Chapter 147 Chapter One hundred and forty-six
ARA
“You were never… mentally ill?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
I waited for her to laugh. To clap her hands. To tilt her head and say she was joking, like she often did.
But she didn’t.
“I was never mentally ill,” Liliana said quietly. “Thayne’s father was hurting me. And I was terrified of becoming the furniture wife, the silent woman who watched him parade throngs of women through our home.” Her lips trembled.
“I didn’t want Thayne growing up witnessing that. I wanted him to become a good man.” Tears slipped down her cheeks.
I stood there, trying to assemble her words into something that made sense. But they refused to fit.
“When I came to the first care home… you were pretending all along?” I asked slowly. “Why make me dig for details like that? Why didn’t you just tell me everything about my mother?”
Liliana exhaled shakily. “I needed to be sure,” she admitted.
“Sure about what?” I queried. “About whether I was truly Lola's daughter?”
She shook her head.
“No. Before you, there were streams of women who came into Thayne’s life wanting only his money, his name, his power.” Her gaze softened as it rested on me. “You changed him.”
My chest tightened. I looked away, I didn't want her to start praising me in front of Sasha and Stuart.
“Don’t say that,” I murmured. “Because of me, all of this is happening.”
“No,” she said firmly, shaking her head. “This would have happened whether you were here or not.”
“What about the night you climbed to the roof?” I asked. “When you tried to jump… were you pretending then too?”
Liliana turned away, wiping her tears with the back of her palms.
For a moment, only the hum of the air conditioner filled the room.
When she faced us again, her composure had cracked.
“No,” she said. “I wasn’t pretending then.”
Her voice faltered.
“I was actually getting sick. From the medications. From the isolation. From living inside a lie for so long.” She swallowed. “I thought ending it would make things better… for both of us.”
“Better?” A disbelieving laugh escaped me. “Liliana… you messed him up!”
“I know!” The words tore out of Liliana like a confession dragged from somewhere too deep.
“He hardly wants to see you anymore,” I said, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it. “Because he believes he reminds you of his father. He thinks every time you look at him, you see the man who hurt you.”
Liliana’s shoulders curled inward.
“Your son is the strongest man I know,” I continued, the ache in my chest spilling into my words. “He breaks down silently, without realizing he’s pushing away the people who love him. His best friend betrayed him. His public image has been battered over and over again. Yet he carries everything with pride.”
I swallowed hard. “You couldn’t think to lessen the pain for him?”
“I’m sorry,” Liliana whispered immediately. “It wasn’t my intention. I thought… I thought I would find the strength to tell him one day. But every time I look at him, I just can’t.”
Her voice wobbled. “He has grown so much. And he looks at me like I’m a stranger.”
The room seemed to shrink around us. A new question surfaced, sharp and insistent.
“What about Ursula?” I asked. “She never spoke about you with love. Not once. Why?”
Liliana’s eyes flickered with something dark. “She knew.”
Sasha inhaled sharply beside me. Stuart stiffened. Even the air felt startled.
“She knew what?” I asked, dread already pooling in my stomach.
Liliana held my gaze. “She knew I wasn’t sick.”
Silence detonated in the room.The kind that rang in your ears.
“What?” Sasha breathed.
Liliana nodded slowly, like someone accepting a sentence.
“Ursula discovered it years ago. She walked into my ward one afternoon when I forgot to take the sedatives I usually pretended to swallow.” A bitter smile ghosted her lips. “I was reading a novel. Fully aware and fully present.”
My heart pounded. So, Ursula used to visit her mother in the past?
“She didn’t say anything at first. She simply watched me. And then she smiled.”
A chill crawled up my spine.
“She told me she admired my performance,” Liliana said. “Said it was the smartest thing I had ever done, removing myself from a marriage without creating scandal.”
“That sounds like Ursula,” Sasha muttered. “But why did she keep quiet? Was it admiration? Why did she do all the things she did to Ara?”
“Admiration wasn’t why she kept quiet,” Liliana went on. “She kept my secret because secrets are currency to people like her.”
Realization dawned slowly. Horribly. “She was waiting to use it,” I said.
Liliana nodded. “She reminded me of it whenever she needed leverage. Whenever I refused to cooperate. Whenever I tried to step out of line.” Her fingers twisted together. “She made sure I remained exactly where I was, invisible, unstable, and easy to dismiss.”
Anger flared hot in my chest.
“All this time…” Stuart murmured.
“All this time,” Liliana echoed.
My pulse thundered.
“And Thayne has no idea,” I said.
Liliana’s eyes shimmered. “No,” she whispered. “My son has lived his entire life believing his mother lost her mind… when in truth, she was just trying to survive.”
The weight of it pressed against my ribs until breathing felt optional.
And suddenly, this visit didn’t feel like a check-in anymore.
It felt like the uncovering of a crime scene.
The sound of the door clicking open had us turning to it.
Thayne stepped into the room, pausing when he saw the tears on his mother's face.
He glanced at us, his face tightening.
“What's happening here? Why is she standing here and crying?”
Sasha pretended to find the floor fascinating while Stuart toyed with the buttons of his shirt.
His mother wiped her cheeks. “Nothing happened, Thayne. I decided to tell Ara the truth today.”
Thayne's eyes narrowed.
“I'm sorry, Stuart, where is the nurse supposed to be on duty? She's off her meds.” Thayne said, moving forward to take her arm.
Liliana held out her arm. “Thayne, I'm not sick. I never was. I've only been pretending I am.”
Thayne staggered back. He broke out in a cold sweat, then turned and stormed out.