?Chapter 1058:


    “Connolly fell in love with me instantly—at first sight,” she continued, her voice softening. “He didn’t even care that I was already pregnant. During that time, Leonardo’s men were hunting me relentlessly. I was carrying you inside me, hiding from ce to ce, enduring a life of constant hardship. To survive—to protect us both—I had no choice but to agree to marry Connolly.”


    My mother lowered her head, a shadow passing through her eyes.


    I bit my lip, my heart breaking for everything she had endured.


    “But it wasn’t long before Connolly began an affair with Irene,” she continued. “To be honest, I didn’t mind. I even felt relieved. Connolly was always trying to pressure me into intimacy, and if I hadn’t been pregnant, I wouldn’t have been able to keep refusing him.”


    Bitternessced every word she spoke.


    My eyes widened, anger ring inside me like a sudden me. Connolly’s behavior was truly despicable. My mother had been in such a vulnerable position, and he had shown himself to be nothing but selfish and dishonorable.


    “However,” my mother went on, “I never imagined Irene would be so cruel as to plot against me—to actually want me dead. She secretly worked with Connolly to poison me slowly over time. Connolly, that worthless, lustful man, had been nursing his resentment toward me for a long while because I wouldn’t give in to his advances.”


    As she spoke, my disgust for both Irene and Connolly reached its peak, my stomach turning with revulsion.


    “It wasn’t until I was inbor,” my mother said quietly, “that I finally realized I had been poisoned. To save you—to ensure you would be born healthy—I channeled every bit of strength I possessed to draw all the toxins into my own body instead. In the end, you came into this world safely, but I… I left it forever, imed by both theplications of childbirth and the poison they had given me.”


    Her voice grew softer with each word, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Her figure seemed to grow more transparent, more fragile—as if she might dissolve into nothingness at any moment. I reached out desperately, trying to hold onto her, to keep her with me, but my fingers passed through nothing but empty air.


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    Makenna’s POV:


    Tears streamed down my face, blurring my vision as I poured out my anguish. My voice cracked, barely above a whisper, as I said, “I’m… It’s all because of me…”


    The familiar silhouette approached with delicate steps. My mother’s eyes crinkled with a tender smile as she leaned in, her voice a soothing balm to my wounded heart. “Makenna, don’t carry this burden any longer. For you, I’d sacrifice everything without hesitation.”


    Her gentle words only tightened the knot in my chest. I jerked my head up suddenly, meeting her gaze through a veil of tears, my lips quivering. “But… you’ve already passed away. How do you manage to appear in my dreams time and again?”


    My mother exhaled softly, shadows of regret dancing in her eyes. “How could I abandon my child to face this world alone? I bound my soul to this ne—my spirit preserved within its core. Only when darkness threatens to consume you can I manifest to shield you.”


    At her revtion, hope flickered to life within me. So that exined her presence during my darkest hours…


    Yet I couldn’t dwell on this realization now. I stared intently at my mother’s ethereal form, voice trembling with desperate hope. “Mother, if your soul lives on in the ne, does that mean… I could find a way to bring you back?”


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