Chapter 836
It was only then that James's mother realized the magnitude of the disaster she had caused, but she still stared at her own son in utter confusion.
"How can you say that? Don't you want a son? If you didn't, why would you have one with her?"
James looked at his mother, his eyes devoid of any sympathy. He roared at her, his voice raw with fury.
"Of course I want a son, but I don't want a death wish! Everything I have today was given to me by the Yeager family. I landed this contract to prove my worth to my father-in-law. But now you've created this colossal mess for me! How am I supposed to survive this? Did you really think I signed that deal on my own merits? Do you think they would have given me a contract that big if it wasn't for the Yeager name? And you you brought this woman back here! I had her hidden away somewhere else, planning to keep her and the boy under wraps for another decade or so until I had solidified my position with the Yeagers. By then, my father-in-law would be gone, I'd be in charge, and I could finally bring them out into the open. But you! You just blew my entire cover! How can the Yeagers ever trust me again? How will Sallie ever convince her father to hand over the family fortune for me to manage? And you had the bright idea to tell her to divorce me? Don't you know that the second Sallie and I divorce, men will be lining up to marry her? This connection I worked so hard to build... you've just turned twenty years of my effort into ash. You ask me what you should do? What the hell am I supposed to do?"
James was seething. It was only then that the Mercer matriarch grasped the severity of the situation, and tears of panic began to well in her eyes.
"Then... what do we do? How about I
go apologize to your in-laws? I'll say
I didn't know anything, that the
ge
woman is a liar, and we'll just kick them out. You can go back to supporting her and my grandson in secret. You won't have to see them; I'll handle everything. I don't have to go back to the country. Where are you keeping her? I'll go with them. When the boy is grown, he can be formally acknowledged by the family, just like you planned. That way, you can win back the Yeagers' trust, and our Mercer family will have an heir. It's the best of both worlds, isn't it?"
The Mercer matriarch's simple-minded solution made James laugh, a bitter, humorless sound.
"Do you have any idea what kind of man my father-in-law is? Do you not understand how things work in a place like Greenvale? Do you think these wealthy, high-society people are all fools? The secret is out. As long as that woman and that child are alive, they will never trust me again. Do you really think you can undo the damage you've done? There's no fixing this. My only hope now is that Sallie still has some affection for me and won't push for a divorce. Otherwise, your son will be worth less than a stray dog in Greenvale, and our whole family can pack up and go back to the countryside to live the miserable life we left behind."
Hearing this, his mother's blood ran cold. She had bragged to all her relatives and friends about how successful her son was in Greenvale, how he'd bought her a villa and brought her to the city to live in luxury. The end of the year was approaching, and she had already prepared thick envelopes stuffed with cash, planning to hand them out generously to everyone in their clan back home. If she were suddenly sent back in disgrace, how could she ever show her face in the village again?
"James, you can't do that! I've told everyone how capable you are, how you were going to take care of mein my old age. If you send me back to the country, what will the villagers and our family think of me? They'll tomment me to death I was widowed ata young age and it wasn't easy raising you all by myself. Your deadbeat father was a gambler who never brought a single penny home for us. If you won't do it for me, do it for all the years I devoted to you. You can't send me back there!"