Chapter 81

*A Few Hours Ago*

“I could have stopped her,” Melinda sobbed, dropping her face that was soaked with tears in the palms of her hands. “I could have said something.”

Richard didn’t know what to say.

Sure, he had never been a fan of his stepmother and he hadn’t actually shown her that he cared, ever. But right now, seeing her the way she was, heartbroken and miserable, he couldn’t stop himself from feeling absolutely bad for her. No matter how she was, no matter how she treated him and his father like a bank account all her life, even she did not deserve to lose someone she loved beyond reason.

She did not deserve to lose her only daughter.

He looked down at his hands while from the corner of his eyes, he watched as his father did his best to console his wife. She was a mess. An absolute mess that might take his father a lifetime to collect and put together.

But at least, he was trying.

Richard, on the other hand, felt sick to the stomach, knowing that even at this hour, even at the time