His Ex-Wife Is A Billionaire (Evadne and Thaddeus) novel Chapter 567

Evadne watched as Thaddeus' face darkened, like a bright moon plummeting into a chilly, secluded pond.

Beneath his crisp suit, his broad shoulders trembled ever so slightly, his eyes reddened with suppressed rage. He seemed like a volcano on the verge of eruption, his fierce emotions ready to spill over at any moment.

Evadne squeezed his hand, silently urging him to keep his cool.

It wasn't that she fancied herself a saint or wanted to see some trite, happy-family drama unfold. If the timing was right, she'd gladly step in and give Frederic a piece of her mind on behalf of her partner.

But having a spat in a graveyard, especially in front of Thaddeus' late mother, was not only undignified but also somewhat disrespectful to the departed.

It would only upset Cynthia more.

"I sure didn't expect you to visit your mother today. You should've told me earlier; we could've come together."

Frederic's voice carried the weight of paternal authority, his tone relatively mild. "I think that's a sight your mother would've wanted to see."

"A sight my mother wanted to see?"

Thaddeus stared at him coldly, his voice laced with scorn and resentment. "Are you joking with me, Frederic?"

"Thaddeus, what are you saying?" Frederic's brows knitted in disapproval.

"As her husband, you neglected her when she was alive and suffering from severe depression. After she passed, you didn't even bother to send someone to clean her grave. In twenty years, you've visited her less than the groundskeepers here. And now you have the audacity to say she wanted to see you?"

Thaddeus shook his head in disbelief, his laughter tinged with fury. "Frederic, even if my mother was once your wife, even if she loved you, your shamelessness should have a limit!"

Evadne's heart raced with anxiety. Were they going to come to blows?

Should she intervene?

But Thaddeus was voicing her own thoughts, and she didn't want to stop him. She thought he should lay into his father even more, to wake up the arrogant, shameless old man!

Let them fight. She could take on the bodyguards with a single punch!

Frederic, seething with rage, his face reddening visibly, had his dignity hanging by a thread.

Dennis and the bodyguards stood silent, sweating bullets for Thaddeus.

"Dennis, hand me the flowers." With outsiders present, Frederic tried to maintain decorum, suppressing his rage with an icy command.

"Yes, Mr. Abernathy." Dennis quickly handed over a bunch of white chrysanthemums with due reverence.

Frederic took them, his expression somber, and moved toward Cynthia's tombstone.

But before he could take a few steps, Thaddeus' imposing form blocked his path, snatching the bouquet and hurling it to the ground!

Everyone shuddered.

Frederic's eyes bulged with fury. "Thaddeus! What are you doing?"

"Neither I nor my mother welcome you here."

Thaddeus' gaze was icy as it locked onto the stunned man's face, each word deliberate. "She doesn't need your hollow sympathies, and you have no right to stand before her!"

With that, he stepped forward and crushed the chrysanthemums under his foot.

"Hollow sympathies? You think I'm hollow?" Frederic was almost choking with indignation, pointing at his son's cold, handsome face, his noble composure crumbling. "Thaddeus! You ungrateful wretch! If I were truly insincere, then why did I go against everyone's advice and bring you and your mother from the slums back to the Abernathy family under tremendous pressure? If it weren't for me, you both would have perished in that filthy place! Have you forgotten how sick your mother was? She couldn't afford medical treatment, couldn't even feed you! If not for me, how could she have recovered? How would you be living this life of luxury and power now?"

Evadne, as an observer, felt her heart seared by these words, her blood boiling in her veins, her fists clenching.

Even now, Frederic wasn't speaking as a husband or a father to his son.

He was acting like a condescending philanthropist, a self-righteous capitalist!

His words seemed reasonable, but they implied one thing - "you and I are not from the same world. It was I who mercifully pulled you from the squalid slums; it was I who allowed you the fortune of entering my world."

That innate arrogance and sense of superiority was even more infuriating and humiliating than outright insults.

"Anyway, I've done you the favor of raising you! Without me, where would you be? How dare you be so disrespectful, so rebellious in my presence?" Frederic ranted, his eyes red, as he berated Thaddeus.

"If I hadn't been a boy, if I’d been a girl, would you have gone to such lengths to bring me back to the Abernathy family? If not for that, would you even remember that a poor woman carrying your child was wandering without a name or status, living in destitution? Would you?"

Thaddeus' lips curled in a chilling sneer, his mocking tone cutting deep. "I owe my success to my grandfather's nurturing and to my mother."

"You insolent." Frederic lost all pretense of control, his arm swinging towards Thaddeus' face in a fit of rage.

Thaddeus remained unmoved, his stunning eyes flashing with intense hatred.

Just as the crowd gasped—

Frederic felt a sharp pain in his wrist, his face contorting with the shock.