Chapter 147 Your Secret
"Have you even asked for my opinion? That's my wife, I..."
Candy quickly interrupted, "Holden!" Her sharp voice pierced everyone's ears, "I'm your wife! Remember, your wife is Candy, it's me! Not Anne!"
Holden stood there in a daze. After a long while, he seemed to regain some consciousness, but looked completely drained of energy as he stumbled toward his room. "Right, Anne isn't my wife anymore, she's not..."
Candy watched Holden's retreating figure and ran after him, crying.
The hall fell silent again.
The old lady watched as Holden and Candy completely ignored her, and immediately clutched her chest in anger. "Get out, all of you get out! Don't stand there annoying me!"
Except for Drona, everyone else bowed and returned to their rooms.
The hall was empty. After a long silence, Drona finally spoke softly, "Holden seems pretty shaken."
The old lady thought about her son's condition and frowned. "Yes, if he just gives up like this, what will happen to the Titan family?"
"I didn't even see Holden bring back any rewards just now. I didn't even get to ask before that lowly woman lost her temper at me. How can she have no manners? Doesn't she know what a noble lady's duties are?"
Drona said flatly, "She seemed fine before going to the eastern battlefield. Maybe something happened there that drove her crazy too."
"But I noticed something. Don't you think Holden's reaction to Anne was strange? Earlier he just stood there frozen, but as soon as you mentioned Anne, he started talking. And then he acted like that at the end, as if blaming us for driving Anne away."
The old lady pressed her lips together. "I didn't drive her away."
The old lady was telling the truth. She had initially wanted to keep Anne, not just for her dowry but for the Virlet family's wealth. Only after Holden brought Candy back and Candy provoked Anne did Anne finally go to the king requesting a legal divorce.
If Candy hadn't provoked her repeatedly, and if Anne hadn't been so difficult, refusing to use her dowry to support the Titan family, why would she have decided to hire an assassin to kill Anne?
In the end, the failure of this marriage was all Candy and Anne's fault.
The old lady would never admit that the Titan family's current downfall was because of her.
Drona, married to the old lady for many years and knowing her thoughts, raised his eyelids with contempt. "No matter who you blame, it won't change the situation. Better to think about how we can coax Anne back."
The old lady was stunned. "Coax? Don't be ridiculous. If Anne could be coaxed, she wouldn't have dared to seek an audience with His Majesty in the first place."
Drona spoke unhurriedly, "But you're forgetting that back then, Candy was between Anne and Holden. Look at Holden's reaction just now - Candy is gradually losing her place in his heart, while Anne is back in it."
"Why did Anne, as a duke's daughter, agree to marry down to Holden? Because of her feelings for him. Now Holden is thinking about her constantly - how is that different from before? "
"Besides, Anne's mother Lady Sophia arranged this marriage. Since Anne still can't get over her mother's death, if we make her feel she can't go against her mother's wishes about Holden being the chosen son-in-law, Anne will be secured."
"As for Candy." Drona sat down next to the old lady, his palm gently patting his wife's arm. "She's no longer a knight commander. Without military achievements or rank, she's just an ordinary woman, no different from any other. She's been slept with by so many men - no different from the prostitutes on the street. Even if she suddenly died, no one would care."
"Once Candy is gone, there will be no obstacles between Anne and Holden. They can remarry smoothly, Holden can get the hereditary duke title, and our Titan family will have supreme honor and wealth. Do you understand?"
The old lady rarely saw Drona with this expression. She was a bit scared, and the place where her husband's palm touched her began to tremble. "But what if Anne doesn't want to?"
"Or what if we can't deal with Candy? After all, she used to be a knight commander, she still has combat skills. If something goes wrong, like last time when Anne caught the assassin we arranged, what do we do?"
"Dear, I'm scared..."
The old lady lowered her head almost pleadingly. "I don't think I can do this well."
But Drona stared at the old lady's face. After a long while, he suddenly laughed. "You'll do very well, and very discreetly, so no one will find out."
"After all, you've had affairs behind my back so many times, and you've covered your tracks pretty well, haven't you?"
The old lady's whole body trembled. She could hardly believe her ears. "You, how did you..."
She instinctively wanted to ask how he knew, but quickly realized that her reaction was indirectly confirming that she really had affairs!
The old lady pressed her lips together, trying hard to suppress the fear in her heart. She asked softly, "What do you need me to do?"
Drona was satisfied with his wife's compliance. He leaned close to the old lady's ear and whispered his plan to her. After finishing, he added, "As long as you do this well, I'll pretend I don't know about your affairs. But if you mess it up, what you're planning to arrange for Anne should happen to you instead."
The old lady was already shocked by the plan, but hearing the last part, her eyes widened in fear. "How can you!"
She was already the mother of several children, and they were all adults. How could she be asked to do such a thing?
But facing Drona's gaze, the old lady didn't dare say more. She nodded tremblingly, but cursed Candy a thousand times in her heart.
Damn woman, why did she have to bring up Anne? And why did she have to turn the problem on her!
Thinking about the fate Drona had arranged for Candy, the old lady steadied herself. Thinking calmly, she felt Drona's idea made sense.
Whether or not they could coax Anne back to remarry Holden, at least Candy couldn't stay.
People outside were calling Candy a prostitute. Keeping such a woman in the house would only make others misunderstand the Titan family. Even Nina's marriage, which still hadn't been settled, would be delayed again and again because of Candy. In the end, she might become an old maid who couldn't get married.