Chapter 274
“Don’t cry, Mom,” Isolde said softly. “The wolves are at the door. But I just bought a gun.”
Ten minutes later, Isolde’s phone rang.
The screen flashed a single name: Grayson.
She stared at it. The vibration buzzed against her palm like an angry hornet. She answered.
“What?”
Grayson’s voice was cold, clipped, and professional — his CEO voice. “Cheryl is in the ER downstairs. She says you assaulted her. She claims you slapped her across the face.”
“She came to my mother’s deathbed and insulted my daughter,” Isolde said. She walked to the window and looked out at the grey city.
“She was making a business offer,” Grayson said. “You escalated it to physical violence. Isolde, you are out of control.”
𝘞𝘩at e𝘷𝗲𝗿𝘺𝗈ne 𝘪𝘀 𝗿e𝘢𝗱𝘪𝗇𝘨 𝗼n 𝗴𝗮𝗹nо𝘷e𝘭𝘀.𝘤om
“She called Effie a ‘retard,’ Grayson,” Isolde said. The word tasted like poison in her mouth. “Did she tell you that part? Did she tell you she mocked our daughter’s intelligence?”
A long, heavy silence fell on the other end of the line.
“Cheryl can be… blunt,” Grayson finally said. “But violence is unacceptable. You are lucky she isn’t pressing charges yet.”
“Yet?” Isolde let out a dry laugh.
“You need to go down there and apologize,” Grayson ordered. “Now. Before this becomes a police matter.”
Isolde gripped the phone. “Apologize? For defending our child against that vulture?”
“Effie isn’t here,” Grayson snapped. “This isn’t about Effie. This is about your inability to handle stress. It reflects badly on the family.”
“The family?” Isolde asked. “You mean your family. Belle’s family. The family you chose over us.”
“Stop dragging Belle into this,” Grayson shouted, his patience gone. “Cheryl is an elder and a strategic partner. You will show her respect.”
“She is a parasite,” Isolde said. “And you are the carcass she feeds on.”
“Isolde! Do not speak to me like that!”
“Or what?” Isolde challenged. “You’ll divorce me? Oh wait — I already asked for that.”
Grayson’s breathing was heavy on the line. She could hear the beep of his own heart monitor in the background.
“If you don’t apologize,” Grayson said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous register, “I will cut off the hospital payments for Ellyn. All of them. The room, the specialists, the medication. Everything.”
Silence.
The threat hung there, ugly and naked. He was using her mother’s life as a bargaining chip to protect his mistress’s mother. It was the final severing — the last thread of hope that he was a decent man, snapped clean.
Isolde took a deep breath. The air felt cleaner suddenly.
“Do it,” Isolde said.
Grayson sounded stunned. “What?”
“Cut it off,” Isolde said. “Keep your money. Keep your ‘elder.’ Keep your mistress.”
“Isolde, be reasonable. You can’t afford this care. Ellyn will die.”
“My mother would rather die than take another cent from you,” Isolde said. “But never expect me to bow to you again. Never.”
She hung up. She immediately opened the contact settings and blocked the number.
She turned to Ellyn, who was awake, watching her with wide, fearful eyes.
“Isolde…” Ellyn whispered. “The bills…”
.
.