?<strong>Chapter 986:</strong>


    As an unsettling realization dawned on Kallie, she made a frantic attempt to escape. However, her legs betrayed her, weak and failing.


    Kallie managed only a few stumbling steps before copsing to the floor. Her mind fogged, and the scene before her eyes blurred into indistinct shapes. Her eyelids drooped heavily, threatening to drag her into unconsciousness.


    In a desperate bid for lucidity, Kallie bit down hard on her tongue, the sharp pain snapping her back to a moment of rity. At that precise moment, the door to the secluded back room creaked open, and out stepped Neal’s mother.


    The timid demeanor Neal’s mother had earlier was nowhere to be seen. Instead, her eyes were steely and filled with a chilling venom as they fixed on Kallie. The deception was clear now: this woman was anything but simple.


    Kallie chided herself for being so easily fooled by Neal’s mother’s harmless performance. Her heart sank with the weight of her miscalction, but she knew regret was a luxury she could no longer afford.


    Peering down at Kallie, Neal’s mother, assuming Kallie had passed out, allowed a smirk of triumph to curl her lips.


    “You despicable woman!” Neal’s mother growled bitterly, her face twisting into a mask of scorn.


    “Had it not been for your meddling, my son would have been unscathed. While yton has his faults, it’s you who truly deserve to be tormented. I swear on everything you will endure every bit of suffering that has befallen my son.”


    Kallie’s heart skipped a beat.


    “yton? yton was the mastermind? Why did he do that? How could he bring himself to treat Brysen so harshly? Was it to keep Brysen from revealing some truth?”


    As confusion swirled through her thoughts, Kallie began connecting the elusive dots that had once confounded her. Suddenly, the murky secrets that had lingered in the shadows started to click into ce.


    Desperate to free herself, Kallie found her strength sapped, as vulnerable as a fish sprawled on a cutting board. Realizing the truth while ensnared in someone else’s plot was excruciatingly painful. What cut the deepest was the betrayal by yton, the person she had ced trust in.


    Tears streamed down Kallie’s cheeks, a silent testament to her despair, as unseen hands lifted her.


    Elsewhere, Sophie had just returned to the hotel when Brysen appeared momentster.


    Amid contacting Kallie’s assistants from the Nixon Group, Sophie turned to find Brysen’s unexpected presence startling.


    “Brysen,” Sophie hurried over, her brow furrowed with concern.


    “Where’s my mother? Wasn’t she supposed to be with you?”


    Brysen stared ahead, her eyes hollow, her trauma rendering her speechless.


    With a heavy sigh, Sophie turned to question the people apanying Brysen, piecing together that Kallie had directed Brysen toward the car earlier, followed by an instruction to send Brysen back first. Yet, the reason for Kallie’s absence remained shrouded in mystery.


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