Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Comfort
Inside the Grayson villa.
Mika Summers sat on the sofa with her head bowed, biting her lip as she endured the difficult wait.
Tiana sat beside her, sobbing her heart out, but Mika didn’t dare offer a single word of comfort. She was afraid that if she made a sound, Tristan Grayson would throw her out on the spot.
On the way over, Tristan had warned her. He said he despised her phony act—how she put on the airs of a dutiful daughter-in-law to curry favor with his family when he knew she was only with him for the money.
He had told her that if she dared to say a single word inside the Grayson estate, he would throw her out immediately.
So, for the four hours since she and Tristan had arrived at the Grayson home, she hadn’t said a single word.
She just sat silently on the sofa, listening to the family’s sobs and sighs.
"Mika, come with me," her mother-in-law, Mae Lynch, said suddenly.
"Oh..." She quickly stood up. Her eyes flickered with confusion, but she asked no questions and simply followed her mother-in-law upstairs.
Her mother-in-law led her to Tristan’s room. Inside, she saw Tristan lying motionless on the bed, seemingly asleep.
"Mom, you..." Seeing Tristan, she was so surprised she started to ask a question, but the words caught in her throat.
Her mother-in-law’s expression was grim, but she forced a smile. "Mika, Grandma just passed away. Tristan isn’t taking it well. Stay with him and talk to him for a bit."
"Okay." As terrified as she was of being alone with Tristan Grayson, seeing him lying on the bed—so lonely, desolate, and grief-stricken—she had no choice but to agree.
She loved him. She loved him so deeply, so cautiously. Even after all these years, after he had broken her heart time and time again, turning her love to hate and making her wish she could get far away from him and never see him again.
But even now, seeing him like this, she couldn’t bring herself to pretend she didn’t love him.
Before she knew it, she was slowly walking toward him on the bed, tears falling like pearls from a broken string.
Seeing her walk toward Tristan, her mother-in-law’s worried expression eased slightly. She turned, left, and closed the door behind her.
The sound of the door closing snapped her back to reality. Realizing she had nearly lost control and rushed to comfort Tristan, an imperceptible, bitter smile touched her lips.
She didn’t continue toward Tristan. Instead, she walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down quietly.
She didn’t have the courage to comfort him. She didn’t know what she could possibly say.
’Perhaps he doesn’t need my comfort at all.’
She thought bitterly. Little did she know that as she had turned to walk to the other side of the bed, Tristan Grayson’s eyes had slowly opened.
His eyes were bloodshot, and the air around him was cold enough to make one tremble.
His grandmother’s words echoed in his mind, what she had said as she held his hand with the last of her strength before she died.
He also heard his parents’ words, full of disappointment that he hadn’t lived up to their expectations.
His grandmother had said she couldn’t bear to leave this world without ever getting to hold her great-grandchild.
His father, meanwhile, had investigated his life over the past few years. He knew exactly why, after three years of marriage, they still didn’t have a child.
’You unfilial son! Do you really intend for the Grayson family line to end with you? Do you want your grandmother to be unable to rest in peace?’
’No, that’s not what I wanted,’ he thought. ’I just wanted to marry the woman I love and have children with her.’