“You’ve been stringing me along this whole time, making me believe I had a grandson on the way?”
“Mason Reed, what the hell is going on in that head of yours?”
Mrs. Reed was beside herself, glaring at Mason’s back from her wheelchair, wishing she could stand up and slap
some sense into him.
All this time, he’d been supporting another man’s child!
Outside the door, Elise heard the heated argument filtering through. She knew she was in trouble.
Sure enough, within three minutes, Mrs. Reed emerged from the guest room, her face thunderous as she was
wheeled out.
“Auntie, those flowers you mentioned last time, I asked the housekeeper to…”
Elise forced a smile, her soft voice trailing off as Mrs. Reed silenced her with one fierce glare.
“You conniving little snake. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to.”
“Pretending the baby isn’t my grandson, saying all those ambiguous things to make me misunderstand, just so you could sink your claws into this family. Disgusting! Don’t forget I’m a woman too–your little games might fool my son, but they don’t fool me!”
“Three years ago, you stomped on us when the Reed family was down. Now you see my son’s successful again, so you come crawling back with your fake sweetness? Get out of my house right now–we don’t keep your kind around
here!”
Mrs. Reed’s eyes flashed with fury as she recalled how she’d been played by this woman for the sake of a nonexistent grandchild.
Mason tried to intervene, but his mother cut him off with a cold glance. No way would she let her son be manipulated by this vixen any longer.
‘Babe, stay out of this. If you’re so eager to take her side, why don’t you ask this little schemer what she did to drive Riley away?”
Elise’s expression froze, growing increasingly rigid.
“Auntie, what are you saying? Why would I want to drive Riley away? Wasn’t it you who yelled at her until she left?”
Seeing Elise trying to shift blame, Mrs. Reed let out a contemptuous snort.
“Is that so? Then who kept nudging me to back them up? Who made sure a sick Riley didn’t even have a blanket to
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cover herself with?”
“Elise, I only played along because I thought you were carrying a Reed baby.”
“Are you trying to tell me you didn’t want Riley gone? That it wasn’t you who made sure she didn’t even have a blanket while she was sick in that storage room? That it wasn’t you who kept sabotaging her at work? That it wasn’t you who wanted to use the pregnancy care excuse to torment her?”
Mrs. Reed’s words hung in the air, her expression clearly saying “I’ve said my piece, the ball’s in your court” as she looked meaningfully at Mason.
While Mason fell into an unusual silence.
Elise was dumbfounded. Within seconds, tears welled up in her eyes.
“Mason, I didn’t do any of that. Don’t believe Mrs. Reed.”
But Mason remained silent.
His demeanor told Elise everything she needed to know.
At Mrs. Reed’s command, the staff, who seemed to have switched loyalties in an instant, began dragging Elise toward the door without a shred of mercy.
As Elise was pulled across the floor, her eyes turned bloodshot. She pointed at Mrs. Reed, determined that if she was going down, no one else would be left standing.
“You call me a piece of work? What about how you treated Riley? Which of my actions toward Riley didn’t have
your approval?”
“Who was bragging to me about how Riley ran up and down six flights of stairs for you in the scorching heat while pregnant, until she miscarried? Didn’t you say you’ve always wanted a grandson? Well, dream on!”
“I curse you–you’ll never have a grandchild!”
Elise’s mask fell away so quickly that even after she was dragged out, her vicious curses still echoed through the
Reed mansion.
At that moment, only one thought consumed Mason’s mind: His and Riley’s baby hadn’t been lost by accident.
His voice trembled: “Mom, didn’t you say Riley lost our baby because she fell?”
Mason knew his mother had never liked Riley, but he’d always thought that despite her health issues and volatile moods, she would never joke about his child.
Yet now…
Just as these turbulent thoughts crashed through his mind, Mason was jolted back to reality by a housekeeper’s
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shocked voice.
“Oh my God! Miss Harper… Miss Harper was pregnant!”
