Heiress Unmasked: Shaking the World With Geomancy novel Chapter 1406

From the day Celeste lost Shannon and left the latter to face the world alone, she deemed herself an unworthy mother.

She'd missed Shannon's first 15 years of life.

There was nothing she could do other than teach Shannon how to protect herself in the shortest time possible. She couldn't even meet the latter in her true appearance.

Instead of saying she refused to acknowledge their mother-daughter relationship, she couldn't muster the courage to.

"I knew I couldn't stay. If I appeared as your mother, only for you to finally accept me and have to lose me again one day, it would've been too cruel for you."

If one had never seen the sun, they could endure the darkness. She refused to be the fleeting light in Shannon's life only to leave with the sting of abandonment once more.

She'd thought about sending Shannon back to the Jensens, but Earl's spell had intertwined Shannon's fate with Rachel's over the course of 15 years.

To undo the constraints of fate, Shannon would have to break the chains herself.

Celeste understood that though keeping Shannon in the Gray family meant more suffering, she had to harden her heart for Shannon's sake.

Both the Grays and Earl were meant to be the last trials she left for Shannon to overcome.

"...Yet I never expected you to come looking for me." That thought had never crossed Celeste's mind.

She'd been by Shannon's side in Fennec's body for just two years. She'd assumed that even if Shannon had feelings for her as a mentor, they wouldn't run that deep.

But she was wrong.

After learning Shannon crossed the alternate world for Thalia's sake, her heart wallowed in a complicated mix of emotions.

Her daughter had ventured into the alternate world not for her mother but for her mentor.

Strangely, Celeste felt like she was jealous of herself.

Then, she pointed to another room and continued, "This room is for Hector. He was still young when I left, and I'm not sure if he remembers me anymore."

Shannon looked at the two rooms which were well-maintained despite being unoccupied.

Celeste had portioned out three rooms in this small apartment. Two remained empty waiting for people who might never return to live in them.

Even Macaron had to share a room with Celeste, yet she'd left these two rooms untouched and always ready for Shannon and Hector.

For the first time, Shannon truly felt the depth of Celeste's emotions. The latter had spent 18 years living alone in a world where no one knew her, and she'd carved her longing into every corner of her life.

There were the same bedsheets Shannon once used, and the same brand of instant mac and cheese they'd eaten together. There was even a fox raised as a pet, looking remarkably similar to Shannon's.

An inexplicable ache rose in Shannon's chest. She would never blame Celeste for everything that had happened.