Leaving the Past in Flames

When Christopher heard the mockery in my tone, he hurriedly tried to explain himself."Why don't you get it, Rosie? I've told you this many times—this marriage with Hannah is only temporary. I can't call the shots on this collaboration between my family and hers. Besides, Hannah has made it clear that she's willing to accept you."Hannah stepped forward and looked at me somewhat arrogantly."Chris is right. You might not realize this, Ms. Fisher, but I've seen plenty of people like you in our circle. As long as you don't cause too much trouble, I won't get my parents involved."I can also put in a good word or two for you with the Shaw family. I should say there really is a disparity between those who carry the Gray surname and those who only carry the Fisher surname."She was obviously insulting me. I picked up a glass of water from the coffee table and splashed it at her and Christopher. She screamed, and he hurriedly grabbed some tissues to wipe the water off her face.Then, h

Mom came from a small town. She and I took turns driving for three days and two nights to prevent Dad and Christopher from finding us. Finally, we started seeing familiar sights.Tears filled Mom's eyes as she stepped foot in the place where she'd grown up. My uncle, Brad Fisher, and aunt, Stacy Brown, had waited for us for a long time. They hurried forward to take our luggage."It's so good to see you, Cassie. You, too, Rosie.""You're finally back. I can rest easy now."That made Mom burst into tears. She wrapped her arms around Aunt Stacy and said, "I was wrong. I've been wrong all these years.""You didn't have a choice back then. How can we hold it against you?" Uncle Brad patted Mom's back as Aunt Stacy consoled her.Everyone thought Mom had given up her career in the entertainment industry because of Dad, but they had no idea she'd never liked her job.Grandpa had died when she was young, and Grandma had been gravely ill at the time. It was also at that time that Uncle Br

Mom chuckled, seemingly amused by Dad's words. "Give you a chance? I've been with you for 30 years, Oscar. We wanted to get married after three years together, but your parents vehemently opposed and even threatened you with their lives."You could've chosen to give everything up to leave with me, or you could've just kicked me to the curb. However, you wanted to have your cake and eat it, too. You got on your knees before me and begged me to stay with you."I had Rosie in our fifth year together. At the time, all I wanted was for us to register our marriage—I lowered my expectations so much that I was willing to give up on a wedding and making our marriage known to the world. But what did you tell me? You didn't want to upset your parents because they were ill."She took a deep breath. "You weren't even willing to attend my mother's funeral after she passed on. In our tenth year together, your father passed away. You told me you didn't have time to marry me because you needed to ca

After looking into the matter, I found out it had all started with Hannah. She couldn't accept Christopher's betrayal and caused a scene online. She claimed she and Christopher had dated for a long time before I'd shamelessly gotten between them.She also claimed that she'd tolerated my provocation multiple times but couldn't accept that I'd manipulated Christopher into having a wedding with her without registering their marriage—she said it was a trick to get the Green family's support.Her accusations had loopholes everywhere, but the incident garnered widespread attention due to Christopher's silence and inadvertent support from his mother, Connie White.The online community didn't know the truth, so they cursed and criticized me, even going so far as to drag Mom and everyone else into this.I went to Christopher and demanded to know what was going on. He looked at me guiltily and said, "I can't do anything about this, Rosie. But if you're willing to get back together with me an