Not Letting My Father Rest in Peace Meant Downfall

Tabitha's POV

My father was the richest man in Brighton, but before he passed away, he donated most of our family’s wealth. His last wish was just to be buried in his hometown, Highland.

Because of the sensitive nature of my work, I kept a low profile when I brought his ashes back for the funeral.

On the day of the burial, we were part of the funeral procession when a girl in a bright red dress suddenly appeared, followed by ten red Rolls-Royces driving in the opposite direction down the road. She stepped out, chin tilted arrogantly, sunglasses hiding her eyes, and pointed straight at my father’s hearse.

“Move,” she ordered coldly.

The funeral director walking beside me panicked. “Miss, are you for real? You should be the one moving aside out of respect for the dead.”

Being refused, her expression hardened. She tore off her sunglasses, threw them to the ground, and snapped, “This is the Tomlinsons’ city. I don’t care if it’s a corpse or a king. You move when I say move!”

I clenched my jaw and asked, “The Tomlinsons? Which Tomlinsons?”

She gave me a smug smile and answered, “Which other Tomlinsons could there be? Of course, the Tomlinsons of Highland, Terence Tomlinson, the city’s richest man. And I’m his fiancée. And since you insisted on being his mistress, your father, even dead, should give way to me, the wife!”

Her words hit me like a slap. If she was Terence’s fiancée, then who the hell was I?

Just before my father passed, Terence had the nerve to beg him for forty million to save his collapsing company. And now, at my father’s funeral, the mistress he kept on the side dared to block my father’s hearse?

I wanted to see for myself whose city Highland really was.

——

“Forward! The gods will guide the way!” I called to the procession, holding my father’s portrait close to my chest.

A man ahead, holding a flower, suddenly turned and shouted, “Miss Sherman! Trouble ahead. Someone’s blocking the road!”

I looked up and saw ten red Rolls-Royces inching toward us in the wrong lane. The girl in the red dress stepped out and strode straight for me.

She lifted her chin and ordered, “Move.”

The funeral director’s voice cracked with frustration. “Miss, are you for real? You should be the one moving aside out of respect for the dead. And you’re driving against traffic. Roads go both ways, so you’d better back up!”

But she only grew angrier, throwing her sunglasses to the ground again. “This is the Tomlinsons’ city! I don’t care if it’s a corpse or a king. You move when I say move!”

I narrowed my eyes. There was no way this meeting was a coincidence.

“The Tomlinsons?” I asked evenly. “Which Tomlinsons are you talking about?”

She gave me a look full of disdain and replied, “Stop pretending you don’t know. Which other Tomlinsons could there be? Of course, the Tomlinsons of Highland, Terence Tomlinson, the city’s richest man. And I’m Jacqueline Tomlinson, his childhood sweetheart and legitimate fiancée. And since you insisted on being his mistress, you’d better remember the rules. Turn that hearse around.”

Terence Tomlinson? Mistress?

I’d spent most of my life working among researchers and scholars, and they were all with manners and decency. I had never met anyone this shameless. It felt like being a scholar facing a bandit, whose reason was useless.

The truth was, Terence and I had been betrothed since childhood. But after Father took me to Highland, I hadn’t seen him again. Years later, when the Tomlinsons’ business was in trouble, his father came to my father to revive the engagement, hoping we could help them recover. He even claimed that Terence had been waiting for me all these years.

Yet now, after my father’s death, not only did the Tomlinsons fail to send condolences, but they also sent his so-called childhood sweetheart to humiliate him.

Facing the sudden trouble, the funeral director faced me and urged, “Miss Sherman, the burial time has been set. People can wait for time, but time won’t wait for people.”