Chapter 713 - 701: Marrying a Rich Man (4)

Chapter 713: Chapter 701: Marrying a Rich Man (4)

Eleanor Bishop fled the coffee shop in a panic and ducked into a store across the street. Watching the man exit the café and scan the area for her, her heart leaped into her throat.

She took her phone out of her bag and called home.

The phone rang for a long time before someone answered.

"Eleanor Bishop, did you ruin another blind date?!"

Listening to the tirade on the other end, Eleanor Bishop clutched her phone, hiding behind a mannequin. She lowered her voice and asked urgently, "Mom, did you take his money?"

"What money? When did I ever take his money?"

"Mom, stop playing dumb. The moment I arrived for the blind date, the man wouldn’t leave me alone. He wanted to drag me off to get a marriage license! He said you took his money—that you sold me to him. Mom, tell me honestly. Did you really take his money?"

"Really? He really wants to get a marriage license with you?" Yara Ross seemed to have heard nothing else; the only words that registered were "get a marriage license."

Eleanor Bishop’s face was ashen, and a dull ache spread through her chest. "Mom, I don’t care how much money you took. Call him right now. Tell him I’m not going to marry him, and then give every last cent back."

"Eleanor Bishop, have you lost your mind? How can you refuse such a golden opportunity?" Yara Ross roared into the phone.

"Mom, he’s not a decent person in the slightest! And he’s so much older! Marrying him would ruin my entire life. Mom, you’re my mother. You can’t destroy me like this. Even if you want me to marry someone rich, you can’t just find some random guy and sell me off!"

"What do you mean, not decent? What’s wrong with his age? Miller is only ten years older than you, and this would be his first marriage! Haven’t you heard the saying? ’A man is a flower at forty.’ Miller is only forty-three, right in his vigorous prime. Now you listen to your mother and be a good girl and marry him. A wonderful life is waiting for you." The more Yara Ross said, the more sense it made to her.

As Eleanor Bishop listened to her mother’s speech, her vision suddenly swam with black spots, and she swayed on her feet, barely able to stay upright.

’Is this really my own mother?’

’Pushing me into the fire, and sounding so happy about it...’

She hung up the phone and slapped the side of her head a few times, trying to clear it.

’I never should have expected anything from her.’

’Ever since Dad collapsed, I haven’t had any freedom to speak of.’

Just as waves of darkness washed over her vision and her mind went blank, just as the pain in her heart turned to numbness and she was on the verge of collapsing...

a sweet, girlish voice drifted over. "Daddy, hurry up!"

As soon as she spoke, a chorus of astonished cries erupted from the women nearby.

"Wow! He’s so handsome!"

"Oh my god, he’s so handsome!"

"He’s gorgeous!"

...This chorus of exaggerated gasps from the women snapped Eleanor Bishop out of her daze, and her vision slowly came back into focus.

But when she saw a pretty little girl pulling Archie Lockwood into the mall, her heart suddenly seized, as if a hand had closed around it, threatening to crush it at any moment and leave her in agony.

Her face ashen and her lips trembling, she used nearly all her strength to breathe out a single word: "Rory..."