Queen of Wild Cards novel Chapter 113

Stella wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her mother's urn, so she decided to let Frederick's miserable little trio off the hook for now. She could slowly torture them later when the time was right.

Destroying them all at once just wouldn't be any fun.

Still, she wasn't going to let them get what they wanted so easily.

She spoke up in a convincingly weak voice. "Let's just forget about the bangle incident. Hubby, take me home."

"Alright. Let's go home." Julius's heart ached for her.

Frederick panicked. "No, no, Stella, you can't leave. You have to help me. My company desperately needs an injection of capital, or we're going to go bankrupt. I'm begging you."

Miranda hurriedly chimed in. "Stella, please just help him out. He's your biological father, after all. You two are blood.

He's getting older—do you really have the heart to watch him lose everything? This was all my fault. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did back then. I was a monster. Please, just help him!"

After her dramatic speech, she even gave herself a light slap across the face, though she barely used an ounce of force.

Suddenly, Stella didn't look quite so weak anymore. "I suppose I could help you, but only on one condition. Tell me the truth about my mother's urn. If I'm satisfied with what I hear, I'll consider bailing you out of this crisis."

It was a simple transaction. If she wasn't willing, no amount of emotional blackmail in the world was going to work on her.

Frederick wrung his hands nervously, his voice laced with guilt as he spoke.

"Stella, I know I was wrong. I never should have put your mother's urn in the doghouse all those years ago. It was a terrible mistake."

"Then why did you put my mother's urn in a doghouse?"

"Stella, that's all in the past. I was a fool. I failed your mother, and I failed you. Can you please just find it in your heart to forgive me?"

Stella's voice was deadly calm. "What do I want? Do you know why I'm standing here calmly discussing my mother's urn with you?

Because what's inside that urn isn't her ashes at all. Tell me the truth. What did you do with my mother's remains?"

Frederick looked utterly stunned. "What are you talking about? If it's not her ashes, what is it? I know for a fact those were her ashes!"

"Frederick, I had them tested. It's talcum powder, not human remains. Do you really not know, or are you just putting on an act for me?"

Julius furrowed his brow. From the look on Frederick's face, it seemed he genuinely had no idea the urn didn't contain Clara Todd's real ashes.

Then where on earth were Clara's actual remains?

His voice dropped to a freezing register. "Frederick, spill everything you know, right now. Don't leave out a single detail. Otherwise, your company will declare bankruptcy tomorrow, and I'll make sure you can't survive another day in the capital."