He Wanted an Heir, So I Gave Him Ashes Chapter 12

He Wanted an Heir, So I Gave Him Ashes Chapter 12

A burning pain exploded across my cheek.

The air went still.

Rhett shook his stinging hand. There was no guilt in his eyes, only a lofty impatience.

“Ellie, can’t you for once think of the bigger picture for this family?” he demanded, as if I were the one being unreasonable. “I’ve already put Beau’s custody under your name. What more do you want?”

I covered my stinging cheek and said nothing, the tears welling but refusing to fall.

After he left, I heard Beau’s childish voice in the hall, asking if the “whole family” could sleep in the same bed tonight.

Rhett gently agreed.

Then the servants started moving.

My clothes, my books, all the things I had brought from New York were removed from the master bedroom, one by one, and carted off to the cold guest room at the end of the hall like outdated furniture.

And I remained in the study.

I didn’t go to the guest room. I just crouched on the floor, picking up the pieces of the torn land deed, the map that held a century of Walker family glory. The business documents that represented their foundation and future were scattered around me like confetti.

Daisy entered without a sound.

She stood over me, looking down with the pity of a victor.

“Ellie, do you know something?” Her voice was a soft hiss.

“Rhett secretly had a vasectomy reversal after he got back with me.”

My hand froze over the scraps of paper.

Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at her.

Daisy smiled, a cruel, boastful smirk.

“He never wanted a child with you. He wanted an heir with pure Texas blood. A real Walker.”

“All those painful treatments you endured? To him, they were just a performance to keep you in line.”

I stared at her, speechless.

I finally understood the strange, pitying looks the clinic staff had always given me.

I thought I was numb.

But my chest ached as if it had been torn open.

I did not move into the guest room.

Before dawn, a car carried me silently toward the airport.

In the VIP lounge, I opened my laptop and sent my lawyer a brief email.

“Execute the agreement.”

Then, I packaged up all the evidence of Rhett’s affair, all the information on Daisy and the child, and the Walker Group’s core business secrets, and sent the entire file to their biggest rival, Cole Hayes.

Finally, I took out the phone I used only to contact Rhett and threw it in the trash.

In that moment, for the first time in years, I felt truly free.

Rhett Walker.

I’ll see you in court.