Chapter 979

Layne's dark eyes widened slightly. Maeve's face was unsettlingly calm as she spoke, yet her entire body was visibly trembling. The sheer terror radiating from her was unmistakable.

Now Layne understood exactly what she was afraid of. She had just laid it completely bare—the staff's subservient greeting had triggered severe psychological trauma. She despised them because she had spent her childhood being ruthlessly framed and punished by people just like them.

No wonder.

Layne had assumed her secretive behavior meant she was hiding some sinister plot. He never imagined she was a victim of severe abuse.

An indescribable wave of fury flared in his chest.

"Didn't your mother do anything to stop him?"

He was appalled by the nightmare of her childhood.

"My mother?"

Maeve thought of the weak, broken woman whose entire inheritance had been stolen by her own husband. Her mother was merely clinging to survival under Alastair's iron fist. Even if Alastair blatantly brought his mistresses home to their marital bed, she wouldn't dare utter a single word of protest.

Everything the Lyndon family had built now belonged to the ruthless son-in-law. Her mother believed she was lucky just to be kept alive.

Seeing the deadened look in her eyes, Layne immediately dropped the subject, unwilling to force her to relive it.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. It's okay. This is your home now. The staff here won't spy on you. And absolutely no one is going to report you to anyone or raise a hand against you."

Maeve forced a hollow smile. She didn't dare hope for a bright future anymore. She had bet all her hopes on Quinton, believing he would be her knight in shining armor to rescue her from that hellhole. Yet, in the end, Alastair still held her by the throat. He had given her three years, promising that if she completed his mission, she would earn her permanent freedom.

She genuinely believed Quinton would wait for her. She never anticipated that the moment she turned her back, he would be planning a wedding with her absolute best friend, Delilah.

After Layne coaxed her to drink a few more sips of the hot tea, Maeve's fractured composure finally knitted back together. Her

expression smoothed back into ne

familiar, pleasant neutrality she looked at him, deeply apologetic for her breakdown.

"I'm so sorry. didn't mean to cause such a scene. Please apologize to the staff for me. I just got

completely overwhelmed. It has

so tell them not to take with toet

absolutely nothing to do with them,

personally."

Layne studied her carefully. In this moment, he believed every word she said. The sheer, feral panic of a camered animal he had seen in her eyes couldn't be faked. If she hadn't endured years of relentless, O systematic abuse, her body wouldn't have physically reacted with such violent muscle memory.

What kind of horrific existence had she been subjected to? Just how sick and twisted was the Sterling family to torture their own flesh and blood like that?

"You don't need to apologize. Everyone working here has been with the Everhart family for years. They aren't the gossiping type, and they definitely aren't going to go behind your back looking for trouble.

Besides, you haven't done anything wrong. They're just employees. If their presence makes you that uncomfortable, just say the word and I'll dismiss them immediately."

Maeve stared at him and suddenly said, "If I told you I really couldn't stand Mrs. Shannon, would you fire her?"

A heavy silence descended over the room. Maeve knew the answer was no. "It's fine. Don't look so tense. I was just joking."

Maeve's signature gentle smile returned to her lips, but to Layne, she suddenly felt like a complete stranger.

Her softness felt terrifyingly manufactured, like a flawless, mass-produced porcelain doll straight off an assembly line. It lacked an ounce of genuine warmth or humanity. "Maeve, unless you do something completely unforgivable, Mrs. Shannon would never speak ill of you to anyone. And she certainly wouldn't frame you.

I'm deeply sorry you were triggered today, but please don't joke about firing her. To me, she's family. She's practically a second mother to me."