A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 260

His brother’s child was dead. And he and Starla had lost two of their own. What had been a series of separate tragedies had now become a tangled, inextricable mess. Everyone had their own grief, their own fury.

“That vicious woman belongs in prison!” Darleen shrieked through the phone. “I’ve already called the police. I’ll make her pay! Fairfax, if you still have any respect for me as your mother, you will divorce her!”

Fairfax said nothing. His head throbbed.

As Darleen’s demands to imprison Starla echoed in his ear, he found himself turning the car not toward the office, but toward the hospital. Halfway there, however, he seemed to change his mind again, swerving back onto the route to his company headquarters.

As soon as he arrived, Gabriel was at his side, a stack of documents in hand. “Sir, everyone is waiting in the conference room.”

Fairfax shrugged off his jacket and tossed it onto the office sofa. He didn’t head for the meeting.

Instead, he walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, placed his hands on his hips, and stared out at the city in silence.

Gabriel stood a respectful distance behind him, unsure what was going through his boss’s mind, though he had a pretty good idea. It had to be about Starla.

News of the child’s death had reached him as well. For Fairfax, the situation was a nightmare. On one side was the woman he had fought to marry; on the other, the death of his brother’s heir.

“If it were you,” Fairfax said suddenly, his voice low, “what would you do?”

The unexpected question startled Gabriel. “Well… I…”

Gabriel’s words made the air in Fairfax’s lungs feel thick and heavy. Yes, a child was the most important thing to a woman. Hadn’t Starla’s grief over her own lost children driven her to this destructive frenzy?

“Darleen has likely already reported it to the police,” Gabriel added.

Police. The word brought back the image of Starla at Luwood Mountain, defiantly making the call herself. The child had disappeared on her watch, died because of her, and yet she had been the one to call the police. What was he to make of that? Had he truly spoiled her so thoroughly over the past two years that she had become completely lawless?

Fairfax squeezed his eyes shut. “The police… yes, the law…”

She had committed such an act. It was only right that she face the legal consequences.