CHAPTER 25: CHAPTER 25: YEARS OF CONCEALED TALENT

Tanya Sinclair felt as if her heart had been hit by a few heavy hammers, filled with anger and pain, her breaths were piercing.

Joy was young, but smart enough to perform an act completely; she hid the bracelet well, and then reached out to ruffle Tanya’s hair twice.

"All done." Her tone was cheerful, but her eyes were guilty, not daring to meet Tanya’s gaze.

Even though knowing Tanya couldn’t see, wouldn’t discover her little actions, Joy was still extremely uneasy.

She had done something bad...

But then Joy thought, this bad woman bullied Cindy’s mom, almost broke her hand, and also tried to steal Cindy’s mom’s job! How utterly despicable!

Now, she’s just letting this bad woman get scolded by aunt and the others, it’s not a big deal.

Thinking this way, Joy’s psychological burden was eased significantly.

She proactively pulled Tanya’s hand to walk forward, only to find she couldn’t move her.

Joy turned back, puzzled, "Why aren’t you moving?"

Tanya’s eyes clearly hadn’t focused, dazed and blurry, yet for some reason, Joy felt like she had discovered something...

Joy shrank her neck, tentatively waved her hand in front of Tanya’s eyes, confirming she had no reaction, then relaxed.

She is blind, daddy said she can’t see, naturally, she wouldn’t know what she just did.

"Joy." Tanya called her, a trace of trembling in her voice, "Do you hate mommy?"

"..."

Joy fell silent.

She actually didn’t hate Tanya, but she didn’t want to call her mom, she only wanted Cindy’s mom to be her mom... But Cindy’s mom said she could only have one mom...

Joy’s silence, in Tanya’s view, was no different from acceptance.

She closed her eyes, feeling as if countless unseen hands were tearing her heart, leaving it bloody.

She raised her head, forcibly holding back tears.

"Mommy understands." She forced a pale smile towards Joy.

When Joy turned around, Tanya watched her small figure, her gaze gradually calming.

If no one taught her, a five-year-old girl wouldn’t have such a mind... And the person Joy trusted most was Cindy Lynn!

Tanya was about to explode with anger.

Cindy... How dare she teach her daughter to be like this!

At the dinner table, Tanya also noticed, the Hawthorne Family only had unconditional indulgence for Joy, totally raising her as a little princess, while they clearly had another set of standards for Caden, cultivating him to be the successor.

Going upstairs, she saw Mother Hawthorne checking Caden’s homework.

Two sets of educational standards, seemingly the Hawthorne Family was more affectionate and loving towards girls, but how isn’t it another kind of preference for boys over girls?

Coupled with a mother like Cindy without any morals, Vincent Hawthorne allowing her to still hold the mother role on Joy’s growth path... At this rate, her daughter might end up being spoiled and useless!

Tanya deeply glanced at the diamond bracelet in her handbag.

Her daughter, Tanya Sinclair’s daughter, must not go astray!

Back downstairs, Yvonne Hawthorne hadn’t returned, Joy stretched her neck looking for her figure everywhere, Tanya saw this, her heart cold.

She proactively let go of Joy’s hand.

Over there Mother Hawthorne had finished checking Caden’s daily homework and was testing his French.

Mother Hawthorne, an heiress who had studied in France for many years early on, spoke fluent French, and Caden responded smoothly, albeit a bit rough, but he was only five, mastering several languages’ daily conversations, already a genius.

Tanya felt quite gratified.

Luckily, Caden was raised well.

Mother Hawthorne saw Tanya walking over with a cane, her gaze undisguisedly contemptuous, she loudly used French in front of Tanya to say to Caden, "Darling, Granny thinks this woman is absolutely unfit to be your mom. She’s stupid and vulgar, and her background is terrible."

Tanya proceeded unperturbedly.

In Mother Hawthorne’s view, coming from a poor family of Chinese medicine, how could she understand French?

But in fact, not only did Tanya understand, her French level was close to native fluency.

She merely pretended not to understand when Mother Hawthorne and Vincent chatted in French.

It’s because back then Mother Hawthorne asked Vincent what he liked about her?

