Chapter 326 Earthquake Zone
A year later.
A sudden earthquake alarmed everyone. Almost overnight, the news media was plastered with the coverage of the earthquake.
Regardless of which channel was switched to, or which website was clicked into, the images were all replaced with a solid, grey-colored background.
The high-intensity earthquake had almost destroyed everything in S City.
In the living room of Green Jade Garden.
Hansen was accompanying Trevor and Marissa at dinner.
“Hansen, the earthquake is a natural disaster. The Richards Group is a large group company. Have you prepared anything for this?” After stuffing a mouthful of omelette into his mouth, Trevor remembered the current situation and asked seriously.
After gulping down the almond milk, Hansen smiled and said gently, “Don’t worry, Dad. We are a well-known company and wouldn’t skimp on any donation. Last night, I asked the mid-level executives of the company to bring ten thousand tents and a lot of food, as well as a hundred million dollars of funds, to the scene. They should have arrived by now.”
“Good, well done.” Trevor’s face revealed a smile of appreciation. “You’re a public figure. There are many people watching you. Your every move will affect the reputation of the Richards Group. Also, a great entrepreneur must have a heart of his own. He needs to know how to repay society, save lives, and heal injuries. Only then will such a group have a sense of humanity. Only then will people praise it. Admiration is the only way for such an enterprise to be accepted by everyone and go further.”
He put his spoon down, with a serious look on his face. Although his voice was warm, it contained an earnest expectation.
The Richards Group had been standing strong for a hundred years. Not only did their heirs work hard, but they also had a profound spiritual and cultural foundation. Of course, this also included the contribution to society.
Upon hearing these words, Hansen was struck by a thought. He recalled the incident at the banquet on the island in the center of the city the year before. When Aria was about to chase away the children of the welfare home, Jenna had protected them. Her face was filled with anger as she said those words. Every word she said was reasonable, and each of them touched the hearts of the people.
On that day, in order to control Aria, he hadn’t protected her openly but supported her in the dark. Eventually, she’d succeeded in keeping those children, and without a hitch, held a charity event at the banquet. Part of the donations received had gone straight into the welfare home, which also helped fund those children’s education.
On that day, she’d stood on the magnificent stage. Although she’d worn plain clothes and without any makeup, her charisma was extraordinary at that moment, catching everyone’s attention. She definitely wouldn’t lose to Aria, who was adorned with all the jewels and treasures on her body.
Such a beautiful woman, whom he loved deeply, had left with his child for a year and a half. There was no news about her at all.
He suddenly felt sore in his heart and could not eat anything anymore.
“Dad, Mom, enjoy your meal. I’m done.” He put down his spoon and went to the living room sullenly. He sat on the sofa with a depressed face.
“Hansen, eat more.” Marissa saw that he had only taken a few sips of almond milk and not eaten breakfast. Her heart ached and she hastily stopped him.
“Let him go.” Trevor glanced at Marissa and said flatly.
“Trevor, I only have one son, Hansen. Look at him. In the past year or so, he has worked hard and did not speak or smile. It’s obvious that he was unhappy. Looking at him, my heart feels as if it is stung by hundreds of bees.” Marissa thought that Hansen had changed into a different person in the past year. He would barely speak. His heart weighed down with sorrow. He barely even ate anything.
Her son was a man with such a halo on him, and he could get whatever he desired. However, he had never been truly happy before. How could she ever feel at ease when he was like this?
“Only now do you know how to feel sorry for him? If you had known it would be like this, why didn’t you help him to keep an eye on Jenna?” Trevor was furious when he heard Marissa’s complaint.
She only knew how to pity her son. If she hadn’t been there to fan the flames of trouble, would that woman, Aria, have been able to take advantage of the situation and slipped in? Would so many things have happened afterwards?
At the thought of this, his face darkened and he slammed his spoon heavily on the table.
Marissa’s face was pale. Her eyes were full of tears in an instant.
“No matter what I say, you would bring that up to lecture me. I am still his mother no matter what had happened. Everything I did, I did it for him. Looking back at those years, if it weren’t for your illness, I wouldn’t have lost my mind and wouldn’t have made the wrong judgment.” Marissa wiped her tears, with grievance and unwillingness on her face.
“There was nothing I could do about my sickness, but you, you didn’t know right from wrong, barking up at the wrong trees. You always liked to interfere in Hansen’s affairs and made his life a mess. Think about it, if you didn’t support Aria in the dark, would she have succeeded?” Trevor’s face was forbidding. “Until now, you should correct your poor habit of favoring the rich. When a person lives to this age, they should often reflect on their own, instead of blindly favoring one side. If you look at your own son and feel sorry for him, how about another person’s daughter?”
