Chapter 217

Just like Cassandra thought, once Evelyn Taylor returned to the Lin family, the Taylor household quieted down noticeably. Whether it was the calm before the storm or simply because they'd lost their patron, either way, Lillian Doyle and Vera Taylor had stopped messing with her. That day, Cassandra got a call from Gerald Hawthorne. When she heard him invite her over for a game of chess, she was genuinely caught off guard. They hadn’t really talked since she exposed Mara Hawthorne at her birthday party, showing how she gambled away her previous life’s pendant. That incident had put a pretty big wedge between her and Grandpa. Later, when Mara tried to harm her and Gerald literally got down on his knees, begging her to drop the charges, Cassandra hadn’t contacted him since. Maybe he realized he’d crossed a line and decided not to reach out to save face. Even though she was now officially part of the Taylor family, Cassandra still saw him as her grandfather. So when he called, she didn’t he