CHAPTER 85: CHAPTER 85: YVONNE STERLING AND ADRIAN SPENCER’S PAST

Yvonne Sterling has been living comfortably at Prospect Hill these days, with Ms. Cheney preparing three meals a day, a caregiver attending to her daily needs, and a doctor visiting for health checkups.

Silas Sheffield has arranged everything meticulously.

This lifestyle of being waited on hand and foot made Yvonne feel like she was back to the days over twenty years ago when she married Adrian Spencer as the second daughter-in-law of the Spencer Family.

Yvonne’s family background was quite ordinary, even poor.

Her parents were ordinary salaried workers, earning only a few thousand a month, while her grandparents were farmers who worked from sunrise to sunset.

As a child, Yvonne was a left-behind child in a rural area, with her parents working in the city and leaving her to be raised by her grandparents in the countryside.

When she was three years old, her parents had a second child, a boy.

Her parents named this boy Hugh Sterling, a name that her father Charles Sterling took a month to decide.

Unlike her previous name "Roxanne Sterling," which was chosen in just three minutes.

Roxanne, a homophone for "like a boy."

Her parents regretted that she wasn’t a boy.

Hugh Sterling was kept by his parents’ side from a young age, attending school in the city, with a school bus for commuting, while living in a place with convenient stores and large supermarkets nearby, enjoying chicken legs and milk every day.

Whereas Yvonne lived with her grandparents in a remote mountain village and boarded at a kindergarten from a young age, with her grandfather taking her to school on Monday and picking her up on Friday.

Back then, the old home didn’t even have a bicycle, so ever since she started kindergarten, she walked to school.

A winding and rugged mountain path of an hour, her grandfather would only carry her for part of the journey when she was too tired to walk.

After entering primary school, no one carried her anymore, and little Yvonne would get up before dawn every Monday to make breakfast, walk over an hour to school, and then walk back every Friday.

Whenever it rained, the path turned muddy and slippery, and little Yvonne, wearing plastic rain boots, would cautiously tread through the sludge, easily slipping and falling into the dirty, muddy water.

Yvonne walked this road to school for nine years.

Until she entered middle school and rural bus services began operating in the town, she no longer had to walk so far, only needing to walk ten minutes to catch a bus at the village entrance for a twenty-minute ride to the school gate.

The school meals were poor, with daily servings of seasonal vegetables and hardly any meat.

While milk and chicken legs were common for Hugh, they were a luxury for Yvonne.

Yvonne would never forget that summer vacation before the start of middle school, when she went to the city where her parents worked to visit.

Her younger brother in primary school told her that he had a school bus every day, ate chicken legs and drank milk every day, had durian and mangosteen as favorite fruits, and went to the youth palace with their parents on weekends.

It was the first time Yvonne heard new words like "durian," "mangosteen," and "youth palace."

She didn’t even know what durian and mangosteen looked like, let alone tasted them.

If her brother wanted to eat durian, mom would buy it, and Yvonne got to taste her first bite of durian thanks to her brother.

But she never set foot in the youth palace.

That summer vacation ended with her mother sending Yvonne to the train station.

The twelve-year-old Yvonne held onto her mother’s clothes, pleadingly asking, "Mom, can I stay here and live with you?"

She too wanted the privilege of a school bus every day.

Wanted to eat chicken legs and drink milk every day.

Wanted to go to the youth palace with her brother.

But her mother pushed her hand away, "Your dad and I don’t have the extra time and energy to take care of you."

Little Yvonne pleaded with tear-filled eyes, "Mom, I can take care of myself, I know how to wash clothes and cook."

"I can go to school on my own without you having to pick me up, and I always top my class, you wouldn’t need to worry about my studies at all, please let me stay?"

Her mother’s gaze flickered with a moment of reluctance.

But only for an instant.

She firmly refused, "No, the curriculum here is different from back home; transferring here would fall behind, and you wouldn’t understand the teachers’ lectures here either, you should stay back home."

