Serenity and Zachary York novel Chapter 3381

Adrian answered, “Not yet. I asked Caroline to call Mom and ask her, but she didn’t give us an answer. She probably won’t be back so soon.”

Hunter looked noticeably more relaxed when he heard this. Even while living with his son, Belinda was on his mind, worried that the ruthless old woman would come looking for him and disrupt his peace. After all, he was an old man himself now, and in fact a few years older than Belinda was.

“It’s none of our business what your mother does. She’ll let us know of her own accord when she’s coming back, if she wants us to know. If she doesn’t, we won’t be able to find out either, so it’s best not to even try, lest she suspects you guys have ulterior motives.”

Hunter sighed and continued, “I’ve been married to your mother for decades and still only got off so easily because we had you all. She doesn’t feel much for me, but she still has motherly love and only lets me live out of consideration for you guys. I’m just living for the sake of living now.”

Mentally and physically, he had suffered a great blow. He knew how domineering and possessive Belinda was. For the past few decades, though he dared to lust, he had not had the guts to follow through on it and cheat on her. This year, he finally found the courage to do it because he thought Belinda was thoroughly distracted by family matters and that Tiara’s descendants had been found.

While Belinda was away in Wiltspoon, he lost control of his lower half. After years of controlling himself, he finally cheated, only to be caught with his pants down. He was just down on his luck. Even though he had ended up in such unfortunate circumstances, there was no telling what happened to the pretty girl he had the affair with.

Hunter did not dare to ask, neither did he dare try to find out. His guess was that she definitely had not ended up well and was possibly even six feet under by now—not because of Belinda’s ruthless reprisal, but rather the doubt that the woman’s sugar daddy would let her live after discovering her betrayal.

The previous matriarchs’ siblings all managed to get numerous benefits. Belinda had no brothers and her sisters were dead, but Hunter’s family had managed to reap a little benefit from her.

“We’ve never dared to simply track Mom’s whereabouts. If anyone’s going to do it, it should be Caroline. Mom’s starting to favor her more now, even though she looked down on her and scolded her for being a failure when she first came back. In hindsight, it must have all just been a deception. In reality, Mom’s been biased toward Caroline for a long time now. Even Celine was used by her.”

At the mention of Celine, both heartache and hatred surfaced in Hunter’s eyes. He had cared for her truly. After all, she was the child he carefully nurtured into an adult, but she was driven to her death.