Chapter 46
Chapter 46
Kael’s POV
After Jasper finished what he had to say, he raised his glass. “But it’s fine. Mr. Voss is enormously wealthy—three hundred million is nothing to him. Come, everyone, let’s have a drink!”
I picked up my glass, clinked it with theirs, and drank, but the motion was mechanical. Half my attention wasn’t here.
I remembered every word Mr. Henderson had said tonight.
“Mr. Voss, your business acumen is certainly admirable, but your taste in women... is a bit questionable.” His tone wasn’t mocking. It was the direct honesty of someone older speaking from experience. “Today Arthur asks Miss Clara for old-age support. Tomorrow he might come to you, his prospective son-in-law, and ask the same thing.”
I didn’t argue, because I couldn’t find a way to.
From the moment I arrived tonight until now, I had seen every single thing Iris did in the banquet hall. Later, someone told me exactly what happened with the bucket of water—that Iris had carried it there, intending it for Clara, and ended up dumping it on herself. And it wasn’t hard for me to infer that everything Arthur did tonight had been triggered by a phone call from Iris.
I set my glass back on the tray and looked past the crowd at Clara.
She stood among those ladies, taking in each word of comfort with a steady expression. That steadiness wasn’t an act—it was the real composure of someone who had weathered too many storms.
Tonight, she had been slapped in public by her father, publicly demanded to pay three hundred million in old-age support, publicly subjected to those words—any one of those things would have been enough to shatter most people. But she didn’t break. She took each thing, dealt with it, and remained standing.
In my mind, I looked at her all over again.
Just then, Blake came over and whispered something in my ear.
My face changed—Zoe was missing. Given Zoe’s condition, any sudden incident outside was something I didn’t even dare think about.
I put down my glass, gave Jasper a brief farewell, and almost ran for the exit.
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Chloe’s POV
In the storage room, we watched every single thing that happened downstairs from beginning to end.
When Arthur was dragged out, I let out a quiet breath, then turned to see Ethan’s face flushed red with anger.
“Arthur is awful,” he said through clenched teeth. “How could he bully Mom like that?”
I nodded, the anger still pressing in my chest. “He’s a bad person. When I grow up, he’ll be the first one I deal with.”
Zoe hesitated beside me, then said softly, “But he’s my grandfather. He’s an elder.”
Ethan looked at her, his voice very steady. “The moment he bullied my mom, he stopped deserving to be treated like an elder. We don’t allow anyone to bully our mom.”
Zoe said nothing after that, but I saw something slowly sinking in her eyes. She was probably thinking about Iris—the way Iris treated her was, at its core, exactly the same kind of thing Arthur had done to Mom tonight.
I didn’t say that out loud. I just turned my attention back to the screen.
As the three of us chatted, time quietly passed. The banquet downstairs was gradually nearing its end. I was watching Mom talk with several ladies when I suddenly noticed her expression change.
She glanced down at her phone, and her face sank. Then she lifted her skirt, hurried over to Jasper, said a few words, turned, and left quickly.
Almost at the same time, I saw Blake stride over to Kael and whisper something. Kael’s expression changed sharply. He gave Jasper a brief goodbye and rushed out.
Ethan glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the laptop and shot to his feet. “This is bad. It’s too late. We need to get back now. Chloe, Zoe, let’s go!”
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Ethan’s POV
I shut the laptop and tucked it under my arm. I pushed the storage room door open a crack, checked the hallway first, then motioned for Chloe and Zoe to follow.
The three of us slipped out of the storage room, moved past the prep area, and headed downstairs via the staircase behind the banquet hall. The stairwell was dimly lit. I kept my steps light, holding Zoe’s hand as we made our way down.
Once we got out the back door, the night wind hit us, and Zoe leaned a little closer to me.
I flagged down a rideshare, gave our neighborhood address, and the three of us got in.
A little earlier, I had checked the home security system through the backend. Marnie was running around the rooms in a panic. Combined with the way Mom’s face had changed after looking at her phone in the storage room footage, I was sure of it—she had gotten the message that Ethan and Chloe weren’t home.
Mom was on her way back now.
I calculated the timing and matched the speed to the distance.
“This is bad,” I said under my breath. “Mom’s car should be getting there soon too.”
Chloe leaned closer to me and lowered her voice. “We can’t go in behind them. If we do, we’ll definitely get caught.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m thinking.”
Zoe was on my other side. She turned her head and spoke softly. “Come with me. I know this neighborhood really well.”
The car stopped at the neighborhood entrance. I paid the fare, and the three of us got out. Just then, I saw Clara’s car and Kael’s car drive into the neighborhood one after the other.
The timing was even tighter than I’d estimated.
Zoe led the way, taking us down a side path along the edge of the neighborhood. She knew every turn here without the slightest hesitation.
She brought Chloe and me to a fork in the path and stopped.
“Chloe, go right from here, circle around that flower bed, and enter Voss Manor through the side gate,” she said, then showed Chloe how to unlock it.
Chloe nodded and took a deep breath.
“Ethan, we go left from here. We can get in through the little gate by the back garden. It probably isn’t locked today. From there, we can circle around to Mom’s villa,” Zoe continued.
“Okay,” I said. “Chloe, you go to Voss Manor. Zoe, you’re with me.”
I looked up at Chloe, then at Zoe, and asked,
“Do you want to switch back tonight?”
Chloe looked at Zoe, as if asking for her opinion.
Zoe shook her head, her voice very small. “I don’t want to. I’m scared Mom will hit me again.”
I understood.
“Then I’ll keep taking your place,” Chloe said, her tone steady, like she had already decided. “We can switch back before the surgery. We live so close to each other.”
I nodded. “All right. Everyone move fast. Go home separately.”
Chloe turned and ran down the path to the right. Her skirt fluttered once in the night wind, and then she disappeared behind the flower bed.
I took Zoe’s hand and headed left, quickening my pace while keeping a close eye on her the whole time.
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