Grace’s face hardened. “She’s your sister. Do you really have to speak to her like that?”

“Sister?” Aurora let out a mocking laugh. “If I don’t even want a mother, why would I need a sister?”

“If you have nothing else to say, then leave. You’re not welcome here.”

Aurora turned away, not wanting to look at them any longer.

Seeing her so cold, it was Grace who broke first. She clutched her chest in anguish. “Aurora, we’re mother and daughter. Do you really have to speak to me this way? I believe I wasn’t unkind to you when you were in the company. I even thought of giving you the successor’s position. All of this–you were the one who chose to give it up. But now, hearing the things you say to me, how can you claim you’ve done right by me? What have I done to wrong you? On the contrary, it’s you who has repeatedly challenged my limits, isn’t it?”

Aurora closed her eyes. Hearing these words, she felt her mother was beyond saving. Even now, she refused to see her own mistakes. Since that was the case, there was no point in arguing anymore. As the saying went, you could never wake someone who pretended to be asleep.

“Well, that’s quite something to hear from a mother-in-law.”

A lazy, unhurried male voice rang out.

Everyone turned at once toward the speaker. Aurora’s eyes flickered in surprise. “Lucas, why are you here?”

By right, shouldn’t he be at work right now?

Lucas didn’t answer her question. Instead, he came to her side, slipped an arm around hers, and looked at Grace. “If I hadn’t shown up, wouldn’t they have bullied you to death already?”

Grace and Tessa were speechless.

Tessa’s gaze lingered on the man’s handsome, dignified face, her heart fluttering despite herself. But what he had just said was indeed too much.

Covering her face with one hand, she began to cry. “Lucas, how could you speak of Mom and me that way? We only came here out of concern for my sister, to make sure she isn’t taken advantage of by someone with ulterior motives. We’re only thinking of her.”

Megan snapped, “Why don’t you try saying that more clearly? What do you mean by ‘someone with ulterior motives’?”

“Tessa, I never meant you,” Tessa quickly shifted the topic. “It’s just that lately my sister’s ideas have been too out of line, so of course we started looking at the people around her. What if someone else led her astray? But of course, I didn’t mean you, Megan.”

Lucas found it amusing. “She’s just starting a business of her own, opening a dream studio with her friend—how does that count as being led astray?”

He turned to Grace and asked, “I really want to know, in your eyes, what wouldn’t count as being led astray? Aurora is simply opening a studio. She hasn’t done anything criminal or immoral, so how is that being corrupted? Isn’t she just pursuing her dream?”

Before Grace or Tessa could answer, he spoke again as if answering himself. “Ah, I get it. Maybe it’s because my wife isn’t in Walton Corporation anymore, creating value for you, letting you exploit her, right?”