Jeffrey's return to Abidjan was not just the arrival of a new player; it was the arrival of a mediator, a quiet force who seemed to understand the fractured dynamics of his family with an unsettling clarity. After the initial, cold introduction, Jeffrey spent days quietly observing, speaking individually with Snow, Ravenna, and even Andreas, absorbing every layer of the tangled web of secrets and resentments.
He began with his mother, speaking to her not as the powerful Queen, but as a son who genuinely missed her, and subtly, yet firmly, challenging her narrative of perpetual victimhood. He gently reminded her of Snow's father's immense love for Snow, of his final, desperate wish for her peace. He spoke of the shared grief, the burden of the secret that their father had placed on Ravenna's shoulders, acknowledging her pain while subtly urging her to see beyond her own bitterness.
Then, Jeffrey approached Snow. He found her still reeling from the devastating truth about her father's death, the crushing weight of accidental culpability. He listened patiently as she poured out her guilt, her confusion, and her longing for a family she could barely remember.
"Snow," Jeffrey said one afternoon, his voice calm and empathetic as they sat in a quiet corner of EdenTech, "I know what you've learned is an unimaginable burden. But I've also seen the lab reports, read Father's last notes. It was an anomaly, a tragic accident. He never blamed you. He loved you fiercely." He paused, his gaze softening. "And my mother… she carried his final promise as a sacred, terrifying duty. She believed, truly, that by stopping you, by taking control, she was fulfilling his wish to protect you from that darkness again. Her methods were… extreme, yes. But her motivation, in its twisted core, was rooted in that promise, and in her own profound, if misplaced, loyalty to his memory."
Snow listened, her heart aching. To hear someone acknowledge Ravenna's perspective, without excusing her actions, was disorienting.
"And the lawsuits," Jeffrey continued, his tone shifting to a more pragmatic one. "They will drag on. They will consume all of you. My mother is already exhausted, consumed by bitterness. And while you are undeniably in the right legally, the deeper truth… the truth of Father's death… it's a wound that no court can truly heal."
He looked at Snow, his eyes earnest. "Father wanted peace for you, Snow. He wanted a family, even this complicated, fractured one, to eventually come together. That clause in his will, about us working together in White Cosmetics… it wasn't a punishment. It was a desperate hope for reconciliation. For all of us to find a way forward, without the weight of the past suffocating us. Perhaps, if you found a way to bridge the gap with Mother, to offer a path to peace… it could be the truest fulfillment of his wishes, more than any legal victory."