Chapter 164 The Final Reckoning

Chapter 164 The Final Reckoning
Cole: POV

Old Master Stone gritted his teeth, his face contorted with rage. "With your mother being that kind of nightclub woman, what man didn't she throw herself at? Why don't you ask people who know—how did your mother climb into your father's bed?"

The words hit me like physical blows, each one designed to strip away what little dignity I had left.

"Your mother secretly gave birth to you and wanted to use you to enter our family properly. Why should the Stone family respect you and that mother of yours?" The old man's words turned vicious. "You inherited everything from your prostitute mother—malicious thoughts and twisted character!"

After spitting out this sentence, he turned to Steel. "Detective Steel, this person has no relationship with the Stone family. If the police need our cooperation in subsequent investigations, we will fully cooperate!"

With that, he turned to leave, his walking stick tapping against the pavement with sharp, angry clicks.

"Come back!" I shouted after him, my voice cracking with desperation. "What right do you have to say I have no relationship with the Stone family? What right? Come back..."

But he didn't stop. Didn't even pause. Just kept walking away, his back straight with righteous indignation.

I'd just looked up, still screaming after him, when a figure blocked my path.

Charlotte.

Her face was pale, her eyes blazing with fury, grief, and disgust all twisted together into something raw and terrible.

Charlotte's palm struck my face with such force that my head snapped to the side. The sharp edge of her ring caught my cheekbone, tearing the skin open. Blood immediately began trickling down my face.

Another slap fell on the other side.

My face exploded in agony. Both cheeks were severely swollen, my lip split open where her ring had caught it. Blood flowed freely, hot and sticky, running down my neck and soaking into my collar.

"You bastard, you rotten person, go to hell..."

Charlotte screamed, her palms and fists raining down on my face. Each blow carried years of suppressed rage, decades of pain I'd inflicted on her and her mother.

Steel stepped forward to stop her, pulling Charlotte away, but she seemed to have gone mad, trying to rush forward again. Her chest heaved with each breath, her hair disheveled, her elegant dress splattered with my blood.

It was Michael who held Charlotte back, restraining her struggling form tightly in his arms.

Alice quickly stepped forward and said to the frowning Steel, "I'm sorry, Detective. Ms. Caldwell has been living under the suppression and targeting of Cole Stone, his wife, and children. She may look okay, but her mental state is very poor. This matter has hit her too hard..."

Charlotte, held in Michael's arms, was still struggling. Her voice came out raw, broken: "Let me go! Let me—"

"Charlotte, stop," Michael's voice was low, urgent. "You're hurting yourself."

The grievances she'd endured over the years, and her mother's grievances, were enough to break through her psychological defenses.

After my screaming subsided, I gave up completely. Enduring the severe pain, I roared hysterically at the frantic Charlotte: "Charlotte, do you have the guts to kill me? Do you? You don't!"

Blood dripped from my chin as I spoke.

"Your mother was an idiot!" I screamed, and I saw Charlotte flinch in Michael's arms. "She thought I was her beloved husband, sleeping with me and paving the way for me. What a fool, a complete idiot!"

"Do you know how I managed to impersonate him so well that Emily never noticed?"

Charlotte had stopped struggling, but her eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that should have terrified me. Should have made me shut my mouth.

But I was beyond caring now. Beyond fear. If I was going down, I was taking everyone with me.

"I threatened David Grant with your life and Emily's life!" The confession burst from my lips like poison. "I told him if he dared say anything about himself and the Caldwell family, I would definitely kill his daughter and his wife before Emily could expose me!"

"David was terrified! He begged me, begged me not to hurt you two, said even if I replaced him and took care of you mother and daughter, it would be fine."

I laughed—a sound like breaking glass. "He told me everything, just begged me not to hurt you."

"What right did he have?" My voice rose to a shriek. "What right did David Grant have?"

"An orphan from an orphanage, a dirty thing with unknown origins, a bastard—what right did he have to be friends with me, a son of a wealthy family? Why should he live better than me?"

The crowd had gone completely silent. Even the livestream comments had stopped scrolling.

"If you want to blame someone, blame him for foolishly wanting to be my friend! Blame him for being my friend and living more comfortably than me!"

"If I didn't kill him, I'd make him watch me live the life I should have lived! A psychiatric hospital is where an orphan like him belongs—he deserves it!"

Charlotte made a sound—somewhere between a sob and a scream.

"His woman was slept with by me, his daughter was targeted by me at every turn, and now he's gone mad—this is only fair!"

"Oh right," I continued, my voice taking on a casual tone that was somehow more horrifying than the screaming. "I also used lots of slow-acting poison on your mother, eating away at her body day by day!"

Charlotte's knees buckled. Michael caught her, holding her upright.

"Who told her to keep saying I was different from before? And refusing to transfer all her shares to my name?"

"She had to die!"

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

"I want the entire Caldwell family business! I want to tell the Stone family that they were blind not to see my worth, that..."

My words were like knives, shredding the sanity of everyone present.

What kind of demon was this?

Charlotte's body tensed in Michael's arms, every muscle coiled tight.

Suddenly, a voice sounded in her ear: "Ms. Caldwell, stand steady!"

The next second, the hands restraining her released.

Before she could react, Michael turned and stepped forward, kicking me in the chest with all his strength.

The officers controlling me hadn't anticipated this move. I flew from their hands and crashed to the ground, the air leaving my lungs in a rush. My head cracked against the pavement with a sickening sound.

Michael moved with extreme speed, pressing down on me and landing several punches on my blood-covered face.

The screams were like a pig being slaughtered. Each punch landed with a wet, meaty sound. I felt my nose crack, teeth loosen, my jaw dislocate. My already swollen face became unrecognizable, blood pouring from my nose and mouth.

When the SWAT team pulled Michael away and restrained him, I lay on the ground barely alive, my head surrounded by blood and five or six teeth scattered across the pavement.

Officers came and handcuffed Michael's wrists. Blood dripped from his knuckles, mixing with mine on the ground.

Charlotte, supported by Alice, stared in shock at the restrained Michael, his fists covered in blood.

He was saying to the officers: "I'll take responsibility."

After speaking, his gaze shifted to glance this way once, then immediately moved away.

Charlotte's emotions broke through their critical point. She felt her brain seize up, her vision go black.

Alice caught her in time. From over there came Michael's voice, steady. "Get her to a hospital!"

The crowd erupted. Reporters shouted questions. Cameras flashed. The livestream exploded with comments faster than anyone could read them.

But I barely noticed. I lay on the ground, tasting blood and concrete, and for the first time in these years, I felt something like relief.

It was over. All of it. The lies, the pretending, the constant fear of being discovered.