"Well now, Director Forrest, aren't you the loving husband? Bringing your mistress back home so soon?"
"Such a shame for Grace Winslow. She was so good to you, only to end up with a scumbag like you."
"Ptooey! So shameless. Instead of being a decent person, you just had to be a homewrecking fox. If I were you, I'd just die already."
Caleb Forrest brought Ivy White back to the factory dorms, where the women from the neighboring apartments were washing clothes in the courtyard.
The moment they saw Caleb arrive with her, their faces filled with disgust as they started to sling insults.
Ivy White's face went deathly pale, and she instinctively leaned against Caleb Forrest.
Hearing their words, Caleb flinched away from Ivy's touch and kept his distance.
Ivy lost her balance and nearly fell, and Caleb hastily reached out to steady her.
No matter how you looked at it, the two of them appeared intimate.
The onlookers grew even more contemptuous and disdainful.
Caleb practically fled into his home with Ivy in tow.
The moment they stepped inside, they were met with the sound of Mrs. Forrest's curses and the faint, weak cries of a child whose throat was completely hoarse from crying.
Caleb Forrest's expression changed slightly.
After leaving the factory, Grace Winslow was taken back to the hospital.
Her high fever hadn't subsided, and she had also developed pneumonia. The trip back, where she was exposed to the wind, had worsened her condition.
Mrs. Winslow rushed over early in the morning. Seeing her pale, weak daughter lying in the hospital bed, her eyes reddened, and tears began to stream down her face.
"Grace, how... how did it come to this?"
She had already heard about what happened to Grace from her eldest daughter-in-law, Lily Callahan.
'She had originally thought Caleb Forrest was a reliable man, but she never expected him to be such a piece of scum.'
'They had just gotten married, and he was already bringing his mistress home?'
'The mistress, she'd heard, was his childhood sweetheart, his 'white moonlight.' They had been in love years ago but separated for some reason.'
'To think they would rekindle their old flame now.'
"Mom, I'm fine." Grace Winslow took her mother, Irene Lynch's, hand and shook her head gently.
But her expression was haggard, she looked like she had lost a noticeable amount of weight, and her voice was terribly hoarse. She didn't look "fine" at all.
"How could you be fine?"
"But it's okay. If worse comes to worst, we'll get a divorce. You can come home. Your father and I can support you," Irene Lynch said, looking at her daughter with heartache.
She had given birth to three sons and had finally, with great difficulty, had a daughter, whom she treasured beyond words.
Grace Winslow was the pearl of the family, cherished and protected since she was a child.
Normally, she couldn't even bear to speak to her in a slightly raised voice.
How could her heart not ache seeing her daughter worn down like this only a few months after getting married?
"Mom..." Grace's eyes reddened.
In her past life, after her brothers had their accidents, Irene Lynch couldn't withstand the blow and passed away not long after.
When she passed, Grace hadn't even been able to go back to see her one last time.
It was because Caleb Forrest's mother was raising hell, tormenting her for days on end. By the time she finally rushed home, all she saw was a cold tombstone and a black-and-white photograph that would never respond to her again.
Now, having been reborn, seeing her living, breathing mother, her brother, and her sister-in-law, she felt an inexplicable sense of grievance.
She had been deceived by Caleb Forrest, wasting her entire life and dragging her whole family down with her.
'Thinking back on it now, she had truly been unfilial.'
"I'm going to divorce Caleb Forrest. Mom, don't worry. I won't let this destroy me. I'm going to live a good life—a much better life than I ever had with him."