Vincent said, "She’s a medical genius, who can assist me in work. Besides that, she knows nothing else, very simple, very obedient, I am quite satisfied."

His implication was that overly smart women are not appealing.

So she acted simple and obedient, concealing her skills for years, all for Vincent’s approval.

Ha...

Tanya felt she was utterly ridiculous.

Vincent didn’t like her, he liked the tool that Tanya Sinclair fulfilled all his needs.

Caden disagreed with his grandmother’s words but momentarily couldn’t think of any point to refute, he scratched his head, looking at Tanya close to him.

Luckily, this woman couldn’t understand, she probably wouldn’t feel sad.

He set his mind at ease, turned away to find Joy.

Joy had just run outside to call Yvonne, knowing she was coming back soon, she happily took her brother’s hand, heading to the toy room to play.

"Mom, I want to visit Grandma." Tanya stopped before Mother Hawthorne, "If Vincent comes back first later, please have him fetch me from Grandma’s."

Mother Hawthorne stopped her, "Wait a moment."

Tanya certainly wouldn’t think Mother Hawthorne was worried about her blindingly searching for Grandma, facing possible danger along the way, she calmly turned back to await Mother Hawthorne’s words.

Mother Hawthorne, "Spend the evening here."

Tanya was puzzled, "Mom, is there something you need?"

Mother Hawthorne held her shoulder, turning her neck, "My neck and shoulders have been quite sore lately, I’ve found several veteran masseurs, none as good as you used to be. After you visit Grandma, come back to give me a massage, it doesn’t need to be long, just like before, give me two hours. By the way, Yvonne has been busy with work, her back is not comfortable too, it’ll be hard work but help her massage and remedy it too. Spend the night here."

Massaging her and then Yvonne would be four hours, these hands tomorrow might not even manage chopsticks.

Every time she came to The Hawthorne Gardens, Mother Hawthorne would command her this way, besides giving them massages, she would also acupuncture Father Hawthorne, adjust sachets, keeping busy all day, exhausting her to the core.

All left for her were the kitchen’s leftovers, and a bit of bird’s nest they didn’t finish, while claiming to be specially reserved for her...

Without thinking, Tanya gently refused, "Mom, I can’t see now, it’s inconvenient."

Mother Hawthorne’s hand paused on her shoulder, frowning and staring at Tanya, as if she had said something atrociously rebellious.

"You can’t see, your hands aren’t broken, what’s inconvenient about it?"

Tanya was neither servile nor overbearing, "Mom, massages are precise work. If the acupoints aren’t correctly targeted, one careless mistake could cause facial paralysis or more severe conditions could lead to leg paralysis. Are you sure... you want to gamble on it?"

Mother Hawthorne, "..."

For some reason, although Tanya’s tone was respectful, she inexplicably caught a chill from her last sentence.

It didn’t seem like a warning, rather it felt like a threat.

Tanya thought similarly, if Mother Hawthorne insisted she gave a massage tonight, she wouldn’t mind "carelessly" pressing the wrong spot, letting her face distort and drool, paralyzing her in bed for half a month!

"Fine, revisit when your eyes recover." Mother Hawthorne was swept with disinterest, her face turned particularly unpleasant. She spat in French, "Useless thing, truly disappointing!"

Originally, as Tanya reached the doorway, she paused hearing this sentence, turned back.

"Mom."

This time, she called in French.

Mother Hawthorne couldn’t believe it, eyes wide in disbelief, thinking her ears were hallucinating.

Yet the next second, she witnessed Tanya’s beautiful lips parting, speaking forth fluent and elegant French.

"Whether I am useful doesn’t require your judgment. Also, regardless of whether you see me as the Hawthorne daughter-in-law, but as the biological mother of both Joy and Caden, no one can change that!"

Finished, Tanya turned and exited with her cane.

Mother Hawthorne was stunned at the spot, took quite a while to gather her senses.

"This woman... when did she learn French? Then what I said before wouldn’t..." Mother Hawthorne’s face flushed red and white, fuming in rage.

"Alright, so she pretended not to understand all these years! That little bitch dared to play tricks on me!" Mother Hawthorne was furious, viciously saying, "Impertinent and uncultured thing, sooner or later I will have my son kick you out!"