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After my family's business collapsed, I married my first love's older brother. On the wedding day, even though Jase Mitchell begged me with tears, I never looked back. Four years later, my husband Kade Mitchell passed away from illness, and his stepmother Katie Fuller drove me and my son out of the Mitchell family. Desperate and with nowhere to turn, I knocked on Jase's door. His tone was playful and teasing. "What brings you here, sister-in-law?" I hid my emotions and stepped closer. This time, I would make Katie's son return the stolen inheritance with his own hands.
Chapter 1 Tombstone
After my family's business collapsed, I married my first love's older brother.
On the wedding day, even though Jase Mitchell begged me with tears, I never looked back.
Four years later, my husband Kade Mitchell passed away from illness, and his stepmother Katie Fuller drove me and my son out of the Mitchell family.
Desperate and with nowhere to turn, I knocked on Jase's door.
His tone was playful and teasing. "What brings you here, sister-in-law?"
I hid my emotions and stepped closer.
This time, I would make Katie's son return the stolen inheritance with his own hands.
...
Raindrops gathered and fell from my umbrella as I held my son's small hand, staring at my husband's tombstone.
"Mommy, where's Daddy? Will we see him again?" Vince asked in his childish voice, his eyes full of confusion.
I looked at his innocent, tender face and opened my mouth to speak.
Before I could answer, Katie stood nearby, her expression blank as she pressed a handkerchief to her mouth. "Since Kade is gone, there's no reason for you and the child to stay with the Mitchells. Jase isn't married yet, so it's not appropriate for you to live in the family estate. Don't think I'm heartless. You have two weeks to clear out your things. If you can't manage, I'll have someone do it for you."
She gave a glance to the bodyguard nearby, then walked away in her sharp black heels, like the sole victor in a game.
I lowered my gaze in silence, tightening my grip on Vince's hand. "Daddy's just gone to a faraway place," I told him. "We'll see him again someday."
At three years old, with his frail health and slower development, Vince didn't grasp what death meant.
My child needed special medicine to keep his condition from worsening. Leaving the Mitchell family's hospital would only make him sicker.
I couldn't leave.
The best specialists in the country worked at the Mitchells' private hospital, and the medicine Vince needed was only developed by the research institute they funded.
Katie controlled all of it now.
Since Kade's death, the leadership of the Mitchell Group had been in limbo, leaving me in a vulnerable position.
Watching Katie's figure disappear, I thought of my brother-in-law, Jase.
"Mommy, is Grandma trying to make us leave?" Vince asked timidly after Katie left.
I pulled him into my arms. His frail body was light enough for me to lift easily, and holding him close sent waves of pain through my heart.
He was so small, too fragile for any mistakes.
I smiled to calm him. "No way, your grandma's just in a bad mood."
Without Kade's protection, how could I keep my child safe?
Katie was closing in, and I needed to make a move.
Jase, Katie's son, now held the reins of the Mitchell Group.
That evening, I tucked Vince into bed, left the nanny to watch him in the hospital room, and drove back to the Mitchell estate.
In my room, I rummaged through my closet, finally choosing a white spaghetti-strap dress with a cardigan over it. I applied a light layer of lipstick in front of the mirror, then headed to the fourth floor.
The sprawling estate once housed the main branch of the Mitchell family.
My father-in-law passed first, then Kade.
Now only Katie and Jase, who rarely came home, lived there. I had spent the last three years mostly at the hospital with Vince, rarely returning to the estate.
Yet even so, Katie couldn't tolerate me and my son.
Word was that Katie was arranging a marriage for Jase.
I steeled myself and stood at Jase's bedroom door.
I had checked with the butler beforehand.
Jase was back tonight and likely in the shower.
As the current head of the Mitchell family, Jase's presence made Katie the undisputed matriarch of the estate.
Leaving the estate was only the first step. It would mean losing access to the Mitchells' private hospital as well.
I understood exactly what Katie was scheming.
For Vince's sake, I couldn't leave.
With no more hesitation, I composed my expression and knocked on his door.
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