Chapter 4 - The Venomous Matriarch
The peace of the master suite didn't last long.
At four o'clock that afternoon, the heavy double doors at the front of the estate were thrown open with violent force. Angry shouting echoed up the grand staircase.
"Where is he?!" a sharp, aristocratic voice screeched from the foyer. "Where is my stepson?!"
Eleanor Caldwell had arrived.
Ethan didn't look surprised. He stood up calmly from the rug where he had been building a block tower with Leo, his expression darkening into a mask of pure, lethal authority.
"Stay here with Leo," Ethan told me softly, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead.
"No," I said, standing up beside him. "I'm coming with you. I'm not a scared girl hiding in the maid’s quarters anymore, Ethan. If she’s here to attack my son, I want to look her in the eye."
Ethan looked at me, a proud, fierce smile breaking across his sharp features. "That's my girl. Marcus!"
Marcus stepped into the room. "Sir?"
"Stay in this room with Leo. Keep the door locked until we return."
We descended the grand staircase together. Standing in the center of the foyer, dressed in a sharp beige Chanel suit and draped in pearls, was Eleanor Caldwell. Standing right beside her was Victoria Haynes, her eyes red from crying, her expression twisted with smug anticipation.
"Ethan!" Eleanor barked, stepping toward the stairs, her walking cane clicking sharply against the marble. "Have you lost your absolute mind?! Victoria came to my club in tears! You threw away your engagement over a servant's bastard?!"
Ethan reached the bottom step and stopped, placing himself directly between Eleanor and the stairs leading up to my son.
"Watch your mouth, Eleanor," Ethan said, his voice so cold it seemed to freeze the air in the room. "You are speaking about my son."
Eleanor froze, her eyes widening slightly before she let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Your son? Ethan, don't be naive! That manipulative little gold-digger has been sleeping in the quarters below for years! She probably trapped some driver or landscaper and decided to pin it on you the moment she saw you were marrying Victoria!"
"The DNA test is already processing," Ethan replied flatly. "And I don't need a paper to see my own face in that boy's eyes."
Victoria stepped forward, pointing a manicured finger at me. "She’s lying, Ethan! She planned this! She sent her child into the east parlor on purpose today to interrupt us!"
"Rosa didn't plan anything," Ethan countered, his gaze shifting to Victoria with disgust. "You pushed a three-year-old off a bench onto marble floor, Victoria. If my security footage confirms it, I will have you arrested for child endangerment before sunset."
Victoria gasped, taking a panicked step back toward Eleanor.
Eleanor’s face turned bright red with fury. She struck her cane against the floor. "Ethan Caldwell, I will not allow you to ruin this family’s reputation! The board will vote on Monday to remove you as CEO if you go through with this scandal! I control thirty percent of the proxy shares!"
"You controlled thirty percent," Ethan corrected smoothly, pulling a crisp leather folder from his inner jacket pocket and tossing it onto the foyer table. "Until three hours ago."
Eleanor’s eyes narrowed. "What is that?"
"That is a forensic audit of the estate’s offshore accounts from four years ago," Ethan explained, leaning against the banister with terrifying ease. "Specifically, the transaction where you transferred fifty thousand dollars of Caldwell corporate funds to forge a check, and the three hundred thousand dollars you paid a private detective agency to falsify records about Rosa's whereabouts."
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Eleanor’s face drained of color. Her hands began to tremble on the head of her cane.
"You committed corporate embezzlement and kidnapping by deception, Eleanor," Ethan continued, his gray-green eyes flashing with lethal delight. "Signed bank slips, IP logs, and the detective's sworn confession are all in that folder. If you say one more word about my son or Rosa, I won't just remove you from the board—I will send you to a federal penitentiary for the rest of your life."
