Forced Marriage: My Wife, My Redemption novel Chapter 279

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.

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