It took a long moment before Serenity finally spoke. “If you happen to meet a good man—someone like your father-it's better for you to get married. At least you'll have a partner, someone to help share the load. But if you truly can't find anyone, you can follow Everly's lead."
Jeanne replied, "Capable and fiercely loyal men like my dad are incredibly rare these days."
That was a blessing from her parents' generation; none of the younger crowd had been lucky enough to find anyone like that yet.
After a moment's silence, Serenity said, "You're still young, so there's no need to rush. Just leave it to fate. Who knows, in a few years, you might just stumble upon a capable, wonderful man just like your father.
"Though, don't use your dad as the absolute standard, or you'll never find anyone. Even someone with half his qualities would be enough."
"I know, Aunt Seren. It's not like I'm against marriage or having kids. I've known what my responsibilities were since I was a little girl. Let's just see how things go. If I meet someone suitable in the future who's willing to marry into our family, everyone will be happy. If not, I'll just have a daughter on my own to take over the family business.
"That way, I won't even have to deal with marital drama or mother-in-law issues.” After all, not every mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship could be as harmonious as the one between her own mother and grandmother.
Even Liberty and Corey had not gotten along at first. Before her parents married, Corey had looked down on Liberty for being a divorcée, believing Liberty was not good enough for Duncan. That was why, when Corey first found out Duncan was in love with Liberty, the old lady had absolutely blown her top.
Jeanne had heard Liberty talk about those early days of her relationship with Duncan. Back then, Liberty had repeatedly rejected his courtship. Liberty was aware that he was a young master from a wealthy, elite family, while she was just a divorced woman. At the time, before Liberty's true heritage was revealed, the chances of marrying into such high society were slim to none, even with Serenity and Audrey backing her up.
So, Liberty rejected Duncan's advances, but Corey kept interfering, and Duncan had insisted on being with Liberty. One time, after a massive argument with Corey, Duncan got into a car accident on his way out.
His legs were severely injured, but fortunately, he was rushed to the hospital just in time. While the emergency surgery saved his legs, he was left paralyzed, and standing up again seemed nearly impossible.
It was only because she desperately wanted her son to walk again that Corey cast aside her prejudices and begged Liberty.
In short, Liberty and Duncan had survived a massive ordeal just to be together. After they married, they never lived with the older generation. Distance kept things sweet, and because Liberty rarely had to interact with her in-laws, their relationship managed to stay perfect over the years.
If they had lived under the same roof every day, two different generations with opposite mindsets would have constantly clashed, making friction inevitable.
Of course, since Liberty was the matriarch of the prominent Fisher family in Jensburg, in terms of status, wealth, and capability, she was more than a perfect match for Duncan.
Jeanne had realized very early on that if she wanted to live a good life in the future, she had to be either strong enough herself or have a maternal family powerful enough to back her up.
Considering her family was incredibly powerful, she was working hard to become stronger every day and would not allow anyone to bully her in the future.
Serenity smiled and smoothly changed the subject.
According to her generation's mindset, people did what was expected of them at each stage of life, like getting married when they hit marriageable age and having kids when it was time. They followed a set course, and it was precisely through this process of passing down from one generation to the next that humanity has survived to this day.
However, the mindsets of older folks like hers were vastly different from those of the younger generation now.
Young people nowadays were highly open-minded, and marriage did not matter to them anymore. If they wanted kids, they could just find a father, undergo IVF, and leave him out of the picture, or even choose to date and have children without ever getting married. They always said that getting married was easy, but getting divorced was a nightmare.
Many did not want to marry either, claiming it was much more relaxing to spend their hard-earned money on themselves. The burden of starting a family was heavy, to say nothing of the astronomical cost of raising a child.
Serenity was not about to force her generation's beliefs onto the younger crowd. The younger ones could do whatever they pleased, as long as they were happy.
Besides, Serenity believed her children were exceptional individuals, so she did not need to worry about them not marrying or having kids. Xavier, in particular, had had his eyes on Callia since they were children and had declared that he would marry her when they grew up.
That boy had talked the talk and walked the walk, staying by her daughter's side to protect her for over a decade. He was simply waiting for her to grow up and accomplish everything she wanted to do, figuring she could just carve out a little free time whenever she was ready to settle life's big milestones with him.
As for Heath, there were plenty of girls who admired him. However, since he had no interest in romance at the moment, he made sure not to lead anyone on.
Children created their own destiny, so Serenity decided not to meddle too much as a mother.
If she did not even micromanage her own kids, she certainly was not going to do so for her niece's and nephew's lives.
At most, she would probably nag Sonny a few times. Yes, Sonny was not getting any younger, and Jeanne had already begged her to introduce him to a nice girl.
However, the upper-society circle in Wiltspoon was small, and there really were not that many eligible young women available.