Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 616

The heavy silence in the grand parlor dragged on.

Outside the doors, it was dead quiet. Not a single footstep echoed down the halls.

Lawrence's face drained of color.

He had brought over a dozen highly trained mercenaries with him tonight, yet not a single one rushed through those doors.

Hudson's men had already taken them out.

They had been systematically neutralized so quickly and efficiently that none of them even had the chance to trigger an alarm!

...

Meanwhile, in the private lounge, Archer stood in front of Hudson, his face tight with panic. "Boss, should I call the medical team? I can have them here in ten minutes..."

"There's no time."

Hudson shook his head and pulled a small glass vial from his inner coat pocket.

Archer recognized it instantly. It was the custom medication provided by Dr. Silas Vane, designed to stabilize Hudson's condition.

The doctor had explicitly stated: one pill a day.

But before Archer could process what was happening, Hudson popped the cork and carelessly shook a handful of the pills into his palm. Without a second thought, he tossed all of them into his mouth and swallowed hard.

"Boss!" Archer yelled, lunging forward.

"You... you can't take that many at once!" Archer's face twisted in horror. "Dr. Vane said it's one a day! It's too strong. Taking that much is going to wreck your system!"

But Hudson wasn't listening.

He was fully prepared to die anyway. What did he care about side effects?

All that mattered was getting his vision back. Now.

Hudson rubbed his eyes violently, but everything was still a suffocating black void.

Gritting his teeth, he dumped another handful of pills into his hand and shoved them into his mouth.

"Boss! Stop! It's going to kill you!"

Hudson ignored him.

The moment the massive dose of medication hit his stomach, it felt like swallowing a block of solid ice that froze his throat on the way down.

But a second later, that ice violently combusted. A raging inferno erupted in his core. It felt as though thousands of glowing, red-hot needles had been injected straight into his veins, tearing through his bloodstream and setting every muscle in his body on fire. A thick layer of cold sweat instantly drenched his shirt.

His breathing turned ragged, his chest heaving violently as his body endured the catastrophic burning sensation.

"Boss? Are you okay?" Archer asked, his voice trembling as he reached out to steady him.

"Don't touch me!" Hudson roared.

Archer jumped back, pulling his hands away.

An agonizing stretch of time passed before Hudson's breathing finally began to stabilize.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

Hudson stood in the doorway, his tall, imposing silhouette framed against the hallway light.

His dark eyes swept past every single person in the room until they landed squarely on Nora. Seeing she was completely unharmed, he slightly turned his head, his lethal gaze fixing onto Lawrence and Arthur.

"Who says she can't handle being the matriarch?"

Instantly, the grand parlor went dead silent. You could hear a pin drop.

Nora spun around. The moment she saw Hudson standing there, tears welled up in her eyes.

She rushed over to him. "Are you okay?"

Hudson looked down at her. His eyes softened as he took in her trembling lip and the tears brimming in her eyes. He reached out, lacing his fingers securely with hers. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Sitting slumped on the sofa, Arthur Lancaster clutched his swollen cheek, glaring at them with unfiltered venom. "Hudson, your wife just physically assaulted your elders! That is an unforgivable offense! A century of Lancaster tradition will not tolerate a completely unhinged woman sitting at the head of this family!"

Hudson slowly turned his head to look at him.

"My wife hitting you was an act of charity. Aren't you going to say thank you?"

"You—"

Before Arthur could finish, Hudson shifted his gaze to Lawrence. "And you can rest easy, Lawrence..."

A bone-chilling smirk spread across Hudson's face.

"Before I die, I'll make sure to drag both of you straight to hell with me. As for whether my wife will live comfortably as a wealthy widow... that really isn't any of your concern."

"You—"