He Wanted an Heir, So I Gave Him Ashes Chapter 07

He Wanted an Heir, So I Gave Him Ashes Chapter 07

I took a deep breath, forcing down the nausea that rose in my throat. The cold receded, replaced by a scalding, lucid calm.

I lifted my chin and looked straight at Rhett’s face, so full of his own magnanimity.

“All right.”

He froze, clearly not expecting me to agree so easily.

“But,” I continued, my voice so steady it surprised me, “for the sake of family harmony, and to formally establish the child’s position, there’s a document you need to sign.”

I turned and walked to the study. From the drawer, I pulled out the legal document I had already crumpled in my grip, the one my lawyer had drafted overnight.

I deliberately folded it to cover the title, leaving only the signature line on the last page exposed. I handed it to him along with a Montblanc pen, my fingertips trembling slightly with the effort of my self-control.

“What’s this?” he asked, though his tone was already thick with a victor’s indulgence.

“A supplemental family trust agreement,” I explained calmly. “It establishes his place in the line of succession and… formalizes our new arrangement.”

Rhett’s gaze lingered on my face for a second, as if to confirm my surrender.

He saw what he wanted to see: a broken wife, forced to accept reality.

He didn’t ask any more questions. He didn’t even glance at the document. He just signed his name with a bold, confident flourish.

Rhett Walker.

After signing, he pulled me into a relieved, tight embrace.

“Ellie, thank you. I knew you’d understand,” he whispered, his voice thick with self-righteous emotion. “I’m sorry. This has been too much for you to bear.”

A strange, cloying perfume drifted from his clothes.

Daisy’s scent.

I closed my eyes and let him hold me, my heart a placid, frozen lake.

The Asset Stripping and Forced Sale Agreement, disguised as a trust document, was now in effect.

I didnd’t expect that the next day, it wouldn’t just be the child moving into the main house.

Daisy came, too.

She stood on the porch holding the little boy, Beau, her face a mask of carefully constructed unease.

“Ellie,” she said timidly, as if we were strangers. “Rhett said… to make it easier to care for Beau, I should stay here temporarily. Once he’s settled, I’ll… I’ll leave.”

She gripped the boy’s hand. He hid behind her, only a pair of hostile eyes visible.

“Bad woman!” the boy suddenly shouted, pointing a little finger at me. “You can’t make my mommy leave! Daddy said this is our home now, too!”

Daisy’s face flushed as if in terror, and she hurriedly covered her son’s mouth.

“Beau! Don’t be rude!”

Her mouth formed an apology, but her eyes weren’t embarrassed.

They were alight with provocation and triumph.

Rhett happened to be walking over from the stables. He had clearly heard the boy’s piercing shout.

But he acted as if he’d heard nothing. He walked straight past me, crouched down, and looked at the boy with a tenderness I had never seen from him before.

“That’s right. No one is going to make you leave.” He ruffled Beau’s hair, his voice loud enough for every servant in earshot. “From now on, this is your home.”

At that moment, standing in the foyer I had designed and decorated with my own two hands, I felt like an intruder.

A redundant ornament.

Without a word, I turned and walked away.

Behind me, Daisy let out a false, panicked cry.

“Ellie, where are you going? Did we… did we upset you?”