Alec wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer. I lean against him, my face buried against his chest.
“How long have you known?” Alec asks, his fingers stroking my hair.
Lucian hesitates before answering. “A couple of weeks,” he says carefully. “You two were so happy together. I just hadn’t seen either of you look this happy in so long, and I wanted that for you. I knew that this news would devastate Elena, and in turn, you.”
Hot tears stream down my cheeks, soaking Alec’s shirt. I inhale shakily, and Alec tightens his grip on me, enveloping me in a tight hug.
Sofia places her hand on my shoulder, and I pull away from Alec a little. “Elena,” she says. “We’ll deal with this in due time, all right? For now, dry your tears, and put on a good act for your mother. What she needs right now is love and attention. Everything else,” she says, glancing at Alec and Lucian, “everything else can and will be taken care of.”
I nod, and Alec brushes my tears away with his thumbs. I try my best to pull myself together, but all I can think about is Matthew. Why would he do this? Was my father in on this?
For years I just thought that the way my life played out was unfortunate, that in part, I must have been to blame for losing all my friends, my connections—for falling out with everyone I cared about, my father included. Now I wonder if it was orchestrated.
I’m still thinking about it when I walk into my mother’s room, Alec by my side. He grabs my hand and squeezes, and I smile up at him. Where would I be without him? If not for him, I would have lost my mother by now.
“Hi, Mom,” I say, still shocked to find her eyes open. For so long she’s looked like she was fast asleep.
I walk up to her, and her eyes follow me. The edges of her lips turn up, and when I squeeze her hand, her fingers move.
Emotions overwhelm me, and I burst into tears involuntarily. I drop my forehead to her shoulder, trying my best not to cry, and failing.
I feel a hand on my back, and I try my best to pull myself together. “I’m sorry,” I murmur. “I just missed you so much, Mom. To see you here, to have you look at me… you have no idea how much this means to me.”
I sit up and wipe my tears away, my heart breaking when I notice a tear dropping down my mother’s cheek.
“Thank you, Mom. Thank you for waking up.”
She smiles, her lips opening. “E…” she says, her voice raspy.
I grab her hand and place it against my cheek, cradling her hand in mine.
Mom glances at Alec, and I can’t help but blush. “I… do you remember Alexander?” I ask.
Mom nods, and I almost burst into tears again. I can’t believe she’s actually having a conversation with me.
“Ma’am,” he says, grabbing her hand. He raises it to his lips and presses a sweet kiss to the back of her hand, and my heart skips a beat.
“I… um, Alec is my… he’s my fiancé,” I end up saying. Alec looks at me, his eyes twinkling.
Mom’s eyes move between the two of us, and it warms my heart to find so much expression in them.
“E… El… Elena,” she says, her voice rough. My eyes widen and I look at her, shocked. “I… l—love… you.”
“She’s been practicing to say that to you for hours,” Dr. Taylor says to me from behind.
I break down all over again, and Alec smiles as he pats my back. “Oh, Mom,” I say, choking back sobs. “I love you, too. So much, Mom.”
I stare at my mother through the tears, my heart heavy. I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect her.
Chapter 46
E lena
I pace in the living room, feeling restless. “What can we do?” I ask.
Sofia, Lucian, and Alec are as lost in thought as I am.
“What do you want the end result to be, Buttercup?” Alec asks. “Do you want your family to land in jail? Do you want them to disappear? Tell me what you want, and we’ll find a way to make it happen.”
I nod, trying my best to decide what needs to be done, to set aside the love I’ve held onto for so long—love neither my brother nor my father deserves.
“I need to know if my father was involved. I want Jade and Matthew to go down. I want them, the way they’ve made me feel—helpless, cut off from everything and everyone they’ve ever known. I want their assets, every single thing they own, every single thing they care about. I want it all. But above all, I want everything my mother has ever worked for. When she was declared brain dead, my father inherited her entire estate. I want that rectified.”
Alec starts to pace like I am, restless. “We need to attack them from behind, Buttercup. If they see us coming, they’ll safeguard everything. If they even find out your mother is awake, they’ll start protecting themselves. For now, I’m going after everyone that’s ever treated your mother. If I can get a confession, then that will help tremendously. We have the best lawyers in the country on retainer, so legally regaining your mother’s assets shouldn’t be hard, but like I said, we need to hit them all at once. We need to get the paperwork in place and have our men show up with eviction notices. I have a feeling they’ll need a bit of help leaving the premises.”
I nod. “There’s one more thing I want,” I say.
Alec looks at me, brows raised.
“I want my childhood home. The house my mother called home for so many years. I want it.”
Lucian smiles and holds up his tablet. “I asked Elliot to find out as much as he can about the Rousseau assets,” he says, a slight blush on his face. He can’t even say Elliot’s name without blushing, and despite everything going on, that brings a smile to my face.
“The house… it’s owned by the company. It’s not privately owned. If Alec can manage to gain a majority shareholding, then that’ll fall into your hands.”
Alec looks at me, his head tilted. “Babe,” he says. “We don’t even need to. We have your mother. She’s alive and well. The shares you inherited, the ones your brother took from you? They revert back to your mother. Her shares and the ones I bought you combined, make up a majority shareholding.”
I smile, a vicious type of delight coursing through me. “I want to be there. I want to be there when we evict them.”
Sofia smiles at me. “You will,” she says, nodding in approval. “You’re Elena Kennedy ,” she adds. “You’re my daughter-in-law and Alexander’s wife. It’s time you show the world what that means.”
Chapter 47
A lexander
I push Sarah’s wheelchair through the garden, stopping to admire different flowers. She loves the feeling of the sun on her face and the fresh air. I can’t blame her, she’s been cooped up in a room for years.
We’ve converted one of the guest rooms on the ground floor into a fully equipped medical room for her, so at least we can keep her at home now. We got her an electric wheelchair too, and she’s enjoying being able to move around the house a little.
It took almost two months before we could take her home from our private clinic, and even now she requires round-the-clock care. She’s had to learn how to breathe by herself again, how to speak again, and even how to eat. Watching Elena’s heart break every time her mother struggles to relearn something is tearing me apart.