Chapter 122 MORE THAN THEY KNOW

Chapter 122 MORE THAN THEY KNOW
Kelvin's POV

I sat across from her as a heavy, suffocating silence fell between us.

I had managed to track her down, catching a glimpse of the picture-perfect life she had chosen over me.

“Why are you here, Kelvin? I thought I told you to lay low. Why on earth would you come here to visit me?”

Her voice dripped with venom, and her eyes were entirely devoid of emotion. Her face had long forgotten how to smile—the way she used to whenever she came to see me, or when I went to visit her.

Were any of those smiles ever real?

For the first time in my life, I found myself unable to understand her. I had always understood her. Even in front of Nancy, I stood up for her. But right now, looking into eyes that burned with unspoken rage, I felt completely lost.

“Mom...” I breathed.

“I told you not to fucking call me that when we aren't alone!” she snapped, rolling her eyes.

“But we are alone, Mother. We are sitting in a massive mansion with just the two of us in this entire fucking space,” I countered, matching her sharp, bitter energy.

“Kelvin, this is not the time for this! My life is a fucking mess! I'm about to be disqualified as the next CEO candidate for Lennox Lux—all because my own daughter called me a lunatic and had me locked up over a mere accident!”

She roared in fury, hurling the wine glass in her hand straight across the room. It shattered loudly against the far wall, shards spraying across the floor.

I stared at the woman in front of me, seeing her clearly for the very first time. The last time we met at the hotel, I was furious that she was willing to ruin Nancy’s life just to keep me hidden from Jaxon’s eyes—just to protect her little secrets. But I never imagined... I never in my wildest dreams thought she had actually killed someone to make her ambitions come true.

I had always believed she was simply fighting to take back what was rightfully hers.

“When you left me at that orphanage... when you abandoned your nine-year-old child to chase your dream... did you ever feel a single moment of regret?” I asked, swallowing the painful lump forming in my throat.

She let out a dry chuckle. Then she laughed—a slow, sarcastic laugh that sounded like it belonged in a horror film.

“Why should I regret it? Tell me, Kelvin, why should I regret a thing? I made sure you had the absolute best! Even though you weren't with me, I gave you everything. Where do you think all those donations came from at every single orphanage you were transferred to? The special treatment you received over the other kids? The food you—”

“I never wanted any of that! I never asked you for any of it, Mother!”

I dragged out the word Mother with raw, agonizing pain. She wasn't seeing me. I was standing right in front of her, yet she couldn't see me or my suffering at all.

“I never wanted special treatment! It made the other kids bully me! It left me with zero friends! It made every teacher favor me to my face just to get what they wanted from you, only to talk trash about me behind closed doors! That wasn't what I wanted. That wasn't what you promised me! I was just a nine-year-old boy who wanted to see his mother smile. Who wanted his mother to hold him, to read him bedtime stories, to make breakfast together, or to go to the park or see a movie on my birthday! I didn't care about having a father. I didn't care that he abandoned us! I just wanted you! You were enough for me!”

Years of hidden, unspoken agony poured out of me in every single word. I gave her my absolute heart, but she just stared back at me with cold, lifeless eyes.

“Oh, please, Kelvin—grow up! I made sure I visited you as often as I could! I stayed out of my daughter's life just so I could be in yours, so don't you sit there and act like I didn't put in any effort! All I have ever done is take back what that bitch stole from me! I don't care what you or your sister have to say about it now. You two will come to understand my sacrifice soon enough.”

I couldn't believe my ears.

The way she spoke, the desperate, anxious contortions on her face—like a madwoman terrified that someone was about to snatch away her prized possession—sent a sickening chill straight down my spine.

“I'm not letting anyone stand in my way,” she mumbled frantically. “I just need to find a way to convince the board that I'm mentally fine, that this was all just a misunderstanding caused by my immature daughter. They need to know that Jaxon was behind all of this, not me! I didn't even mean to hit your father with that bottle! It was all Jaxon’s fault! Why won't that brat just die like his pathetic mother?!”

