Chapter 139: The Truth Behind Daniel's Death

After waking up, Grace found herself surrounded by snow-white bed sheets. She realized she hadn't died and was instantly overwhelmed by a complex array of emotions.

“Madam, you're awake?” The butler, noticing her movement, quickly approached to check on her. “Thank goodness, you're alright.”

The butler offered a few more words of comfort, but Grace, staring blankly at the ceiling, suddenly moved her lips. “Where's Ryan?”

The butler's heart skipped a beat. “You wish to see the second young master?”

At that moment, Ryan was waiting outside the ward. Soon, the butler came out and informed him that his mother wanted to see him.

Ryan entered to find his mother hooked up to various monitoring devices, her face pale as she lay in bed. A sense of guilt and compassion welled up inside him, and he sighed.

“I won't ask any questions. I just hope you can take care of yourself and stop making such reckless moves, alright?”

Upon hearing this, Grace didn't respond to his words but instead spoke on her own, her voice desolate.

“It was Miss Ava who found me, wasn't it.”

Ryan nodded silently and then said, “Everything will pass. Life is precious. I hope you can be strong.”

However, a bitter smile played on Grace's lips. “Ryan, don't you really want to know the truth about your brother's accident?”

Ryan's body stiffened. After a few seconds of silence, he forced himself to say, “No, I don't want to know anymore.”

“Are you sure? This is what you've always been eager to find out.” Grace struggled to get up from the bed, and Ryan quickly moved to help her. Then he heard her weak voice again, “I had intended to take this secret to my grave, but fate had other plans and I survived. Now, I don't want to keep it hidden anymore.”

Ryan stared at her, his breathing suddenly heavy.

......

A few months ago, while Daniel was on vacation in Mexico City, he accidentally discovered that his brakes had been tampered with. He knew exactly who wanted to harm him. At that time, the Golden Group was at a critical juncture of power transition, and there were rumors outside that the eldest son of the Golden Group, Daniel, was taking the opportunity to seize Ryan's position.

“Are you still unwilling to give it to Ryan?” The woman's voice on the phone trembled with anger.

“Have you been listening to those speculations from outside?” The man's voice on the other end sounded somewhat playful.

“What do you really want? Are the rumors true or not?”

“So what if they're true, and so what if they're false?” Daniel let out a light laugh.

“You said you had no interest in the old man's position. You said you would give it to your younger brother...”

However, before Grace could finish her sentence, Daniel silently hung up the phone. The woman's hand holding the phone tightened involuntarily, and the long-buried hatred once again surged from her heart.

Well, Daniel, very well. Since you wronged me first, don't blame me for being ruthless.

On the third night in Mexico City, he couldn't sleep and went out for some fresh air. He happened to notice some movement coming from his garage. Instinctively, he took out his phone, aimed at the garage, and quietly took a few photos in the dark. However, after a while, those dark figures flashed out of the garage and quickly disappeared. He looked at their backs, and he seemed to recognize one of them.

Having been by her side for years, he couldn't possibly not know whose men they were.

Indeed...

A bitter taste welled up in Daniel's heart. She had finally come.

He slowly walked into his garage and carefully examined his car. The brakes clearly showed signs of tampering. He nonchalantly curled the corners of his lips, got in, and tried them out, only to be surprised that there was no problem at all.

Daniel was very familiar with the internal structure of cars, so he simply opened the brakes to take a look, and the result was consistent with his earlier judgment: the brakes were fine.

How could this be?

Those people had just come in and done nothing?

Didn't she want him to disappear? After all, he had long since lost all expectations for this world. Every day of living was a torment to him, and he no longer wanted to use this hypocritical life to escape.

Why not, then? He would fulfill her wish. It was he who had wronged her. In this way, she could stop hating him, right?

Thus, after much thought, the man silently modified his brakes himself, pushing himself into the abyss of death the next day.

“At that time, I regretted it,” Grace's thoughts wandered as she murmured, “When they were about to act, I went crazy calling them, canceling, quickly canceling the plan. Fortunately, I made it in time.”

“What kind of sinful thing was I doing? How could I do such a thing? I...” Grace held her head, her expression turning into intense pain.

“I clearly stopped it, but Daniel still died. What exactly happened? Tell me, what exactly happened!”

Grace of the past didn't know, but ever since Ryan showed her Daniel's last letter, she understood everything.

“I know it was you. You got what you wanted.”

No, this wasn't what she wanted! Grace was in so much pain she could hardly breathe. Daniel, can you hear me? This isn't what she wanted. Why, to fulfill her once hypocritical and selfish thoughts, did you give up your life? Why, even at the last moment of life, could you not forget her, yet let her go so easily then?

Why, why, why is all of this happening!

“Daniel... Daniel.”

Grace murmured his name, tears streaming down her face one after another.

“The eldest brother did this out of guilt,” Ryan suddenly spoke indifferently, “partly out of guilt towards Dad, partly towards Mom, and another part towards the Golden Group. The eldest brother just didn't want to make mistakes again, which is why he suppressed his feelings.”

“He was so foolish... He would never know that the moment I regretted, I just wanted to hear him say he loved me one day.”

Ryan closed his eyes, unable to bear looking at his mother's expression any longer, feeling an overwhelming heaviness in his heart that made it hard to breathe. Suddenly, he thought of something and mustered the courage to speak.

“Mom, would you like to see Ben?”

Hearing these two words, Grace was momentarily stunned. After a long silence, she nodded blankly.

Ben, the child she felt most guilty about in her life. As a mother, she had failed to fulfill her maternal duties, not even having the chance to acknowledge him as her son. In the Golden Group, she could only interact with him as his grandmother, and she had resented that deeply.

Later, avoidance became her best defense. Not seeing the child meant no pain, no recalling of that ridiculous and absurd relationship.

But this time... she didn't want to run away anymore.

Ben was eventually led in slowly by Ava. The moment he saw Grace, his head instinctively dropped. Grace's heart trembled. This was Ben's standard reaction upon seeing her after all these years—avoidance, fear.

“Ben...” she murmured, calling him over. The moment Ben stood in front of her, she hugged him tightly and wept, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!”

Seeing this, Ryan silently took Ava out of the room.