Chapter 5 - The Billionaire Matriarch
The warm, bright ballroom lighting suddenly felt incredibly cold and unforgiving.
Callum’s jaw literally unhinged. He physically staggered backward, his dark suit wrinkling as his knees buckled. He looked at the silver-haired woman in the worn gray cardigan, pure, unadulterated terror violently hijacking his mind.
"Grandma?" Callum choked out, his voice dropping to a breathless, terrified whisper.
Avalene stopped screaming. She looked at her husband, sheer confusion washing over her flawless face. "Grandma? What are you talking about, Callum? Your grandmother is locked away in some cheap nursing home in Florida!"
To understand the absolute, bone-chilling horror currently paralyzing the groom, one had to look at his massive corporate wealth. Callum didn't build the Sterling family empire. He was just a spoiled heir. The true architect of the multi-billion-dollar dynasty, the sole majority shareholder, and the absolute dictator of the family trust fund was Rowena Sterling.
Rowena wasn't in a nursing home. She had spent the last two years running the empire from the shadows, actively testing her grandsons to see who was worthy of taking over the company.
Callum had explicitly lied to Avalene, telling her his grandmother was senile and irrelevant, purely because he didn't want his superficial, gold-digging bride to accidentally offend the billionaire matriarch before the wedding.
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"You told her I was in a nursing home?" Rowena whispered coldly, her silver eyes locking onto Callum with lethal danger.
👉 Avalene completely failed to read the room, making a fatal mistake that would permanently destroy her life.
