Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 1402

Steve gritted his teeth, his jaw tight as he forced the words out from the depths of his throat. "I told you to leave Sylvia alone. Why do you never listen? Why did you have to destroy everything her parents worked so hard to build?" Ella's eyes darted away, clearly masking a deep well of guilt. But seeing her son interrogate his own mother for the sake of an outsider reignited her indignation, and she adopted a tone of aggrieved patience. "Steve, you need to understand the reality here. Everything the Moore family possessed was graciously handed to them by our family. If it were not for Bishop Silas at St. Peter's Cathedral calculating that your destined partner lived in Seaview, handing me her astrological charts, and swearing upon his faith that she was your lucky star, do you honestly believe I would have ever glanced twice at some wild country girl from a lowly family?"

As she spoke, Ella's sense of victimization only grew, and her voice naturally rose in pitch. "To ensure this supposed lucky star was worthy of standing beside you, I convinced your father to grant them billions in corporate contracts. We practically dragged them from the gutters of Seaview and crowned them as Capital elites. Since our family bestowed those gifts upon them, we possess every right to take them back. It is their own sheer incompetence that caused them to lose their fortune. Who else is there to blame?" Ella harbored her own unspoken miseries. In the past, Steve had rarely come home, squandering his days running some ridiculous private detective agency. He had even been targeted by ruthless criminals during one of his investigations, nearly losing his life. As the sole heir and only son of the Michell family across several generations, his recklessness kept Ella awake night after night. Driven to utter desperation, she had turned to religion for a miracle. She donated lavishly to St. Peter's Cathedral, funding several new statues just to coax the reclusive Bishop Silas into predicting her son's future. The Bishop assured her that finding the girl with those exact birth details and bringing her into the family would finally settle Steve down and guarantee three generations of supreme prosperity.

She scoured the world with those details and eventually found Sylvia in Seaview. At the time, Sylvia was living on a rural farm with her grandfather, appearing to Ella as nothing more than an uncultured peasant. But for the sake of her son's future, Ella swallowed her pride. She negotiated a ruthless deal with Sylvia's parents. If Sylvia married into the family, the Michells would guarantee the Moores unimaginable wealth and status. For the first two years, the prophecy actually seemed to hold true. After marrying Sylvia, Steve came home far more frequently. Even if he only returned to argue with her, he was at least stepping through the front door. Ella had genuinely believed the Bishop was a divine oracle and that Sylvia was indeed their lucky star. But the peace was entirely short lived. A couple of years ago, Steve abruptly divorced Sylvia, becoming even wilder and more estranged from the family than before. Panicked, Ella had rushed back to St. Peter's Cathedral, only to find the Bishop in absolute seclusion, refusing all visitors. Despite the divorce, she harbored a desperate fantasy that their romantic ties were not truly severed and that they might remarry. Consequently, she had maintained the business contracts, keeping the Moores under her protective wing.

However, the disastrous trip to Fiji thoroughly shattered those delusions. Her precious son had nearly died in that godforsaken jungle just to save Sylvia. In Ella's eyes, this woman was no lucky star at all. She was a harbinger of doom, a cursed reaper trying to drag Steve into an early grave. Wiping her tears, Ella looked at her weakened son, entirely consumed by bitter regret. "Steve, my greatest regret in this life is believing that Bishop's nonsense and forcing the two of you together. If I had known she would cause you to suffer such catastrophic injuries and nearly lose your life, I would never have set foot in Seaview."

Steve closed his eyes, taking a moment to ride out the lingering agony in his chest before slowly lowering his hand. Looking at his mother, he let out a sudden, dark laugh. "The Bishop was absolutely right. Sylvia is my lucky star." Ella froze, her tears stopping instantly as she stared at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes. Steve's gaze was hollow and filled with profound self mockery, his voice painfully raspy. "If it were not for her, I would have died in Fiji. What you would be visiting right now is a corpse, or perhaps an urn full of ashes." Ella's face hardened with instant denial. "That is impossible. You sustained those horrific injuries because you sacrificed yourself to save her. You were the one who..."

"But she saved my life too." Steve viciously cut her off, the veins bulging aggressively against his neck from the sheer emotional strain. "If she had not managed to send that SOS signal in time, I would be dead. And the only reason I was injured in the first place is because I am a worthless bastard. I abandoned her on that primitive beach entirely alone. I failed to protect her. Everything that happened to me was entirely my own fault. I brought it upon myself. What gives you the right to blame Sylvia for any of this?"