Godmother To His Son Then I Took His Kingdom Chapter 03
The day I was discharged, Evelyn came to the house with Leo.
I had barely stepped into the living room when she threw her arms around me, her shoulders shaking with sobs.
“Mara, this is all my fault.”
“If I hadn’t lost Leo, you wouldn’t have fallen, and you wouldn’t have lost the baby. Hate me, hit me—if you want me dead, I’ll accept it.”
She wore the same perfume I’d always known.
When I was eighteen and my parents’ laundromat was about to go under, the Cabots had paid my college tuition. Evelyn had taken me to galas, taught me which fork to use, and showed me how to hold my head high under the weight of a thousand judging stares.
I had once believed she was the person I owed the most gratitude to in this world.
Now, even hating her felt like a betrayal of my younger self.
Graham’s mother, seated by the fireplace, spoke coolly. “Evelyn has apologized. The Cabots and the Whitmores have been allies for generations. There’s no need to make an ugly scene over an accident.”
“An accident?”
I looked at Graham.
“After we were married, when was the first time you slept with her?”
The room went dead silent.
Graham frowned. “What’s the point of asking that now?”
“I want the truth.”
He was quiet for a long moment before he finally answered. “Our wedding day.”
My nails dug into my palm.
“Where?”
“The hotel cloakroom.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “It was just a momentary lapse—”
“Don’t say another word!” Evelyn screamed.
She snatched an expensive fountain pen from the coffee table, uncapped it, and slashed the sharp nib across her wrist.
Graham’s face changed instantly. He lunged forward, grabbing her hand.
“Evelyn, put it down!”
In the struggle, the nib scored a thin red line across her skin.
Graham immediately pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to the cut, his voice low and urgent. “Call a doctor!”
Evelyn wept in his arms.
“I can’t face Mara anymore. If I just disappeared, all of this would be over…”
I looked at them and let out a small, bitter laugh.
On my wedding day, I had stood in the reception hall wearing the gown Evelyn herself had helped me choose, waiting forty minutes for Graham to return.
When he finally appeared, he’d kissed my forehead and said there had been a family emergency.
So that was the emergency.
“Fine.”
Everyone turned to look at me.
I repeated, my voice calm. “I forgive you.”
Graham visibly relaxed.
Even his mother offered a faint nod of satisfaction. “That is the grace expected of the mistress of the Whitmore family.”
What they didn’t know was that before I’d come home, my assistant had already received her instructions.
While everyone was occupied in the living room, she slipped in through a side entrance and removed my passport, birth certificate, premarital financial records, my parents’ keepsakes, and everything in the closet that truly belonged to me.
Before dinner, several unmarked boxes were quietly carried out of the house.
Graham noticed nothing.
He even asked Evelyn and Leo to stay.
“Leo’s still unsettled. Let them have dinner before they go.”
Afterward, he took Leo upstairs and pushed open the door to the nursery.
I had chosen the pale blue paint for the walls myself. Inside the closet were still-unopened baby blankets.
Leo picked up a wooden rocking horse and ran around the room with it.
Standing in the doorway, Evelyn smiled. “He likes it here.”
I looked at the room I had prepared for my own child and said nothing.
There were fewer photos on the walls now. The drawers in the study were empty. Only a few unimportant clothes remained in the closet.
But Graham’s gaze never paused on any of it.
That was fine.
I had never intended for him to notice.
At nine that night, Evelyn finally left with Leo.
Graham went to the garage to retrieve a jacket Leo had forgotten, and his mother turned to give instructions to the staff.
For a moment, only Evelyn and I were left on the porch.
Rain hammered down outside.
She stepped close, her voice a low murmur.
“Mara, before you leave, were you planning to stop by Mount Auburn to visit your parents?”
I whipped my head around to face her.
The corners of her lips lifted in a slight, cruel smile.
“Don’t bother. That niche has been empty for a long time.”
The air left my lungs.
“What did you say?”
“I forged your signature and had the ashes removed. The cemetery was easy enough to fool. As long as the paperwork looked complete, no one asked questions.”
She watched my face, her voice soft, almost gentle.
“I arranged a burial at sea for them. Had them scattered anonymously in Boston Harbor.”
“Your parents ran a laundromat. Their ashes never deserved to be in the Whitmore family’s line of sight.”
I raised my hand and slapped her across the face with all the strength I had.
The crack of it sent Evelyn stumbling back into the doorframe.
Graham returned at that exact moment.
He didn’t ask what had happened. He rushed forward, seized my wrist, and shoved me down the stone steps.
“Are you out of your mind?”
My body, still weak, gave way. I fell hard into the driving rain.
“Stay out here until you’ve calmed down enough to think!”
Then he turned back to steady Evelyn.
Graham’s mother shot me one cold glance.
“Close the door.”
A guard swung the heavy front door shut, sealing me out of the mansion.
Rain soaked through my thin clothes in seconds.
I pushed myself to my feet, took out my phone, and sent a single message to my lawyer.
“Execute Plan A.”
Then I flagged down a taxi.
“Logan International Airport.”
I took one last look at the house I had once believed was my home, then pulled the car door shut.
Graham Whitmore. Evelyn Cabot.
This is where it ends.