The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 534

She had always claimed she wanted to make him suffer, to drag him through hell.

Yet when she finally found the perfect chance to take Felix away, she hadn't done a thing to him. If she really wanted to draw blood, Felix wouldn't have survived long enough for them to arrive.

"You've been feeding Owen pills, getting him hooked on an addiction he can't break, just to destroy him." Rhys looked at her. "You refused to cooperate at the police station today because you want to blow this case wide open and drag Eric down with you. You want to ruin everyone, don't you?"

Margot's sobbing came to a sudden halt as she stared blankly at Rhys.

"Did you think handing Owen those pills would just let you watch him self-destruct? Did you think that entangling yourself in a drug scandal as Eric's daughter would destroy his political career?"

Rhys shook his head. "Margot, whatever your endgame is—whether it's getting back at me, punishing Owen, or dragging Eric down to hell with you—just stop."

"And if I don't stop?" Margot murmured, her eyes hollow. "I'm already rotten to the core, Rhys. My life was stripped of any other options a long time ago."

"What happens if I keep going?" Margot whispered. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Get treatment. Leave Brighton City. Leave the Johnson family behind."

Rhys turned his head, facing forward again. "If they follow Owen's trail, they'll uncover the truth eventually. Eric will sever ties with you to protect himself. If you stop now and cooperate with the police as a tainted witness, you won't get much time."

Margot didn't say a word.

She sat in the passenger seat, her gaze dropping mindlessly until it settled on Rhys's left hand resting on the steering wheel.

There, on his ring finger, sat a simple wedding band.

It was the symbol of the warmth and home he had managed to find once again.

She, on the other hand, was just a forced nightmare in his life, chained to him by nothing but a web of lies.

Now, he had woken up from that nightmare.

Margot stared at the ring for a long, agonizing moment.

Suddenly, she spoke again. "Rhys, I really, truly hate you."

She pushed the car door open and stepped out into the bitter, biting wind of Brighton City.

Having a family scandal erupt at such a sensitive time was tantamount to planting a landmine directly beneath Eric's political career—one that could detonate at any moment.

Those within the government had the sharpest instincts for survival.

The corporate titans who had previously bent over backward to curry favor with Eric, and even some of his closest colleagues, were already weighing their options following the subtle, behind-the-scenes pressure from the Huntington family and the police department.

This latest bombshell terrified them entirely. Within just two or three days, they all unanimously chose to stay dead silent and watch from the sidelines.

The landline in Eric's office still rang, but the calls to his private, inner-circle phone dropped noticeably.

Naturally, Rhys didn't hide this shifting tide from Clara when he got home.

Clara simply hummed in response after hearing the update.

To Clara, all those political maneuvers and bitter vendettas were nothing more than background noise to casually listen to.

None of that mattered anywhere near as much as what was right in front of her.