Chapter 173
Augustin’s POV
1 stared at my mother as she sat on the sofa, tears streaming down her face. Words failed me. I understood the source of her fear, she had orchestrated my father’s death, committing treason against the crown. Sighing deeply, I studied her exhausted features, wondering how many more secrets she’d been hiding all these years.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?” I asked directly, “I need the whole truth now, Mother. No more secrets between us.”
Mother looked up, her tear–stained face revealing she knew her game was up. “I hated her, she admitted plainly, her voice surprisingly steady despite the tears. “I hated her with every fiber of my being.”
I didn’t need to ask who she meant. The venom in her voice made it perfectly clear.
*Helena burst into my home uninvited,” Mother explained, wiping her tears with shaking hands. “She had this… this smug look on her face. She said she was tired of getting money from me and wanted justice for Nathanael. She seemed to have found something important, and I knew she would act on it. I don’t know if it was about the illegitimate son Nathanael took from her, but she was extremely unstable that day, directing all her rage at me. Her eyes were wild, Augustin. I’d never seen her like that before.”
Mother straightened her posture, regaining some of her composure. “She paced around my sitting room like she owned it, looking at everything with such disdain.
“What exactly did she say to you?” I pressed, needing to understand the full picture.
Mother described how Helena had insulted her, calling her an incompetent idiot and a fool, while boasting about helping Mother eliminate competition. “When it came to competing for your father, my only rival was Charlotte,” she said bitterly. “Helena revealed she had paid a doctor to administer a specific compound to Charlotte during labor, a medicine that was supposed to strengthen contractions but actually caused severe hemorrhaging and suppressed her healing abilities.
“The compound doesn’t typically kill werewolves, Mother explained, “But during childbirth, when a female’s body is already strained and vulnerable, it prevented Charlotte from healing naturally. The doctor recorded her death as severe childbirth complications. Helena bragged that I couldn’t prove anything because unlike me, she knew how to clean up her messes. She actually laughed about it.”
Mother’s eyes darkened. “The doctor died a month after Charlotte passed away. We didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when Helena mentioned it, I realized the connection. She had him killed to tie up loose ends.” She shuddered. “I knew Helena was mentally unstable, but I never realized how truly insane she was until I heard her words. The way she spoke about it… so casual, as if discussing the weather.”
“After boasting about what she’d done to Charlotte, Helena said I had been benefiting from her hard work all along, but that was about to end. She looked me straight in the eyes when she said it, like she was savoring my reaction.”
I sat silently, absorbing every word, my mind racing. The depth of Helena’s depravity was even worse than I’d imagined.
“When I asked Helena to help secure the Montalvo seat, Mother continued, “I didn’t know she was sleeping with my husband. I only found out after his death, and Helena thought that was why I killed him.” She laughed bitterly. “She claimed she loved your father, but it was all lies. She was nothing but a social climber who was secretly dating Albert Callaway.”
My eyebrows shot up at this revelation. “Adryx’s father? Are you certain?”
“Absolutely certain, Mother nodded firmly. “I had proof, Augustin. I knew about her secret but never exposed her because her husband was already dead by then. I only discovered her relationship with your father after he died, and it made me furious.” She emphasized each word: “Helena was a complete social climber, Augustin. She married Cooper Ashford because his family ranked higher than hers. Before Cooper, she tried to approach my brother but failed. After marriage, she set her sights on the higher–ranking Callaway family. I later discovered she had pursued Nathanael too. She just wanted to stand at the top of power. Every relationship was just another rung on her ladder.”
Mother’s face with disgust. “I had people investigate Helena, hoping to find something to make her leave me alone. Instead, I discovered she had a child with my husband, and I completely broke down Her voice cracked. ‘I started sending threatening messages to Helena, hoping to scare her away, but she remained calm, so I gave up. She was fearless or perhaps too arrogant to believe I could harm her.”
I made a mental note that I had seen those anonymous blackmail letters but decided not to mention it to Mother. No need to make her feel worse.
‘I was forced to pay Helena forty hundred thousand Nexum every three months to prevent her from submitting the matter to the elders, Mother confessed, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “There was no name on the letters, but if they investigated deeply, the elders would discover it was me. So I pretended to
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Chapter 173
ger along with Helena, I smiled at her parties, complimented her dresses, all white hating every moment in her presente
Mother described the day Helena died, coming to Mother’s home to gloat that she had complete control and could dispose of Mother what only keeping her alive because she enjoyed watching her suffer. “Helena told me she had a child with Nathanael, Mother said, “She said son away and envied me because Nathanael let me raise his children. As if that was some kind of privilege, raising the children of a man who des
Mother’s lips curled in disgust. “Helena was so pathological she couldn’t distinguish between legitimate children and bastards. In her mind, they wer pawns to be used for power and influence.”
She announced it was time to bring this matter before the elders,” Mother continued, her voice growing tense. Delta Clarke and Delta Vaughn were pres witnessing all her statements, but naturally, they didn’t believe her. They saw her as a crazy woman threatening my life. Helena had brought guards with her, though I don’t know why. Perhaps she expected me to cave in to her demands one last time.”
“Everything happened so quickly. As Helena was leaving, she threatened to use the evidence she had to make you lose your seat. To end the Levenston family.” Mother’s eyes hardened. “She said she would enjoy watching our family crumble, that it was long overdue. I knew Helena always followed through on her threats. I couldn’t let her leave, so I attacked. Her people attacked mine, but we had the advantage.”
She touched her side absently. “Helena stabbed me with a silver dagger she carried, then Delta Vaughn helped me kill her. My men killed her guards, and they were terrified because they had killed a senior elder council member. Before I passed out, I told them how to present the events. To make it look like enemy invasion, which in many ways, it was.”
Mother reached for my hands, her eyes pleading. “Please don’t hate me, Augustin. And please don’t tell Evanth about this. He idolized Nathanael in a way you never did. This would destroy him.”
Chapter Comments
Visitor
Amelia did horrible, despicable things. She continued murdering and blackmailing under the guise of protecting her children and her family’s reputation.
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