Dumping The Ice King His Mini-Tyrant novel Chapter 435

Dames blurted out without thinking, leaving everyone stunned. Liam’s eyes widened in shock. Instinctively, he half-raised his hand, as if he wanted to rush over and clamp a hand over Dames’s mouth.

Patriarch Vaughn, however, remained impassive. He lifted his gaze to give Dames a fleeting glance; the deep lines of his brow and the shadowed hollows of his eyes made his face appear even more inscrutable.

Liam could feel the heavy pressure radiating from the old man, a tension that set his own nerves on edge.

“What nonsense are you spouting?” Harrison barked, his voice sharp as a whip. His expression instantly darkened, and anger overtook him so completely that he lost all sense of restraint. His fists clenched so tightly the veins stood out, every muscle in his face drawn taut like a bowstring pulled to its breaking point.

Dames’s careless words had sent Harrison’s temper to its peak, and he looked ready to explode.

“Waaah! Dad, you’re yelling at me!” Dames wailed.

Harrison had never once raised his voice at Dames before. He’d always kept his distance, his face stern and unreadable, making Dames long to get close but too intimidated to try.

It was only during Dames’s recent injury that Harrison had occasionally shown a gentler, more fatherly side.

But now, Harrison seemed more like a wild animal than a man—rage flared in his eyes so fiercely, Dames felt as though he might burst into flames under his father’s glare.

Dames cowered in Gemma’s arms, a trembling fledgling weathering a violent storm.

Then Leo’s voice drifted in, calm and cool as a spring breeze. “He’s just a child—why get so worked up?”

Gemma had said the same moments earlier, urging Leo not to take Dames’s words to heart.

Harrison froze, struck by the reminder; he himself had said nearly the same thing to Selene once.

Yet now, hearing Leo utter those same four words—*just a child’s words*—Harrison felt his blood boil.

Since the divorce, Selene had grown closer and closer to Leo and Altair. Harrison had even heard she wanted to join Leo’s research team.

His mind was boiling over like an overheated kettle, thoughts churning and bubbling with suspicion. He began to dredge up every memory from the past seven years—every time Selene and Leo had been in contact since she’d married into the Vaughn family.

When Harrison looked at Leo now, it was as if a red haze clouded his vision.

“Uncle Leo, you tell me not to take Dames’s words seriously, but what do you really think?” His voice was tight, accusatory. “Dames says Selene wants to be Altair’s mother—why doesn’t that bother you?”

“Every time Grandpa or Dad tried to set you up on a date, hoping Altair could have a mother, you shot them down without hesitation. You never budged an inch on this.”

Harrison kept pressing, question after question tumbling out of him, desperate for some kind of answer from Leo.