The Billionaire's Intern (Maya Thompson) novel Chapter 574

Chapter 304. The Proud King Wept

Chapter 304: The Proud King Wept

“Cecilia!”

His voice exploded through the speaker, equal parts anger and relief.

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“Thank goodness you finally answered! Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I’ve been calling you for hours! No one knows where you went. All anyone could tell

me was that you left with your aide, and that was it!”

He barely paused to breathe.

“What were you thinking? Why would you leave without your security detail? Where are you right

now?”

Cecilia slowly closed her eyes and drew in a quiet breath.

“…It’s our daughter.”

Silence.

The three words stopped Tobias cold.

For several moments, the only sound Cecilia could hear through the phone was his heavy, uneven

breathing. When Tobias finally found his voice again, it was noticeably calmer, though the

frustration still lingered beneath the surface.

“What about her?”

A brief silence followed.

“Let me guess…” A bitter laugh escaped him. “After nearly thirty years, she finally realized she

made the wrong choice.”

His tone grew colder.

“Life with that man wasn’t what she expected, so now she wants to come back? She probably misses the life she threw away and expects us to welcome her back with open arms, as if the last

twenty-seven years never happened.”

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

“Do you have any idea how many people we sent looking for her? How many resources we

exhausted trying to find her? We never stopped searching, but she was too stubborn to come

home.” He paused briefly before continuing. “If that’s why you disappeared, Cecilia, then let me

make one thing very clear-”

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Before he could continue, Cecilia quietly interrupted him. She closed her eyes once more before

whispering the words she had dreaded saying aloud.

“Our daughter has passed.”

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The words washed over Tobias like a torrent of ice-cold water.

For several seconds, he couldn’t breathe.

“W-What…?” His voice trembled. “What did you just say?”

Tears finally spilled down Cecilia’s cheeks.

“Our daughter is gone, Tobias…” she whispered brokenly. “My daughter… she’s gone…”

A strangled sob escaped her lips.

On the other end of the line, Tobias’s hand trembled so violently that the phone nearly slipped from his grasp. He staggered backward until the backs of his knees struck the edge of a chair, forcing

him to sit down.

His eyes widened in disbelief. The world around him seemed to fade away, leaving only the sound of Cecilia’s heartbroken sobs through the phone.

“No…”

His voice was barely audible.

“No…”

Suddenly, he exploded.

“No! Shut up!” he roared. “Take it back, Cecilia! How dare you say something like that about our daughter! Take it back! Right now!”

Cecilia squeezed her eyes shut.

“Seven years ago…” she choked out. “Our daughter and her husband were involved in a car accident.”

“No!” Tobias blurted, shaking his head in disbelief. Cecilia ignored him. Fighting back another sob, she forced the words out.

“They both…”

“No!” Tobias shouted again, refusing to let her finish. “I don’t believe you! I refuse to believe a single word you’re saying!”

His breathing became ragged.

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“This is probably just another scheme the two of you came up with!” he yelled. “You and your daughter think telling me she’s dead will finally make me stop searching for her? Is that it? Is that

what this is?”

Cecilia’s tears flowed even harder. More than anyone, she wished it were all just a nightmare-

something she would wake up from at any moment.

At that moment, she wished Tobias was right. She wished it were nothing more than a/cruel lie she

and their daughter had concocted together.

But it wasn’t.

“If you don’t want to believe me… then don’t.” Her voice suddenly broke. “But I’m telling you the

truth!”

She clutched the phone so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“Our daughter is gone, Tobias!” she screamed through her tears. “She’s gone!”

Her breathing turned uneven as years of suppressed grief came crashing down all at once.

“And it’s all because of your stupid traditions… your precious legacy… and the damned pride you refused to let go of!”

Silence filled the line, broken only by Cecilia’s heart-wrenching sobs.

After a few moments, she forced herself to take a shaky breath. When she spoke again, her voice was calm… almost empty.

“I need some time alone, Tobias. I need to mourn our daughter’s passing… alone.”

She closed her eyes.

“Please don’t look for me. I’ll come home when I’m ready.”

A painful silence followed.

“I just…” Her voice cracked one last time. “I just need time to grieve.”

Before Tobias could say another word, the line went dead.

He stared at the phone in disbelief before immediately calling her back.

Once. Twice. Three times.

The call never connected.

She had already turned her phone off.

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Chapter 304. The Proud King Wept

Tobias remained frozen in place, staring blankly at the dark screen in his hand.

Then something inside him finally broke.

“No!”

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With a furious roar, he hurled the phone across the study. It slammed into the wall with a deafening crash before shattering into countless pieces across the polished floor.

His chest heaved violently.

“No… no… no…”

He swept everything off his desk in one violent motion. Books, documents, picture frames, and priceless ornaments crashed onto the floor as nearly three decades of bottled-up emotions/

erupted all at once.

As his gaze fell to the wreckage, it landed on a shattered picture frame. Beneath the broken glass

was a photograph of eight-year-old Malia.

His legs finally gave out beneath him. Dropping to his knees, he ignored the shards of glass

scattered across the floor and reached for the photograph with trembling hands.

He stared at it in silence. The little girl in the picture smiled back at him so brightly, her tiny jeweled

tiara slightly crooked atop her head as she sat proudly on his lap.

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