The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne)
Chapter 702

Thaddeus's little face was scrunched up tight, and he let out a faint sigh.

Seeing this, Cordelia turned to Vivienne and said, "I'm familiar with the situation. Amelia's mother Kaitlyn was a lady from the once-renowned Littleton family of Rivenwood. But after the Littleton family went bankrupt and couldn't settle their debts, her parents both jumped from the roof of their home. Later on, she married a schoolteacher, and they had a decent middle-class life, with kind in-laws."

Cordelia paused, also sighing. "I don't know who they offended, but her in-laws, who were also teachers, started having trouble as soon as she married into the family. They were constantly harassed and accused of taking bribes, and there were even more sinister rumors of her father-in-law being inappropriate with students. The scandal blew up; it was all over the internet, with people slandering them, doxxing their address, throwing paint and eggs on their house. Their neighborhood even petitioned to have them kicked out.

They called the police, but the evidence was stacked against them. The school fired both of them. Eventually, they had no choice but to sell their house. But before they could, her husband was in a severe car accident and needed expensive medical treatment. They had to rent a place and use all the money from the sale of their house for his hospital bills."

Cordelia continued, "Kaitlyn has a degree in business management, but ever since their family's collapse, she's been unable to replace work. For years, they relied on her husband's salary, and after his disability, with no income from the in-laws and their daughter's tuition being such a large expense, she had to take on the hardest and most exhausting jobs."

Vivienne frowned. "Isn't the tuition for Thaddeus's preschool quite steep? At least fifty thousand a year, right? With their family in such dire straits, why not transfer to a less expensive school?" Thaddeus wasn't attending a fancy private school. Dorian and Cordelia didn't want him to grow up feeling like a little lordling, so they chose a moderately priced preschool.

But in Imperial City, everything's expensive. Even a mid-range preschool cost fifty thousand a year.

For the Hawthorn family, that tuition was a drop in the bucket, but for Amelia's mother, it was a fortune.

"I've wondered about that, too. It's strange," Cordelia said, "Kaitlyn did try to transfer Amelia to another school, but every time she found a decent one and approached them, they rejected Amelia, saying she didn't meet their admission standards. Every preschool in Rivenwood gave the same excuse. She couldn't just not send her child to school, so she had to work even more jobs."

Cordelia sighed again. "I've bumped into Kaitlyn a few times when picking up Thaddeus. Thaddeus and Isolde are quite fond of Amelia, and sometimes we chat. I was surprised to learn that she was delivering takeout and waitressing..."

After bumping into Kaitlyn a few times, Cordelia was impressed by her temperament. However, she found it weird that Kaitlyn was working multiple jobs. After all, with her education, she could easily make more in a month at a company than working five odd jobs.

Cordelia had questioned Kaitlyn about it before, but all she got was a wry smile in response. It was someone else's business, so she didn't pry further.

Then, one Friday, after a particularly hectic day at work, Cordelia was running more than an hour late to pick up Thaddeus. When she arrived, only Thaddeus and Amelia were left without their parents to collect them.

On her way out with Thaddeus, he realized he had forgotten his drawing book and went back to retrieve it. That was when she noticed Amelia still waiting, the teacher frantically trying to reach her mother. Seeing Amelia in tears, Cordelia couldn't stand it and offered to take her to her mother's workplace.

She knew where Kaitlyn worked from their previous conversations. The teacher finally got through to Kaitlyn, who agreed, and Cordelia took Amelia with her.

Kaitlyn was working at a luxurious hotel, which was strange. Since she seemingly couldn't replace a job anywhere else, luxurious hotels shouldn't be an exception. Yet, that particular hotel oddly recruited her. When Cordelia arrived with Thaddeus and Amelia, she saw Kaitlyn being bullied by a brassy-looking woman. The woman was demanding compensation for a supposedly custom-made cup worth half a million, insisting Kaitlyn kneel and apologize.

Cordelia intervened, but the woman was relentless, threatening to call the police if she didn't get an apology and compensation.

Kaitlyn seemed terrified of the police and offered to sign an IOU, promising to pay back the money monthly. The woman gave her a week to come up with the money or face legal action.

Reluctantly, Kaitlyn signed the IOU, committing to paying the sum within a week.

After the woman left, Cordelia got the lowdown and discovered that she hadn't actually broken the woman's cup. The woman had set her up.

Fuming, Cordelia urged her to call the cops, but Kaitlyn just gave a wry smile and said, "What good would that do? No one in this world is going to set things right for us."

Feeling helpless, Cordelia eventually discussed it with Dorian, and they decided to offer Kaitlyn a position as the company's Business Manager, with a salary of $20,00 a month. To their surprise, Kaitlyn turned it down. She was grateful for the offer, but the salary wouldn't cover her family's expenses.

Cordelia never found out how Kaitlyn settled her debts. All she heard was that the poor woman had worked herself to the point of collapse, and there was no one to take care of her at home, let alone look after Amelia.

Cordelia had been meaning to visit Kaitlyn in the next couple of days, but when Thaddeus brought it up, she ended up discussing it a bit more with Vivienne.

Vivienne hadn't expected to stumble upon such a story. She was just there to pick up Thaddeus for a day of fun.

After thinking it over, Vivienne said to Thaddeus, "Alright, let's invite your classmate along too."

"You're the best!" Thaddeus danced around with glee.

Vivienne patted his head and proposed, "So we'll pick up Isolde first, then go for your friend?" "Sounds great!" Thaddeus beamed with excitement.