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She stepped closer, her voice dropping into that familiar, pleading tone she used when she wanted me to see things her way. "Do you think I wanted this?" she started, the words spilling out like a sudden gust of wind filling the quiet room.

"That someone had to die for you to have a good life? Did you really want to stay poor?! Living with your abusive father and struggling to afford rent, barely managing to put food on the table?! Everything I’ve done was for you, Noah. All of it. And all you’ve done is make me feel like a terrible person for it...crying about how I forced you to live with your bully instead of recognizing my sacrifice and stopping being ungrateful!"

Her voice cracked at the end, but there was no softness; only a sharp edge honed by years of resentment hidden behind perfect smiles and fancy dinners.

I stared at her, the sting of the slap from moments earlier still throbbing on my cheek, disbelief washing over me like a wave. This was the woman who had once spoiled me, who had comforted me through nightmares and promised that life would get better. Wealth had changed her...I could see it now in the way she squared her shoulders with entitlement, the cold certainty in her gaze, and how she looked at me as if I were the one ruining the life she had meticulously crafted.

She had transformed into someone I hardly recognized, and that realization settled over me like a suffocating blanket of snow.

Anger began to bubble up in my chest, slow at first but then exploding into something fierce.

"Stop lying to me, Mom," I said, my voice low and steady, even though my hands shook at my sides. "You didn’t do a damn thing for me! You did it for yourself! I noticed it a long time ago but didn’t want to accept it. You barely cared about me anymore. You were never really there when it mattered, when my father was abusive, you weren’t there for me! When I was bullied at school, you married my bully’s father and basically told me to suck it up. When I was falling apart living here, all you cared about was how perfect our family looked on the outside!"

Her eyes widened, and a sharp gasp escaped her as my accusations settled between us. She tried to refute it, her hands waving as if she could physically push the truth away, her voice rising defensively.

"I care, Noah...I’ve always cared! You’re the one who shut me out, who stopped talking to me, who—"

I interrupted her, words pouring out before I could hold them back, fueled by years of pent-up hurt and the recent sting of her slap still fresh on my skin.

"I started shutting you out because you didn’t care like you used to...you only asked because you felt like you had to or you’d die of guilt! And for everything you’ve done, sleeping with a married man, watching him kill his wife just so you could take her place...you both deserve to rot in jail!"

The room fell into a stunned silence, the fire crackling softly in the hearth as if it was the only thing brave enough to make a noise.

Mom’s expression twisted again, raw anger flaring hotter than before, a fury that had simmered under layers of designer clothes and charity galas for years. She stepped closer, breath ragged, and for a moment I thought she might hit me again. Instead, her voice erupted, filling the small space and making the curtains tremble.

"I wish I had never given birth to you!" The words cut deep, sharper than any knife, piercing my chest with a pain that blurred my vision for a moment. "Since you came into my life...since I gave birth to you when I was just eighteen! It’s been nothing but struggle...I’ve never been happy. When I finally found happiness... you treat me like the villain for giving you a real family!"

Those words stung...they hurt more than the slap, more than anything I had anticipated from her. They carried the weight of all the sacrifices she had thrown in my face over the years, every reminder of how hard things were before Keith. But I refused to show it.

I maintained a steady expression, my jaw clenched tight, even as my heart cracked a little more inside. I had believed for so long that she loved me above all else, and now that illusion was shattering right before my eyes, piece by painful piece.

Mom then tried to calm herself, her breaths ragged as she forced her voice to lower, more pleading, reaching out as if she could still pull me back into the life she had constructed.

"Noah, please. Don’t expose us, don’t do this. Everything...I fought for this family, this life, will mean nothing if you go through with it. Your would also be ruined you know, just think of how the world would react to this going public."

Of course...the most important thing to her right now was how the world would see us, our image. And not of the people her husband had killed.

I had this urge within me...to make her hurt even more.

I stared at her, the firelight dancing across her face, making her seem almost like a stranger again. Then I smiled, a small, sad expression that didn’t reach my eyes.

"We were never a family, Mom. Adrien and I were only brothers on paper... but we don’t see each other as brothers at all and I don’t mean it as we still hate each other."

Her eyes widened, confusion flashing across her features, her anger momentarily derailed. "What are you saying?"

"You should be happy... your plans of forcing Adrien and I to get along worked well. A little too well." I took a deep breath, the words feeling both terrifying and liberating as they left my mouth. "I have my own secrets I’ve kept hidden. Adrien and I... we’re in love and we’ve been fooling around this very roof. The family you’ve built means nothing to us."

Helen’s face went slack, disbelief washing over her as the revelation sank in. She looked stunned, speechless, her mouth opening and closing without a sound, as if the ground had shifted beneath her and she couldn’t regain her balance.

The woman who had spent months curating the perfect image of our blended family stood frozen, as if my words had finally broken something within her that no amount of money could mend.

I didn’t wait for her to gather her thoughts.

"We will show the video to the authorities and both of you will face the consequences of your actions" I said, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me, "and mom...as of today, I am no longer your son."

With that, I turned and stormed out of the sitting room, my footsteps echoing down the hallway as Helen’s voice rose behind me in a desperate call for me to return. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Noah! Noah, come back!" But I didn’t stop. I kept walking, the sting of the slap still on my cheek and the weight of everything we had lost pressing down on me like the snow outside.

The mansion that once felt like a cage now seemed like a tomb, and for the first time, I walked away from it without glancing back.