Chapter 346 The Price of Blood
+8 Pearls
Jensen was so furious his veins nearly burst. He slammed his hand down on the table and stood up. “Wyatt, you’re full of shit. Do you even know what your mother’s status was? Just a housemaid, and you think she’s qualified to switch places with my mom? Who’s the legitimate heir and who’s the bastard? You think changing titles makes people forget the truth?”
“We let you be born, let you grow up, and you should be grateful to us! My mom was practically killed by you people. What gives you the right to step on her memory?”
Wyatt tilted his head, disdainful. “Your mom couldn’t even keep your dad’s belt buckled. She brought it on herself.”
Jensen froze, and when he realized what Wyatt had just said, he was so angry he nearly vomited blood.
Wyatt’s mother had originally been just a maid in the Powell family—Jackson’s old indulgence and a disgrace forced into existence.
Once Wyatt was born, both mother and son were completely rejected.
Jensen’s mother never once blamed Jackson for any of it. Instead, she poured her bitterness into bullying and tormenting Wyatt’s mother at every turn. Even when Wyatt’s mother tried to leave with her son, she was stopped. The Powell family couldn’t have their shameful secret out in public.
If Wyatt hadn’t clawed his way up and become indispensable to the Powell family, Jackson would’ve never suddenly had the bright idea to recognize him as part of the bloodline.
Jackson listened to Wyatt’s demand and said nothing at first.
After a moment, he said, “We can put your mother’s name into the family registry. We can also move her grave to lie beside mine.”
Jensen was stunned. “Dad, if you move her grave there, then where does my mother get buried?”
The old man glared at him with clear contempt, like he didn’t even understand why Jensen was still talking.
Jensen didn’t dare argue. He glared at Wyatt instead, eyes filled with hatred—he looked ready to kill him.
Wyatt glanced from the old man to Jensen, mocking. “See how cheap your mom’s position is? Schemed her whole life, and in the end, one word from him erased everything.”
Jensen’s heart filled with bitterness. He turned to look at the old man with rising resentment.
How could he not hate this? How could he possibly accept it?
If the old man could cast his mother aside today, it could be him tomorrow—or Paul.
At the end of the day, all the old man ever cared about was profit.
Jensen was seething with resentment. The old man didn’t respond to Wyatt but stared coldly and asked, “Are you signing or not?”
Wyatt casually swept the agreement off to the side. “Not signing.”
The old man’s voice deepened. “What else are you dissatisfied with?”
“Everything. I’m dissatisfied with everything,” Wyatt said, arrogant as ever. “You think you’re some priceless gem? Getting buried next to you would be an insult to my mother. And you’re trying to pass it off like it’s some kind of reward?
That trash grave of yours, that pathetic family head position—only someone useless like Jensen would care about that crap.”
Jensen’s eyes turned bloodshot. He was on the verge of tears from the insult.
He was already over forty, had carried the title of heir for decades, but had spent all those years acting as the crown prince under the old man’s iron rule. On the surface, he had prestige. In reality, he’d been living in humiliation.
The old man’s face darkened further. He had already stirred up Jensen’s discontent, which meant he had to stabilize Wyatt and bring him fully into the Powell family.
“You don’t care about being buried together. You don’t care about being the Powell family’s second son. So you don’t even care about your mother’s ashes? Don’t you want to know where she’s buried? Don’t you want a place to pay your respects?”
As long as he joined the Powell family on paper, he’d have access to his mother’s grave.
Wyatt let out a laugh, as if he’d just heard the world’s dumbest joke. “Her grave? You, someone this cold and ruthless, this selfish and heartless, who treated my mother like garbage when she was alive—what, now you expect me to believe you gave her a decent burial after death? Rolled her up in a straw mat and tossed her in a ditch, more like.”
“Or do you think if you hand me some random handful of ashes, I’ll just assume they’re hers? She’s already dead. Gone. And you think dangling her remains in front of me is going to move me? What a joke.”
The old man gripped the armrest tightly. “You ungrateful, unfilial bastard!”
Wyatt said, “Spare me the crap about morals and virtue. The only reason you want me back in the Powell family is so when I eventually die, you’ll have the legal right to take everything I own.”
“Who do you think you’re fooling?”
He’d watched the Powell family pull scams his whole life. He’d suffered enough to know exactly how this game was played.
Wyatt stood and walked out without a shred of hesitation.
The door creaked shut behind him, leaving only the old man and Jensen in the study, staring each other down.
Neither said a word, but after what Wyatt had done, the bond between father and son had already fractured beyond repair.