Chapter 150

Chapter 150

Yara bolted for the door like a gust of wind. Logan reached for her, but she slammed into his arm and shoved past.

She whipped around and glared at the man who'd stolen her mother—a look filled with venom no child should possess.

Logan's brow furrowed deeply.

That look...

In the second he hesitated, Yara was gone.

Logan rubbed his temple. What was Nathan teaching this kid? How could a father let his own child harbor that kind of hatred toward her mother?

"I'll go after her," he said to Cordelia, who was clearly fighting back tears. "The hospital's crowded. Can't have her getting lost."

Cordelia didn't object.

Logan was about to head out when Rhys caught his hand. "Daddy, stay with Mommy. I'll go."

"Wait—" Logan tried to grab him, but the boy had already darted off.

Logan looked at Cordelia—eyes rimmed red, body trembling slightly—and decided she needed him more.

He sat on the edge of the bed and spoke gently. "Yara's still young. She doesn't understand. Give her a few years—she'll come around."

Before he finished, Cordelia turned and buried herself in his chest. Her voice cracked. "No, she won't. Nathan will just keep teaching her to resent me."

That did sound like something Nathan would do.

Logan didn't know what else to say. He rubbed her back in slow circles. "Then we'll fight for custody. Once Yara's with you, you can raise her the right way."

Cordelia wasn't petty like Nathan. She'd never keep a daughter from seeing her father.

"You... you wouldn't mind?" She tilted her face up, eyes swollen and uncertain.

Logan smiled. The tenderness in his expression could have softened stone. "Mind what? I love you—all of you. I just want you to be happy."

Warmth spread through Cordelia's chest. Then the bitterness crept back in.

If Nathan had ever thought this way, their marriage wouldn't have ended so ugly.

---

"Hey. Stop."

The cold voice froze Yara mid-stride. She spun around to see Rhys walking toward her. She bared her teeth at him. "What—you here to gloat?"

Gloat that Mommy chose him.

Rhys stopped in front of her. His expression was perfectly serious. "Do you really not want your mommy anymore?"

Yara's eyes still glistened with unshed tears. She turned her head. "I don't want her. She's all yours."

Rhys nodded solemnly. "You said it. No take-backs. Don't come crying to me later."

The provocation hit exactly where he aimed. Yara whipped around, furious. "Don't you have your own mother? Why do you have to steal mine?"

He didn't have a mother anymore.

Rhys thought it silently. But what he said, in a tone of innocent confusion designed to infuriate, was: "Didn't you just give her away? You don't want to be her kid—but I do."

He tilted his head down and began listing things off, as if counting treasures. "Mommy makes me breakfast every morning. She reads me stories at night. When Daddy's not around, she takes me to the set to play."

He looked up at Yara and smiled. "Didn't she used to do the same for you?"

Yara was already heartbroken. His words dragged up every tender memory of Cordelia she'd tried to bury. The tears came in a flood—fat, silent drops rolling down her cheeks.

Mommy used to do all of that for her too. But...

But she hadn't treasured it. And now she regretted it.

What she'd said was just anger talking.

Rhys read her like an open book. He knew exactly what she wanted to say. He tilted his head and smiled. "But you already said it. You don't want Mommy. You gave her to me. She's mine now."

On that last sentence, the childish softness in his face hardened into something sharp. Something dark.

Yara flinched. She stumbled back a few steps.

Rhys either didn't notice her fear—or this was precisely the effect he wanted. He tilted his head again, that same little smile. "Don't come looking for her anymore."

Yara bristled at his declaration. "You can't do that. She's my mommy too."

Rhys stared at her, expression blank. "But you just said you don't want her. You have a new mommy. So she's mine."

"You're trying to scare me. I'm telling on you."

"Go ahead. See who she believes—you or me."

He said it with absolute confidence, as if there were no question of the outcome.

And Yara knew he was right. She was still the girl who cried wolf in Cordelia's eyes. If she went tattling, Cordelia wouldn't believe a word.

She clenched her fists. "Fine. Take her. I don't care."

The realization that she couldn't hold on to Cordelia settled over her like a stone. She hardened her heart.

She was the one who didn't want Cordelia. Not the other way around.

"Great." Rhys beamed. "Then she's my mommy from now on. And don't come looking for her again."

Yara couldn't outmatch him. She burst into tears and ran.

Rhys watched her figure shrink down the corridor. The cheerful smile faded from his lips, replaced by a faint, contemptuous smirk. "Just a little kid."

He looked nothing like the boy who squabbled helplessly with Cordelia at home.

If Cordelia could see him now, she'd barely recognize him—because the face he was wearing was a perfect mirror of his mother's scheming expression.

Rhys had spent years at Raina's side. He'd absorbed her cunning, her sharp tongue, every calculated move. Young as he was, it hadn't stopped him from developing a mind that ran deep.

This was what Mommy taught him.

Show weakness to those stronger than you. Win over the things you want to keep.

He'd always followed those rules.

---

When Rhys returned to the room, he saw the two of them still holding each other. Instantly, his face rearranged itself into the picture of wide-eyed innocence.

He knocked on the door.

They pulled apart. Cordelia spotted Rhys peeking in with a little grin.

Being caught crying in front of a child was embarrassing. She wiped her face quickly and turned away to compose herself.

Logan, far more thick-skinned, didn't bat an eye.

"Did you see her off?"

Rhys nodded obediently. He tilted his head at Cordelia. "When Yara left, she told me she doesn't want her mommy anymore. She said Cordelia can be my mommy instead. Does that mean I get a new mommy?"

That kid just hit a sore spot. Logan shot him a warning look. "Enough. Go see your grandparents."

Rhys wriggled free of his hand and huffed, padding over to Cordelia's side. "No. I want to stay here with Cordelia."

Cordelia was his new mommy now. He was going to take such good care of her that she'd never want her ungrateful daughter again.