The Queen They Abandoned in the Shadows Chapter 06

The Queen They Abandoned in the Shadows Chapter 06

Shoppers were coming and going, and the scene quickly drew a crowd.

Judging murmurs rippled through the surrounding crowd.

“Wait—she’s just abandoning her kid like that?”

“Look how hard that poor boy is crying…”

“She’s absolutely cold-blooded…”

I tried to pull my legs free, but Noah held on tight. Looking down at him, I felt a faint pang—but it was instantly snuffed out by icy, haunting memories of the past.

He’d looked at me with disgust. He’d called me a thief. He’d said he didn’t want me as his mother. He and his father had pushed me into the abyss.

“Let go.” My voice was ice.

“I’m not letting go! I won’t let go unless you promise to come home with me!” Noah sobbed, squeezing tighter.

Bianca dabbed at her eyes, pouring fuel on the fire.

“Elisa, it’s all my fault! Take it out on me if you want! But Noah is innocent—he’s your own flesh and blood. How can you be this cruel? Even if you have a new family, you can’t just abandon your own son. How would your new husband view this cruel behavior of yours?”

Her words were carefully manipulative. The murmurs around us grew louder, and people stared at me with judgment.

A wave of nausea hit me.

Even now, she was still playing her games—using a child to guilt me and tear apart the life I’d rebuilt.

I took a breath, bent down to look Noah in the eye, and spoke slowly, each word deliberate.

“Noah, you listen to me closely. The second you and your Papa got up on that witness stand and lied saying I was a thief, the second your father sliced my fingers off with his own hands—every bond between me, you and Matteo was severed for good.”

“I am not your mother. I wasn’t then, I’m not now, and I never will be. I only have one home, with my husband Leone and our daughter Quinn. Let me go.”

My words cut through the air like a blade, laying the ugly truth bare.

Noah froze, his grip loosening slightly.

The crowd went quiet for a moment, stunned by what they’d just heard.

Seeing her plan fall apart, Bianca shrieked.

“Elisa! How can you talk to a child like that? You’re breaking his heart! Noah, quick—beg her!”

She lunged forward, grabbing at Noah—and in the process, gave him a sharp shove.

At that same moment, a delivery truck swerved sharply and careened toward the crowded sidewalk at terrifying speed.

“Watch out!” someone yelled.

It happened in an instant.

I only had time to stumble backward.

But Bianca’s first instinct wasn’t to pull Noah to safety. Terrified for herself, she scrambled back—and in her panic, she shoved Noah forward, right into the truck’s path.

“Noah!” My eyes went wide, and I screamed.

Brakes screeched, but it was too late.

The little boy’s frail body went flying like a kite with its string snapped and slammed onto the pavement several feet away. Blood pooled out from beneath him.

The world went silent.

The driver sat frozen in his seat, shocked.

A moment of dead quiet—then screams erupted from the crowd.

Bianca stood motionless, her face white, shaking violently as she stared at Noah lying in a pool of blood.

I stayed frozen, my hands and feet cold, my chest hollow. This child I’d once loved with my whole life—the baby I’d held in my arms—even with all the resentment I harbored for his father, even after my affection for him had faded, witnessing his sudden death left me shattered.

I closed my eyes, overcome by crushing sorrow and a profound sense of absurdity and despair.