"This whole mess is a real headache. They’re pressing hard from that side, and Vivian Caldwell is still making a scene, saying she wants to die. If this delays your father’s promotion, then that girl really is the curse of this family, a downright jinx!"
A middle-aged woman’s voice rang out in the room, sharp with irritation and impatience.
Right after that came a young girl’s voice, unable to hide the jealousy and scheming in it. "Mom, once she’s feeling a little better, why not just send her over? Why bother waiting for her to agree? What Director Randolph Miles likes is that fool’s face anyway. We’ll just tell everyone she went willingly. Who’s going to investigate?"
The older woman sounded even more annoyed. She let out a cold snort. "Who knows what’s going on in your father’s head. He insists on hearing her agree to the marriage herself. But that wretched girl just won’t get it, won’t take what’s good for her, and went straight and smashed her head against the wall. That stubborn temper of hers is exactly like her dead mother’s."
The younger girl hesitated a little, then muttered under her breath, "Do you think maybe we scared her too much before? Maybe we went a bit too far?"
As soon as she said it, the room went completely silent. Mother and daughter said nothing more.
Though unconscious, Vivian Caldwell heard every word clearly. Rage rolled up inside her, and in an instant she had the situation figured out. These two had to be the original host’s stepmother and stepsister, dead set on plotting against and trampling the daughter left behind by the first wife.
She had no wish to get tangled up in this sort of ugly family business. All she wanted was to wake up fast and get herself out of here. But her eyelids felt as heavy as lead. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t force them open, and a strange, powerful sense of dread crept up from deep inside her.
Then suddenly, a flood of unfamiliar memories crashed into her mind. Her head throbbed from the force of it, and the whole life of the original Vivian Caldwell spread out before her, from childhood right up to now.
The original host had the exact same name as her. She had been born after the founding of the nation and raised from childhood in a well-off, educated merchant family. Her grandfather, Theodore Caldwell, had been an industrial entrepreneur. Her grandmother, Eleanor Ashford, had been a refined and well-bred lady. Her mother, Serena Caldwell, was the only daughter in the family, and back then she had taken in a live-in son-in-law, Martin Ashton.
Three years ago, her grandparents died one after the other. Then her mother was killed in a car accident. With that, the huge Caldwell family fortune nearly toppled over and almost fell completely into the hands of the live-in son-in-law, Martin Ashton.
But in 1966, once the public-private joint management era ended, all the factories became state-owned. Martin Ashton’s dream of holding power went up in smoke. In the end, he was still stuck in his old line of work, serving as deputy director of the purchasing department.
The Caldwell house and all the money saved up before were under Vivian Caldwell’s name. The Caldwell family also still had some ties with the bank, and only she could withdraw the money. Nobody else could touch it, not even the man who was her father in name.
Not long after Serena Caldwell died, Martin Ashton brought Rosalind Ashton into the house. She came with two children: fifteen-year-old Chloe Ashton and two-year-old Patrick Ashton. To outsiders, he said she was a nanny brought in from their hometown, specially hired to take care of Vivian Caldwell.
At the time, the crackdown on capitalism was in full swing. Hiring a servant at home counted as exploiting the laboring people. If word got out, you’d be criticized in public, maybe even paraded through the streets. Families with servants were all rushing to send them away, and even women who used to live like rich ladies had started cooking and doing housework themselves.
So Martin Ashton used taking care of Vivian Caldwell as an excuse and told everyone the marriage was fake. He even put on a wedding feast just to make it look convincing.
Vivian Caldwell had been slow-minded since childhood. To put it bluntly, she was simple and one-track, always half a beat behind everyone else, and the whole family played her around like a fool. But since all the family property was in her name, and there were still some old retainers of the Caldwell family around, Martin Ashton at least didn’t dare shortchange her in food, clothing, or daily needs.
Rosalind Ashton also didn’t dare bully Vivian Caldwell in front of Martin Ashton. But the moment he stepped out, she’d point at Vivian’s nose and curse her endlessly, while warning her not to tell anyone. She didn’t dare lay hands on her, though. She was afraid of leaving marks and giving others something to latch onto.