Chapter 152:


    Isolde’s hands curled into fists. This was her nightmare, spoken aloud.


    Belle stepped forward and ced a hand on Grayson’s arm. “Gray is right, Isolde. He’s only thinking of Effie’s future. You’re unwell. You’re emotional. Perhaps it’s best if the children stay with us for now.”


    Us.


    Isolde looked at Belle. “Shut your mouth. You don’t get to speak her name.”


    “Don’t talk to her like that!” Grayson shouted. He shoved Isolde backward — not hard enough to knock her down, but hard enough to make her stumble. “You’re a disgrace — to this family, to my name! Get out. You are no longer Kaiden’s guardian!”


    Isolde recovered her footing. She straightened her zer. She looked at Grayson with a rity that made him take an involuntary step back.


    “A disgrace?” she said. “Grayson, you’re confused.”


    She took one step toward the door.


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    “I quit.”


    She paused in the doorframe. “And as for Effie — I will prove I can support her. Watch me.”


    She walked out.


    “Go away!” Kaiden screamed from the bed. “I hate you!”


    He grabbed the heavy ss water tumbler from the bedside table and hurled it at the door with a grunt of effort.


    It missed Isolde by inches, shattering against the doorframe. Shards of ss sprayed across the floor, some skittering over the toes of her shoes.


    Isolde didn’t flinch. She didn’t look back. She kept walking.


    Grayson stared at the broken ss, chest heaving. He had expected to feel triumph. He had expected relief.


    Instead, he felt a cold draft move through the room, as though a vital wall of his house had just copsed.


    “Oh, Gray,” Belle sighed, leaning into him. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything. We’ll be so happy.”


    Isolde was three steps down the corridor when the screaming started again.


    “Let me go! I want to hit her!”


    She heard the scuffle of sheets, the sounds of adults struggling to restrain a child.


    “Kaiden, stop!” Grayson’s voice.


    Then a heavy thud.


    Isolde turned — instinct overriding her resolve.


    Kaiden had broken free. He stood in the doorway, his face purple with rage, clutching Grayson’s heavy, industrial-grade metal tablet — the one used for reviewing blueprints.


    “Die!” Kaiden shrieked.


    He threw it. He put his entire body weight into the throw. The tablet spun through the air like a discus.


    Isolde sidestepped on pure reflex. But her heel came down on one of the ss shards from the shattered water tumbler. The slick, wet floor offered no purchase. Her feet went out from under her.


    She cried out — not in fear of the tablet, but at the sickening loss of bnce. She threw her right hand out to break her fall.


    Crack.


    The sound was sickening. Not the impact of metal, but of bone against hard linoleum. It echoed through the sterile hallway like a gunshot. Isolde gasped, the air driven clean out of her lungs. She crumpled against the corridor wall, clutching her right arm to her chest.


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