The Billionaire’s Secret Quartet (Thalassa and Elowen) novel Chapter 1248

Beatrice gently took Remington by the hand, and the two elderly figures shuffled back to their room, their movements slow and unsteady.

Alaric watched his grandparents leave, his heart heavy with worry. He had been on the verge of calling out to them. They were his and Hertha's last hope.

If they gave up, then all hope would indeed be lost.

"Grand..." Alaric began, but before he could finish, Angelina's hand clamped over his mouth, muffling his words.

Remington and Beatrice, advanced in their years and hard of hearing, didn't catch Alaric's muffled call.

Frustrated, Alaric shoved Angelina's hand away and burst out, "Mom, why do you always have to be against me?"

Angelina, taken aback by his accusation, felt a stab of pain in her heart. "You ungrateful boy," she lamented. "You're my only son. Everything I do is for your good, and you don't even see it!"

"Yeah, I'm your only son, so why do you keep picking on me?" Alaric frowned, his voice rising as he recalled the morning's events, which made him feel like he was suffocating.

He had never felt this distressed over a woman before.

Just this once, he wanted to be serious, and yet Angelina seemed to thwart him at every turn.

"What? Picking on you?" Angelina, incredulous, pointed to herself, her heart shattering. She had poured her soul into planning for her son’s future, and it had all been misconstrued as antagonism.

"Your father is overseas all the time. He should be running the Falconer Group, but he's stuck managing our international interests. He's too far away to handle the domestic fires, and the company here is no longer under his control. And your grandparents? They're old now. Do you really think they can protect you forever?"

Angelina's anger was palpable, yet she kept her voice down to avoid being overheard by Remington and Beatrice. Her son's naivety, his refusal to see the situation for what it was, was maddening to her.

"If that's the case, what's so bad about Jeremiah taking over the Falconer Group?" Alaric tried to console Angelina, taking a contrary stance. "I've never been cut out for corporate management anyway. Maybe living as an ordinary person wouldn't be so bad—going to work, making enough to support myself. A simple, unremarkable life and what's wrong with that?"

Alaric had graduated from one of the country's top finance universities, and he had been a top student. But ever since he joined the family business, he'd changed. He became unconcerned with the company's affairs, preferring nightlife and leisure.

Angelina had always been heartbroken over Alaric's transformation, unable to fathom what had caused her son to become so indifferent.