Married to Betrayal, Bound for Vengeance

Chapter 2

My head buzzed violently. Did my mother, in his eyes, not even measure up to Cassidy’s dog?

Without warning, Cassidy reached for the urn in my arms.

“She’s already dead. Instead of letting it go to waste, why not use it to nourish Sunshine?”

Instinctively, I dodged. My elbow accidentally grazed her cheek.

Cassidy shrieked and collapsed into Archer’s arms, clutching her face as if I had struck her with force. “It hurts!”

A blaze of fury flared in Archer’s eyes.

He caressed Cassidy’s cheek gently, then glared at me, teeth clenched. “You’re a vicious woman, just like your mother!”

Vicious?

That once-handsome face now looked twisted and ugly, making my stomach churn.

“Archer, if my mother hadn’t thrown herself off that cliff to save you from those thugs when you were kidnapped, you would’ve been dead long ago!”

“She spent the rest of her life paralyzed because of that fall, and now you and this woman pushed her to her death!”

I pointed at Cassidy, clinging to him like a leech, as scalding tears hit the floor.

My stomach twisted. The baby kicked so hard I nearly collapsed from the pain.

A flicker of hesitation flashed in Archer’s eyes.

“Elise…”

Cassidy suddenly turned on me, eyes blazing.

“That old woman was just a lowly maid! She gave up her legs so you two could eat well, live comfortably under this roof, and even let you marry Archer and enjoy a life of luxury.”

“You should be grateful! But instead, you twist Archer’s emotions, what a scheming woman you are!”

Archer’s face darkened instantly, as if he could tear me apart with just a look.

“Do you want me to rip my heart out to prove it to you? I already gave you the title of Mrs. Monroe, why can't you just be satisfied?!”

Just one sentence from Cassidy, and he already believed my mother and me were nothing more than manipulators.

The nearby servants started whispering behind their hands, casting strange looks my way. Even I found it laughable.

He truly believed I was clinging to status, but did he ever realize that in these past few years, as his family crumbled, I was the one bringing in billions in business?

My defiance only enraged Archer further. He waved his hand coldly at the bodyguards.

“Throw her into the basement. She can come out once she’s learned her place.”

His tall figure vanished from sight. I curled up in the shadows, clutching my mother’s urn, every breath tearing through my chest like glass.

I was locked away for two full days and nights. Not a single servant offered me so much as a sip of water.

Then, a faint sliver of light crept through the door.

I looked up and saw little Dorian stepping down the stairs, holding a piece of bread in his small hand.

My sweet baby.

I staggered to my feet, my cracked lips barely lifting into a smile as I reached for him, but he flinched, dodging my embrace.

His eyes drifted from my dirty hands to the urn I held. “Give it to me.”

“What?” My smile froze mid-air.

“Give me the urn, and I’ll give you the bread. If not, you can starve here.”

I stared at his small, indifferent face, so eerily similar to his father’s, and my heart turned to ice.

“How can you say that? I’m your mother. That urn holds your grandmother’s ashes.”

But Dorian’s face remained blank, as if carved from stone.

“Only someone noble like Cassidy deserves to be my mother. You, the daughter of a maid, don’t belong in this family.”

I couldn’t believe such words had come from a seven-year-old.

“Dorian, who taught you that?”

The pain in my chest was so sharp, it felt like it would rip me apart. Starving and enraged, my vision blurred into darkness.

Before I could get any words out, the urn was wrenched from my arms.

“No—”

I clung to it with all the strength I had left, unwilling to let go.

“Don’t take my mother away, Dorian!”

“Cassidy’s dog is dying. She’s cried for two days. I don’t want her to be sad.”

So, you’re not worried about my pain? Is that it?

Ignoring my desperate pleas, my son pried my fingers open and snatched the urn from my grasp.

His little shoes, polished and perfect, crushed the bread he’d discarded as he turned away.

It felt as though a part of my heart had been torn out.

Fine. If you want to scatter your grandmother’s ashes to the wind. Then, I no longer wanted you as my son.