Queen of Wild Cards novel Chapter 48

The living room looked like a war zone.

Frederick's vision swam with rage. "Stella! You swing that thing one more time, and I swear to God I'll dump your mother's ashes into the ocean! You'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

Stella lowered the shovel. "Fine. I'll stop. But if you dare touch her ashes, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth.

"Let me make this perfectly clear. For every day you keep her from me, I will come back here and cause hell.

"I've wrecked everything today. Once you buy new furniture, I'll come back and wreck it all over again. See you later!"

Stella hadn't genuinely expected a single tantrum to win back the ashes.

She didn't know what sick game Frederick was playing. She had destroyed half his house, yet he still wouldn't hand them over.

What was he trying to use the ashes for?

Her mother had been dead for ten years. If he had wanted to use them for something, wouldn't he have done it already?

Was he afraid of something, or was there a darker conspiracy at play?

She was going to find out!

...

Still seething when she returned to the Blackwood estate, Stella went straight upstairs, took a shower, and went to bed without even coming down for dinner.

Julius summoned the bodyguard, demanding to know what had happened at the Hawthorne residence.

The bodyguard reported truthfully, "When we got there, Mrs. Blackwood told me to wait outside. However, I heard a massive argument break out between her and her family.

"Her father and stepmother ordered the staff to lock her in the storage room. That made Mrs. Blackwood furious. She grabbed a shovel and smashed the house to pieces."

So she had gone to take out her anger on Frederick after all. But seriously, what kind of monster was Frederick? He locked his own daughter up as a child, and now he was trying to do it again.

In Nadine's eyes, her grandson's miraculous recovery wasn't just due to the ancestors' blessings; she also wanted Stella to pay her respects.

She wanted to officially inform the Blackwood ancestors that Stella was now part of the family, praying they would watch over her and bring her peace and prosperity.

Stella wasn't entirely thrilled with the idea. It was a contractual marriage—they were divorcing in a year. There was no reason for her to pay respects to the Blackwood ancestors.

However, seeing how genuinely happy Nadine was, coupled with Julius's pleading look, made it impossible for her to say no.

The main reason was that Nadine truly treated her with warmth. The old woman had never once looked down on her for her small-town origins or suggested she wasn't good enough for their society.

Instead, Nadine was constantly showering her with expensive gifts. Her vanity drawers were already filled with priceless jewelry and bracelets given to her by the matriarch.

She couldn't bring herself to crush the old woman's good intentions, so she accepted the gifts graciously. She would just leave them behind when it was time to go.

She wouldn't let anyone shortchange her on what was rightfully hers, but she refused to take anything that wasn't.