Chapter 5

Thirty minutes later, Edward pushed open the gates of the Jason Residence. "Mom, why did you shut down all my accounts?"

Inside the family cemetery, Susan stood with her back to Edward, slowly wiping the dust off Charlie's memorial portrait. Her movements were gentle but heavy with sorrow.

Susan scoffed coldly, "You dare show your face here? Charlie is dead, Zoe has stopped speaking, and Vivian walked out. Is this what you wanted?"

Edward's face suddenly lit up with realization. "What is Vivian scheming now? Isn't she trying to drag me back home? Did she need you and Sandy to help her put on this whole show?"

Lily clung to his arm and added, "That's right. Mrs. Jason, you know Vivian always makes a big deal out of nothing. Maybe Charlie is fine."

Susan whipped around and slapped Edward hard across the face, her eyes blazing with fury. Then she snapped at the staff, "Hold her down and slap her too."

"Mom, what the hell?" Edward yelled, shock and anger in his voice.

He scowled and ordered everyone to leave the room.

Susan jabbed a finger at him, her voice shaking with rage. "You let your own son die for this woman, and you still have the nerve to blame Vivian? A man who kills his own child and humiliates his wife has no place in this family."

Lily suddenly begged Susan, her eyes brimming with tears. Lily looked so fragile, and in an instant, it all became pure drama.

She cried, "Mrs. Jason, please don't blame Edward. If anyone's at fault, it's me.

"I know Vivian hates me, but Edward and I truly love each other. If only I'd been the one to marry him, maybe this tragedy with the kids would never have happened."

Watching Lily look so pitiful, Edward couldn't help but feel a pang of tenderness in his heart.

"Lily, it was never your fault. It's mine," he said softly, guilt thick in his voice.

"Enough!" Susan snapped, her gaze sharp as daggers. "Lily, I paid you twenty million dollars and told you to stay away from Edward. You swore you'd never come near him again for the rest of your life."

Lily instantly turned ghostly pale and threw herself pitifully into Edward's arms. Then she whined, "Edward, how could Mrs. Jason say such awful things about me?"

Edward rubbed his temples in frustration and said, "Mom, Lily is pregnant with my kid. Can you lay off her for once?

"How much longer is Vivian going to play this drama? She dragged you into this, yet you're standing by doing nothing.

"If those two brats hadn't insisted on going to the amusement park, would I have missed Lily's surgery? Now a kid is dead, and somehow it's all on me?"

Susan was shaking with rage, her hand flying up to slap Edward, but he grabbed her wrist in a steel grip.

"Mom, are you losing it? Why did Charlie die?" Edward snapped and blamed the kid who wasn't there. "He was five years old and still scared to go to the bathroom alone. Wasn't it Vivian's job to teach him?"

Suddenly, lightning split the sky outside, throwing his twisted face into sharp relief.

"I made them line up waiting for their mom. I wanted to toughen them up because he had to be brave. But Vivian..." Edward snarled. "She couldn't even keep a special needs kid safe. Is someone like her even fit to be a mom?"

"Edward, are you even human?" Susan screamed, her voice shaking with rage.

She whipped her hand across his face with such force that Edward's head snapped to the side, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Her whole body shook, her gnarled fingers nearly jabbing into his eyes.

"Charlie was only five, and so was Zoe. When the storm hit, where could they have gone? You made them wait? Wait for what? Death?" she said angrily.

Edward wiped the blood off his mouth and snickered coldly, "Mom, don't fall for Vivian's little tricks again. She—"

"Shut up!" Susan shouted as she grabbed a cup off the table and chucked it at him. It exploded in shards at his feet.

She snapped, "Vivian has been keeping this family afloat and raising your kids all these years. Are you seriously that blind? You mess around while she does everything.

"What have you ever done for this family? Who stayed up three nights straight at your sickbed when you were dying? Who begged for help when your company was collapsing? Edward, do you even have a shred of conscience left?"

Edward's face darkened, and his fists clenched until his knuckles cracked. "Everything she ever did was just for money, wasn't it?" he snapped.

Susan shot back, her voice ice-cold and full of scorn. "Money? I didn't spoil Vivian. I raised her like she was my own flesh and blood. Why the hell would she marry you for money?

"Edward, do you even get it? Your son is dead. While he was dying, you were off pampering yourself with that woman."

Edward's face went pale as if he'd been sucker-punched. All that swagger he had a second ago vanished, leaving him looking drained.

"My son... is dead?" he choked out.