Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 846

"It's her only option," Marcus said firmly. "Lillian, if you're planning to make a move, you need to set the board now. Otherwise, she's going to vanish into thin air."

Lillian tapped her pen against the desk, calculating. "A billion dollars... If we really want to pull some strings, we could make it happen."

She had a good read on Debbie. The woman had been living like a queen in Northwyn, utterly intoxicated by the high-roller lifestyle. Debbie was a degenerate gambler at her core, a woman who had been suppressed and controlled for years because she never had her own money to burn.

Now that she was riding this euphoric high, she wouldn't just walk away. The very thought of abandoning the tables would feel like physical agony to her. She wanted to stay, and if there was a sliver of a chance to get her hands on the cash, she would take it.

Lillian looked up at Marcus. "Keep a close eye on the casino's movements. I'm going to set up 24/7 surveillance on her. I won't interfere just yet, but when the moment comes, we might just use this to hand the Blake elders a massive favor."

To Lillian, Debbie's fate was irrelevant. But she knew the woman wouldn't run without a fight. If Debbie made a desperate move, Lillian could step in, neutralize the threat, and clear her final debts with the Blake family.

Lately, the older Blake couple had been making subtle overtures, trying to pull Lillian back into their orbit. She knew exactly why. They were pouring all their resources into grooming her son, Noah Blake.

They recognized Sebastian's limitations as a leader and were pinning the future of the dynasty on the boy. Because Noah was still young, they held onto the naive hope that they could undo the toxic damage Bella had inflicted on him.

But as a mother, Lillian had faced the cold, hard truth. Noah simply didn't have the emotional or intellectual fortitude.

Instead of wasting her life building a throne for an ungrateful son, she was going to build an empire for herself.

Why should she sacrifice everything for a boy who treated a stranger like his mother and looked at Lillian with hatred?

She had survived a near-death experience. Leonard had practically given up half his life to pull her from the wreckage. She wasn't going to squander her second chance on Noah Blake.

By stopping Debbie's scheme and handing the Blake elders a monumental favor, she could sever their ties completely. A clean break. That way, when the day came that they inevitably begged her to save Noah and the company, she could walk away without an ounce of guilt.