Chapter 166 Heartless
The air in the room had become thick with tension and unspoken emotions. Cato, still reeling from his mother’s slap, stood frozen, his face burning with shame and anger. His eyes flickered to Lien, who was still lying on the ground, clutching her ankle. Her wails echoed in the silence, but no one made a move to comfort her.
Jaxson stood with his arms crossed, his stern gaze fixed on Cato and Lien, as if daring them to make a move. He had always been a silent observer of the family drama, but today he had drawn a line. Rose was his mother, and no one—least of all Cato—was going to treat her with such disrespect.
Lien, struggling to get to her feet, glared up at Jaxson. “How dare you touch me!” she spat, her voice filled with venom.
Jaxson didn’t flinch. “You should be the one asking for forgiveness, not causing more chaos. Your mother-in-law just lost her husband, and you’re making it worse with your selfish demands.”
Cato’s hands clenched into fists, his frustration mounting. “You don’t understand! You’re just a servant in this house!” he shouted, but his words carried no real conviction, a broken man trying to salvage what little dignity he had left.
But Rose, who had been silent during their exchange, finally spoke, her voice steady but full of years of hidden pain. “Enough,” she said, turning to face her son. “Do you think this is easy for me, Cato? You’re angry about an inheritance, but can’t you see what we’ve all lost? Stacy’s child—she was the innocent one in all of this. And now you’re focusing on your bruised pride. Do you even hear yourself?”
Her words cut through the air, piercing Cato’s defenses. He opened his mouth to retort, but no words came. His mother’s anger, the pain in her voice—it hit him harder than any slap ever could.
“You want to blame others for your failures, but it’s not anyone else’s fault that you’re in this position,” Rose continued, her voice quiet but unwavering. “This family’s problems began long before Stacy ever came into the picture. And if you can’t see that, I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Cato stood frozen, his heart sinking under the weight of his mother’s words. He had always believed that everything in his life, the wealth, the status, was owed to him. But now, with everything falling apart, he couldn’t escape the reality that he had been wrong all along.
Lien, now up on her feet, clung to her husband’s arm. “You can’t just give it all away to that child, Rose. She doesn’t deserve it!” she pleaded, her voice desperate. “You’ll ruin everything we’ve built!”
Rose shook her head, the pain in her eyes unmistakable. “Everything you’ve built? You’ve spent years making enemies, Cato. Everything you’ve built is nothing but a house of cards, ready to fall.”
The words hit him like a punch to the gut. For the first time in years, Cato felt completely helpless, like the ground had slipped out from under him.
Jaxson took a step forward, his voice calm but firm. “I don’t know what the future holds for this family, but I know it’s time for us to stop fighting. Rose, you need to decide what’s best for you now. And as for you two,” he nodded toward Cato and Lien, “maybe it’s time you take a good, hard look at who you’ve become. Because if you keep going down this path, you’ll have no one left.”
Silence fell over the room again. Cato’s shoulders slumped, the fight draining out of him. His mind raced as he tried to grasp what had just happened. His mother had never spoken to him like that. And now, with everything unraveling, he couldn’t help but feel the weight of his own failures.
Rose turned away from them, holding Herman’s urn close to her chest. “I’m going to honor his last wish,” she said softly, as though to herself. “I will find Natasha. I’ll make sure she knows the truth. Stacy… she deserved more than she got. And I will make sure her daughter doesn’t suffer like she did.”
As Rose moved toward the door, Jaxson shot one last, piercing look at Cato and Lien, his voice low. “You’re not going to change overnight, but this is your chance. Stop tearing this family apart.”
With that, he followed Rose out, leaving Cato and Lien standing in the ruins of their own making.
Lien’s face twisted with fury. “How could she do this to us, Cato? We deserve that inheritance! We’ve suffered enough!”
Cato’s expression remained blank. He couldn’t bring himself to argue anymore. He was tired—tired of fighting, tired of pretending that everything was fine when it was falling apart. He had no answers, no solutions, only a growing sense that perhaps it was too late to fix anything.
As the room grew quiet, Cato knew one thing for sure: the battle for the inheritance was far from over. But this time, it wasn’t just about money. It was about family, about redemption, and about confronting the dark truths they had all been running from for so long.