Little Yvonne didn’t realize her mom was making excuses, and earnestly said, "I can catch up; teachers always praise me for my intelligence."

Her mother’s expression turned cold, "Enough, don’t you understand when I say you need to go back? Why are you so naughty? Your dad and I are already exhausted from work and taking care of your brother, don’t make it harder for us, alright?"

Heard the rebuke and anger in her mother’s tone, little Yvonne closed her mouth, biting her lip in grievance, tears rolling in her eyes.

Upon returning to the village from the city, Yvonne threw herself into her studies even more diligently.

During the three years of middle school, she consistently ranked first in her grade, significantly outperforming the second place, and ultimately got accepted into the best high school in the province after her entrance exams.

The high school was in the city, far from home.

To return home, she had to take a city bus to the coach station, ride over an hour to the county, transfer to a rural bus for half an hour to the town, then switch to a village minibus to the village entrance, and finally walk ten minutes to get home.

Counting the commute and waiting times, each trip home took her the whole day.

In those three years of high school, she could only go home during winter and summer vacations and holidays.

With grandparents growing old, in poor health, and limited mobility, parents working in another province, despite Yvonne consistently excelling in every exam, no one ever attended a parent-teacher conference on her behalf.

Upon graduating high school, Yvonne scored over 600 on her exams and was admitted to Ardendale University.

Her parents, however, said it was useless for girls to study so much, as they’d eventually marry and have kids anyway, suggesting it was better to start working early to contribute to the household.

Yvonne had a fierce argument with her parents.

Charles and his wife clearly stated they wouldn’t support Yvonne’s college education.

So, Yvonne ran away from home, heading to Ardendale alone to find a summer job to earn her tuition.

Her beauty caught the eye of an agent who placed her as a waitress in an upscale club.

It was there, by chance, that Yvonne met Silas Sheffield, the second son of the Spencer family.

Silas Sheffield took a liking to Yvonne at first sight.

Upon learning of Yvonne’s situation, Silas offered to sponsor her university tuition on the condition that she start a relationship with him.

Yvonne had never encountered such a handsome and wealthy young heir before.

The man was tall with a broad build, long legs, strikingly masculine features, and a pair of deep, enchanting eyes capable of bewitching any soul.

From the moment she met Silas Sheffield, Yvonne was awestruck, her young heart fluttering, falling for him at first sight.

And so Yvonne and Silas began dating, with Silas sponsoring her education.

After Yvonne graduated from university, Silas overcame opposition to marry her.

Yvonne married into high society, a mismatch of backgrounds, unaccepted by her father-in-law, tormented by her mother-in-law, treated coldly by her brother and sister-in-law, with only Yvonne understanding the heartache behind it all.

In the third year after giving birth to their second daughter Clara, Silas’s first love, Stella Langley, returned home.

After repeatedly choosing Stella over Yvonne in "second choice" situations, Yvonne finally lost all hope in the marriage.

The final straw was her eldest daughter, Anabelle Spencer.

Anabelle, then five, got along well with Silas’s first love, Stella.

Stella knew how to make children happy.

Anabelle didn’t like the nutritious meals prepared by the servants.

Instead, she loved junk foods like fried chicken, fries, burgers, and BBQ, preferring soda and bubble tea.

Stella would often take Anabelle out to eat her favorite junk foods, buying her soda and bubble tea.

These were fine as occasional treats, but not to be consumed every day.

Silas was too busy with work to spend much time with the children, and Anabelle was very attached to him.

Whenever he was busy, he’d let Stella take Anabelle out to play.

Stella not only bought her junk food daily but also taught her games, never restricting her playing time.

In contrast, Yvonne insisted on nutritious meals daily and prohibited playing games.

Over time, Anabelle grew fond of Stella.

One day, after an argument with Yvonne over video games, Anabelle shouted, "I don’t want you as my mom, I want Auntie Langley!"

At that moment, Yvonne felt her heart shatter, tears gushing out.

That sentence became the last straw, prompting Yvonne to file for divorce, taking Clara with her but leaving Anabelle behind.