Wen Yue was already heartbroken. She never expected that her Third Aunt—no, her biological mother—would say such things in front of so many family members, and her face instantly turned several shades paler.
Xia Dongxue held back her heartache, turning her face away, afraid she would soften.
It wasn't that the family couldn't keep Wen Yue, but doing so would be profoundly unfair to Yunyi. Xia Dongxue didn't want her daughter to return home only to live with unease. The thought of Wen Yue enjoying their affection for all those years—affection that should have been her daughter's—while her own child had been deliberately taken out into the harsh winter and abandoned by that scoundrel Fang Zhichun, made her heart ache as if pricked by needles.
