Chapter 1091

[ 741 words ]

A memory from just a few weeks ago suddenly surfaced in her mind.

It had been a snippet of a conversation between Leslie and Helena. Helena had callously suggested, “Why doesn’t your aunt just arrange a marriage for her and ship her off? That would finally force Uriah to move on.”

And how had Leslie responded?

“That won’t work,” Leslie had sneered. “My brother would literally murder the groom before he ever let another man marry her.”

Murder the groom.

The terrifying truth was that breaking free from Uriah didn’t mean she could safely start over.

Unless she found someone vastly more powerful and dangerous than Uriah, someone who could permanently shatter the invisible chain linking them together.

But even if she did find that kind of protection, she wasn’t ready to pull anyone else into her mess.

“If I do that, it’s basically using Prof. Yoder as a human shield against Uriah,” Tegan murmured.

“Then just treat him as a friend for now. Stop overthinking it and focus on severing your ties with Uriah once and for all,” Stella advised gently.

“You think that’s best?”

“I do,” Stella confirmed.

A sliver of clarity finally cut through the fog in Tegan’s mind.

She had to admit, whenever she was drowning in anxiety, Stella always managed to toss her a lifeline.

Almost immediately after hanging up with Stella, another call flashed onto the screen.

She answered it cautiously. “Hello?”

“It’s me.”

Mrs. Horner’s voice crackled through the speaker, dripping with icy condescension and vicious authority.

Tegan had endured that exact tone of pure venom countless times over the years.

To the outside world, the Horner family had been impossibly generous to the poor, orphaned girl.

But only Tegan knew the daily torment of living under their suffocating roof.

To the Horners, her father’s sacrifice had never meant a single thing.

Squaring her shoulders, she refused to cower.

Dropping all pretense of politeness, Tegan answered with matching frost, “Can I help you, Mrs. Horner?”

Her flat, defiant tone made Mrs. Horner inhale sharply. “Don’t you dare take that tone with me?”

“What attitude were you expecting? I assume you’re only calling to lecture me about Leslie.”

Leslie.

The untouchable darling of the Horner empire.

No matter what catastrophic messes Leslie created, the family always swooped in to instantly sweep them under the rug.

Right or wrong, it never mattered.

The mention of her precious daughter made Mrs. Horner’s temper instantly detonate. “Tegan, how could you be so cruel to her?”

“Have you forgotten that this family raised you? Yes, Leslie can be a little impulsive, but kidnapping? I flat-out refuse to believe she is capable of such a thing!”

“What she’s capable of isn’t up for debate, Mrs. Horner. And quite frankly, I couldn’t care less if you believe it or not.”

For the first time in her life, Tegan pushed back with unyielding ferocity.

Hearing the cold, hard detachment in Tegan’s voice sent a shockwave of fury down the line.

“You insolent, ungrateful wretch! You actually stood by and let that feral thug assault Uriah! After everything we’ve done for you.”

“The only ungrateful ones here are you! You constantly demand I worship you for raising me, but conveniently ignore the fact that my father died saving your family!”

Mrs. Horner was temporarily stunned into silence.

“If my father were still alive, I wouldn’t have needed your charity! I wouldn’t have needed you at all!”

Tegan had been beaten down by that particular guilt trip for years.

They had weaponized their generosity, demanding endless loyalty.

Yet the devastating sacrifice her father had made for their family was permanently erased from the narrative.

Her entire adolescence had been one long, agonizing psychological manipulation disguised as charity.

“You, you are absolute.”

“Give me my father’s life back, and I’ll write you a check to cover every single cent it

cost to raise me. We’ll call it even.”

Did they want to clear the ledger?

Paying back a debt of money was easy. But a life?

How the hell do you repay a life?

“Mrs. Horner, if my father hadn’t

thrown himself in front of danger to save Mr. Horner, what do you think would have happened to you? Uriah was just a child. Who do you think you’d be today if your entire legacy wasn’t built on my father’s sacrifice?”

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Uriah had been entirely too young to step up. If her father hadn’t sacrificed himself

to shield the patriarch.

The Horner Group would have been ripped apart by vultures years ago!

There wouldn’t even be a Mrs.

Horner to sneer at her today. “Have you gone utterly blind to the fact that your precious, elite status only exists because my father died to buy it for you?”

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