How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue novel Chapter 838

Elodie could sense Octavia’s awkwardness, but she wasn’t about to bring it up herself. After all, Octavia was an adult now, no longer a child; some lessons had to be learned through personal responsibility and mistakes. Life itself was a long, winding class, and there were still so many values and perspectives yet to be understood.

After dinner, the family matriarch arranged everyone’s rooms. Elodie didn’t want to be apart from Nadia for even a second, so she carried her already-sleeping daughter upstairs. She had just finished settling Nadia in when someone knocked at the door.

Assuming it was Jarrod, Elodie called out, “It’s your house. Why bother knocking?”

There was a brief pause on the other side, and then the door opened. To her surprise, it wasn’t Jarrod, but Lucinda.

Lucinda didn’t step into the room. She lingered just inside the doorway, her gaze drifting to Nadia, who slept soundly in the bed. Then, her eyes met Elodie’s. The formidable, coolly elegant matriarch of the Silverstein family—so often sharp and distant—wore an unusually complex expression, but it lasted only a heartbeat.

She drew a slow breath, then faced Elodie squarely. “I’ve seen how Jarrod feels about you. And I remember when you were sick, barely holding yourself together, yet you still went to Silverstein Enterprises to help him bring order to the chaos. That day, my view of you changed. Honestly, I admired you. I was surprised, too—considering how Jarrod, and frankly, the rest of us treated you before. You didn’t owe us anything, but you helped anyway. Jarrod should be grateful, and as his mother, so should I. So, thank you.”

Elodie was taken aback. Lucinda, who always seemed to stand above everyone else, her sights set only on power and advantage, had never been one to lower herself for personal matters. People in her position rarely apologized, especially for things brushed aside as family politics.

Change, Elodie knew, was never easy.

Elodie turned back to her own tasks, not letting the encounter weigh too heavily on her mind. However things played out in the future, she refused to let a single apology dictate her expectations.

Jarrod finished settling Rosemary and Emile into their rooms and returned quietly. He slipped into the bedroom, careful not to wake Nadia.

Elodie had just come out of the shower, toweling her hair, when she spotted Jarrod leaning casually against the wall, one hand in his pocket, watching her with that lazy, familiar smile.

She shot him a quick glance and adjusted her towel, then rummaged through her bag for her skincare. “Is Grandma asleep?”