The Billionaire's True Heiress From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 635

Octavia managed a polite smile, instantly catching on to Mrs. Clark’s real agenda.

Leilani’s son was hardly what anyone would call handsome, and yet she had the nerve to imagine Claire as her daughter-in-law. Mrs. Clark certainly didn’t lack for ambition. Still, with a temper like Claire’s, Octavia thought it wouldn’t be the worst thing if she took her rebellious energy to someone else’s household for a change.

The problem was, Claire was famously headstrong. She set her sights outrageously high—there was simply no way she’d ever settle for the Clark boy.

Octavia mulled things over, then offered a practiced, easy laugh. “At the moment, Claire’s completely focused on her studies. Since the engagement to the Byrons was called off, she’s living her life on her own terms.”

“It’s different with young people now,” she went on. “They’re nothing like we were. Back in our day, we did as our parents said without question, but now—they all want to make their own choices in love.”

“To be honest, Claire is still dear to me, but things have been… tense, ever since Cindy entered the picture.”

She sighed, then leaned in a little, voice dropping to a more confiding tone. “Leilani, I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to find out, all of a sudden, that the daughter you’ve poured your heart into for eighteen years… isn’t your own blood.”

“And when I learned my real daughter had been struggling all that time in the countryside, I just—well, my emotions got the better of me, and I ended up unfairly resenting Claire for things that weren’t her fault.”

“But I do love her. She’s still the child we raised.”

Leilani nodded, sympathetic. “Of course. Anyone would feel the same. I doubt I’d have handled it much better, to be honest.”

“But given your family’s resources, it’s not as if having one more daughter to care for will make a dent.”

Even if Octavia’s anger was understandable, sending Claire right out of the house was rather extreme.

Her own husband had remarked just last week how clumsily the Jameses had handled the whole thing—how disgraceful and shortsighted it looked to everyone else.

As usual, Octavia lacked vision.

“We never said we’d abandon Claire,” Octavia said, her expression earnest. “We just thought it best for both girls to return to their birth families for a while, to help ease the transition.”

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