What She Overheard in Her Own Marriage novel Chapter 270

Elaine opened her mouth, stammering furiously, but she couldn't summon a single counter-argument.

"You want me to be just as obedient as them. So tell me, Mom, what exactly do you expect me to sacrifice? My career? My freedom? My time?"

Elaine stared at her, utterly shell-shocked. She had heard rumors of Kaia's ruthless negotiating tactics in the medical community—how she rarely spoke, but when she did, she utterly dismantled her opponents. Now, she was turning that exact terrifying precision on her own mother-in-law.

Seeing Elaine rendered completely speechless, Kaia's expression turned to stone. Every word she spoke hit like a nail being hammered into a coffin. "Mom, I respect you simply because you gave birth to my husband. But respect is a two-way street. If you have such rigid demands for the kind of daughter-in-law I should be, then let me ask you: What kind of mother-in-law have you been to me?"

Elaine's face drained of all color, turning a sickly, ghostly white.

"Kaia!" Finnian's booming voice shattered the tension from the entryway.

Kaia flinched slightly and turned. Finnian strode in, his face dark as a thundercloud, holding a fast-asleep Brynlee against his shoulder.

Seeing her son, Elaine looked as though her savior had arrived. Her eyes instantly welled up with dramatic, victimized tears.

She rushed toward him. "Finnian..."

"Mom, take Brynlee," Finnian ordered sharply, carefully passing the toddler into Elaine's arms. The little girl simply smacked her lips and nuzzled deeper into sleep.

He turned his lethal gaze onto Kaia. "Come outside."

It wasn't a request. It was an absolute command.

Kaia held her ground, staring him down.

"Whatever you want to say, say it right here." She refused to be treated like a disobedient subordinate.

"Do you really want to do this in front of Brynlee?" Finnian shot back, his eyes flashing toward his sleeping daughter.

Kaia's gaze iced over. After a tense standoff, she finally turned on her heel and marched out the front door.

Finnian followed her into the gardens, his towering frame radiating a suffocating, oppressive fury.

Kaia stopped beneath the gazebo. The air still smelled heavily of damp earth from the afternoon storm.

"How could you speak to her like that? You completely crossed the line," Finnian snarled, his brows pulled tight in anger.

"I simply told the truth. How is that crossing the line?" Kaia fired back, utterly unfazed.

"She's an elder..."

"So being an elder gives her a free pass to insult and belittle me?"

Finnian's jaw clenched.

Kaia leaned against one of the gazebo pillars, her eyes locking onto his. "I've been married to you for seven years. Do you know how many times your mother has lectured me like that? In the past, I swallowed my pride and endured it because she was family. But we are getting a divorce. I told you, I am done tolerating her blatant disrespect."

He hadn't breathed a single word of it to her.

"Mom, have you gone to the hospital to see Aunt Noelle yet?"

Kaia finally blinked, her voice dropping to a hollow whisper. "Brynlee, why don't you go watch cartoons in the media room? I'll turn it on for you, okay?"

"Okay! I want Peppa Pig!" Brynlee cheered.

Kaia nodded numbly, set up the television, and turned the volume up high. She gently stroked Brynlee's hair. "Mom needs to go upstairs and change her clothes."

She turned around, her footsteps heavy and deliberate as she ascended the staircase.

Finnian had just stepped into his massive walk-in closet. He always changed into casual clothes the moment he got home. He had just shrugged off his dress shirt, standing shirtless in his tailored gray trousers, reaching for a simple t-shirt.

The heavy oak door suddenly slammed violently against the wall.

He whipped around to see Kaia storming toward him, her face a mask of absolute, unadulterated fury.

"Kaia..." Finnian instinctively held the t-shirt against his chest.

Kaia didn't step fully into the room. She stood dead center in the doorway, blocking his exit.

"You took Brynlee to the hospital today." It wasn't a question. It was an executioner's verdict.