Chapter 233
Isolde startled. Only a few people had that number. She assumed it was Arland calling about the PR fallout. The landline — an old fixture of the apartment she had moved into after leaving the estate — had simply never been disconnected. A relic of a less guarded time, it now felt like a vulnerability.
She picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Daddy!”
The voice on the other end was loud, high-pitched, and vibrating with excitement.
Isolde froze. Her lungs stopped pulling in air.
“Did Belle like my card?” Kaiden yelled into the phone. “Did she cry?”
Isolde stared at the wall. A full second of silence passed.
𝘋𝗂𝗌𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 h𝘪𝖽𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗴е𝘮𝘴 on 𝘨a𝗅𝗻𝘰𝘷е𝗹ѕ.𝘤o𝘮
“Kaiden,” she said. Her voice was completely flat. “It’s me.”
The excitement on the other end vanished, replaced instantly by a thick layer of contempt.
“Why are you answering?” Kaiden demanded. “I want my dad. Give him the phone.”
Isolde gripped the receiver. “He’s busy. You can call his cell phone.”
Kaiden let out a loud, mocking snort. “Belle says you’re jealous. She says you’re crying because I drew her a picture and I didn’t draw you anything.”
A sharp, phantom pain pierced the center of Isolde’s chest — a brief, unwelcome reminder that she used to love this boy.
She swallowed it down. She buried it.
“I am not jealous,” Isolde said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Because I have Effie.”
“Effie is stupid!” Kaiden screamed, the sound echoing painfully in her ear. “Belle says she won’t even get into college!”
Isolde’s knuckles turned bone-white. Her vision tunneled.
“Kaiden,” Isolde said, her tone lethal. “Give the phone to the butler standing next to you.”
“No!” Kaiden shrieked. “You’re a bad witch! We’re going to throw you away! Just like we threw away that old nanny!”
There was a rustling sound on the line. A brief scuffle.
Then a new voice came through the speaker, dripping with artificial sweetness.
“Kaiden, sweetie, who are you talking to?” Belle cooed. “Oh, my goodness. Did you dial the wrong number?”
Belle’s breathing shifted closer to the microphone.
“Isolde?” The sweetness vanished, leaving only a sharp, mocking edge. “I’m so sorry. Kaiden just misses Grayson so much today. Happy — oh, wait. I forgot. You’re spending today all alone, aren’t you?”
Isolde stared at the digital clock on the oven. The numbers blurred slightly.
“Enjoy your performance, Belle,” Isolde said. Her voice was ice. “I truly hope your son grows up to see exactly what kind of person you are.”
She slammed the receiver down. The plastic cracked against the base.
Her hand was shaking — not from anger, but from a profound, suffocating pity for the boy Kaiden was becoming.
She turned around.
Effie was standing in the kitchen doorway, her worn teddy bear tucked under one arm. In her other hand, she held a piece of pink construction paper, folded clumsily into the shape of a tulip.
Effie walked forward and held it up.
“Mommy,” she said, her big eyes wide and earnest. “Happy Mother’s Day. I love you more than the whole world.”
The dam broke.
.