?Chapter 1546:


    “Why would you kidnap me? I’m your mother.” Bethel’s voice cracked, her heart breaking with every word.


    She had never imagined her own son would go this far.


    “So what? You have no right to call yourself my mother!” Trevor shouted.


    The veins on his forehead stood out, his eyes burning with barely contained rage.


    “You’re already at death’s door, yet you still refuse to hand over the Dawson Group—not to me, not even to my son! What are you trying to pull? Or do you n to dump everything on an outsider? You’ve lost your mind! You even transferred the Dawson estate to someone who isn’t family. What else are you hiding?”


    Bethel’s tired eyes grew watery, tears gathering at their edges. She lifted her chin slightly and shut her eyes, as if the pain was too much to bear. Her chest tightened until she could hardly breathe.


    Her own son’s betrayal felt like a hammer striking the same spot in her heart again and again.


    All her life, she had worked, nned, and sacrificed just to shield her family. She had feared for them more than she ever feared for herself. And not once did they show true gratitude. Now her son had bound her like a criminal. What had she done to deserve this?


    Maybe loving a child too blindly was its own downfall. Doing everything for him, fixing every mistake, never letting him learn to stand on his own—perhaps that was how a child grew into someone selfish, someone who med the world instead of himself.


    “I did everything for the Dawson family. None of you can carry real responsibility, but Christina can. After she married in, whatever she built would still belong to this family. But Brendon didn’t value her. If he had, none of this would’ve happened. I only wanted her to protect thepany so you’d all have something stable to fall back on…”


    She didn’t get to finish. Trevor cut her off.


    “Shut up! You’re delusional. You keep making these stupid choices and acting like you’re some kind of martyr. How could a woman possibly run everything? And why should the Dawson property fall into the hands of someone outside the family?” Trevor’s re held pure hatred, his jaw tightening as if he might snap.


    Bethel looked at him, half-convinced he could lunge at her any second. A cold shiver spread through her chest, settling deep.


    This was the boy she had raised with her own hands—now a man who hated her down to the bone.


    She had never mistreated Trevor. She protected him, guided him, carried the Dawson family on her shoulders even in old age, all so her children and grandchildren would have a secure future.


    How did thingse to this?


    No matter how far she searched her memories, she couldn’t understand how the child she nurtured could be someone capable of such cruelty. Tears slipped from her dimming eyes, each drop cutting deeper.


    She cried until the pain twisted into something strange, and suddenly a soft, brokenugh escaped her—a sound caught between despair and disbelief.


    Thinking of her lifelong effort—all the nning, the sacrifices, the sleepless nights—it all felt like a bitter joke now. What had it all been for?


    Trevor watched her dramatic disy—crying andughing almost at once—his brow furrowed as if he were staring at a lunatic.


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