Chapter 10 - Patricia’s Desperate Regret
Patricia fell to her knees right beside the dining table, her designer cashmere wrap dragging across the floor. Tears carved tracks through her expensive foundation as she looked up at the four children she had spent eight years pretending didn't exist.
"Noah... Ethan... Sophia... Olivia..." Patricia wept, speaking their names for the very first time in her life. "Look at me... I'm your grandmother. I have a grand estate! I have horses in the stables! I can buy you anything you want! You can spend your summers here in the mountains!"
Sophia stepped behind me, gripping the fabric of my coat, while Olivia looked down at the weeping matriarch with no anger, only a profound, heartbreaking indifference.
"We don't want your horses," Olivia said softly. "Our Mama buys us books, and takes us to the science museum, and loves us every single day. You didn't love us when we were little. Why do you love us now?"
The question was so pure, so devastatingly simple, that it shattered whatever remained of Patricia’s composure. She buried her face in her hands and began to sob uncontrollably against the floorboards.
"Patricia," I said, looking down at her without a trace of pity. "Eight years ago, you had the chance to be a grandmother. You had the chance to hold four beautiful babies in your arms. You had the chance to welcome them into a family with love, dignity, and grace."
I took a step closer, my shadow falling over her trembling frame.
"Instead, you chose pride. You chose social status. You chose to protect your pathetic son’s image at the cost of innocent lives. You told me that my children were trash that belonged in the gutter."
"I was wrong!" Patricia wailed, grabbing the hem of my coat with desperate fingers. "I was blind, Kesha! Marcus lied to me! He told me you were trying to ruin him! Please... let me see them! Let me send them gifts for their birthdays! I will give you anything! I will sign over the deed to this house!"
I gently pulled my coat from her grasp.
"You cannot buy back eight years of silence with real estate, Patricia. This house already belongs to my bank. And as for my children... they have a mother who would burn the world to protect them. They do not need a grandmother who only loves them when her social circle is watching."
Marcus stood against the wall, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists, his eyes wild with a terrifying mixture of shame, hatred, and total helplessness.
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"You planned this," Marcus hissed through his teeth, his voice trembling with venom. "Every single second of this. You didn't come here to make peace. You came here to execute me."
"No, Marcus," I replied, turning to face him one last time. "I didn't plan your failure. You executed yourself eight years ago when you traded your soul for an heiress who just walked out on you in the snow."
