Her Revenge From Shadow to Sunlight novel Chapter 174

“Eleanor, Alicia’s still just a kid. I’m just trying to raise her right, how could you…” Theodore started to say, but Eleanor interrupted him.

Eleanor said. “If I had cared about what everyone else thought, I never would have cut ties with my family to

marry you.

“My family, my friends all said I was being ridiculous, that I was out of my mind for you. They said I was crazy, that I was a lost cause.”

Theodore fell silent. He had nothing to say to that. She was right. Their relationship back then had lasted only because of her courage.

When they first met, he was just a broke college kid from a poor town, while Eleanor was an heiress from high society.

Everyone doubted them, even he did, especially after visiting her family. But Eleanor stuck by him. She didn’t care about the gossip or how others looked down on him.

Her parents found her many excellent matches. She rejected every one. She fought for him with hunger strikes and deadly threats. Her parents made their final move. She could give him up or her family would give her up.

In the end, she chose him–she gave up everything.

Back then, everyone said Eleanor was nuts, like she had a screw loose for falling for some penniless kid from nowhere. But she didn’t care–she was hell–bent on marrying him no matter what anyone said.

Thinking about all that, Theodore couldn’t bring himself to say another word.

The three of them ate in awkward silence, with only Eleanor asking Alicia questions. Theodore remained quiet, merely serving Eleanor more food, barely eating himself.

After the meal, Eleanor took Alicia’s hand and said, “Alicia, why don’t you come live with us for a while? I really want to spend some time with you.”

Alicia hesitated. She wasn’t comfortable living with strangers, even if they were her biological parents. To her, they sull felt like strangers.

She thought for a moment, then said, ‘I think I’ll pass. I’m used to my life the way it is now.”

Eleanor’s eyes welled up with tears. “You really don’t want to come live with your mom and dad?”

Alicia paused, then quietly replied, “Oh, I forgot to mention–I actually have a family, and I might move in with him down the road. He’s getting on in years, and he could really use someone around to help out.”

“Wait, who is he?” Eleanor asked in surprise.

Theodore’s face darkened, irritated. He didn’t like that she still referred to them as her family. Still, he kept quiet, simply watching Alicia without saying a word.

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16:57 Sat, Oct 18

Chapter 174

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Alicia spoke up again. “When I was a child, I lived in a rundown place with beggars, always hungry and cold. It was that old man, who took me in and raised me.”

Maybe it was because of everything that had happened with Hank. She didn’t tell them the whole truth–that the only reason Edward took her in was because those beggars had started getting rough with her.

She’d learned the hard way that showing weakness just gave people ammunition to hurt her later. Even if these two really were her biological parents, she couldn’t bring herself to bare it all–not anymore.

Just hearing about how Alicia had grown up among beggars, always hungry and cold, made Eleanor’s heart ache. Tears welled up in her eyes as she whispered, “I’m sorry, Alicia. Mom should’ve done better.”

Alicia was thrown off by that. No one had ever shown her such tenderness, and she didn’t know what to do with it.

Theodore saw Eleanor on the verge of tears, but Alicia just stood there without a single reaction. He thought to himself, ‘How can this kid be so cold? She’s got zero warmth in her. Her dad must be the same way!

The more he dwelled on it, the creepier it felt, and his impression of Alicia just kept sinking lower.

Eleanor grew more and more emotional, tears falling uncontrollably. “I never knew you had to live through something like that, Alicia. I failed you as a mother. Do you hate me for not being there?”

Alicia, unfazed, quietly pulled out a couple of tissues and handed them to her. “Don’t cry.”

Eleanor couldn’t hold back any longer. “I’m just… so heartbroken,” she choked out, voice trembling. “Every time I picture how hard your childhood was, I feel useless as your mother.”

She spoke while wiping at her eyes with the tissues, her hands shaking ever so slightly.

Alicia just watched her cry, handing over tissue after tissue, her face blank, silently staring without a word.

Theodore couldn’t hold back. He pulled her into a hug, murmuring, “Look, sweetheart, don’t cry. Alicia is fine now, right? Look at you, your makeup’s ruined.”

Eleanor reached up and touched her face, then turned to Alicia. “I’m going to the restroom for a minute.”

Alicia nodded, and Eleanor quickly left.

Once Eleanor had left, Theodore shot Alicia a cold look. “Your mom is falling apart over you, literally in tears, and you can’t even bother to say a single word to comfort her?”

Alicia met his gaze calmly. “If a few words could stop her tears, maybe her care for me wasn’t that deep in the first place.

Theodore was stunned by her response. He snapped, “Then why tell her about all that? It’s ancient history, Now we’re trying to bring you back into the family, and you bring up all that stutt.

“What’s the point? To make us feel sorry for you? To guilt–trip us into treating you better?”

Alicia hadn’t expected her biological father to see things that way. ‘Guess he never really loved me at all, huh?‘

1 SLOV 18

Chapter 174

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