Marissa didn’t know what to say. Knowing that she was in the wrong, she lowered her head and wiped her tears.
“Have you ever thought about how much in pain Jenna is? Her father was framed and killed, and her mother was paralyzed. The only family she could rely on was her husband. Her husband didn’t love her, and her mother-in-law often made trouble for her, and even some other women came to her house to steal her husband. If it were you, what would you do? As long as you still have a conscience, you should pray for her forgiveness every day. Don’t love your son only, but also his wife as well. If it were any other woman, she would never come back to this family again.” Trevor continued to criticize her. The more he said, the more weight he put behind his words.
Because of this, in the one year or more since he had woken up, he was almost cold to Marissa, and he was absolutely dissatisfied with her performance in the whole process.
Marissa had received a lot of criticism from Trevor in this year. So, of course, her life was not any better.
“Trevor, it’s been so many years. Am I such a heartless woman? You have to put yourself in my shoes. In my eyes, my son and this family are the most important things. What’s more, I was none the wiser at that time. So, you can’t blame me for all this, alright?” She wiped her tears with a tissue and could not speak.
“Don’t blame you? Have you seen the consequences of what you did? Your daughter-in-law has left a Richard family’s descendant, and she is unwilling to enter our house ever again. Have you ever thought about how a woman lives with a baby inside her? Can you imagine how hard it is for a woman to raise her child alone? What you did had ultimately hurt our Richard family’s bloodline.” Trevor’s voice was cracking up.
Tears streamed down Marissa’s face as she sat there, completely at a loss.
That year, she had known that Jenna was pregnant at the family meeting. When she’d heard that Aria actually needed ten million dollars to get Brock to get rid of the child in Jenna’s belly, she’d almost fainted.
She had never thought that Aria would be so vicious and heartless. She just thought that she loved Hansen and was perhaps too jealous. Seeing that she was carrying Hansen’s child, she’d yielded to her demands again and again, but she would never have imagined that there would be such a shameful and ugly truth hidden beneath her facade. At that moment, she’d been shocked and scared, and she’d regretted everything she did. At that moment, she had thought that, as long as Jenna came back, she would definitely dote on her like her own daughter. Nevertheless, she never came back. It looked like she should be extremely disappointed with this family now.
Otherwise, how could a woman rather struggle to raise the child alone than to go back to her husband’s home?
However, even so, her fault was not unforgivable! Plus, now her husband’s dissatisfaction with her had made her heartbroken.
Hansen listened to the row between Marissa and Trevor and felt even more upset.
These days, they were often at each other’s throats. His father often scolded his mother, and his mother often shed tears, which annoyed him.
Sitting on the sofa, he casually turned on the wide-screen TV on the wall and raised the volume of the sound, covering up the annoying sound and focusing on the TV.
The TV was all gray, and all the shots were live broadcasts of the earthquake scene. From time to time, all kinds of rescue personnel and reporters sent messages.
Suddenly, the TV screen turned to a small town, and the radio player was sadly broadcasting the news. This was a school in a poor mountainous area. Due to the earthquake, the school had collapsed, and many students were still buried deep in the debris. As the men and women of the nearby villages had gone out to work, most of them were children who stayed behind. There were only a few teachers left in the school, and this village was far away from the rescue team, so it was very remote. Now the children were buried in the debris pile without anyone to rescue them. It was an emergency.
Hansen felt an indescribable sense of heaviness in his heart.
The images stayed on the school, praying for the rescue outside.
Suddenly, in front of the already collapsed building, within a pile of gray debris, a charming figure appeared in front of the camera. It was a woman who was shouting anxiously. One could vaguely see her mouth opening and closing, waving towards a reporter.
The camera gradually moved toward her. It was a face that couldn’t be seen clearly. The mottled mud was smeared on her face, and vague tear stains could be seen. However, the anxiety on her face and the despair and sadness in her eyes were so clear.
Hansen couldn’t help but to sit up and stare at that face. In the blurry image, the pain and despair in his eyes were grabbing at his heart, and his breath was almost going to stop.
Although the image was too blurry and the sky was too dim to see her face clearly, her charming figure was fixed in the mind of Hansen, shaking him to the point that he leapt to his feet.
This figure was too familiar. Hansen was almost certain that this woman was the Jenna he had been looking for.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.
He quickly fished out his mobile phone and dialled Alvin’s phone number.
“Alvin, be swift, get a helicopter. Send the Grand Grand Eagles to Fisher Town in S City with me. Be quick.” He paused the TV on the camera for a second and came to a firm decision. “Also, bring 500 tents and food.”
After giving out this order, he ran out quickly.