Once Cast-Off Wife Now Untouchable Queen novel Chapter 384

Chapter 384 Grieving Family

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Finished

Raine buried her face against Brad’s chest, her whole body trembling as tears soaked through his shirt. “Brad, I’m terrified!”

In one night, her brother was gone. Her grandfather too. Her parents had nearly followed them out of heartbreak.

Now the entire Winter family had crumbled, and she was the only one left standing.

She tried to hold it together, but the weight on her shoulders felt like stone.

Every breath hurt. Every step forward felt like walking into a storm she couldn’t escape.

Brad held her close, his voice low but steady. “You’re not alone, Raine. I’ll be here even if the world around us starts to collapse. After the funeral, I’m moving into the estate. I’ll go to the office with you every morning. We’ll take care of Mr. Ralph and Virginia together.”

At three in the morning, Brad knocked on Aella’s door.

“Tyrone and Mr. Edwin will be cremated at sunrise. We need to pick a suit for Tyrone. He deserves to look proper one last time.”

An hour later, Aella followed Brad into the home she once shared with Tyrone.

The moment she stepped into the foyer, her eyes fell on the shoe rack. Two pairs of fuzzy pink slippers sat beside Tyrone’s black leather ones, lined up side by side like nothing had changed.

Everything in the living room was still where she had left it.

Her glass sat on the same corner of the coffee table.

Aella stood in the center of the room, her eyes locked on the unopened cake sitting on the table like a ghost of yesterday.

Brad pointed at it, his voice heavy. “I called him last night. He refused to show his face on video. Raine and I got worried, so we left early, bought a cake, and came here. When we arrived, he was already gone.”

Aella didn’t speak. She stared at the cake, her expression blank, her heart a hollow echo.

Tyrone had been four years older.

She was twenty–seven. He had just turned thirty–one.

Chapter 384 Grieving Family

At her birthday party, she’d said twenty–seven would be her new beginning.

She never imagined it would also mark his end.

They stepped into the main bedroom.

Finishad

Everything looked untouched, but the air carried a thick, metallic scent that burned her nose.

Aella froze. Brad stood near the doorway of the closet, his tone rough. “That’s where it happened. No one’s cleaned it since. It all happened so fast.”

Aella walked inside, her heels clicking softly against the floor. When the light hit, the stains came into view–dark red and dry.

Near the marks lay a small bottle and a handful of scattered pills.

She bent down, picked it up, and read the label.

Oxycodone.

A strong painkiller.

Her fingers clenched around the bottle until her knuckles turned white. She looked at the floor again, but her mind had gone blank.

Brad called her name a few times before she finally heard him.

Her body shook.

As she turned, her elbow knocked against a box on the table. It hit the floor with a dull sound.

Brad stooped to pick it up, his voice soft but strained.

“He started buying you these months ago. I told him you wouldn’t want them, but he wouldn’t stop. He said he needed to do it anyway.”

He hesitated, then went on. “After the divorce, Tyrone tried to change. He really did. He wanted to live for his family. But guilt doesn’t let go. It eats you from the inside. In the end, it broke

him.”

Brad’s eyes dimmed. “When they found him, he was still holding the crystal pendant you gave him. It was shattered, but he never let go.”

Everyone had their own way of loving.

Edwin had been harsh, controlling, cruel even. He wanted Tyrone to be perfect, to bend under

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Chapter 384 Grieving Family

his will.

But when Tyrone died, Edwin followed. Grief had taken him too.

Love could be a strange thing.

Tyrone had hurt Aella, but he had loved her in silence.

Even stillness could be a form of devotion.

He had broken her heart, yet his love had stayed–quiet, stubborn, unending.

Aella said nothing. She opened the wardrobe and picked out a dark suit, her movements careful and slow.

Her back was turned to Brad.

Yes, she knew her distance right now made her look heartless. Cruel, even.

But she wasn’t always like this.

She and Tyrone were both Scorpios.

And both of them shared a fatal flaw.

Love and hatred always flowed deeply in their veins.

She brushed off the lint, adjusted the collar, and folded it neatly.

Finished

Brad spoke softly. “You don’t have to forgive him. That’s your right. No one gets to judge you for that. Don’t carry any guilt.”

Aella nodded once. Her eyes were flat, unreadable.

They returned to the estate. No one slept.

The house was wrapped in silence, waiting for morning. Waiting for the ceremony.

Brad broke it quietly. “When they take the body out, his face will look different. Virginia won’t be able to stand it. Try to talk her out of going.”

Aella’s tone was even. “I won’t go either. I’ll stay with her. Call me after the cremation. I’ll take her to the cemetery.”