Chapter 232

Chapter 232

"If you call yourself my mother one more time, I'll cut out your tongue!" I snapped.

Victoria immediately went silent, trembling all over, too scared to say a word.

I crouched down in front of her, my eyes cold as ice, completely flat.

"Grandpa is dead. You got what you wanted. Shouldn't you be happy? Huh?"

Victoria's face went white as a sheet, her whole body shaking. "I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of it. I lost my mind for a moment. I regret it. How could I have done something so disgusting?"

As she spoke, Victoria started slapping herself hard across the face, trying to squeeze some sympathy out of me.

I watched and felt nothing.

Just disgust.

I grabbed Victoria by the hair and slapped her hard across the face. My voice was ice cold. "Stop performing. Even if you killed yourself right in front of me, I wouldn't feel a thing. And that's what a real slap looks like. What were you doing to yourself just now? That was barely a scratch."

Victoria, like a beaten dog, immediately started hitting herself with the same force I had used.

"It's my fault. I'm the one to blame. I'm an animal. I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry. Everything is my fault."

"Forgive me, Charlotte. I really was wrong. Please, let me out of here."

"I can't take this anymore. I'd rather die than stay in this place."

My eyes held nothing. No joy, no grief. Just emptiness.

"Die? Letting you die that easily would be too kind. What I want is for you to spend the rest of your life rotting away under endless torment."

At those words, Victoria's eyelids began to twitch wildly. Her face twisted with sheer terror. She was so frightened she couldn't even cry.

"Charlotte... please don't do this. I'm scared. These past few days, I've genuinely regretted everything. I know I'm an animal. Just... just get me out of here, and I'll do whatever you say. Please."

I curled the corner of my mouth. "You really do love to dream. You're right that you won't be staying here for the rest of your life. Don't worry about that."

For a moment, Victoria thought I was letting her go. A smile broke across her face. "Really? Oh, thank God. Charlotte, I knew deep down you still care about our bond as mother and daughter. I knew you couldn't be that cruel to me."

But what I said next sent her straight back to hell.

"This place is too easy on you. I've had a custom cell built just for you. Two square meters, completely sealed. Nothing inside. Just enough space to curl up and sleep. You'll eat, drink, and relieve yourself right there on the floor. Someone will clean it out once a month. As for food, that depends. On a good day, maybe one meal. On a bad day, nothing for three days straight. That's where you'll spend the rest of your life."

Victoria looked like her soul had left her body. She kept backing away, her bloodshot eyes filled with nothing but pure, helpless terror.

She couldn't even look me in the eye anymore.

In that moment, I must have looked like the devil himself to her.

But honestly, when it comes to people like her, you can't afford to go soft.

I'd rather be the devil.

With people like her, I have no intention of being humane. And if the law allowed it, I would tear them apart piece by piece and let them suffer until the very end.

I stood up, a cold smirk on my face. "Oh, one more thing I need to tell you."

"You've always used your bond with Chase as your shield. Too bad that last lifeline of yours is gone now."

Victoria misread what I meant. She dropped to her knees and started slamming her forehead into the floor over and over.

"Charlotte, please. I'm begging you. I was wrong. I was so wrong. I know Chase is dead. I know you think we have no one left to protect us. But I was still Chase's daughter-in-law. Your father, no, your adoptive father, was Chase's own son. Now that Chase is gone, his only flesh and blood is Aiden. Can't you let us go, for his sake?"

My tone was calm, almost brutally so. "See, you've got it wrong again. What I'm telling you is that Aiden is not Chase's biological son."

Victoria's eyes went wide with shock. "What... what did you just say?"

"When Aiden was little, he had an older brother. That brother got sick and died. When Grandma gave birth to the brother, she lost so much blood that she had to have her uterus removed. She could never have children again. Grandpa loved her so much that he adopted a child and raised him as his own. That child was Aiden. So the family elder you've been using to guilt-trip everyone has absolutely no blood connection to Aiden whatsoever."

Victoria looked completely lost. Her expression was pure panic. Even her breathing had seized up.

"No... that's impossible. You're lying!"

I knew she'd say that. I calmly reached into my bag, pulled out a document, and dropped it in front of her.

"See for yourself."

She scrambled to pick it up. The moment she opened it and saw the paternity test report, the color drained from her face. Her lips wouldn't stop trembling. Her pupils shrank. Her eyes went blank and unfocused. She looked completely stunned.

But she still kept talking herself out of it.

"This can't be real. You forged this. You're trying to drive me crazy with all these tricks."

I smiled. "I don't have the energy to make something like this up just to mess with your head. Do you really think I'm anything like you?"

"I'm telling you this so you know, stop using Chase as your last resort. You have no blood tie to him. The Cavendish family was never Aiden's to begin with, and it certainly isn't yours."

Victoria stared blankly ahead, all color gone from her face.

Her legs gave out. She forgot to breathe.

Seeing her like that, I felt satisfied. I left her with one final word before walking out.

"Enjoy the few comfortable days you have left. What's coming next will be a whole different kind of suffering."

Then I turned and walked away.

Behind me, Victoria broke down into screaming and wailing.

Back in the car, Edward had just finished his video call. He didn't ask what had happened. He simply said, "Where to next?"

"To find Eleanor."

"Alright."

The Cavendish Family Estate

The car pulled up slowly in front of the Cavendish family estate. With Edward and David beside me, I walked into the villa where I had once lived. And only now did it feel like it truly belonged to me.

Eleanor was inside, in the middle of an argument with the household staff.

"The court is coming to seize the property! You've been hundreds of billions in debt this whole time! Why didn't you say anything? You just let us keep working here!"