Jacob felt utterly humiliated by Eddy’s disregard, his anger boiling over. “You think just because you’re my son, you can do whatever you want in my house?”
He stormed forward, kicking the tulips out of Eddy’s hands. “Pathetic! If your grandfather could see you groveling like this over a woman, he’d roll over in his grave!”
“Get out! Now!”
Tulip petals scattered across the ground. Eddy’s head snapped up, and before Jacob could react, Eddy’s fist crashed into his face, sending him sprawling into the muddy earth.
“You little-
Jacob didn’t get another word out. Eddy pinned his face into the mud, grinding his heel into Jacob’s leg with calculated malice.
Jacob’s scream tore through the air.
Serena, wide–eyed in terror, rushed forward. “Let him go! Eddy, stop–please, stop!”
Eddy barely glanced at her. With steely detachment, he pressed his foot down on Jacob’s hand, increasing the pressure little by little.
“Are you all just going to stand there?” Serena shrieked at the family’s security detail. “Get him off! Now!”
But before any of them could move, Eddy’s own bodyguards took them down in a matter of seconds. Serena’s men didn’t stand a chance.
“Eddy, he’s your father!” Serena cried, her voice cracking with panic. “Are you really going to kill your own father over these stupid flowers?”
Jacob thrashed desperately, but Eddy’s hand held his head firm in the dirt. The harder Jacob struggled, the more his limbs faltered, until his frantic movements
faded into stillness.
Serena met Eddy’s bloodshot eyes–eyes that seemed to hold nothing but the reflection of ruined flowers. There was no emotion, only a cold, dead calm, as if she were staring at a living corpse.
When Jacob stopped moving. Serena screamed, her voice raw with fear. “I’ll fix it- fix the garden, just please, let him go! Let my husband go, Eddy!”
In her frantic desperation, she lunged into the flowerbed, her long nails raking through the tulip petals, tearing them even more. That one careless motion made. Eddy snap.
He flung Jacob aside as if discarding trash, sending him crashing into Serena. Instantly, Eddy dropped to his knees, cradling the damaged flowers with trembling hands, as if nothing else in the world mattered.
Serena and Jacob collapsed together in the mud. She clung to her husband, trembling. “Don’t fight him anymore,” she whispered, pleading. “If he wants these damn flowers, let him have them.”
But Jacob, battered pride burning hotter than pain, shoved Serena off and scrambled toward the bulldozer. He fired up the engine, swinging the machine’s bucket around–aiming it straight at Eddy’s head.
A deafening clang rang out.
Tulips exploded from Eddy’s hands, their petals splashed with blood as they fell to the earth.
Across town, “Maam, you really shouldn’t be on your feet so much. Let me help.” Caleb, Blanche’s assistant, gently took the watering can from her hands and began watering the lush tulips that filled the courtyard.
Blanche, her belly swollen five months with pregnancy, rested her hand on her back and smiled at the sea of blossoms.
“Did you hear about that family in Novandria?” Caleb chatted as he worked. “Some rich guy got into a fight over tulips–ended up at the police station. Someone even cracked their skull trying to protect the flowers.”
Blanche stroked her belly, her eyes soft. “After this, come shopping with me for baby clothes, will you?”
“Pink or blue?” Caleb grinned.
“Pink.”
At Simmons Manor, the pink tulips were in full bloom. Loraine watched Eddy, whose head was wrapped in fresh bandages. He spent every day digging in the flowerbeds, his hands caked with dirt, never saying a word. She sighed deeply, her heart heavy.
Sometimes she wondered if it wouldn’t have been better if the accident had left him with amnesia–at least then, he wouldn’t be tearing himself apart like this.
21:52
Chapter 177
A bodyguard entered quietly. “Ma’am, there’s movement from Fernando. He’s taken his son Terrell and gone to the military airfield.”
“Shh. Don’t tell him,” Loraine said quickly, stopping the guard with a raised hand.
Eddy’s once unfathomable gaze was now calm, almost eerily so.
He tended the tulips with painstaking care, replanting each one until their roots were firm and the garden was whole again. Watching the flowers thrive, he almost felt his own heart begin to mend.
If only his wife came home and saw how well he’d cared for her beloved flowers. She’d smile, throw her arms around him, maybe scold him playfully and press a kiss to his cheek.
But the daydream flickered out as quickly as it came. The trowel slipped from Eddy’s hand. He stood and strode out of Simmons Manor, climbing into the back of a Rolls–Royce.
The head of his security team handed him a folder. “In the past few months, Fernando has taken his son on three trips. Each time, the plane disappears over the Pacific, only to reappear near Seabreeze City two hours later. It’s suspicious.”
Today makes the fourth trip–same plane, same route.”
“This time, Fernando brought a lot of baby supplies.”
Eddy’s mind snapped into focus. Fernando must have hidden his wife!
The signal had vanished at the airfield, and at that exact moment, Terrell had put on the Ocean Jewel. Eddy remembered how Fernando had stopped him from checking the surveillance footage, how he’d chased after the departing plane.
His dark eyes grew hard and dangerous, his voice frigid. “Bring him in. Now.”
