Chapter 158 I Want to Live with Mommy

Chapter 158 I Want to Live with Mommy

Olivia had never really wanted to burn bridges with the Barnett family completely.

She was wealthy now, but she was still new to wealth.

Her twenty billion dollars in assets and her stake in the Wood family meant nothing compared to the Barnett family, with all their deep-rooted power and history.

But the Barnetts just wouldn't leave her alone. They clung to her like a weight she couldn't shake, and it disgusted her.

The harsh words she'd thrown at Penelope earlier were meant to scare them off.

If they kept pushing, she'd have no choice but to go all in and take them down with her.

Deep down, Olivia didn't want it to come to that.

So after laying down her threat, she softened her tone just a little.

"Penelope, go back and tell your family — I'm not a naive little kid anymore, and I'm long past the age of craving family ties. The best outcome for both of us is to leave each other alone and protect what we have."

With that, Olivia turned and walked away.

Penelope stood in silence the whole time, her mind churning.

She watched Olivia's retreating figure and suddenly murmured under her breath.

"Looks smart. Turns out she's just a fool."

Her words were barely a whisper. No one heard them. No one responded.

News of Amanda publicly taking Olivia on as her student and openly standing up for her spread across the internet fast, setting off a wave of heated discussion.

Olivia's fans were thrilled, riding high like they'd just won something.

Olivia herself couldn't have cared less.

Her life was getting back on track. Things around her were slowly falling into place, and even the general mood felt lighter and easier.

But some people just couldn't stand to see her doing well.

One day, Olivia had barely stepped outside when she spotted a small, thin figure standing at the door, clutching a little school bag.

The moment the figure saw her, they came running.

"Mom! Mom!"

Olivia felt two arms wrap around her legs and startled.

She looked down and recognized Martin.

In just one month, he looked like a completely different child.

The bright, lively little boy she remembered — full of childish energy and pride — was gone. He looked worn out and hollow. The baby fat had melted from his face, the light had left his eyes, and he seemed to have wilted entirely.

Olivia pulled away from him. Martin's lips pressed together immediately, his eyes filling with tears.

"Mom, it's me, Martin. You always said I was your favorite."

His voice cracked, heavy with grief he'd been holding in for a long time.

Olivia looked at how worn down he was. After a brief moment of surprise, she steadied herself, stepped back to put some distance between them, and spoke in a flat, cold tone.

"That was before. Your father and I are divorced. You're not in my custody."

She turned to leave. Martin lunged forward again.

"Mom! I get it now, I really do! You never let me eat junk food, or nuts, or ice cream — it was all because you cared about my health, because you were worried about me."

Martin was crying so hard he could barely breathe, stumbling through every little thing Olivia had ever done for him.

He finally understood, too late, that every rule she'd set, every reminder she'd given — it had all come from love.

But understanding it now didn't change anything.

Olivia took a step back, avoiding his reach.

"So what? You understand now — what does that change?"

Her coldness stopped Martin in his tracks.

He looked up at her through blurred, tear-filled eyes, unable to read her expression.

Panic crashed over him. He forced himself to hold back the tears and spoke as steadily as he could.

"Mom, I really know I was wrong. Can you forgive me?"

Olivia didn't answer. Instead, she turned the question back on him.

"What about your Aunt Hestia? She used to be your favorite. You pulled away from me for her, talked back to me because of her. What are you going to do about her now?"

Martin's small body went rigid. He started trembling, just barely.

Raw hatred flooded his eyes. He gritted his teeth and growled.

"I never want to see her again. She's evil. She lied to me the whole time. She never actually liked me. She was just using me to get to Dad. She said it herself — once Dad married her and she had her own kid, she'd get rid of me."

Martin had never been exposed to cruelty like that before. Remembering the vicious things Hestia had spat out when she had nothing left to lose, he couldn't stop the tears from falling — pouring out all the fear and regret he'd been carrying.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't know until now how much you went through, how unfair it all was. It was our fault — mine and Dad's. We hurt you."

Martin squeezed his small fists tight, his young face twisted with remorse.

Once Hestia's true nature was fully exposed, she had completely unraveled.

Ethan had stumbled across her screaming into her phone, completely unhinged, and something in him shifted. He started digging into her past, and what he found was the truth: Hestia had never come back from a successful life abroad. She'd been forced back after hitting rock bottom overseas.

She did have real talent, but when she first went abroad, she had no interest in building anything. She burned through every penny Saskia had given her, then latched onto a wealthy local man.

She lived off him in comfort and luxury for a while. But she had no real footing of her own, and once the novelty wore off, he dropped her without a second thought.

With nowhere left to turn overseas, Hestia remembered Ethan back home and came back.

By then, Ethan was already married. So she played the role of the fragile, innocent girl, leaning on whatever old feelings remained, and slowly worked to poison his image of Olivia.

When Ethan uncovered the full picture of what Hestia had done, he was stunned.

He had never imagined that the soft, gentle person he'd held in his heart could be so deeply rotten.

He didn't hide any of the investigation from Martin.

When Martin learned the whole truth, he was shattered — lost in shock and shame.

He had always believed he was helping Olivia become a better mother by pointing out her flaws.

Instead, he had been siding with an outsider and hurting the one person who had truly loved him.

The moment it all became clear, Martin ran straight to find Olivia. He needed her to forgive him.

What he hadn't expected was this — her complete and utter coldness.

The more Martin thought about it, the harder he cried. His quiet sniffling turned into full, heaving sobs.

Olivia watched him the whole time, from the first soft whimpers to the eventual breakdown, without a flicker of emotion on her face.

Only when he'd cried himself out and sank to the ground, hiccupping softly, did she finally speak.

"So what exactly do you want?"

Martin grabbed onto her like she was the only thing keeping him afloat. He jumped up and wrapped his arms around her legs.

"Mom, I want to live with you. Can I?"

"No."

Olivia didn't hesitate for a second.

Martin panicked and rushed to explain.

"Why not? You always said that if someone makes a mistake but wants to fix it, they're still a good person. I was manipulated by Aunt Hestia. I didn't mean to…"

Even though Olivia had long made her peace with the past, that sentence still stirred something like disappointment in her.

"Hestia never directly told you to do anything wrong. It was your own bias and blind trust that gave her room to grow greedier and more cruel. If you hadn't already made up your minds about me — if you hadn't been so ready to believe the worst — she never would have had the chance to turn you against me."

"No, that's not right," Martin sobbed, struggling to get the words out. "She was deliberately misleading us the whole time."

"You looked down on me from the very beginning."

Olivia cut him off and looked him straight in the eye.

"From day one, you and your father had a problem with my education, with the way I did things. That had nothing to do with anyone else. Your father never treated me like a real wife. You never treated me like a real mother. To both of you, I was nothing more than a free housekeeper."

"None of this is anyone else's fault. Even without Hestia, there would have been someone else. You weren't deceived. You just did exactly what you wanted to do."