Chapter 2482

Francesca Carrington was known as the village beauty. Everyone said she was destined to marry well, perhaps even into a good family in town. However, all that hope was shattered one day. She went missing and disappeared while gathering firewood in the mountains. She was gone for three days, and when she finally returned, she was dazed and disoriented. Villagers started whispering. They suspected something bad had happened to her. Two months later, their suspicions were confirmed. Francesca was indeed pregnant, but she didn't know who the father was. Having a child out of wedlock was seen as a serious moral disgrace back then. If her parents hadn't begged on their knees for mercy, she probably would have been tied to a chair and dunked into the pond. Even so, she was seen as tainted. Under the pressure of the villagers' judgment, her family eventually gave in and cast her out. She was sent to live alone in a wooden cabin near the foot of the mountain. Overnight, Francesca went f