Chapter 5 - THE MOTHER'S DESPERATION
Evelyn Miller walked into the formal reception room of the Vance estate looking like a ghost of her former self. The woman who used to wear diamonds to Sunday brunch and look down her nose at everyone now wore a wrinkled beige coat, her hair slightly unkempt, her hands shaking as she held her designer handbag.
When she saw me standing in the center of the room—clad in an elegant cream-colored silk blouse and tailored trousers, surrounded by the breathtaking luxury of the Vance estate—her steps faltered.
"Chloe..." Evelyn breathed out, her voice lacking any of its former sharp superiority.
"Mrs. Miller," I said coldly, not offering her a seat, nor taking one myself. "You have three minutes before my security team escorts you off the property. State your business."
Evelyn winced at my tone. She took a hesitant step forward, clutching her purse against her chest. "Chloe, please... you have to stop this. You have to tell your new husband to stop destroying my son!"
I let out a soft, incredulous laugh. "Destroying your son? Evelyn, your son brought this on himself the moment he walked into that diner, grabbed me, threatened my life, and allowed his crazy fiancée to burn my three-year-old daughter."
"It was an accident!" Evelyn cried out, tears welling in her heavily makeup-clad eyes. "Ethan didn't know the girl wasn't his! He thought she was his daughter! He was acting out of pain, Chloe! You know how much he loved you!"
"Loved me?" My voice cracked like thunder through the quiet room. "He let me starve! He made me sell my dead grandmother's house! He watched me work eighteen hours a day until I collapsed in a subway station and lost my first baby! Is that what you call love?!"
Evelyn gasped, stepping back as if slapped. "You... you lost a baby?"
"Yes," I said, stepping closer to her, my eyes blazing with pure fury. "I lost Ethan's baby three years ago because of the unbearable physical and emotional stress he put me through with his disgusting 'poverty test.' And do you know what you did back then, Evelyn? When I called you from the hospital begging for help with my medical bills? You told me I was being dramatic and that Ethan was 'smart' to test my gold-digging nature!"
Evelyn’s face drained of all color. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
"And now," I continued, my voice trembling with suppressed rage, "he dares to walk into my life again, claim my sweet, innocent Lily as his own, and try to buy her with a check? While his mistress scaldes her skin with hot soup?"
"Clara was wrong!" Evelyn sobbed, falling to her knees on the polished hardwood floor, completely casting aside her lifelong pride. She grabbed the hem of my trousers, looking up at me with tear-streaked eyes. "Clara is a horrible woman! She was arrested an hour ago, Chloe! The police took her right out of her salon in handcuffs! Ethan is ruined! The banks are freezing his accounts! The news is destroying our family name! Please... I am begging you as a mother... tell Alexander to mercy us!"
I looked down at the woman who had once made my life a living hell. Three years ago, I would have cried seeing another human being in such distress. I would have tried to fix it.
But today, I looked at her and felt nothing but cold, unyielding disgust.
I pulled my leg back from her grasp.
"You reap what you sow, Evelyn," I said quietly. "For three years, you and your son watched me drown and offered me nothing but insults. Now that you are drowning in the consequences of your own evil actions, do not ask me to throw you a lifeline."
"Chloe, please!" Evelyn wept, bowing her head to the floor. "He is my only son!"
"And Lily is my only daughter," I replied coldly. "And unlike you, I will actually protect my child from monsters."
I turned to the two security guards standing at the door. "Escort Mrs. Miller off the property. If she ever steps foot on this estate again, file formal trespassing charges."
"Yes, Mrs. Vance," the guards replied instantly.
They lifted the sobbing, hysterical Evelyn Miller to her feet and led her out of the house.
I stood in the center of the quiet room, taking a deep, long breath. The weight that had been sitting on my chest for three long years—the lingering ghosts of shame, poverty, and betrayal—finally lifted, dissolving into the thin air.
Suddenly, a pair of strong, warm arms wrapped around me from behind. Alexander pulled me back against his broad chest, resting his chin gently on my shoulder.
"You were incredible," he whispered into my ear, his voice filled with overwhelming pride.
I leaned back into his embrace, closing my eyes and letting his warmth wash over me. "It's over, Alex. The past can't touch us anymore."
"Not quite over yet," Alexander said softly, his tone taking on a sharp edge. "Ethan Miller just skipped his board meeting and refused to answer his bail summons for the criminal investigation. He’s currently on the run."
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I opened my eyes, a fresh spike of panic surging through my veins. "On the run?"
"Don't worry," Alexander smiled dark, terrifyingly confident smile in the mirror across the room. "He thinks he can escape to his private estate in the mountains. But he forgets one thing—I own the company that tracks his private jet."
