Chapter 8 - The Ultimatum
The dining room went completely dead silent again. Even the murmuring relatives stopped, holding their breath as they looked between Evelyn and me.
Daniel turned to his mother, his face carved out of stone. The last shred of filial piety he held for her shattered right before our eyes.
“She’s right,” Daniel said quietly, his voice devoid of all warmth. “We’re leaving.”
Evelyn’s jaw dropped slightly. For the first time, panic flickered behind her hardened eyes. “Daniel... what are you saying? You're choosing them over your own mother? Over your birthright?”
“If choosing my wife and my daughter means cutting ties with a woman who strikes a four-year-old child over a broken vase and screams insane conspiracy theories at a birthday party, then it’s the easiest choice I’ve ever made,” Daniel said firmly.
He stepped close to me, placing a steady, protective hand on my shoulder and another gently touching Lily’s back.
“Daniel, wait!” Aunt Margaret cried out, hurrying around the table. “Don't do this in anger! Your mother... she's carrying decades of pain—!”
“Pain doesn't give someone the right to abuse my child, Aunt Margaret,” Daniel interrupted coldly. “And it certainly doesn't give her the right to rewrite our family into a battlefield.”
Evelyn glared at her son, her chest heaving, the aristocratic mask completely destroyed. “If you walk out those front doors tonight, Daniel Sterling, don’t ever expect to return. You are cut off. From the trust, from the firm, from everything.”
Daniel didn't even hesitate. A bitter, humorless smile touched the corner of his lips.
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“Keep your money, Mom,” Daniel said smoothly. “We survived on ramen noodles once. We can do it again. But this time, we’ll do it without monsters in our lives.”
Without another word, Daniel turned toward the grand double doors of the dining hall. I clutched Lily tightly against my chest, following him stride for stride. The assembled guests parted before us like the Red Sea, staring in stunned, horrified silence as we walked out of the estate that had supposedly defined our social standing.
