“I think you should keep your wife on a leash, Xavier.
She’s starting to drool all over me, forgetting that she’s a remarried woman,” Matteo said, his eyes lazy.
Xavier couldn’t believe his ears.
He turned to Fiona, who quickly shook her head.
“I would never do that.” She immediately moved toward him and cupped his face.
“You know I love you.”
Then she turned to Matteo.
“Matteo was the one begging me to return to him for Bianca.
He knows he can’t get a better mother than me for Bianca, so he’s begging me to get back together with him.”
Matteo laughed, a throaty sound vibrating from his chest.
After everything he had done for Fiona, she had the audacity to cheat on him with Xavier.
Not only that, she had abused Bianca when he had thought giving her a second chance would fix everything.
And now she had the nerve to think she could still be a better mother to Bianca after everything she had done.
“You amuse me, Fiona,” Matteo commented after he was done laughing.
“You still think you can be a better mother to Bianca after everything you’ve done?”
Her lips thinned into a straight line.
“You can’t even be a good mother to a rat, let alone a child.”
“Mind the way you speak to my wife,” Xavier warned.
“She’s no longer your wife, so you have no right to talk to her like that.”
Matteo regarded him for a moment, but he couldn’t find anything else worth saying to them.
They deserved each other after everything they had done to him.
He turned to leave, the couple grinning behind him.
On the inside, Fiona was relieved that Xavier hadn’t caught on to what she had said to Matteo.
Just like Matteo, Xavier would eventually fall victim to her plans.
The only reason she had cheated on Matteo with Xavier two years ago was because she thought Xavier, being the first son of the Devereaux family, would inherit almost everything and become the next Don.
However, after what the patriarch had said at the dining table, there was little to no chance of Xavier acquiring that position.
Fiona sighed.
Even if he didn’t, she wasn’t worried.
She could simply return to Matteo.
After all, they had a child together.
He wouldn’t separate a child from her mother.
She grinned harder, convinced that her plan was foolproof.
Vanessa was in her room, researching the Devereaux family tree, especially Matteo Devereaux.
His family owned several businesses that stretched across the continent.
They were also one of the richest families in New York, ranking among the top two at least.
She searched through picture after picture of Matteo, and in every single one, he looked like the whole world had offended him.
His sharp jawline and exquisite features made him look as if he had been crafted by the Greek gods themselves.
Vanessa continued searching, but nothing she found was enough to convince her to marry him.
Instead, she kept finding reasons not to.
His family was an extreme criminal syndicate that ruled the city with an iron fist, despite owning several legitimate businesses that were doing extremely well.
Vanessa held her aching head.
She was already running out of time.
Her grandmother was important to her, and she couldn’t let the woman die because of her stubbornness.
“All they want me to do is be a mother to the kid, right?
Nothing else?” She wondered aloud.
After a while, Vanessa pushed the laptop away.
Her throat felt dry, so she headed downstairs to grab a glass of water.
After drinking, she headed back upstairs, but a voice suddenly stopped her.
She recognized that voice.
It belonged to her father, and it was coming from his bedroom.
Vanessa tiptoed toward the room.
The door had been left slightly ajar, giving her the opportunity to peek inside.
“Are you sure your threat is going to work?” Her mother asked as she applied products to her face.
“You know that girl is too strong-headed.
You can almost never break her.”
“She loves her grandmother, and I’m sure she’ll do everything in her power to keep her treatment going.
And if she doesn’t and decides to run away, she wouldn’t be able to afford the treatment.”
Mr.
Voss paused before continuing.
“Remember, she doesn’t know that her grandfather left her something before he passed away.”
Vanessa’s heart dropped.
Her grandfather had left her something before he died?
Not once.
Her heart burned with anger.
She had been getting angry so often these past few days that she was starting to wonder if she would have a heart attack soon.
“Well, she doesn’t have to know anything.” Her mother’s hands suddenly slammed against the vanity mirror.
“But why would your father leave everything to that girl and leave Noelle out of his will?
It doesn’t make any sense to me at all.
She’s the oldest daughter.”
Her father walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her.
“None of that matters now.
He’s gone, and Vanessa has no idea about the will.
We can easily transfer everything into Noelle’s name after she gets married to Tristan.”
Mrs.
Voss’s anger disappeared for a moment as a smile slowly formed on her lips.
“And once Vanessa gets married to Matteo, I’ll instruct her on how to kill him.
Noelle was supposed to do that, but I have no idea why she had to fall for Tristan.
Compared to the other sons of the Devereaux family, she just had to fall for the one with the lowest status.”
Mrs.
Voss turned to her husband, cupped his cheeks, and placed a kiss on his lips.
“She was just driven by love.
But in a way, it’s a good thing.
If Vanessa is caught, she’ll take all the blame.”
Vanessa continued watching, her mouth hanging open.
She stared at the two people she called her parents.
They were calmly plotting someone’s death as if they were discussing the weather.
She took a subconscious step backward and accidentally knocked over the flower vase beside her.
CRASH!
The vase hit the floor and shattered.
Vanessa’s heart jumped into her throat.
By the time her parents stepped out of the room to see who was there, she had already run back to her room and locked the door behind her.
Her chest heaved as she pressed her back against the door, one hand covering her mouth to keep herself from making a sound.
Her parents wanted her to kill Matteo.