<b>Chapter </b><b>188 </b>


    -HUNTER’S POV-


    The whispers started the moment I walked into my building.


    They thought they were being quiet–these employees who owed their careers to my family name, these board members who smiled to my face while checking their phones for thetest gossip.


    But I caught every sideways nce, every hushed conversation that died when I passed.


    My mother’s work was everywhere..


    In the elevator, I watched my reflection in the polished steel doors and saw something that would have terrified me six months ago.


    My eyes were cold, calcting, empty of the warmth I reserved for Celine and Caesar. This was the face my father had worn when he had built an empire from nothing.


    This was the face of a man ready to destroy anyone who threatened his family.


    “Sir?” Derek appeared at my elbow the moment the elevator doors opened on the executive floor. “I have the information you requested.”


    I walked into my office without acknowledging the stares from my staff. Derek followed, closing the door behind us with a soft click that felt like a gunshot in the silence.


    “Tell me.”


    “Jesse Brown received a cash payment of fifty thousand dors yesterday morning. Deposited directly into her ount from a shepany traced back to Eleanor Reid’s personal holdings.” Derek’s voice was clear and professional.


    “The mother, Maria Santos Brown, received twenty–five thousand and a promise of ongoing payments if she continues cooperating.”


    My hands clenched into fists. “How long did it take you to find this?”


    “Three hours.”


    “My mother is getting sloppy.”


    Derek hesitated. “There’s more. The television interviews were arranged through a PR firm that Eleanor has used before. The same firm that handled damage control when your father’s business partner died in that car ident.”


    I looked up sharply. My mother had never mentioned being involved in that particr piece of family history.


    “Arrange a meeting with Celine’s family,” I said quietly. “Both of them. Today.”


    “What kind of meeting?”


    “The kind where they understand the consequences of biting the hand that could feed them for the rest <i>of </i>their lives.” <b>I </b>moved <b>to </b>the window, looking out over the city that bent to my will.


    <i>“</i>And Derek? Make sure my mother receives an invitation to visit the estate. The private one. Tell her <b>it’s </b><b>urgent </b>family <b>business</b>.<b>” </b>


    “The closed–off property in the mountains<b>?</b><b>” </b>


    <b>“</b>That’s the one.” I smiled, but it held no warmth. “She needs some time to think about her choices. Away from her enablers <b>and </b>backscratchers<b>.</b><b>” </b>


    Derek nodded and left without another word. He had worked for my family long enough to know when not to ask questions.


    I spent the next hour making phone calls. Each call was a move in a game my mother didn’t even know she was part of.


    By the time I was finished, certain journalists would find their funding mysteriously cut, certain social media influencers would discover their sponsorships canceled, and certain television producers would receive visits from very expensivewyers.


    The Reid family hadn’t stayed powerful for three generations by ying fair.


    The meeting with Celine’s family took ce in a conference room that had hosted important discussions, business deals, and negotiations that influenced entire industries.


    Jesse Brown sat across from me looking like she’d rather be anywhere else. Her designer handbag…new, expensive…sat on the table between us like proof in a murder trial.


    Her mother, Maria Santos Brown, wouldn’t even meet my eyes.


    “Ladies,” I said, my voice pleasant and conversational. “I understand you’ve been talking to reporterstely.”


    Jesse lifted her chin defiantly. “Free country. I can talk to whoever I want.”


    “Of course you can.” I leaned back in my chair, studying her face,


    “Though I’m curious about the sudden windfall in your bank ount. Fifty thousand dors is a lot of money for someone who now work at a nail salon, after getting fired from her PR job.”


    The color drained from Jesse’s face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”


    “Don’t you?” I pulled out my phone and scrolled through Derek’s research.


    “Deposited yesterday at 9:47 AM. From apany called Meridian Holdings. Would you like me to exin the connection between Meridian Holdings and my mother?”


    Maria Santos Brown finally spoke, her voice barely a whisper. “We needed the money.”


    “I’m sure you did.” I set my phone on the table. “But what you needed and what you’ve done are two different things entirely.”


    Jesse’s bravado cracked. “Look, we just answered some questions. It’s not like we made anything up.”


    “Didn’t you?” My voice dropped to a whisper.


    “Because I have recordings of every conversation my mother had with her PR firm about this little publicity campaign. Including the detailed lies she wanted you to tell.“/


    The lie came easily, smoothly. I had no such recordings, but they didn’t know that.


    “So here’s what’s going to happen,” I continued.


    “You’re going to call those same reporters who were so interested in your story. You’re going to tell them <b>you </b>were forced <b>into </b><b>tying </b>You’re going to apologize to my girlfriend….your sister….publicly and sincerely.”


    “And if we don’t?” Jesse’s voice was small, defeated.


    I smiled. It was the same smile my father had worn when he had driven threepetitors into bankruptcy in a single quarter.


