Chapter 299 What’s Hers Is Hers
Brendan’s lips were pale, as was his entire appearance. And yet, every word sounded like a strike at an old bell. “I’ll see her even if it kills me!”
He rose to his feet and began to cough his lungs out. His body was careening with every step, but he gritted his teeth and marched toward the front door-and right into the snow.
“Stop it!” Madame Brighthall bellowed breathlessly. “How dare you blackmail your mother with your own. life? What now? You’re gonna stand outside in the snow until you die unless I reveal her whereabouts? This is how you’re going to threaten your own mother?!”
A winter gale swooped through the landscape, kicking up a chaotic swirl of snow in front of Brendan as he stood by the door. Framed by the nipping white horizon and the unforgiving flurry, his back looked small and forlorn. “I’m not blackmailing you or anything, Mom. I just don’t want you to regret this even harder than I do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If Deirdre dies, the young woman who’s been your companion over the past two years will die too… And you’ll be the one who killed her. Won’t you regret that?”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtMadame Brighthall’s face turned pale. She stared at him wide-eyed, aghast.
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Charlene was even more mortified. “B-Bren! What are you doing?!”
She panicked. Brendan was about to reveal the biggest secret between them for Deirdre’s sake! How could he-how could he f*cking do that?!
Brendan turned toward her with an impassive glance. “What’s hers is hers, Charlene. Time to give it back.”
Charlene’s face turned ashen.
Madame Brighthall scowled. She was puzzled, but more importantly, she felt anxious. “Brendan Brighthall, what are you saying?!” she asked frantically. “What do you mean? My companion over the past two years? Since when do I know Deirdre?”
“Did you really feel nothing the first time you saw her? Didn’t you think she looked familiar?”
His words touched a nerve in Madame Brighthall. She thought of the first time she had met Deirdre- when the young woman had summoned a strange feeling in her chest. It had been a kind of familiarity, and yet she could not pinpoint why. Madame Brighthall had passed it off as a trick of the mind back then. but now, Brendan’s rhetoric had brought that back.
For a moment, Madame Brighthall looked lost. Then, she shouted impatiently, “Who is she?”
“She’s-
“Bren!” Charlene yelled, cutting off Brendan as she trembled under the weight of fear. He was going to ruin her… all because of Deirdre! It had taken her so much effort to finally get Madame Brighthall to like her, and now he was going to yank her blindfold away and tell her, in no uncertain terms, that Charlene had been the third wheel all along?!
Since when had Brendan been capable of… of… such cruelty?!
Brendan simply looked at her placidly.
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She felt chills in her bones. All the privileges and favoritism the fire narrative had bestowed upon her would now be completely revoked just because Deirdre had staged that fake accident.
Madame Brighthall pulled her hand away from Charlene’s arm and asked again, “Who is she?”
“She was your daughter-in-law.” 1
It was the connotation-not the volume or the enunciation-of the word that struck Madame Brighthall right in the chest with the force of a sledgehammer. She stumbled backward and fell, sinking onto the couch as her mind went blank for a second.
Deirdre was the daughter-in-law? She was “Charlene”?
No wonder the young woman had felt familiar despite her disfigurement. Even when Madame Brighthall had thought she was seeing Deirdre for the first time, there had been a nagging feeling that she knew her from somewhere.
She had been her companion for two years.
And for all the kindness she had shown her, Madame Brighthall had repaid her with vitriol and character assassination. She had called her a sadistic witch and forced her out of their lives. And finally, she had orchestrated a plan to send her away by turning her into a living ghost. 1
Madame Brighthall felt as though her heart had been yanked out of her chest. Everything made sense now. Deirdre was not some woman who had appeared out of nowhere. She had been with them all along -as Brendan’s real wife.