Nancy's random guessing threw Joanna into deep thoughts.
She frowned. She examined the letter over and over again and remained silent for a long time.
Nancy realized that she must have talked too much. She quickly covered her mouth and said hurriedly. "What I have said… Don't take it to heart. Why would the Moran family do that? If they were really the ones who harmed the Pierce family, why would they let you marry Mr. Moran?"
"You are right. But Father and Mother let me read this letter only after I got a divorce and emphasized that I must not blame the Moran family, so there must be something unspeakable in this matter, and it has to be related to the Moran family."
Joanna squinted her eyes and had roughly got a big picture of the matter. She said, "Although the Morans might not necessarily be the ones who harmed the Pierces, they must know something. Moreover, the people behind the fall of the Pierce family should be very influential. Otherwise, Grandfather, Father, and Mother would not repeatedly tell me not to take revenge, or force me to take away my dignity and seek protection from the Moran family!"
The Pierces were the descendants of famous generals. They were never weaklings.
If the other party was capable enough to force her parents to commit suicide and her grandfather to entrust her to the Moran family, they should be more powerful than the Pierce family.
However, their power should only be on par with the Moran family. Otherwise, she would have long been eliminated and not have survived for so many years.
In the City, there were only a few families that could be evenly matched with the Moran family. Now that she had the
information, it was easier for her to lock on to her target…
"What do we do now, Miss Joan? Are you going to seek revenge?"
"Of course, I will!" She frowned as her gaze turned hostile, and continued, "I will not let any of those who killed my parents go!"
She had too many concerns when she was Mrs. Moran. Back then, she obeyed her grandfather's last words and lived as a housewife who cared nothing about the things happening in the outside world and gave up on seeking revenge.
Now, everything was different. She had divorced Ace and had no relationship with the Moran family. So, she would not let the fall of her family and let her parents' death be meaningless.
From now on, she would seal her heart in a loveless chamber and retaliate without fear!
The next morning, Joanna was awakened by the pleasant tune sung by the birds.
"Good morning, two little ones!"
She stretched her body and patted lightly on her belly. She was still in early pregnancy, so she did not have a baby bump yet and fetal movement would be even less likely. Regardless, she felt that the child did respond to her, and this made her feel a lot better.
It was no exaggeration to say that this was the most comforting and peaceful sleep she had in the past three years.
"Good morning, Miss Joan. You are just in time for breakfast!"
Nancy entered the bedroom, carrying a tray with Joanna's favorite milk and handmade bread, like how she would do in the past. Looking at Nancy, who was standing in the morning sun, Joanna felt as if she had traveled back to the past, back to when her grandfather, father, and mother were still alive, back to when the Pierce family was in its heyday!
"The weather is very fine today. Do you have any arrangements. Miss Joan?" Nancy asked softly, handing Joanna the glass of milk.
Joanna took a big gulp of the milk. After thinking for a while, she suddenly looked at the sunflowers Liam gave her yesterday on the bedside table, and smiled. "I want to give the backyard a good makeover. Let's plant lots of sunflowers like in the past." "That's wonderful. I'll help you!" said Nancy gaily, "The garden used to be full of sunflowers, and it was very beautiful during the flowering season. We should really bring the house back to life!"
After breakfast, the two got busy tidying up the overgrown garden. They cleared the weeds and loosened the soil.
Since Joanna was pregnant, she could only manage simple and easy things. It was Nancy who did most of the hard work.
When Nancy was shoveling the soil, she suddenly found a foreign object in the soil and threw away the shovel in shock. " Miss Joan, come and take a look at this!"
Joanna hurried over upon hearing Nancy and saw a green carved jade lying in the deep hole. She picked up the jade and brushed away the dirt to examine it more carefully.
The jade was bright green and translucent. There was no trace of impurities, and it was cool to touch. Judging from the exquisite carvings on the gemstone, she knew immediately it was a priceless antique.
Nancy stared at the ornament in confusion. "This is strange. Since when was such valuable jade buried in the backyard? Hasn't anyone discovered this before? Could it be that someone sneaked in and buried this here after the fall of the Pierce family?"
Joanna frowned as she tried to figure out an answer, and that was when her eyes were drawn to the pattern carved on the jade.
She had a feeling that she had seen this pattern before.
"I don't think so."
Nancy carefully recalled the past. "I have been guarding this house diligently since the incident. It's impossible that anyone got in. Even if someone took the opportunity of my brief absence to sneak in and bury this, I would have noticed it. Anyway, Who would hide such a high–grade jade in someone else's backyard? Has he nothing better to do?"
Joanna nodded in agreement.
Nancy was a meticulous person. There was no way she would not have found it if someone had touched the soil of the
backyard.
So, a stronger possibility would be that this jade was buried in the backyard for a long time, but no one had ever found it.
"Nancy, I feel familiar with this pattern but can't remember where I have seen it before. Do you have any impression of it?"
"Let me take a look at it."
Nancy even put on her glasses to see it clearly.
She looked at it carefully for a while and then suddenly remembered something. "I've seen this pattern before. When you were born, you were wrapped in a quilt. The embroidery of the lining is exactly the same as this. It resembles a combination of the Cyber Queen and the red spider lily!"
"Now that you've mentioned it, I remember it now."
Joanna had superb visual memory. She could remember almost everything she had seen.
She had a glance at the quilt when packing up her mother's belongings. She locked it in a box with her parents' stuff and carried it wherever she went.
"So it seems this belongs to Mrs. Pierce." Nancy said. But feeling that something was off, she added, "But if this belongs to her, why did she bury it here instead of passing it on to you?"
"I am not sure either. But this jade should be very meaningful. I have to keep it well."
Joanna clutched the jade tightly in her hand, hoping to figure out what it was as soon as possible.
She wanted to compare the jade pattern with the quilt's embroidery to see if she could find any clue.
However, when she opened the box where she kept the quilt, it was no longer there.
"This is weird. I clearly put it in the box. Why can't I find it?"
Joanna frowned as she tried to recall the past.
'Could I have left it in her Residence and forgot to take it? Or is it still in Moran villa?'
Regardless of where it was, she had to retrieve it if she wanted to figure out the origin of the jade. This meant she had to revisit
Her Residence or Moran manor once more.
Joanna brushed away the dirt and weeds on her body and said, "Nancy, I have to go somewhere, so you don't need to prepare
lunch for me."
"Where are you going. Miss Joan? Do you need me to accompany you?"
Nancy had lived in the basement for three years as a ghost, all in the name of waiting for her young mistress to return.
When she heard Joanna say she wanted to leave, she feared that the latter would not return.
"Don't worry. I will come back in the evening."
Joanna put on a loose–fitting purple dress and a pair of canvas shoes and tied her hair in a high ponytail. This made her look like a lively college student.
And she went to her Residence. Though she had moved out, she could still enter freely because she was still the owner of this place since Liam bought it in her name.
To avoid running into Ace, Joanna decided to act quickly and leave in ten minutes.
However, when the elevator door opened, she coincidentally ran into Ace getting off the elevator…