Chapter 306 Why Should I Forgive You?
At that moment, the waiter served the meal.
Bianca took a spoon and personally filled Meryl’s bowl with a spoonful of the soup, placing it before her.
“I remember how much you loved clam chowder when you were a kid. You’d have a big bowl nearly every day after you returned,” Bianca said with a hint of motherly affection.
In a VIP-only restaurant like the Kingsdom Hotel, every ingredient was premium grade. A wide array of exotic dishes graced the menu, but such a simple clam broth wasn’t listed. Meryl hadn’t seen it when she placed her order. Yet, after giving Bianca a glance, acknowledging her gesture, Meryl reluctantly sat back down.
Bianca sighed in relief upon seeing Meryl settle back in her seat. In that fleeting moment, Bianca felt a pang of guilt. She had thought about Meryl’s words from three years ago, “I’ve said it before, the whole thing was a setup by Lydia. Whether you believe me or not is irrelevant. I’m going to find evidence to clear my name,” which Meryl had said tearfully back then.
At that time, no one had believed Meryl and given her the opportunity to prove her innocence before they sent her off to prison. Now, three years had passed, and many doubts lingered in Bianca’s mind. Considering Lydia’s recent odd behavior, Bianca began to question if she might have been wrong after all.
She thought, “If that’s the case, then how desperate must Meryl have been in those three years? She was surrounded by those she was closest to, yet no one believed her. She suffered so much inside the prison.”
Throughout the meal, Bianca felt a mix of emotions, feeling so complicated that, by the end, she even avoided looking directly into Meryl’s eyes. The dinner was filled with an eerie silence. Malcolm had attempted to start a conversation with Chandler about company matters several times, but with the previous argument with Meryl still fresh in his mind, he felt it was undignified to approach Chandler now.
He felt like an elder playing a subordinate role, wishing that Bianca would bridge the conversation for him, but Bianca seemed lost in her thoughts, giving him no attention. John kicked Malcolm under the table, an obvious signal for him to apologize to Meryl for his earlier behavior. Malcolm remained silent, his black leather shoes turning white from John’s kick, yet he showed no sign of contrition. John wanted to lash out at Malcolm, but he worried that his sharp-tongued behavior in front of Chandler might reflect poorly on his upbringing, and thus stopped himself. The most important thing was not letting Chandler get the impression that the Stone family’s offspring were poorly mannered, capable of rudely confronting their elders, and thus disrespecting his sister.
After the meal, Chandler happened to meet a business associate and went off to a private room to toast a couple of glasses of wine. Malcolm and John headed for the restroom. Bianca, seeing no one around, approached Meryl immediately.
“Meryl, can we talk?” Bianca said, her eyes red with unshed tears, holding the bracelet Meryl had given her on her birthday.
Seeing the bracelet, Meryl finally acknowledged Bianca with a glance. “About what?”
Bianca, with red-rimmed eyes, said softly, “When I talked to you earlier, it wasn’t just for show. I genuinely want to mend our mother-daughter relationship.”
Bianca felt a pang of unease, especially as she considered the possibility that there might be things going on between Lydia and Malcolm that she didn’t know about. With no one else to confide in, she turned to Meryl, her own flesh and blood. Bianca thought perhaps only Meryl could truly understand her.
“Meryl, I’m willing to do anything to earn your forgiveness. Meryl, I think there might be something going on between your dad and Lydia…”
Meryl looked at Bianca and replied coldly, “You’re only thinking of repairing our relationship now? The damage has already been done. Why should I forgive you and forget about the past just because of one sentence?”