"Still not moving? You want my grandson to suffocate right in front of you?"
The years of bottled-up resentment finally burst. I pointed straight at Lainey, voice trembling with fury.
"You gave me those menu suggestions on purpose, didn’t you?"
Lainey looked flustered, eyes wide with fake innocence.
"I didn’t... That’s how I usually send food for Isaac. I just... forgot to remind you to check..."
Maverick’s cold stare swept across my face like a slap.
"You brought the food yourself, and now you’re blaming Lainey? She was trying to help you. If you don’t even know your own son's allergies, whose fault is that?"
"Eliana, you’re not just careless. You’re unfit to be a mother."
The heartbreak I’d buried for years clawed its way out as I screamed in anguish.
"I see my son once every two years! Have you ever given me the chance to even know him?"
But Maverick roared back, his voice thunderous, shaking me to the core.
"Still making excuses? Who stopped you? If you didn’t want to come, who else is to blame?"
In that instant, it felt like I had plunged into an ice cave, every drop of blood in my body frozen solid.
I turned to Lainey.
For the past eight years, it had always been her delivering messages from the family, telling me that my son was busy with school and had no time for me.
Month after month, I asked. Month after month, I received the same cold reply.
As Isaac slipped into unconsciousness, I rushed to him and gripped his tiny hand with all the strength I had left.
The very next second, Lainey yanked at my arm.
"Sister Eliana, you don’t know medicine. You’d better step aside. The doctor is on the way."
Her long nails dug into my skin like claws.
I gasped in pain and shoved her off.
She staggered back and hit the edge of the table hard. Blood immediately oozed from her forehead.
Just then, the doctor arrived and quickly took both Isaac and Lainey away.
Maverick shot me a cold glance, disappointment thick in his eyes.
"Eliana, I never thought you’d turn into this kind of person."
His mother shrieked from across the table, voice sharp as glass.
"What kind of upbringing can a girl from a lowly family have? I told you from the start not to let her through the door. But you had to kneel and beg for her. Now look, Isaac nearly died because of that bitch!"
"Serves her right. Her mother died early! If I had a daughter like that, I’d jump off a building in shame!"
"She’s nothing but a disgrace! Can’t even compare to Lainey, useless in every single way!"
Staring at their faces, twisted in venom and disgust, I suddenly laughed.
"Upbringing?"
"Fine, let me show you what real upbringing looks like."
In the next breath, I flipped the entire dining table over, dishes shattering as porcelain and food crashed to the floor.
"Maverick, I want a divorce!"
At that moment, a black Maybach stopped outside the door. My phone buzzed with a message.
