Chapter 4 - Drawing the LineThe silence in the grand hallway was absolute. Upstairs, Jaden—having heard the commotion—peeped out from the guest wing, his eyes wide with fear and anger as he watched the confrontation unfold.
Ethan stared at his mother. The woman who had raised him, the woman who ruled Briar Glen with an iron fist, suddenly looked like a stranger to him.
"Her place," Ethan repeated slowly, the words tasting like poison on his tongue. "Let me make something crystal clear to you, Mother. And to anyone else under this roof."
He turned his head slightly, raising his voice so that every single member of the domestic staff listening from the bottom of the grand staircase could hear every syllable.
"Lily Carter is not a servant. She is not a passing fancy. She is the only reason this mausoleum has felt like a home in five years."
Elizabeth gasped, her face flushing crimson. "Have you lost your mind? She is a hired hand! She scrubs floors!"
"She works because she is proud, and because you and your archaic, cruel mind games demanded it of her," Ethan fired back, stepping closer until he towered over his mother. "I called every single day. Every single day, she told me she was okay because she wanted to protect me from your petty tyranny. But I see the truth now."
Richard walked up the stairs slowly, looking exhausted. "He's right, Elizabeth. You crossed a line. You drove the girl into the ground out of pure malice."
"Malice? I was protecting our family name!" Elizabeth shrieked, losing her aristocratic composure entirely. "If you choose her over your own mother, Ethan, you are dead to this family!"
Ethan let out a cold, humorless laugh.
May you like
"My family?" He shook his head. "My family is the girl lying in that room, and her brother. If keeping you happy means sacrificing innocent people to your cruelty, then consider me disowned."
He turned his back on his mother without a second glance, walking straight back into the bedroom toward Lily.
