The Day I Went Silent Chapter 20
The next day, Olivia’s best friend sent her a message.
[Did you know? Addison was sent away by Mr. Vance.]
Olivia was startled and quickly typed back to ask what had happened.
[I don’t know what got into Mr. Vance, insisting on sending the old lady to an overseas estate for her retirement.
She cried and made a huge scene, but it was no use. The Vance family is entirely in Julian’s hands now.]
[If you ask me, the old hag deserved it. All she ever did was bully you.]
Olivia froze for a long time before she suddenly started to laugh.
As she laughed, tears began to fall one by one.
Eleanor pushed the door open and found her crying. She quickly pulled her into an embrace. “Oh my, what’s wrong? Who bullied our Olivia?”
“No one bullied me. I just suddenly realized…” Olivia leaned into her arms, her voice choking with sobs. “It was actually this simple.”
It was actually this simple to send Addison away.
It was actually this simple to save her from that endless nightmare.
Yet over the past three years, she had begged Julian for help countless times, and he had never once thought of fixing it.
She had thought Julian was just being a dutiful grandson, and since the old lady held shares in the Vance Group, it was hard for him to deal with.
So she comforted herself time and time again, swallowing her bitterness over and over.
Thinking about it now, it was utterly ridiculous.
Eleanor didn’t understand what was going on, but she held her daughter and comforted her in a soft voice.
In the afternoon, Julian knocked on Olivia’s door with Oliver in tow.
Olivia had already gathered her emotions. She had a pile of yarn on the table and was knitting a cute hat.
The moment the door opened, Oliver ran in first, staring at Olivia with bright eyes.
“Mom.”
Olivia was stunned, unable to react for a long time.
Over the past three years, let alone “Mom,” Oliver rarely even called her “Aunt Sterling.”
In front of the Vances, he would restrain himself a bit, calling her “Olivia” or “that woman.”
Behind her back, he would call her “the mistress” or “the crazy woman.”
This was the first time she had ever heard Oliver call her Mom.
It was hard to describe her feelings at this moment. It was like a piece of chocolate she had craved for a long time in her childhood, only to finally taste it as an adult and realize it was nothing special, even a bit cloying.
Olivia put down the yarn. “Don’t call me that.”
Oliver didn’t care what she said. His eyes landed on the half-knitted hat, and a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face.
“Is this for me.
I knew it, Mom could never stay mad at me.”
Olivia was good with her hands and used to enjoy doing crafts. The hats she knitted were tightly woven and cute.
She had made many for Oliver in the past, but he had never worn them.
Sometimes he would even take a pair of scissors and snip the yarn to pieces, wearing a mocking smile. “Mom said wearing cheap things like this will give me an allergy.”
He would run off after saying that, leaving Olivia to crouch on the floor and gather the scattered yarn piece by piece.
What was Julian doing back then?
Oh, he seemed to be in a rush to get to the office. He took one look and said casually, “Stop making these things. If you need anything, just have Arthur Jenkins buy it.”
Thinking of the past, Olivia’s heart still ached a little.
Seeing Oliver reaching out for the hat, Olivia slapped his hand away.
Smack. It wasn’t hard, but the child’s hands were tender, and a red mark quickly surfaced.
Oliver looked at Olivia in surprise: “Mom?”
“I told you not to call me that.”
Olivia’s tone turned cold as she gathered the scattered yarn, “This isn’t for you, either.”
This was the gift she had prepared for Meilani.