The Returned Heiress Who Never Fit In novel Chapter 617

Chapter 617 Surprise! You Have Siblings

“Tell Ms. Diana I must see her.”

With that, Victor hung up the phone.

He turned and glanced at Tessa, just in time to meet her bleary, glassy eyes.

“You’re awake?”

Tessa gave a weak nod, still looking pale and sickly.

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Victor walked over to the bed and touched her forehead. “The fever’s mostly gone down.”

A woman with a high fever… was more trouble than he’d imagined.

Tessa looked at him with wide, doe–like eyes. “The Ms. Diana you mentioned on the phone… was that my mom?”

At the mention of her mother, a flicker of worry crossed her face. After everything that had happened, she finally understood just how completely her world had been turned upside down.

And no one could help her now…

The Ashen Pact, what kind of tangled, dangerous place was that?

Victor nodded. “Yeah.”

“What did you talk about?” Tessa asked.

Victor looked at her but said nothing.

The way he hesitated made Tessa’s heart leap into her throat.

After a moment, Victor said, “Don’t worry too much. The conflict between her and the Ashen Pact isn’t fatal; they’re not out to kill her.”

“What do you mean?”

Victor replied, “It’s just… complicated.”

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“Complicated?”

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“Yeah,” he said with a nod. Some of the Ashen Pact’s records had been sealed for years; digging up the truth hadn’t been easy.

But in the end, they had managed to piece it together.

“How complicated are we talking?” she asked.

Victor answered, “Your father… is the father of the Ashen Pact’s current leader.”

Tessa blinked, “What?”

My father is the father of the current head of the Ashen Pact? Wait, what?

“Is this some kind of joke?”

What kind of nonsense was this? For as long as she could remember, she’d always known her father was dead.

Victor said calmly, “It’s no mistake.”

Tessa froze. No mistake?

Wait, then-

“What’s my relationship to the current leader of the Ashen Pact?”

“Brother and sister.”

Tessa’s mouth twitched. Brother and sister?

“So you’re telling me I didn’t just gain a dad out of nowhere–I gained a brother, too?”

Gosh. Now suddenly, I have a brother?

She’d been an only child her whole life, had every advantage that came with it.

Victor added, “Not just a brother, you’ve got two sisters, too.”

Tessa was stunned. So it’s not just one sibling, it’s a whole crowd?

“Then why did he take my mom?” she asked. “And back at the airport… he looked

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Chapter 617 Surprise! You Have Siblings

like he wanted me dead.”

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No wonder Victor had said it was complicated; this was far beyond complicated.

Victor said, “Most likely because your mother took half of the Ashen Pact’s map when she left years ago.”

“Half a map?” Tessa asked.

Victor nodded.

“And that man?” she pressed.

That man, Victor’s so–called father of hers.

Even if Victor’s investigation was solid, something about it didn’t sit right with her.

And judging by Victor’s tone… it didn’t seem like the man had cared for her mother at all.

Victor hesitated. “That man…”

He glanced at her, then decided she deserved the full truth.

The Ashen Pact’s internal situation was already a mess; Tessa’s identity made it even more complicated.

“When your mother took over the Ashen Pact, it was in total chaos–pressured from within and without. Your father chose to step back at that time, but the truth is… he had another reason.”

“Why?” Tessa asked.

“Because he had someone he cared about most–someone he wanted to protect.”

Tessa went silent. The one he cared about most?

“You mean the mother of those three siblings?” she asked.

Victor nodded. “Yes.”

Tessa froze again. So that man chose to stay in the shadows because of another woman?

And because of that woman, he pushed her mother into the line of fire?

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“At first, your mother didn’t even know that woman existed,” Victor said. “During her time as leader, she faced endless conflict and danger. She was injured more than once. The worst time, she almost lost you while you were still in the womb. It was then that she finally learned the truth.”

Tessa sat quietly, listening.

Listening to this tangled web of a story.

Finding out that her father was the father of the Ashen Pact’s current leader had already been enough of a shock.

But now, hearing about everything her mother had endured during that time… her pupils suddenly contracted; even her breathing turned painful.

It was hard to imagine the kind of despair her mother must have gone through.

“So that’s when she left, with me?” Tessa asked,

Victor nodded. “Yes. And she also took one of the Ashen Pact’s most important

assets.

By asset, he meant that half of the map.

“She’s been living in Rivermount all these years,” Victor continued, “and the Ashen Pact has been searching for her the whole time.”

Of course, they had.

She’d taken something that valuable. How could they not come after me?

Tessa stared at Victor, her breath catching. “And now?”