He Lost Me to His Best Friend novel Chapter 159

"Yardley... you hit me?" Sylvia shrieked, clutching her burning cheek in absolute agony and disbelief. She couldn't process that the man who had loved and protected her more than anyone else in the world had just struck her.

The slap was so loud it completely stunned Corinne and Gwen. Corinne instinctively threw herself in front of Sylvia to shield her, glaring furiously at her son. "Yardley, have you lost your mind?! Scarlett bullies Sylvia and us to death, and you do nothing, but now you hit Sylvia?! Has that woman completely brainwashed you?!"

Yardley's expression was glacial. There was zero warmth in his eyes as he looked at his mother. "Why don't you ask her and Aunt Gwen what they actually did tonight?"

Gwen shot up from the floor. "What did we do?! What kind of lies has Scarlett been feeding you to make you this angry?!"

Yardley's cold gaze carried a profound, heavy exhaustion. "The fire at La Belle Nuit. You two hired someone to do it. Scarlett gave me the evidence, the witnesses, the audio—everything. Are you two completely brain-dead?!" His veins bulged against his forehead as he finally lost his composure. "La Belle Nuit is the favorite hangout for the most powerful elites in the entire country, and you set it on fire?! Were you trying to ensure our families get blacklisted from high society forever?!"

Yardley was practically hyperventilating. His chest heaved so violently he had to clutch it, struggling to catch his breath.

Sylvia and Gwen exchanged terrified glances. "We didn't..." Sylvia weakly tried to deny it.

With a furious scowl, Yardley simply played the recording of her conversation with the arsonist out loud. Sylvia's face drained of color, and she collapsed back onto the floor. Faced with undeniable proof, both women began shaking uncontrollably.

"She really has all the evidence? What did she say? Is she going to the police?! Are they going to prison?!" Corinne panicked, desperately tugging at Yardley's sleeve. "Yardley, you have to suppress this! You can't let your aunt go to jail! You have to—"

"Scarlett decided to let you off the hook... as a favor to me," Yardley said, his voice dripping with ice.

The three women immediately let out a massive sigh of relief. Then, he dropped the hammer. "However, she demands that you cover all the remodeling costs for La Belle Nuit, as well as all business losses incurred during the closure."

Sylvia's eyes widened. "!!!"

"You... you... you... all these years, I treated you like a real sister! I helped raise your daughter! I gave you everything you ever asked for, and this is how you repay me?!"

Corinne's blood pressure skyrocketed. Her mind went completely blank, and she crashed hard onto the floor, unconscious.

Yardley stood in silence. The revelations sliced through his chest like a serrated blade. Everything he believed about his perfect, loving family was a complete lie. The familial bonds he held so sacred were nothing but a grotesque, transactional facade. His precious cousin, his respected aunt, his devoted mother...

His chest tightened so violently he could hardly breathe. The stress and betrayal were so overwhelming that a sharp, metallic taste rose in his throat, and he doubled over, coughing violently, his body physically rejecting the sheer toxicity of his own family.

Four people were in the booth. Two were crying on the floor, one had collapsed from a severe hypertensive crisis, and the other was practically coughing up blood. The ambulance hauled all four of them to the hospital in the middle of the night. After an examination, Corinne's condition was deemed the most critical, and the doctors immediately admitted her for observation. Yardley called his father, Franklin, and his eldest sister, Clarissa, and sent texts to his two other sisters abroad.