THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 413: Language, Baby, The Kids Are Still Here

"What do you want to know?" Her husband asked.

"Every darn thing, of course. The fact that he’s told you doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t know. Just step aside let me hear from my darling brother," Candace pushed her husband aside.

"Darling brother, over to you," Lauren mimicked Candace and everyone burst out laughing.

It was such a heartwarming moment for everyone. The very first they’d had in weeks.

Steffan didn’t want the moment to be interrupted, it was a huge contrast between the atmosphere at Dolly’s... the difference was as much as night is from day.

When the laughter eventually subsided, he took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

"On that fateful day, I had just proposed to Lauren and we were on our way back when..."

"Lauren already told us that part," his mother, Sarah cut in impatiently, "skip to how you didn’t end up dead like we were made to believe."

"I never knew you were this impatient," her husband, David teased with a playful nudge on Sarah’s elbow.

"I admit I’m impatient and I bet you’re even more eager to hear from our son than me, just that you could perfectly mask yours," Sarah retorted.

"Dad, Mom," Lauren called out. If they left them alone they’d go on and on till goodness knows when.

A beautiful smile adorned Sarah’s face as she shifted her attention to Lauren. "Yes, dear," but turning to Steffan she said, "go on, what are you still waiting for?"

Everyone: "...."

Steffan sighed helplessly. His mother’s love for him only lasted for a few minutes before rechanneling it back to her daughter in-law, Lauren. Sometimes he wondered if she was Lauren’s mother or his. Well, that was his fate and he had no choice but to accept it.

"After I fainted along the roadside due to a splitting headache, I woke up later in a strange house and guess who the owner of that house was?"

Since no one had any idea except Killian and Stanley, the rest waited patiently for Steffan to provide answers to the questions since he was the one with the answers.

"Dolly Thompson," Steffan announced like he was calling out the name of the next patient to see the doctor.

"Huh?"

"What?!"

"Dolly?"

"Dolly what?!"

Different exclamations sounded at the same time from the people gathered "Wait...isn’t that the name of that your slu... sorry that doctor colleague of yours?" Candace quickly adjusted her words because of the children.

"Unfortunately, yes," Steffan said which succeeded in throwing everyone further into deeper confusion.

"Why her? How?" Wait," Lauren couldn’t get a coherent sentence out.

"So you’ve been with her all these while?" she finally asked but it came out more like a statement than a question.

"It’s not what you think, sweetheart." Steffan quickly put Danny down on the couch and rushed to her side when she saw the appalling expression on her face.

"Please, hear him out, Lauren," Stanley advocated.

"What more is there to say, brother Stanley?"

Lauren let out a chuckle that went straight to everyone’s heart. "And here we were grieving for him thinking that he was dead, and yet he was alive and fine, catching up with some... how could you, Steffan? How could you allow yourself to be deceived by that witch? I waited for two whole months for you to come back... everything around me was grounded, Steffan. I couldn’t go on!" Lauren lamented as she pushed Steffan away.

She felt a hand wrap around her shoulder and was prepared to shove it off when Killian’s deep voice sounded. "Can you calm down? I was also angry at this spineless man who couldn’t protect you, but it wasn’t his fault."

Lauren’s head jerked up in disbelief as she met the pleading eyes of her brother staring into hers. Killian... speaking for Steffan? What changed?

"Killian nodded gently at her, "now be the good little girl that you always were, calm down, listen to him first and you can judge him afterwards... whatever you decide, I will support you hundred percent, okay?"

It was only after she nodded that Killian led her back to her seat and gestured for Steffan to continue.

Seeing how terrible Lauren’s outburst was just now, Steffan who had planned to keep the news of his memory recovery had to advise himself. Killian had helped him out today. What will happen next time?

"When I regained consciousness in the house and saw only Dolly, I knew something was fishy so I pretended to have lost my memory and she took advantage of that to execute her plans without a care in the world.

She told me she was my wife and all that... she even said we were expecting a baby which was killed when she tried to rescue me from my attackers who were sent by my uncle... according to her.

"Wife?!"

"Your uncle?!"

"Baby?!"

Steffan had to pause when he heard his listeners echo the different parts that caught their attention the most.

"I knew it! I knew that bitch was not to be trusted. From the day I set eyes on her, I knew her mission... she was only after bedding you, but you chose not to see it, Steffan!" Candace flared with intense hatred.

"Language, baby, the kids are still here," Stanley cautioned his wife who rarely used foul words but was forced to."

"That was the more reason I had to stay back to find out what she was really up to. I wanted to know why she was the one that ’rescued’ me when that was definitely not her route. I wanted to know why she chose to lied to me. So under the guise of a total memory loss, I was able to monitor all her activities, at least around the house and her phone calls."

"But you could have at least reached out to us, even if it was once, to allay our fears and grief."

"I tried to but for the first one week I couldn’t get hold of a phone, besides I was too weak to move about. I had to convince her to get me a phone so that I can reach her in case there was an emergency with mwhen she was away."

"As soon as she got me a phone, I... I..." Steffan didn’t know how to say this as he didn’t want them to blame his brother who has been very helpful.

Understanding his brother’s predicament, Stanley took over. "He called me and told me what was going on."

Candace’s eyes widened in disbelief. "W-wait... you knew he was..."

"Yes," Stanley nodded, cutting his wife off.

"We decided to keep it that way to avoid any form of suspicion or surprises from Dolly, afterall, we were supposed to be grieving for Steffan and we didn’t want any slips."

"Also her actions opened up another angle to the case of who actually placed that bullet in the gun that shot Steffan," Killian chipped in.

"I don’t understand... you mean you were in on this too? You were aware that Steffan was alive, yet kept it from us? You watched us go through all that pain just because..."

"Darling, allow them to finish," William Holmes, Lauren’s father, placed a hand on his wife’s hand.

She sat back reluctantly, snapping her lips together like a clamp.