Chapter 1052

“That’s right. I can’t,” Jonathan said, spitting out each word. “I signed away my custody rights, remember?”

“That was with Benny as a witness,” Irene argued. “Just get Benny to say it doesn’t count. Who’s going to challenge you?”

“You are,” Jonathan said. “You seem to be under the impression you can challenge me on everything else.”

Irene’s mouth snapped shut. All Jonathan wanted was for her to cave and to make a promise. But she just clenched her jaw, refusing to give an inch.

Jonathan let out a cold laugh, his brow furrowed tightly. He leaned back in his chair, fiddling with his watch. “Alright. You want to play games? We’ll play games.

“But here are my rules. For every single day you keep pulling these stunts, I will do nothing. The clock stops. Nothing changes for anyone.”

Irene stayed quiet and still wouldn’t cave. Jonathan pushed himself to his feet. He had work to do.

“Wait,” Irene called out, stopping him. “How can you be so heartless?”

Jonathan thought, ‘Me, heartless? Come on. She’s the one who’s always sneaking around, pulling crap behind my back. Then, when she gets caught, she cries and plays the victim.

‘She always acts innocent, like she never did anything wrong. And she has a million excuses to prove that it’s always someone else’s fault.’

He turned back to face her. “Isn’t this exactly what you wanted? Me, finally becoming the cold, heartless man you wanted me to be? Being cruel to Teresa? You got your wish.”

“I wanted you to be ruthless with her,” Irene shot back. “Not with your son.”

“So that’s it, then,” Jonathan said. “Why do you hate her so much?”

It was useless. He had told her time and again how much Teresa had given up for him, how much of her own money she’d sunk into the Lynn family to keep them afloat.

He’d pointed out that Teresa never once trash-talked Irene or tried to turn Jonathan against Irene.

Even after all this, Irene still couldn’t admit she’d messed up. She couldn’t bring herself to apologize for the pain she had caused. In her heart, she had never truly accepted Teresa as part of their family.

Irene’s face crumpled. “Is it such a crime for a mother to care? All I ever wanted was for you to get away from Teresa.

“I never said to abandon Michael. My heart aches for him. I only wanted you to be cold to Teresa. I never wanted the boy to get hurt.”

Jonathan locked eyes with her. “Teresa is Michael’s mother. He loves her. When I’m good to her, he’s happy. When I’m not, he’s not. You can’t have one without the other. So which is it? Do you want me to be cruel, or don’t you?”

“You…” Irene stammered, lost for words. Defeated, she turned and fled to her room, still refusing to give in. The deadlock held.

Meanwhile, Teresa had no idea that Jonathan had called Michael.

She had a work dinner she couldn’t get out of, so she wouldn’t have time to pick Michael up. She called Amy to ask her to do it.

“Amy, whip up something Mike loves for dinner, okay? Tell him I’ll be home kinda late,” Teresa said.

“You got it,” Amy said. “And just so you know, we’ve got a very happy boy over here. Mike’s been all smiles since I picked him up.”

“He has?” Teresa perked up. “That’s great. He must have gotten a gold star at school or something.”

She’d been stressing about how to make Michael feel better about Jonathan not picking up his calls. Hearing he was happy took a huge weight off her shoulders.

“Ms. Johnston, should I save you a plate?” Amy asked.

“No, don’t worry about it,” Teresa said. “I’ll be eating out. I’ll head right home after.”

“Sounds good,” Amy said.

After hanging up, Teresa’s whole face relaxed. Knowing Michael was okay pumped her up to tackle the rest of her work.