Chapter 243
Chapter 243:
“So Dallas was blamed for the miscarriage of his father’s mistress?” Eliza pieced it together, the horror dawning slowly. “You exiled your ten-year-old son to protect your husband’s affair?” She looked at Jeannine with quiet devastation. “You are a terrible mother p>
“I did what I had to do!” Jeannine cried, tears welling in her eyes. “To protect the family name! Imagine the scandal p>
The bell above the café door chimed. A gust of cold air swept in.
Dallas walked through the door.
T𝘩𝖾 𝘣𝘦𝗌𝘵 𝗋𝘦𝗏𝗶ewѕ 𝗈𝗇
He hadn’t stayed in the car. He had been waiting right outside.
He walked toward the table, his face a mask of unreadable stone. He had heard enough.
“You told her,” he said flatly.
Jeannine shrank back into her chair. “She asked p>
“But you left out the best part.” Dallas reached the table. He didn’t look at Jeannine. He looked at Eliza. “I didn’t push Dosha,” he said clearly. “She threw herself down the stairs p>
“Liar!” Jeannine gasped.
“She saw me watching from the hallway,” Dallas continued, his voice utterly devoid of emotion. “She smiled at me — a cruel smile. And she jumped. Backwards. To frame me. To eliminate the legitimate heir so her child could take my place p>
Eliza covered her mouth. This was it. The dark, unspoken core of the wound he had revealed in his office. He had admitted to being the family pariah, the so-called curse — but the shame and injustice of this specific lie, he had kept buried. Until now.
“And you…” Dallas finally looked at his mother. The expression in his eyes wasn’t anger. It was profound pity. “You believed the mistress over your own son p>
Jeannine raised a trembling hand to her mouth. “No… she wouldn’t p>
“She did,” Dallas said. “And she was paid handsomely for it. By Ferd. To keep quiet about the fake miscarriage p>
“Fake?” Jeannine whispered.
“There was no baby, Mother,” Dallas said, delivering the final blow with quiet precision. “She wasn’t pregnant. It was a cyst. The doctors told Ferd. But Ferd used the story to justify sending me away — because I made him uncomfortable p>
Jeannine looked as though she had been struck. Her entire reality crumbled around her in the quiet of the empty café.
Dallas took Eliza’s hand. “Let’s go, El. The air is toxic here p>
They turned and walked out together, leaving Jeannine sitting alone among her expensive things, surrounded by the ghosts of every choice she had ever made.
They sat in the parked SUV with the engine off. The silence was heavy.
Dallas gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white, staring straight ahead, his jaw working.
“I didn’t push her, El,” he said, his voice tight.
“I know,” Eliza said immediately.
She unbuckled her seatbelt, leaned across the center console, and wrapped her arms around him — a fierce, protective embrace. She buried her face in his neck.
Dallas hesitated for just a moment. Then he crumbled. He let go of the wheel and pulled her against him, his face buried in her hair. He shuddered. “They sent me to that school… it was hell,” he whispered. “Because of a lie p>
“I’m so sorry,” Eliza murmured, stroking the back of his neck.