The Prison-Made Queen novel Chapter 784

Gloria blocked the doorway, refusing to yield a single inch.

"You are not leaving this room until you tell me the truth! Why did you hit him? Why are you suddenly so heavily invested in Tamara's pregnancy? What exactly are you scheming?"

"Scheming?" Fitch's face turned purple with rage. "I am doing everything for the Sherwood family!"

"For the family?" she scoffed. "You're doing it for yourself! Listen to me very carefully. If you push my son into doing something reckless, I swear to God, I will never forgive you!"

Stripped of her usual composed, high-society elegance, Gloria looked fiercely protective, like a lioness ready to tear apart anyone who threatened her cub.

"You—!" Fitch pointed a trembling finger at her, completely lost for words. Finally, he threw his hands up in defeat. "Lunatic! You're impossible! There's no talking to you!"

He shoved past her and stormed out, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the frames on the walls.

Gloria stood alone in the quiet study, her chest heaving. She stared out the window into the pitch-black night. The memory of her son's hollow eyes, the red mark on his face, and her husband's erratic fury made a cold knot of dread tighten in her stomach.

...

Across town, Yvonne was curled up on the couch with Leilani, watching a movie, when her phone suddenly lit up.

"What? Dad hit him?" Yvonne was genuinely shocked. Fitch had never laid a finger on either of them growing up.

"I'm so scared, Yvonne," Gloria wept, sounding utterly helpless. "I can't find him, and he blocked my number. I don't know what else to do. Can you help me find him? He was in such a dark place when he left... I'm terrified he's going to do something stupid..."

Yvonne's heart ached. She had never heard her mother cry like this. Now, she was terrified too. What on earth could her father have said to push her brother so far?

She knew Milford. He was fiercely protective of her, and despite his flaws in his romantic life, he loved his family. He would never block his own mother unless he was completely emotionally shattered.

And Gloria... despite everything, Gloria was the woman who hadn't left Yvonne's bedside for years when she was paralyzed.