Zella Kane, who was standing to the side, also chimed in hurriedly, "Yeah, thatâs right! Your Caleb was married to his ex-wife for over twenty years and never managed to have a son. Our Zoe marries into your family and immediately gives you a grandson. No matter how you look at it, Zoe is a great benefactor to the Summers family, right? If it werenât for her, your Caleb might have died without an heir!"
"When Zoe got married last year, forget about visiting our family with betrothal gifts or performing the traditional ritesâyour family didnât even treat us to a single meal! Thatâs just unacceptable, isnât it? We didnât even make a big deal out of it and still let Zoe marry him."
"Now that weâre in trouble and have come to you for help, you wonât even lift a finger? Even for the sake of the grandson Zoe gave your family, you canât let her family stay here for a few months?!"
Zella Kane truly didnât understand why the Summers family was so cold-hearted. âArenât they afraid that Zoeâs son will refuse to acknowledge them in the future?â
After hearing what the Kane family had to say, the members of the Summers family exchanged glances, seeing confusion and exasperation in each otherâs eyes.
Caleb Summers had never told his family about remarrying or having a child. They knew nothing about it at all!
âHow could the Kane family be blaming them for this now? How could they fault them for not paying a formal visit with betrothal gifts or observing the traditional rites?â
Grandma looked at Mrs. Kane and replied with a hint of helplessness, "Your daughter went through a lot to have her child, and youâre right, we should have paid a visit. But... our second son hasnât been in contact with us for years. We honestly had no idea what was going on in his life!"
Grace Sutton quickly added, "Yes, thatâs right! Our second son never told us about getting married or having a child. We didnât even know when he took a new wife! You really canât blame this on us!"
Hearing this, Mrs. Kane and Zella Kane looked at each other again, both a bit stunned. It seemed they hadnât expected this situation at all.
They had indeed heard Zoe Kane mention before that Caleb Summers didnât interact much with his family, and he didnât let her interact with them either.
Mrs. Kane and Zella Kane had originally assumed Caleb Summers was just too busy to visit, but they never imagined he wouldnât even tell his family about remarrying and having a son!
It was as if he intended to cut off all contact with his family for the rest of his life!
While Mrs. Kane and Zella Kane were still dazed, Melody Summers continued, "Second Uncle doesnât tell us anything, and our two families havenât been in contact for a long time. We canât get involved in his affairs, and we canât help. We sympathize with your situation, but weâre truly powerless to do anything."
"Mrs. Vance in 1505 has a spare bed she can sell. Itâs only one floor away, so it would be easy to move up here. As for anything else, we really canât help. All the rooms in our home are already assigned, and we truly donât have a spare one for you. Besides, we donât want to live under the same roof as strangers."
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Kane and Zella Kane knew it was a lost cause. Since Caleb Summers had no contact with the Summers family, they naturally wouldnât care much about the son Zoe Kane had given him.
Although Mrs. Kane and Zella Kane were resentful, they had no choice but to turn and leave.
Before they left, the two of them cast a lingering, reluctant glance at the apartment, their eyes filled with regret.
...
After seeing the Kane family off, Melody Summers and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Grace Sutton cursed under her breath about the bad luck and muttered, "That second son of ours is just outrageous. He doesnât contact us for years, and the one time he does, itâs to ask us to give up our home for someone else. Whereâs the logic in that! Heâs never shown any concern for his own family, but heâs certainly attentive to his mother-in-lawâs family."
"And his new wifeâs familyâI can tell theyâre not easy to get along with either! ...Maybe the Kane family is even worse than Mindy Walsh! At least Mindyâs family supported our second son and never asked for anything in return from us. This Kane family is the complete opposite!"
"Theyâre the ones asking for a favor, yet they still have that kind of attitude. All that nonsense about how a divorced woman who takes her child back to her parentsâ home has no right to speakâitâs all just twisted logic! Theyâre women themselves, yet theyâre still going on about how youâll die without an heir if you donât have a son. I really donât know what goes on in their heads."
Grandma also sighed and said, "Theyâre living right next door in 1604 now. We didnât agree to give them a room this time, so I wonder if theyâll come knocking again."
Melody Summers was about to comfort her grandmotherââshe had already bought apartment 1604. If the Kane family dared to cause any more trouble, she would just pay the breach of contract penalty and have them thrown out.â
But before Melody Summers could say a word, her phone buzzed with a new message.
Melody Summers opened it and saw that it was from Lucy White.
Melody Summers had previously asked Lucy White to help her find out which member of the Lancaster family had initiated contact with Joanne White, because Melody felt there was something strange about the whole affair.
âIf Robert Lancaster wanted Elaine Hughes to use her feminine wiles, he could have just contacted Bernard Simmons directly. Robert and Bernard already knew each other, so why drag Joanne White into it?â
Melody Summers just couldnât figure it out.
The message from Lucy White said that the person who contacted Joanne White claimed to be the "young miss of the Lancaster family."
Staring at the message on her phone screen, Melody Summers was utterly dumbfoundedâ
âThe young miss of the Lancaster family?!â
âIt was actually Sylvia Lancaster?!â
Now Melody Summers was even more confused. âHow did Sylvia Lancaster get mixed up with Joanne White?!â
âLogically, the two of them should have never crossed paths in this lifetime!â
Speaking of their connection... Melody Summers suddenly recalled something from her past life.
In her past life, Melody Summers hadnât tricked Austin Hale and Joanne White into buying her school district apartment, so she hadnât emptied their life savings. As a result, the two of them were still together after the natural disasters began, and Joanne White never became Zane Simmonsâs mistress.
Back then, Sylvia Lancaster had somehow gotten to know Joanne White. After the floods, Melody Summers had once run into the two of them going to a party together.
âBut in this life, the trajectories of Sylvia Lancasterâs and Joanne Whiteâs fates have completely changed. They shouldnât have any connection at all. So why would Sylvia suddenly contact Joanne, and how would she have leverage over her?â
Melody Summers walked slowly back to her room, her thoughts in a whirl.
The details that Melody Summers had previously found unsettling now surfaced in her mind one by one...
After Sylvia Lancaster and Clara Hayes fell from the building together, the next time Sylvia contacted Melody Summers, Melody sensed that her tone of voice was distinctly different from before.
Sylviaâs tone no longer had the maturity that came from the hardships sheâd endured in this life. Instead, it had reverted to the flamboyant willfulness of her past life, where everything had always gone smoothly for her.
At the time, Melody had just assumed that Sylvia must have hit her head during the fall, and the trauma had caused her personality to change.
âBut thinking about it now, was it really because of the fall? Can a fall really cause such a drastic change in someoneâs personality?â
âBesides, they fell from the same height. Clara Hayes died instantly, so why was Sylvia Lancaster still alive and kicking?â
And then there was that phone call from Sylvia Lancaster, asking for fever medicine.
Sylviaâs tone back then... it was as if she was absolutely certain that Melody Summers would bring the medicine over.
âWhy was Sylvia so sure?â
âWhy, upon seeing Simon Lancaster with a high fever, would Sylviaâs first instinct be to call her and ask for fever medicine?â
The only explanation Melody Summers could think of was that in her past life, when Simon Lancaster had a fever, she had braved a blizzard to go out and find fever medicine for him!
Connecting all the questions and clues, Melody Summers arrived at a possible explanationâ
âCould it be...â
âCould it be that Sylvia Lancaster was reborn, too?!â