One Night With A Mysterious Billionaire (The Heiress's Revenge)-Chapter 72: yet you wonder why I don’t respect you

Gerald had already shifted back in his chair, his eyes wide with shock and horror.

Lucas, on the other hand, was practically shaki

"And yet," Raymond said bitterly, "you wonder why I lack respect for you."

He stepped closer to his father.

"If you were me... would you respect you?"

Gerald could not answer.

"A man as filthy as you does not deserve my respect in this lifetime or the next."

Raymond then bent down slightly and whispered something into Gerald’s ear that no one else in the room could hear.

Whatever it was, it clearly rattled him.

Gerald’s face turned even paler than before.

"That’s enough, Raymond."

Grandpa Black’s voice cut sharply through the room.

"That is in the past now," he declared firmly.

"Everything that happened was a terrible mistake that I would prefer to remain in the past."

His gaze moved across the room.

"No one in this family is allowed to bring it up again."

His eyes finally settled on Raymond.

"Have I made myself clear?"

Raymond said nothing for a moment before nodding slightly and returning to his seat.

Grandpa Black leaned back in his chair.

"I do not want what happened today to repeat itself," he continued. "The Black family has a name and prestige to maintain. We cannot allow outsiders to look down on us."

His voice carried the authority of decades.

"And another thing... when a house is divided, the company will shake. Shareholders do not like instability among the people who run a business." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

He paused briefly.

"The Black Company has been in this family for generations. It has maintained its position as one of the top companies in this country for years. Sometimes not always number one, but always within the first ten best companies within the country."

His gaze hardened.

"That will not change during our generation."

He tapped the desk lightly.

"So pull yourselves together and stop fighting like children."

The room fell silent.

"Raymond," Grandpa Black said finally. "I do not want what happened today to happen again. Reinstate your brother’s position."

He looked directly at Raymond.

Raymond held his gaze for a few seconds before giving a slow nod.

"Good."

Grandpa Black waved a hand dismissively.

"That will be all. Gerald, Lucas, you may leave."

Then he added calmly,

"I want to speak with Raymond alone."

Both men nodded stiffly and stood up.

They walked toward the door, though Gerald could not help glancing back at his father suspiciously before leaving the room.

Looking at my grandson brought a little joy to my heart. The boy had been hurting since birth. My useless son had never been much of a father. I had practically raised Raymond myself because his father was rarely around.

I still remember those days clearly. Gerald and I had gotten into numerous arguments over the way he treated Raymond. I had scolded him more times than I could count, warning him that a child needed a father’s love, not cold indifference. But Gerald refused to change. He always brushed me off like my words meant nothing.

Not long after, Lucas’ mother came to inform me that she was pregnant. That memory still sat heavily in my chest. But the night everything changed... I remembered it like it was yesterday.

Gerald’s voice on the phone had been shaky and coaxing, almost panicked. He told me to hurry to the family mansion.

His wife, Raymond’s mother, had passed away.

For a moment, my brain simply short-circuited. I had seen her only days before and she had been perfectly fine, laughing and walking around the house as she always did.

"She fell down the stairs and hit her head on the tiles," Gerald had said hurriedly over the phone. "It was a mistake. I didn’t mean for it to happen."

His sobs broke through the line.

"It’s okay. I will be there soon," I told him, trying to calm his nerves despite the confusion flooding my mind.

I grabbed my coat and hurried out of the house.

It was as if the heavens themselves knew something was terribly wrong. A heavy rainfall poured from the sky, accompanied by flashes of lightning that illuminated the dark road. My driver sped through the rain as we made our way to the mansion.

But nothing could have prepared me for the scene that welcomed me.

Raymond was on his knees, crying bitterly in the middle of the hall. In front of him lay a bloodied woman.

As I stepped closer, my heart nearly stopped.

It was Lilith... my son’s wife.

Shock coursed through my veins.

"What happened to her?" I asked, a chill running down my body as my eyes darted around the room.

"She fell," I heard my son say behind me.

"No, you pushed her!"

Little Raymond suddenly turned, pointing a trembling finger at his father.

"You pushed her and she slipped and fell down the steps!"

My eyes moved between the two of them and then down to Lilith’s lifeless body on the floor. My mind struggled to understand the situation unfolding before me.

"Like I said, it was a mistake, you little shit!" Gerald suddenly screamed like a madman. "She slipped! What is it that you do not understand?"

But his shouting did not deter the child.

Raymond stood there, small but fearless, glaring at his father with a hatred that no child should ever possess.

I tried to diffuse the situation calmly, but it only escalated.

"Oh yeah?" Raymond said coldly. "Why don’t you go stand at the steps too and let me push you? Who knows, you might actually survive. But if you don’t, I would call it a mistake and tell everyone you slipped."

A chill ran down my spine.

In that moment, I realized something terrifying.

My little grandson had changed.

"That is enough! Both of you!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the hall.

"I do not want to ever hear either of you speak about what happened today again."

I turned to Raymond first.

"Raymond, your mother’s death was a mistake. She slipped."

Then I looked at my son.

"And Gerald, be a better father. Try to understand Raymond instead of fighting with him like a child."

Gerald merely rolled his eyes and turned his back on us.

I nearly lost control of my anger.

But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

"I don’t want him as my father."

Raymond’s voice rang through the room like thunder.

"From today, he is dead to me. He is Gerald to me, just like he is to everyone else."

My heart dropped.

"Consider me dead too," Raymond continued coldly. "Because I will never acknowledge you as my father again."

His small fists clenched tightly.

"And I don’t want to ever see you in this house again. If I do... I will stab you to death in your sleep. And any woman you bring home with you."

The words came out of the mouth of a child, yet they carried the weight of something far darker.

Then Raymond turned away and knelt once more beside his mother’s body.

"Raymond, don’t say things you don’t mean," I said, exhausted by everything happening around me. "Gerald will always be your father."

But even as I spoke those words, I looked between my incompetent son and my broken grandson and knew the road ahead would be long and painful.

I sighed deeply when I saw neither of them was listening.

In the end, I had no choice.

I called in a favor from Damon’s grandfather, who was a good friend of mine at the time. An ambulance arrived quietly and took Lilith’s body away to the mortuary. A cleaning company followed soon after and cleaned the entire house, erasing every trace of what had happened that night.

But one thing stayed with me.

Raymond never cried again.

He lived in that enormous mansion alone, like a ghost wandering through empty halls. Years passed before Liam eventually came along to keep him company.

Even then, Raymond rarely visited me. He only came to dinner when I personally called and invited him.

I sighed as I returned to the present.

I had done everything I could to protect him, to make sure he was okay.

But it seemed I had done a very poor job.

I knew about Raymond’s darker side, the way he treated those who went against him. Still, I had hoped that somewhere deep inside, he had forgiven his father... or at least learned to tolerate him.

Perhaps there was still one thing I could do before the end.

"Raymond," I said slowly, "I asked you to stay back because I decided that I would let you marry Lena if she is truly the one you wish to marry."

I said it with a smile, hoping to see some happiness on his face.

But there was nothing.

Instead, I noticed his jaw tighten.

Something was wrong.

"What is it, grandson?" I asked gently. "Is something wrong?"

"No, grandfather. Everything is fine."

He paused.

"Lena and I broke up."

He stood up as he said it.

My eyes searched his face, trying to read what he was hiding. But Raymond simply walked over to me calmly.

"Grandfather, if that is all, I will get going," he said.

Then he added quietly,

"Don’t forget to take your medication."

And with that, he left.

I sat there in stunned silence.

For the first time in years...

I had seen pain in my grandson’s eyes.