Forever After All(66)

I break down all over again, and Alec smiles as he pats my back. “Oh, Mom,” I say, choking back sobs. “I love you, too. So much, Mom.”

I stare at my mother through the tears, my heart heavy. I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect her.





Chapter 46





E lena



I pace in the living room, feeling restless. “What can we do?” I ask.

Sofia, Lucian, and Alec are as lost in thought as I am.

“What do you want the end result to be, Buttercup?” Alec asks. “Do you want your family to land in jail? Do you want them to disappear? Tell me what you want, and we’ll find a way to make it happen.”

I nod, trying my best to decide what needs to be done, to set aside the love I’ve held onto for so long—love neither my brother nor my father deserves.

“I need to know if my father was involved. I want Jade and Matthew to go down. I want them, the way they’ve made me feel—helpless, cut off from everything and everyone they’ve ever known. I want their assets, every single thing they own, every single thing they care about. I want it all. But above all, I want everything my mother has ever worked for. When she was declared brain dead, my father inherited her entire estate. I want that rectified.”

Alec starts to pace like I am, restless. “We need to attack them from behind, Buttercup. If they see us coming, they’ll safeguard everything. If they even find out your mother is awake, they’ll start protecting themselves. For now, I’m going after everyone that’s ever treated your mother. If I can get a confession, then that will help tremendously. We have the best lawyers in the country on retainer, so legally regaining your mother’s assets shouldn’t be hard, but like I said, we need to hit them all at once. We need to get the paperwork in place and have our men show up with eviction notices. I have a feeling they’ll need a bit of help leaving the premises.”

I nod. “There’s one more thing I want,” I say.

Alec looks at me, brows raised.

“I want my childhood home. The house my mother called home for so many years. I want it.”

Lucian smiles and holds up his tablet. “I asked Elliot to find out as much as he can about the Rousseau assets,” he says, a slight blush on his face. He can’t even say Elliot’s name without blushing, and despite everything going on, that brings a smile to my face.

“The house… it’s owned by the company. It’s not privately owned. If Alec can manage to gain a majority shareholding, then that’ll fall into your hands.”

Alec looks at me, his head tilted. “Babe,” he says. “We don’t even need to. We have your mother. She’s alive and well. The shares you inherited, the ones your brother took from you? They revert back to your mother. Her shares and the ones I bought you combined, make up a majority shareholding.”

I smile, a vicious type of delight coursing through me. “I want to be there. I want to be there when we evict them.”

Sofia smiles at me. “You will,” she says, nodding in approval. “You’re Elena Kennedy ,” she adds. “You’re my daughter-in-law and Alexander’s wife. It’s time you show the world what that means.”





Chapter 47





A lexander



I push Sarah’s wheelchair through the garden, stopping to admire different flowers. She loves the feeling of the sun on her face and the fresh air. I can’t blame her, she’s been cooped up in a room for years.

We’ve converted one of the guest rooms on the ground floor into a fully equipped medical room for her, so at least we can keep her at home now. We got her an electric wheelchair too, and she’s enjoying being able to move around the house a little.

It took almost two months before we could take her home from our private clinic, and even now she requires round-the-clock care. She’s had to learn how to breathe by herself again, how to speak again, and even how to eat. Watching Elena’s heart break every time her mother struggles to relearn something is tearing me apart.

“I heard her, you know,” Sarah says, and I pause.

She still struggles to move her limbs. In a way, she’s like a baby. Her body is mostly fine now, but she needs to relearn how to do basic tasks and how to get her body to listen to her. Thankfully, the neuromuscular electrical stimulation Elena paid so much for prevented muscle atrophy. There’s no damage to her joints either, thanks to the stretching her nurses did for her twice a day, so she should be able to walk again within a few months.

I sit down on the grass beside her and look up at her.

“I heard Elena when I was in my coma. I had no concept of time, but I heard her cries and her undying belief in my recovery.”

My eyes widen. Sarah surprises me every day. Not only is she recovering far quicker than her doctors expected, but she’s also sharp as hell. I thought her mind would for sure be affected by her coma, but it isn’t.

“I know Elena isn’t at work right now. I know Alaric and Matthew aren’t on a business trip, and I know you’re married to my daughter—not engaged. I know why you married her, and I understand Elena doesn’t want me to find out. In turn, I don’t want her to know that I could hear most of what she told me throughout the years.”