<b>Chapter </b><b>210 </b>


    -HUNTER’S POV-


    Cash vouchers


    The elevator doors slid open with a dull chime. I stepped into my office, already loosening my tie. The drive into the city had been long, traffic worse than usual, and I hadn’t even had my second cup of coffee yet.


    All I wanted was silence. Paperwork. A chance to breathe. But life never seemed to give me that anymore.


    Because there she was.


    Eleanor Reid. My mother. Sitting on my office couch like a queen returning to her throne.


    For a moment I just stared at her, too tired to even summon rage. She was wless, as always–dark tailored dress, jewelry shing faintly under the morning light. She smiled, but her smile never reached her eyes. It never did.


    I sighed and dropped my briefcase on the desk.


    “Of all ces,” I said tly. “Your first day of freedom, and you choose to visit the son who locked you up.”


    Her lips curved faintly. “Isn’t that what mothers do? We miss our children. We long for those little moments of bonding.”


    “Bonding,” I repeated, rolling my sleeves. “That’s what we’re calling it now?”


    The truth was I had no choice but to let her out. Baron had reported she’d been on her best behavior, no humiliations, no screaming at staff, no midnight plots. Keeping her locked up forever would have made me no better than her.


    Still, every nerve in my body screamed that this was a mistake.


    She tilted her head, voice soft, too soft. “I’ll be heading to Richard and Elizabeth’s soon. I owe them an exnation for why I missed Caroline’s big day.”


    I sat down at my desk, opening myptop. The blue light reflected against my face as I spoke.


    <b>11:15 </b><b>Tue</b><b>, </b>Sep <b>9 </b>


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    “No need. I already told Uncle Richard and Aunt Elizabeth you were… upied.”


    Her smile flickered. “upied.”


    “Yes.” My tone was calm, clipped. “And they believed me. They always will.”


    She let out a low hum. “Still, I wonder… what would they think if they learned their darling nephew kept his own mother prisoner? How would that story y at Sunday dinner?”


    I didn’t even look up. “They’d understand. They always understand my reasons.”


    Silence stretched. Then her voice sharpened.


    “So you really married her.” I stopped typing.


    Slowly, I lifted my gaze. Her tongue had almost slipped…maid….but she caught herself when my re cut across the room.


    “Celine,” she finally said, spitting the name like it burned her.


    “Yes,” I said.


    “Without my blessing.”


    I leaned back in my chair. “Your blessing doesn’t count.”


    Her eyes shed. “Doesn’t count?”


    “Tell me, Mother,” I said calmly, “would you have given it anyway?” Her lips pressed together. Silence was answer enough.


    “All that matters,” I continued, “is that I married the woman I love. I have the blessings that matter–from the people who actually count in my life.”


    She said nothing, though I could feel the ice in her stare. Finally, she changed direction. “So firing five percent of our staff? For her? Was it worth it?”


    “Yes,” I said without hesitation. “And I’d do it again.”


    Sheughed, but the sound was hollow. “Well then. She seeded. That woman finally got what she wanted. A jackpot of a husband.”


    <b>11:15 </b>Tue, Sep 9


    That cut through me like ss. I lifted my eyes from the screen, met hers with


    steel.


    “Wasn’t that how you got Father?” My voice was low, sharp. “The difference is- Celine never got her hands dirty like you did.”


    Her nostrils red. “I earned my ce at his side.”


    “No,” I said tly. “You manipted and slept your way there.”


    Her hands tightened on her clutch. “How can you speak this cruelly? Everything I ever did was for you.”


    I stood now, fists braced on the desk. My voice was steady, but rage boiled


    underneath.


    “I never asked you to kill for me. I never asked you to send my father’s first son into a psychiatric ward. Or to send my sister away with hush money just so she could disappear and forget the Reid name.”


    Her chin lifted. “Ryan had health issues. Those pills only worsened things after his mother’s death. And Lina–Lina was in trouble. Better off gone than bringing shame to us all.”


    “Health issues,” I repeated, a bitterugh in my throat. “Like the sudden ‘health issues‘ that started after you changed his doctor? And Lina? You didn’t manage her, you threatened her. You couldn’t control her.”


    “You’re desperate to see evil in me,” she hissed. “But maybe it’s because you’ve


    inherited it.”


    “Maybe you are evil,” I said coldly. “And I’ve just been pretending not to see it all this time because you’re my mother.”


    For a moment, the room went deadly quiet. Then sheughed softly. “You’re like your father.”


    I shook my head. “I am nothing like him.”


    “Oh no,” she whispered. “You’re not him. You’re worse. You’re him and Sebastianbined.”


    11:15 Tue, Sep <b>9 </b>


    Her eyes glinted, cruel and sad all at once. “Your father was a great man. But a devil in human form. A shit husband. A shit father. And now you stand here, thinking you’re better, when all you’ve done is be him twice over.”


    I opened my mouth, but the shrill ring of my phone cut the moment like a de.


    I nced at the screen.


    Sally.


    My heart jolted, but I answered. “Yes?”


    Her voice shook on the other end. “Young master… Hunter, dear…” Something in her tone froze the blood in my veins.


    “It’s ma’am Celine…”


    My grip tightened. “What about Celine?”


    “She–she was rushed to the hospital. It’s bad. It’s very bad.” The phone slipped from my hand, crashing onto the desk.


    The sound echoed in the silence of the room.


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