I gasped in complete horror.

Isadora was right. She really did sound unhinged. How had I missed this side of her for so long?

She began aggressively biting her nails, her lips moving in rapid, silent mutters. She kept mumbling incoherently, breaking into eerie, sudden smiles every few seconds.

How long had she been living like this? How long had she been hiding behind this madness?

Every ounce of strength drained from my body. I dragged a hand through my hair, my head throbbing with a sharp, dull ache.

“Why do you want this life so badly? What on earth drove you to this point?” I muttered under my breath, more to myself than to her. “What really happened between you and your sister to leave you so consumed by this sickening hatred? What drove you insane?”

I forced my eyes back to her. She was entirely lost in her own world, scratching her arm so violently that her skin turned raw and red.

“Mom,” I called out.

She ignored me.

“Mom!” I called louder this time.

She snapped her head toward me, her eyes completely hollow.

“Kelvin... Kelvin, you can help me, right? Of course you can help me!” she gasped, scrambling forward to grab my hands. “We can do everything you ever wanted! We can go to the movies, or to the park! I’ll read you bedtime stories every single night! Just help me... please, Kelvin!”

Her fingers dug desperately into mine, her wild eyes searching my face with an unspoken, terrifying madness.

“You're drunk,” I said quietly, pulling my hands away from her grip and staring at her like she was a complete stranger. “You need to go get some rest.”

“Don't you dare look at me like that! Don't look at me like I'm a fucking lunatic!” she shrieked. “Kelvin, you can't let them take me back to that room! Isadora made them take me to that terrifying room! There were so many of them...”

Her eyes dilated with sheer panic as her gaze darted wildly around the study, as if unseen monsters were creeping up from the dark corners.

Suddenly, Arabella's words echoed in my mind: “Sometimes, all you have to do is play the fool.”

I reached back out, taking her trembling hands and studying every erratic twitch. Slipping my phone out, I silently hit the voice recorder.

“Who is taking you? What room?” I asked in a low, gentle voice.

“Those horrible nurses!” she sobbed. “They used to chain me to the bed! I told them it hurt, but they wouldn't listen! They promised they were going to help me, but they just kept hurting me!”

She wrapped her arms tightly around her quivering body, shrinking back.

“They hurt you?” I asked softly, coaxing her to keep going. There was clearly a deeper trauma here—something buried in her past that explained this horrific break from reality.

“Yes... but I killed them,” she suddenly whispered, breaking into a loud, frantic laugh as she snatched my hands again. “I killed them all! Kill Jaxon! I want you to kill Jaxon, Kelvin! You love Mummy, right? You love me! You have to kill him!”

Her unhinged screams echoed off the high ceiling just before the heavy study door burst open.

The young housemaid who had let me in rushed straight to her side. I sat frozen in shock.

The maid briefly left the room and returned with a glass of water and an unlabeled white pill bottle. She gently pried my mother’s frantic grip off my hands, taking her trembling wrists instead. After a silent, tense exchange between the maid and me, she coaxed my mother into swallowing the medication.

“I'm sorry, sir, but Mrs. Lennox appears to be heavily intoxicated. I'm going to have to ask you to show yourself out,” the maid said in a flat, practiced tone.

She helped my mother to her feet and began guiding her away. From her eerily calm demeanor, I could tell this was far from the first time she had dealt with her in this state.

“Wait! Please, wait!” I called after her.

She didn't pause. I grabbed my phone and hurried down the hall.

“I really need to talk to you!” I pressed, but the door clicked shut right in my face before I could take another step.

My knees felt weak.

What in God's name was going on?

Defeated, I turned around and headed down the corridor, exiting the mansion into the night.

Growing up, I had seen her throw tantrums, scream, and shatter things—but I always assumed she was just angry at the world. I never dreamed she was dealing with severe mental instability.

What if there was so much more to her past than her just going missing? What if there were darker secrets we had yet to uncover?