Outcast Queen: Her Return from Hell novel Chapter 415

Phoenix rolled her eyes without hesitation. "I was specifically trying to avoid you pulling a stunt like 'giving me all of you' just to pay off a debt."

Pierce froze for half a second before a helpless, low laugh escaped his chest. "Alright, I'm completely convinced now. When you first got out, you really were planning on living out the rest of your days as a lonely hermit."

Phoenix shrugged, her tone dripping with pride. "Obviously. If you weren't decent enough on paper, I wouldn't have even given you a second glance."

"Wow. I'll just force myself to take that as a compliment." Pierce looked incredibly smug, an unprecedented surge of joy swelling in his chest.

Right in the middle of this tender moment, a jarring ringtone shattered the quiet intimacy of the room.

Pierce glanced at the screen. It was Arthur Sterling.

The warmth in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a deep scowl. His thumb hovered over the decline button, but Phoenix gently caught his wrist.

"Answer it. Let's hear what he has to say."

Pierce's gaze flickered. He nodded, accepted the call, and put it on speaker.

"Pierce, come back to the estate. Let's have dinner... as a family." The old man's voice sounded incredibly frail over the line.

"Mr. Sterling, things have already reached this point, and you're trying to play the emotional card now?" Pierce let out a cold laugh, not even trying to hide his disdain.

"Pierce, I was wrong." The patriarch's voice was laced with profound defeat and bitterness. "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. I just want us to have one dinner together, as a family, while these old bones are still breathing."

"A family?" Pierce's eyes turned lethal, as if coated in frost. "The moment you chose Silas without a second thought, we stopped being family."

A heavy, drawn-out sigh echoed through the speaker. "You don't have to acknowledge me as your grandfather, but... you can't just ignore your own father, can you?"

Pierce's pupils contracted sharply. His long fingers tightened around the phone so hard the casing groaned. "He. Doesn't. Deserve. It."

"Pierce, after all these years, why is your temper still so volatile?"

Suddenly, a deep, resonant male voice cut through the line.

That single sentence made Pierce's blood boil. He wanted nothing more than to storm the Sterling estate right that second.

The Sterling Estate.

The entire main hall was dead silent, the air thick with a suffocating tension.

Silas slumped on the cold marble floor, trembling like a leaf.

He kept his head down, pinned by some invisible pressure, lacking the courage to even look up.

Arthur quietly stepped down from the head seat, surrendering the symbol of absolute authority to another man.

So, this man was Pierce's father?

After the horrific car crash, Pierce had been plunged into the darkest moment of his life, having just lost his mother. He had desperately needed the presence and comfort of his family.

Yet, this man had coldly abandoned everything and fled overseas, severing all contact.

For all these years, he hadn't even bothered to come back and check on his own son.

It was that devastating indifference that had forced Pierce to become a ruthless, solitary wolf, using brutal tactics to mask a heart riddled with holes.

Because Pierce knew better than anyone that while others had fathers to rely on, he had absolutely no one but himself.

No matter how much Arthur tried to spoil him to make up for it, a grandfather's love could never heal that bloody wound.

"Pierce, it's been a long time." Percival stood up slowly, offering a very faint smile. "What? You can't even greet your own father?"

Pierce's lips twisted into a cruel, mocking sneer. "My father has been dead for a long time. So, who the hell are you?"

Percival didn't lose his temper.

He stepped forward, walking straight toward Silas.