Chapter 248
A few club members standing nearby turned their heads, their eyes darting between Isolde and the screaming child. They had all seen Belle whip the horse, but no one wanted to step in and correct a hysterical boy.
Isolde looked down at Kaiden. Her expression was completely devoid of warmth.
“Your foolish mother whipped a terrified horse,” Isolde said, her voice slicing through the air like a scalpel. “She did this to herself.”
Kaiden lunged forward, kicking his small boots against Isolde’s shins. “Liar! You cursed the horse! I am going to call the police and put you in jail!”
Isolde didn’t flinch. She reached down, grabbed Kaiden firmly by the wrist, and pushed him back. “Stay away from me,” she warned, her eyes flashing with a dangerous light.
Over by the ambulance, the paramedics were lifting the stretcher.
Grayson fought through the haze of painkillers they had injected into his thigh and turned his head slightly against the neck brace. He saw Isolde standing in the distance, pushing Kaiden away.
“Isolde…” He forced the word out — a weak, ragged rasp. He reached his hand toward her, fingers trembling. A faint whisper escaped his lips, lost in the noise around him. “Watch… watch him…”
He meant for her to take care of Kaiden, to keep the boy safe from the chaos while he was taken to the hospital.
𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝗆𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝗉𝗈𝗉𝗎𝗅𝖺𝗋 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗌 𝗈𝗇 𝗀𝖺𝗅𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗌.𝖼𝗈𝗆
Isolde heard him.
She looked at his outstretched hand. A flicker of something — pity, concern — passed through her, but it was instantly extinguished by his words. The man had just saved her life and her daughter’s, yet with his first conscious request, he was once again assigning her the role of unpaid help. The coldness in her chest solidified into stone.
Isolde walked slowly toward the stretcher and stopped just out of his reach. She looked down at him, her eyes as hard as flint.
“Do not worry, Grayson,” she said, her voice loud enough for him and Belle to hear. “I will hand your precious son over to your driver. But as for me, I am taking my daughter home.”
Grayson’s brow furrowed in confusion and pain. Why was she looking at him with such absolute hatred?
Isolde turned to Grayson’s personal driver, who stood nearby looking pale. “Take Kaiden back to the estate. Or take him to the hospital to sit with his mother,” she ordered sharply. “Do not let him follow me.”
The driver stammered, “But… ma’am, Mr. Lancaster asked you to—”
“I am not his babysitter,” Isolde cut him off, her voice carrying the weight of finality. “From this second on, I owe the Lancaster family absolutely nothing.”
The paramedics slammed the ambulance doors shut, cutting off Grayson’s view of her.
Kaiden was still screaming behind her. “You have no heart! You are going to hell!”
Isolde reached down and covered Effie’s ears. She walked quickly to her car, buckled Effie into the backseat, and got behind the wheel.
“Mommy,” Effie whispered, her voice shaking. “Is Daddy going to die?”
Isolde gripped the leather steering wheel until her knuckles ached. She took a deep, shuddering breath, fighting the sudden, violent sting of tears behind her eyes.
.