Book TRK
MISTAKE 180
Chapter 180: A falling out between familles,
Samuel’s eyes went wide, mouth falling open in shock. With a trembling hand, he accepted the tablet from Mr. Bean to see the breakding news report detailing a violent car crash, but no mention of an abduction nor or Sandra Madison
“Richard did this?” He muttered, disbelieving as he rapidly scanned the article. “But how… why would he… Our families are tied to be married.”
His words triggered the old man of the Madison family.
“What marriage? After your grandson publicly embarrassed our family? Do you think our family is a joke?” Old Master Madison asked darkly.
“What are you talking about?” Samuel asked, looking to Mr. Bean.
“Young master Richard just announced that he is married,” Mr. Bean answered.
“To whom?” Samuel asked.
“To Miss Jones, sir.” Mr. Bean answered.
The realization struck him like a physical blow, his face draining of color. The report mentioned Richard was recently married, to some woman named Emma Jones.
“Richard got married?” Samuel rasped, feeling as though the floor had dropped out from under him. “They all knew except me?”
A vein bulged in his aged forehead as hurt and anger warred within him. His family had certainly kept him out of the loop on this monumental life event, seemingly going to great
Cost:80 A falling out between famıle
lengths to conceal it from him. But to retaliate by abducting Chester’s granddaughter? Surely there had to be more to this madness.
“How dare you allow this to happen under your own roof, you senile old goat!” Chester shouted, ignorant or uncaring of Samuel’s stunned disbelief.
“It seems my son and grandson completely disregard this old man,” Samuel said darkly.
“I don’t care about your family matter. I want that girl, Sandra, returned to me at once, or so help me, I will destroy everything you and your wretched family have built!”
With that venom–laced vow, Chester whirled on his heel and stormed out, the doors quivering on their hinges in his wake. A ringing silence fell over the foyer before Samuel seemed to regain his motor functions.
“Bean, get me Jonathan on the line immediately,” he growled, knuckles whitening around the tablet’s edges. “I want answers, and I want them now.”
It was less than a minute before the call went through, but it may as well have been an eternity for how Samuel’s blood boiled in that endless span. When at last his son’s face appeared on the screen, granite–hewn and impassive, he could no longer contain himself.
“You arrogant, lying son of a bitch!” He exploded, shocking even himself with the vehemence in his tone. “How dare you conceal Richard’s marriage from me – your own father! And now I’m being accused of ordering some harebrained kidnapping scheme against the Madison family? Explain yourself!”
“I wasn’t aware I needed to keep you apprised of every breath Richard takes,” he replied in a tone laced with ice. “His marriage is his own business, not the family’s. As for abducting the Madison
girl..I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re raving about.”
If Samuel thought he’d reached the heights of his outrage, his son’s flippant dismissal proved
Charter 180: A fatting out between tam bez
him very wrong. He could feel his very bones shaking with scarcely restrained fory
“So that’s how it is, is it?” He bit out through gritted teeth. “The head of this family means in little to you that I don’t even merit being informed about significant events? About my com grandson taking a wife?”
Jonathan’s expression didn’t even flicker, his eyes as cold and unflinching as polished stone
“No,” he said with brutal frankness. “No, we don’t see you as the head of the family, not anymore.”
The bald–faced words hung in the suddenly suffocating air like a guillotine blade. Samuel could only stare, stunned into silence, as the full impact slammed into him.
At that moment, the indomitable Samuel Madison was just a pathetic old man who had outgrown his usefulness. He may as well have been dead already for all he mattered to his
progeny anymore.
Slowly, with hands now wracked by a fine tremble, Samuel set the tablet aside and sank into a high–backed chair. Mr. Bean began to speak, to offer reassurances, but the old man waved him away with a weary gesture.
Outside, gathering storm clouds blotted out the last rays of a dying sun, plunging the estate into premature darkness.
No one would be spared from the fallout.
Far away, a sleek town car purred along the city streets, chauffeuring Emma and Richard’s mother Helena home after an indulgent afternoon of shopping and pampering. Laughter danced between the two women as they cheerfully recounted the day’s highlights.
“Honestly, that poor boy looked like he’d swallowed his tongue,” Emma giggled, rolling her eyes fondly. “I thought he might have an aneurysm right there when you quoted him that price!”
Helena waved an airy band, wholly unbothered Oh, pish. We both know the Madison family could buy that entire toy store ten times over before brunch. A little frivolous spending never burt anye Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.
Her sly wink sparked a fresh peal of laughter from Emma.
Basking in the cheerful atmosphere, neither woman noticed the nondescript black SUV that peeled out from a side street, rapidly closing the distance behind them.
It was not until the rumble of the engine reached their ears that they both turn with matching
Trowns.
“Jim, what’s this foolishness?” Helena demanded of their driver, craning her head towards the rear window as the SUV’s front grill suddenly loomed in the glass like the maw of a pursuing beast.
With a bone–jarring jolt of impact, the SUV rammed them from behind in a hail of twisting metal and shattering glass.
The town car’s luxurious interior exploded into violently spinning chaos, their world reducing to a dizzying vortex of abject terror. Emma’s hands flew up instinctively, trying in vain to shield herself as she was tossed about like a rag doll, pain blossoming through every part of her body from the brutal impacts. Helena’s anguished cries reached her ears in scattered fragments amidst the roar of the crumpling vehicle and the harsh smack of their bodies against unforgiving surfaces.
When the car at last skidded to a gut–churning halt against the unforgiving resistance of a building’s exterior, Emma’s entire existence narrowed to the cold fire of agony radiating through her limbs and torso. Mercifully, unconsciousness teased at the edges of her senses, blurring the lines of reality until only blinding flashes of awareness registered.
When Emma next awoke, she was surrounded by the pristine, harshly–lit environment of a
the battered car. The sound of gunshots in the distance and shattered glass pulled her from her dizzy state.
Helena was there at her side, her disheveled appearance and watchful vigil indicating the hadn’t left Emma’s side since the attack. Relief washed over the older woman’s face when their gazes met, and she immediately grasped Emma’s hand in a fierce grip.
“Thanks be to God,” Helen breathed fervently when she saw that Emma was fine. “You’re fine …you had us so worried, my dear.”
Emma’s brow furrowed as flashes of confusion filtered back through the haze – the SUV slamming into them, the gunfire and smoke, the sickening impacts. “What happened?” she rasped out, struggling to put voice to her sluggish thoughts.
Helena’s expression hardened, her eyes flashing with a banked fury that Emma had never seen directed at her before.
“I knew this would happen when that old man got angry. Your grand father in law wants us dead,” she said darkly.
The car chase had escalated to a full blown gun fight.
The guard, Jim
s doing all he could to protect them.
“Ma’am, we need to get you both out of here now!” Jim was shouting, his face a mask of grim determination as he temporarily abandoned his position to reach them. “Can you move, Mrs. Madison?”