Chapter 2
I did not scream at her, nor did I allow myself to cry in front of those cold people. I did not throw the metal bowl at Mildred, even though a part of me desperately wanted to destroy her fancy dinner.
I simply looked down at my sweet son and kept my voice soft. “Let us go home, sweetheart,” I whispered softly.
Spencer walked right behind us without saying goodbye to a single person in that room. The marble hallway amplified our heavy footsteps as loud murmurs began spreading through the dining room behind us.
Walter shouted Mildred’s name in anger, someone accidentally dropped a glass onto the floor, and one of the kitchen staff crossed herself in shock when she saw us leaving. In the car, Liam remained completely silent throughout the entire drive.
He pressed his small face against the cold window, his eyes open wide as he tried to swallow his tears as if crying were somehow his fault. Spencer drove through the quiet streets with his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned ghostly white.
When we finally got home, I gently helped Liam take off his small suit jacket. He sat quietly on the edge of his bed, hugging his silver tie against his chest.
“I am so sorry, Mom,” he whispered in a trembling voice.
I felt something deep inside my heart break into a thousand pieces. “You never have to apologize for anything, my sweet boy,” I assured him gently.
That was the moment he finally let go and cried uncontrollably. He cried with a deep, crushing sadness that should never have existed in the heart of an eight year old child.
I held him close in my arms until he finally fell fast asleep, his young face still wet with tears and one hand clutching my shirt tightly. When I quietly left his room, I found Spencer standing in the dark living room, talking on his phone in a low but firm tone.
“Mom, today you crossed a line that there is no coming back from,” Spencer said into the receiver.
On the other end, Mildred seemed to say something in an annoyed tone. Spencer closed his eyes and shook his head in absolute disgust.
“No, it was not a harmless joke,” Spencer continued sternly. “You intentionally humiliated my innocent son, and if being your son means I have to allow you to abuse my family, then from today on, you can no longer count on me.”
There was a long silence on the line as Mildred tried to interrupt him. “Tomorrow morning, I am officially submitting my resignation from Crestline Capital Group,” Spencer stated flatly before she could finish.
I froze near the hallway door, stunned by his words. Spencer hung up the phone and turned around to look at me with complete determination.
“I will not spend another day building the empire of a cruel woman who treated my son as if he were completely worthless,” he said softly, walking over to wrap his arms around me.
Neither of us slept much during the remainder of that dark night. Spencer immediately called two trusted executives from his senior corporate team, then contacted three major investment clients, and finally spent an hour talking to a prominent lawyer.
I stayed in the kitchen, brewing cup after cup of strong hot coffee for us. I honestly thought some of his colleagues would try to calm him down and urge him to reconsider his drastic decision.
However, none of them suggested he stay with his mother’s firm. Most of them had been secretly suffering under Mildred’s toxic arrogance for many years.
“If you are leaving that company, Spencer, then I am turning in my notice and leaving with you tomorrow morning,” Landon, his loyal sales manager, declared over the phone without hesitation.
“Your top clients do not do business with Crestline Capital Group, they do business with you directly,” Samantha, a brilliant young director whom Mildred had repeatedly passed over for promotions, assured him firmly. “We are all behind you.”
By the time the sun began to rise over the city, Spencer was no longer standing alone. The next morning, the shocking news spread through the corporate headquarters like wildfire.
The respected commercial director was abruptly resigning from his post. To make matters worse for the firm, several top brokers were leaving alongside him.
Two major commercial clients immediately requested contract reviews, while several other investors suspended ongoing negotiations until further notice. What Mildred had assumed would be nothing more than a temporary family tantrum was rapidly turning into a devastating public disaster for her entire enterprise.
Three days later, Mildred suddenly showed up outside my bakery. She arrived without her usual private driver, parked her luxury car poorly on the curb, and stepped out wearing oversized sunglasses over her smeared makeup.
It was seven in the morning, and there was already a long line of eager customers waiting outside to buy fresh sweet bread and fruit pastries. She marched straight into the shop as if she owned the entire building.
“You caused all of this,” she screamed dramatically in front of everyone present. “You poisoned my son’s mind against his own family!”
The waiting customers turned around to stare at her in shock while my baking staff stopped moving their trays. “No, Mildred,” I replied calmly, wiping my hands on my white apron. “You brought this entirely upon yourself through your own cruelty.”
Her face twisted with pure rage as she took a step closer to the counter. “Spencer is destroying generations of family wealth and legacy all because of a common woman like you,” she spat bitterly.
Right at that moment, Liam quietly walked out from the kitchen doorway holding a tray. He had a small smudge of white flour on his left cheek and visible fear in his young eyes.
Mildred turned her head and saw him standing there. For a brief second, I foolishly thought she might display a moment of shame or regret for her actions.
Instead, she merely clutched her expensive leather purse tighter against her designer coat. “All of this foolishness over a child who does not even understand his proper place in the world,” she scoffed loudly.
Spencer walked through the front door right behind her, having just parked his car outside. I do not know how much of her rant he had overheard, but his face looked like that of a man who had officially severed his last remaining emotional bond.
“Yes, he does understand his place, Mom,” Spencer said, his voice echoing clearly through the quiet bakery. “He understands perfectly who truly loves him and who exists only to hurt him.”
Mildred tried to say something to defend herself, but Spencer calmly raised his hand to cut her off completely. “Get out of this shop immediately,” Spencer ordered coldly. “And do not ever attempt to come near my wife or my son ever again.”
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She turned around and walked out of the store trembling with anger, followed by the intense, judgmental stares of all my regular customers. What none of us realized at that precise moment was that earlier that morning, a prominent financial reporter had received a massive anonymous dossier containing damaging records about Mildred’s hidden corporate dealings.
When those shocking documents were finally published, the entire family would be forced to face the darkest truth imaginable.
