Chapter 58
Angela’s words landed like a pebble in still water.
Stella heard it and scoffed. She thought for a moment, eyes narrowing. After a few days under Trey’s roof, Angela already treated Pete like her own son? Had she already sized up the house as hers?
Angela slammed the door and left. Trey moved to follow, but Stella caught his sleeve like an anchor.
“Let her go,” she hissed. “Have you lost your mind? Do you not care about the estate, the company, our reputation?”
Blood rushed hot and loud in Trey’s ears. For a second, anger flared so fierce he almost tore after Angela, but Stella’s words pulled him back to the edge of a precipice. If he chased her now, everything he’d worked for-every fragile balance-might crumble.
He breathed deeply, forcing himself into a steady, measured voice. “Mom, it’s not what you think. Since this misunderstanding has caused such a huge mess, it’s good that she left.”
He tried to explain the “truth”, but Stella listened with that thin, suspicious patience.
“I’ll be watching you from now on,” she said finally, sharp as a verdict. “Anyone can come through the Fox family doors-except her.”
“I understand,” he answered.
“Where’s Khloe, anyway?” Stella asked then, irritation curling through the question. “I heard she moved out.”
Her voice carried a dozen accusations: why had Khloe stormed off and left the family and company a mess, allowing Angela to slip in? No one likes a vacuum; someone will always rush to fill it.
“You share some responsibility in this, Mom,” Trey said, “but I’ll handle Khloe.”
He didn’t want his mom to involve herself any further, so he kept the details to himself.
Stella fumed. “She’s using me and Alicia to throw a tantrum to get her way. Don’t you dare indulge her. If she leaves, let her. She’ll come crawling back.”
Fuming but powerless in the face of Trey’s clear missteps regarding Angela, Stella had no choice but to vent her anger while he took it in silence.
She stayed until nearly midnight, leaving only after Arthur called to urge her home. But before stepping out, she issued one final warning: he was not to see Angela again.
The moment she was gone, Trey immediately tried calling Angela.
When she didn’t answer, he called her close friend Kirsten-but she didn’t pick up either.
Desperate, he finally had Pete try.
This time, Angela answered. Yet the moment she heard Trey’s voice, she broke down sobbing, each breath catching in her throat.
Whatever composure he had left dissolved on the spot.
He rushed to where she was staying-a cheap hotel near Kirsten’s bar. Angela had nowhere else to go. To have his child, she had cut ties with her own parents, burning every bridge behind her.
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Chapter 58
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