    “Jesse, you work at Paradise Nails on Fifth Avenue, don’t you? Lovely little shop. The owner, Mrs. Denver, has been struggling with some tax issuestely. It would be such a shame if those issues became… insurmountable.”


    Jesse’s eyes widened. “You can’t…”


    “And Maria, that apartment you’re renting in Queens? The building is owned by Meridian Properties. Different Meridian than the one that paid you, but simr name. Easy to get confused about lease renewals.”


    Maria Santos Brown began to cry.


    “I’m not threatening you,” I said gently.


    “I’m exining reality. My mother thought she could use you to hurt someone I love. She was wrong. And now you need to fix what you helped her break.”


    I stood up, straightening my tie. “You have twenty–four hours. Derek will be in touch with the details.”


    Jesse grabbed my arm as I headed for the door. “She’s still our sister. Family. We would never really hurt…”


    I looked down at her hand on my sleeve, then back at her face. Whatever she saw in my expression made her let go immediately.


    “Family,” I repeated slowly. “Is that what you call selling someone out for money? Because where Ie from, family means something different entirely.”


    I walked out of that conference room knowing they would do exactly what I’d asked. Fear was a powerful motivator, and they had just learned exactly how much they should fear crossing Hunter Reid.


    But the real conversation was still waiting for me.


    The mountain estate had been in my family for four generations. Isted, private, surrounded by enoughnd to ensureplete privacy.


    My grandfather had used it for business meetings that required absolute discretion.


    Tonight, it would serve a different purpose.


    My Mother was waiting in the main sitting room when I arrived, her pearl ne perfectly arranged, her stance strict with anger.


    Baron, the estate’s caretaker, hovered near the doorway looking ufortable.


    “Hunter, this is ridiculous. I demand you take me home immediately.”


    I dismissed Baron with a nod and waited until his footsteps faded down the hall.


    “Sit down, Mother.”


    Chapter 188 <fn1839> Checktest chapters at FindN()vel</fn1839>


    “I will not be treated like a…”


    “Sit. Down.”


    Something in my voice made her sink into the leather armchair. For the first time since I was a child, Eleanor Reid looked genuinely afraid of me.


    Good.


    “You staged the media campaign against Celine,” I said without a single hello. “You paid her family to lie on television. You had her mother disown her publicly for entertainment.”


    Eleanor’s mask of stillness didn’t slip. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”


    “Meridian Holdings. Ring a bell?”


    Her face went–white.


    “I know about the PR firm. I know about the payments. I know about every single phone call you made to destroy the woman ! love.” I moved closer, looming over her chair.


    “What I don’t know is why you thought I wouldn’t find out.”


    Eleanor finally cracked. “She doesn’t belong in our world! Can’t you see what she’s doing to you? You’re bing someone I don’t recognize!”


    “Good.” I crouched down so we were eye lèvel. “Because the man you raised would have let you get away with this. The man I’m bing won’t.”


    “Hunter, please…”


    “You’re going to stay here for one week. Baron will bring you meals, clean clothes, whatever you need. But you won’t have ess to phones,puters, or any way to continue your little war against my family.”


    “My family?”


    “Celine and Caesar are my family now. You made your choice when you dered war on them.”


    Eleanor’s eyes filled with tears I didn’t believe for a second. “I’m your mother. I gave you life.”


    “And I’m grateful for that. Which is why you’re going to have time to think about whether you want to be part of my future or a warning tale about what happens when people cross me.”


    I stood up, straightening my jacket. “There are security cameras throughout this property. Armed guards patrol the perimeter. If you try to leave, they have instructions to stop you.”


    “You can’t keep me prisoner!”


    I paused at the doorway, looking back at her. “I’m not keeping you prisoner, Mother. I’m keeping you alive.”


    Her face went pale. “What does that mean?”


    “It means that if you push me any further, if you hurt Celine or Caesar or my unborn child one more time…” I let the words hang <b>in </b>


    the air like smoke.


    10:21 Fri, 22 Aug


    34%


    “I’m prepared to stain my hands to protect them. And you know me well enough to understand that I don’t make threats I’m not willing to follow through on.”


    The silence that followed was deafening.


    “One week,” I repeated. “Use it wisely.”


    I left that house feeling like things had changed between us. Eleanor Reid taught me to be tough in business but to keep family matters respectful.


    She had forgotten that ruthlessness was just ruthlessness.


    And family was whoever you chose to protect.


    As I drove back to the city, back to Celine and Caesar and the life I was building with them, I felt something settle in my chest. A cold, permanent clearness about who I was and what I was willing to <i>do</i>.


    Eleanor wanted to y games with my happiness?


    Game on.


    But she should have remembered that Reid men didn’t just y to win.


    We yed to destroy.