The Millionaire’s Bride Mocked a Poor Maid—She Never Expected What Happened Next
Chapter 9
Beatrice came to Anna’s room one evening.
“I owe you an apology.”
Anna looked up from her father’s letters.
“Yes.”
Beatrice swallowed.
“I treated you terribly.”
“Yes.”
“I thought because I was marrying William, I was better than everyone here.”
Anna said nothing.
Beatrice’s voice trembled.
“I was wrong.”
Anna finally looked at her.
“Why did you mock me?”
Beatrice’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
She looked toward the window.
“Of becoming poor.”
Anna understood.
Beatrice had built her pride around money because she believed poverty meant humiliation.
Anna had lived in poverty and discovered it meant neither.
“You don’t have to become poor to become kind,” Anna said.
Beatrice cried.
Anna did not embrace her.
Not yet.
But she did not turn her away.
Meanwhile, William faced a different problem.
The Hawthorne fortune was legally his.
But much of it had been built through dishonest dealings.
William wanted to return what had been stolen.
Anna agreed.
Together they created a plan.
Farmers received back their land.
Widows received compensation.
Workers whose wages had been withheld were paid.
Debts created through forged contracts were canceled.
The trading house changed its policies.
William also opened a school for children of laborers.
Anna funded it.
When people asked why she spent so much money on strangers, she answered:
“My father lost everything because powerful men believed poor people had no voice.”
She refused to let that happen again.
But one problem remained.
Samuel Reed’s body had never been found.
Anna could not bury her father.
She searched for years.
Then, one winter morning, an old stable keeper arrived at the manor.
He carried a small wooden box.
“I knew your father.”
Anna stood.
“What is this?”
The old man looked at her.
“He asked me to keep it until you were old enough.”
Anna opened the box.
Inside was a pocket watch.
And beneath it, another letter.
Her father’s final message.
