Chapter 212
Gideon stood by the roadside, watching the car carry away the person he most wanted to see and least wanted to see, until it completely disappeared from view. Only then did he turn toward his own car.
As he reached for the door handle, he paused, unable to resist turning back to kick the stone platform.
The kick hurt his ankle, but this pain somehow brought him a masochistic sense of relief.
He gradually calmed down and got into the driver's seat, taking out his phone to call his assistant. "Find out if someone leaked our whereabouts."
Less than half an hour later, the assistant called back. "Your itinerary today was confidential. Besides you, me, and Mr. Adams, no one else knew."
So it couldn't have been pre-planned... A sudden sense of crisis rose in Gideon's heart.
If those two weren't putting on a show for him, it meant their rapport and understanding were real.
That understanding had once belonged to him. He'd lost it midway, but he'd never considered it permanently gone. He firmly believed that one day it would return to his hands.
Today, however, made him doubt that certainty.
"By the way, Mr. Getty, I just received a call from your mother. She said she wanted to bring you some food, but the security stopped her at the gate..."
The assistant really didn't want to deal with this. One was his direct superior, the other his superior's mother. Caught in the middle, helping either would be wrong.
If they reconciled later, he'd be the bad guy to both. But having received the call, he didn't dare not tell Gideon.
Gideon lowered his eyes and said flatly, "Send a car to take her home."
After Lorelei appeared in his room last time, he knew his mother had arranged it. He simply changed the locks. Now, no one but him could enter that house.
The assistant acknowledged and was about to hang up when Gideon suddenly stopped him. "Wait!"
The assistant was puzzled. "Does Mr. Getty have other instructions?"
Gideon closed his eyes in thought. Whether they'd staged this scene for him or met by chance today, those two had spent too much time together—enough to make him feel threatened.
He couldn't let Josephine stay by Cedric's side any longer. But he had no way to separate them on his own. Unless...
He opened his eyes. "Let her in. I'll be right back."
"Yes."
Half an hour later, Gideon returned to Evercrest Manor.
Briana was indeed sitting on the living room sofa, anger written on her face. Seeing him return, she immediately stood and demanded, "What's the meaning of this? I'm your mother! You had security keep me out? Your home isn't letting me in anymore? Are you planning to cut ties with me completely?"
Gideon sat across from her, casually draping his suit jacket over the sofa back and exhaling deeply. "Why I didn't let you in—don't you know in your heart?"
Briana choked momentarily, feeling a bit guilty, but this guilt was quickly covered by anger at her son's defiance. "Even if I did something wrong before, I'm your mother! I gave birth to you and raised you. Your father was out philandering every day. When you were little, you grew up nursing at my breast! Is this how you treat me? If you're unhappy, you can tell me, but you can't lock me out! You won't even let me cross your threshold!"
Gideon looked at her calmly. When he'd made this decision, he'd already anticipated his mother's reaction. "Haven't I told you before?"
He reached out to smooth a wrinkle on his pants, his voice low and cold. "I've said it many times. Josephine is my wife, the person I love most."
"I don't like Lorelei. Having her get pregnant was because I wanted Getty family inheritance rights. I wanted decision-making power. I wanted Jojo to stop being pressured about having children."
"I endured the disgust of touching another woman—not for novelty, not for so-called desire. I just wanted to give Jojo a better life."
He paused, looking at Briana's pale face, a sigh escaping his lips. "But which of those words did you hear? You just don't like Jojo. You just wanted us to divorce. Fine. Jojo wanted it, so I granted it. But that doesn't mean you can arrange my next marriage."
It wasn't that he hadn't tried reasoning with his mother. It just never worked.
Hearing her son's heartfelt words, Briana's heart only turned colder. "For that woman, you're planning to break with me?"
See—his mother always heard only what she wanted to hear.
Gideon tiredly rubbed his forehead. "If you insist on thinking that way, there's nothing I can do."
"You're determined to win her back?" Briana could see that even though her son had ended his marriage with that woman, his heart was still full of her.
Gideon nodded. "Yes."
Briana said coldly, "Then I'll tell you—I'll never agree to you remarrying her!"
Gideon didn't understand and couldn't comprehend. If his child loved someone so much, he wouldn't stand in the way, because he understood the pain of unrequited love.
His mother understood too, yet refused to help him.
If reasoning wouldn't work, there was no point continuing. Gideon stood. "Then we'll each do what we can."
He turned and headed upstairs.
Briana watched her son's tall retreating figure, hands clenched into fists, unable to suppress her inner fury. "Gideon, as long as I'm still your mother, as long as I'm still alive, you'll never be with that woman! I'll never allow a woman who has you so bewitched to ruin your entire life!"
Gideon's steps paused slightly. He turned partway, smiling self-deprecatingly. "You don't need to be so determined. Even if I want to reconcile, Jojo won't agree."
"What do you mean?"
"Jojo already has a better option."
What better option could that woman have? A divorcée, a cast-off wife. Briana didn't believe it. "Don't try to fool me with such talk!"
Gideon shook his head and said quietly, "Cedric. For Jojo, he's a better choice than me."
Having said that, he turned toward his bedroom.
Briana froze in place after hearing this. Josephine and Cedric were together?
Her first thought was that this was good—her son wouldn't be entangled with this woman anymore.
But this thought lasted only a second before being replaced by enormous unease.
No, something was wrong.
David doted on Cedric most. If David had to choose an heir from among the Getty family's younger generation, without question, he'd choose Cedric.
If Josephine and Cedric were together... wouldn't she become the future mistress of the Getty family?
No, absolutely not!
Briana suddenly stood, her fingers trembling, panic flooding her heart, ruthlessness filling her eyes as she muttered, "How can I allow this woman to stand higher than me..."
She grabbed her purse and headed out. The car was parked by the roadside outside Evercrest Manor.
After getting in, she instructed the driver, "Getty Manor."
A figure stood at a second-floor window. The wind lifted the curtain, revealing Gideon's face. He held his phone, a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear.
The assistant's voice came through the earpiece.
"The driver reports your mother has gone to Getty Manor."
Gideon lowered his eyes and acknowledged softly. Using his mother wasn't exactly honorable, but some things weren't suitable for him to do. Only his mother could achieve the best effect.