Chapter 194: Chapter 194: How Could He Possibly Spare Them?

“Oh, that girl, she’s had a pretty miserable time,” someone nearby chimed in.

“If she were like her older sister and just left, that would’ve been fine. But she had to stay in the country. Isn’t that a sign something’s wrong with her head?”

“Tsk, if you ask me, it’s our country’s legal system that’s the problem. It needs reform…”

“Alright, alright, how did this discussion escalate to matters of state? Are we playing or not? If you want to talk about this stuff, do it at your office.”

“HAHAHA, right, right…”

Jessie Sterling had only half-heard the conversation when they stopped talking about Ronan Yates’s family matters. Instead, they moved on to discuss all the other disgusting things he’d done over the years.

Jessie could only look to her mother-in-law for help.

Mrs. Morgan furrowed her brow. After a moment of thought, she decided to tell Jessie.

“Ronan Yates is from a village in the central region. Misogyny is rampant in his hometown—the kind of place where girls aren’t allowed at the dinner table, where they’re born just to be sold off for a bride price to get a wife for a son.

“Ronan Yates himself only has two daughters, so he thinks his wife is useless for not giving him a son. His wife is a local from Aethelburg, whom he met in college. Later on, his older daughter couldn’t stand the atmosphere at home. She left the country years ago to work abroad and never came back.

“The younger daughter grew up with her mother and has a timid personality. Her grades were actually quite good back then, but Ronan Yates believed deep down that it was useless for girls to get an education, so he didn’t value it. But the girl was determined. She earned a full scholarship to a teachers’ college, and after graduating, she met and married Leo Goodman.”

By then, Ronan Yates had already worked his way up to a mid-level management position at his work unit. If he had wanted to help his daughter’s career, it would have been as easy as lifting a finger.

This kind of nepotism is very common in work units, especially within the system. Whether it was decades ago or now, having connections makes it much easier to get ahead.

“When Young Yates first joined the work unit, she and Leo Goodman were colleagues at the same level. Later, Leo was promoted by his own father-in-law, skipping several ranks. In just a few years, he left Young Yates far behind,” Mrs. Morgan said.

This wasn’t exactly a secret. In the same work unit, there are almost no secrets.

Everyone was perfectly clear on who belonged to which faction and who was whose person.

Leo Goodman was the kind of man whose ego swelled with money and power.

One can imagine his attitude toward his wife.

“Huh?” Jessie Sterling couldn’t understand at all. “Why wouldn’t he promote his own daughter?”

’No matter how you look at it, a daughter’s relationship with her father should be closer, right?’

Mrs. Morgan just smiled and said nothing.

Jessie’s question just now was more of an exclamation of disbelief than a genuine inquiry.

He didn’t promote his daughter simply because he looked down on women and believed they shouldn’t hold power or be promoted.

It was just like during the one-child policy twenty years ago, when some families with only a daughter would give their entire fortune to a nephew instead.

Jessie sighed inwardly. ’No wonder Ronan Yates’s older daughter went abroad to work all by herself after becoming an adult and hasn’t returned in all these years.’

’Growing up in a family like that, it must be hard to want to keep living with your parents.’

Just then, the people nearby also started complaining about Ronan Yates and Leo Goodman.

“…If Leo Goodman hadn’t resigned and gone to Thorne Pictures, fooling around with all those women and even causing a scene at home, Young Yates wouldn’t have ended up with mental problems. And Ronan Yates, her own father, not only did he not help his daughter, he even aided and abetted her abuser. Tsk, tsk, now she’s in a mental hospital. It’s just pitiful.”

Jessie’s eyes widened when she heard this. She thought she must have misheard.

“Isn’t that the truth? Ronan Yates is truly heartless toward his own daughter, acting as if she doesn’t exist. Anyone who’s been to a mental hospital knows what it’s like in there. Locked up with people who are seriously unwell, you can’t even get a peaceful night’s sleep.” This was said by the woman who had just mentioned that a young girl from her bureau had recently visited the hospital. “How can anyone get better being locked up in a place like that? It only makes things worse.”

Only then was Jessie sure that she hadn’t misheard, that it was all true.

’Leo Goodman’s wife was actually sent to a mental hospital by him. No wonder the files from Cheryl Stuart showed he was keeping so many women on the side. He wasn’t afraid of his family finding out at all.’

’The only one who knew, his father-in-law, was in cahoots with him.’

Jessie’s mood suddenly became incredibly complicated.

She couldn’t understand how such parents could exist in the world. ’Even if you raise a cat or a dog for decades, you’d develop feelings for it, right? Let alone a human being.’

Just as Jessie was lost in thought, she felt a gentle pat on the back of her hand.

Jessie looked down and saw it was Mrs. Morgan patting her hand.

“It takes all sorts to make a world. Some people don’t deserve to be parents, yet they become parents so easily,” Mrs. Morgan said softly. “Everything happens for a reason. Wicked people will always get their comeuppance.”

Jessie gave a soft “mm” in response, but she still felt a heavy weight on her chest, as if a large stone were pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe.

Later, after she got home, she couldn’t help but call Lynn Jennings to talk about it.

Lynn Jennings sighed. “Actually, there are a lot of people like that out there. But you don’t have to lament her for not leaving her toxic family. People who grow up in families like that are fundamentally different from you. To an outsider, leaving seems simple, but for them, the need to prove their own worth might be even more important than escaping their family.”

’Although her own family wasn’t quite this bad, it was six of one, half a dozen of the other.’

Lynn Jennings had been through a similar psychological journey herself, which was why she could analyze it so clearly for Jessie.

Jessie couldn’t help but sigh. “But her situation now is just too tragic.”

’Anything can happen in a mental hospital. The frequency of assaults in society is nowhere near as high as it is inside a psychiatric ward.’

On the other end of the line, Lynn Jennings seemed to think of something and fell silent for a long while. Finally, she spoke softly, “Maybe it’s just everyone’s fate. When the older generation used to say that, I thought it was meaningless. Your destiny is in your own hands; what kind of person you become should be your own decision. But a lot of the time, the environment you grow up in determines your personality and your ability to take control of your own destiny.”

After Jessie hung up with Lynn Jennings, she still looked a little down.

Victor Morgan had gone to the office to work overtime for a bit during the day and had come home around four or five in the afternoon.

“Did you have a bad time today?” Victor Morgan asked as he came out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel and walking over to Jessie.

Jessie shook her head. “No.”

“Then why do you look so down in the dumps?”

Jessie told Victor Morgan the gossip she had heard that day.

Victor Morgan listened intently. He reached out and ruffled the top of Jessie’s hair. “You’re angry and unhappy just because of this?”

Jessie tilted her head, trying to dodge his hand. “What do you mean, ’just because of this’? Isn’t this enough to make someone angry?”

Seeing Jessie look like she was about to explode, Victor Morgan knew she was upset again.

He quickly clarified, “Are you thinking about getting her out of the hospital? Or something else?”

Jessie was silent for a moment, then said dejectedly, “How could I have the ability to do that?”

“It’s not impossible.” Just as she finished speaking, Victor Morgan’s voice came from above her.

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