?Chapter 1310:


    The cramped little apartment she’d been renting felt downright embarrassing now, and with Ste gone for good—or at least for the foreseeable future—the mansion would have sat empty. So why not make herself at home?


    Jazlyn tossed the remote onto the coffee table and fixed Marc with a look sharp enough to cut ss. “Marc, why do you keep getting wasted like this? Didn’t I tell you to lie low for a while? Wasn’t that disaster of a wedding humiliating enough?”


    The Walsh family name was already in tatters, and Ste was the one holding the scissors.


    Jazlyn couldn’t wrap her head around it. Everything had been fine until her son decided to poke the bear again.


    Now she barely dared show her face outside. The second she did, whispers and sideways nces followed her like a bad smell. All she wanted was a quiet life—no more drama, no more trouble.


    She’d begged Marc to stay home and keep his head down, but he never listened. Every night he went out and drank himself stupid.


    Marc ripped off his tie with a scowl and flopped onto the sofa, burying his face in his hands. “Mom… can you just stop?” His voice came out muffled and raw.


    Every time she opened her mouth, the knife twisted a little deeper.


    Jazlyn rose and marched over, arms folded tight. “And why exactly shouldn’t I speak up? Look at the state of you. I warned you years ago—Ste’s bad news. Nothing good everes from her. Now the wedding’s theughingstock of the city, you’ve pissed off William for good, and—”


    “Enough!” Marc jerked upright, eyes bloodshot and zing. “You think I nned any of this? We’re living in this vi because of Ste. Without her, you’d still be stuck in that dump you called an apartment. So why do you keep trashing her?”


    Marc had never understood his mother’s hatred for Ste. From the moment he’d started dating her, Jazlyn had sneered at everything about the girl.


    Latest chapters uploaded gα?ησv???s


    If she hadn’t bad-mouthed Ste day in and day out, maybe he wouldn’t have started believing Ste wasn’t good enough. Maybe he wouldn’t have cheated with Haley. Maybe none of the nightmares that followed would have happened at all.


    Now, when he finally had a shot at fixing things—thanks to Ste’s amnesia—his mother still wouldn’t shut up about it.


    Jazlyn blinked, momentarily thrown. But guilt never flickered across her face. Instead, something colder and more calcting did.


    “Actually, isn’t it perfect that William swooped in and took her?” She gave a tight little smile. “A woman with that kind of messy past? Why are you still hung up on her?”


    She paused, then pressed on. “And really, how much is this house even worth? If pushes to shove, hand the keys back. Let her tangle herself up with William and stay far away from us. Otherwise you’re just begging for trouble.”


    Marc opened his mouth, ready to argue that this was still the same Ste—the one he’d fought to win back when her memories were gone. He wasn’t ready to let go.


    The memory of his so-called friends mocking him at the club tonight still burned like acid in his chest.


    Seeing the stubborn set of his jaw, Jazlyn’s voice turned to steel. “We can’t afford to cross William, Marc. Stay away from her. I mean it.”


    .


    .


    .