Forced Marriage: My Wife, My Redemption-Chapter 279: Welcome home, granddaughter.

The sound of the latch clicking echoed louder in Jessica’s ears than it should have. Her fingers hesitated over the smooth wood before she finally opened the box.

A rich fragrance of aged cedar and preserved paper escaped from within.

At the sound of the box opening, their breath hitched.

While Jessica dreaded the contents of the box, Lady Matilda dreaded the result those contents might bring.

Jessica took a deep breath as she calmly glanced into the box. Inside, nestled in deep velvet lining, lay a locket, its surface engraved with delicate lilies—just like the garden outside.

But what caught Jessica’s attention wasn’t the locket itself, but the photograph beneath it. Her breath hitched.

She reached in, fingers trembling slightly, and lifted the photo. It was aged but well-preserved—a photo of her mother when she was much younger.

She stared at the photo, noting the unmistakable features of the woman who gave her life—her warm smile, eyes and lips, her hair that cascaded down like silk.

Standing beside her was a younger version of Lady Matilda, holding her close with maternal pride.

Her brain spun rapidly as it tried to piece together the meaning. Jessica blinked rapidly as realization struck her like lightning. Her mother. And her... grandmother.

She glanced at Lady Matilda, who had stood up and held out a brown envelope toward her.

Jessica’s heart thudded loudly in her chest, her hand trembling, her breath coming in gasps. She wished Davis was here. She needed a hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on at this moment.

She didn’t want to believe the whispers in her mind. Staring at the file for a while and the old lady standing tall and waiting with her hand stretched out, she was at a loss for what to do.

Her mother had never taught her to neglect the elderly. She couldn’t believe that at the end of the day, she might be gaining a new grandmother.

Then who was the woman in the countryside? How did her mother never mention this family to her?

Quietly, she stretched out her hands and accepted the envelope, noting the familiar seal.

Her chest nearly gave way beneath the weight of her pounding heart. The rush of memories she never knew she had threatened to drown her as her heart pounded hard against her ribs.

"I can’t lose her life here because of shock," she muttered.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, taking deep breaths until her emotions settled. She opened her eyes and calmly pulled out the document.

Seated inside was the news she had dreaded, the guess her husband had made, and the feeling she hadn’t been able to shake off —The DNA report.

Calmly, she slid it back into the envelope and placed it beside her. Lady Matilda Santiago sighed in relief, her heart brimming with pride at how calm Jessica was taking everything.

"Maybe it won’t be bad to will her the position later. She has the requirements. Others might have screamed or shouted, yet she had maintained this certain level of calmness... I am really proud of her," she mused.

Jessica returned to the box, deciding to unveil every document inside. To her surprise, it wasn’t just one but several.

Beneath the locket, she noticed an envelope marked "Confidential" in heavy embossed ink. The seal was unbroken.

She glanced up at Lady Matilda, whose eyes held a storm of emotions—hope, restraint, fear.

"Go ahead," she whispered. "You deserve to know the contents."

Jessica broke the seal with care. Inside were official documents containing a family lineage certificate with her name handwritten at the bottom in ink that shimmered like it had just dried. Her breath stilled.

Her mother’s name: Nora Santiago. Her father: Unknown. And right above, listed under maternal bloodline: Matilda Santiago – Grandmother and Legal Matriarch.

Seeing the column for the father written "Unknown," Jessica cast an inquisitive glance at her. "My father is George Brown."

Lady Matilda shook her head. "We investigated and carried out a paternity test, but the result came out wrong. It seems there was an error somewhere along the line."

Jessica didn’t dwell on the response or the reason but casually flipped to the next sheet—then the next. Each page was more mind-numbing than the last.

A deed to an estate in the capital, fully transferred into her name.

A shareholding certificate of Santiago Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest biotech companies in the country—signed, stamped, and legalized.

Ownership documents of a beach property, described as her mother’s sanctuary before she left everything behind.

A property deed in four countries, with Noveira included.

Jessica’s fingers tightened around the papers. She blinked once. Then again.

The numbers attached to these assets weren’t small.

The dividend figures from various shares that had been transferred to her name were mind-blowing.

An appointment to inherit the hospital under the Santiagos’ family.

She couldn’t help but wonder, "Was this evening dinner planned to make me rich?"

Lady Matilda broke the silence, her voice calm but cracking.

"Your mother... she refused everything when she left. She wanted a new life. But I kept these. Just in case. In case she returned. But then she never did, and despite how much I searched for her, it always ended with broken clues. Thinking back now, I guess it was her doing..."

Jessica felt like the air had been knocked out of her. Everything in her life had been carefully measured, controlled—especially what little she knew about her family history. And now, in the space of minutes, the ground beneath her had shifted completely.

Her vision blurred. Her throat tightened as emotion surged to the surface.

Jessica looked up sharply, her voice barely a whisper. "My mother is really Santiagogos’?"

Matilda inhaled deeply, her voice shaking. "You are the granddaughter of the Santiagos family, and right now, I and your uncle hope you can return to your maternal home."

"My uncle?" she asked, her mind whirling with questions. "Does that mean I’m also inheriting human assets?"

Seeing her brow furrow, Lady Matilda quickly explained "You have met him—Donald Santiago."

Hearing the name, she took a deep breath. Now things were falling into place.

Lady Matilda stood slowly, walking to Jessica with tentative steps, her hands open, vulnerable.

"I only discovered you existed when you saved me at the elevator. I saw your necklace, and my interest was piqued because there are only three in the world, all customized for the Santiagos."

"I didn’t want to scare you away. I needed to verify the facts, so please, my granddaughter—I’m sorry I discovered your existence late. Maybe it’s just fate."

Jessica’s lips parted, but no words came. The room felt suspended—time frozen between the pain of the past and the uncertainty of now.

Matilda took another step, her voice breaking. "You are my daughter’s child. My only grandchild from Nora."

Jessica slowly rose to her feet, the box still in her hand, she bent down to drop it beside her. Her emotions warred—shock, disbelief, relief, grief. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"...All these years," she murmured.

"I would’ve given anything to have known earlier," Matilda whispered. "But now... you’re here. And I want nothing more than to make things right."

A silence stretched between them—thick, weighty, and then gently dissolving as Lady Matilda stepped closer.

"She loved you," Jessica said, her gaze turning to the terrace. "She never spoke much... but when she looked at those lilies, she smiled like her heart was someplace else."

She couldn’t help recalling how Nora would stand before the lilies, watching them in the setting sun, her back lonely and quiet. Sometimes, she would caress them softly and unconsciously whisper, "That’s Grandma’s favorite flower." and she will only nod.

But then, she had always thought it referred to the grandmother in the countryside.

Tears spilled freely down Matilda’s face. She reached out, uncertain, but Jessica didn’t pull away. Their hands met—warm, trembling—and just like that, the distance of years, of silence, of grief, began to crumble.

"I’m not trying to replace what you lost," Matilda said. "But if you’ll let me... I’d like to be part of what you have now. Of your future."

Jessica stared at her for a while. She couldn’t possibly give an answer to this news yet, but she couldn’t leave this old lady anxious either.

Torn between saving her life and easing her anxiety, she could only nod slowly, emotion shimmering in her eyes.

But she believed that if she could only find her way back home, she would be relieved.

Matilda let out a soft, tearful laugh and embraced her tightly, arms trembling as she whispered into Jessica’s ear, "Welcome home, granddaughter."

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