The Paper Wife’s Empire novel Chapter 322

With Benedict gone, rumors about the Covington heiress had circulated, but she had never made a grand public appearance. She had, however, attended several events, but no one in the Holt family would have paid any attention. Why would they ever connect a remote business titan with a seemingly ordinary orphan like Ramona?

Jotham stared at the familiar figure on the screen, his world spinning. He felt a white-hot rage building inside him, so intense he thought his eyes might burst. A flood of memories from the past few months washed over him. Ramona moving out of their home without a word… was that when she had claimed her identity as the Covington heiress?

She had constantly accused him of betraying her, preaching from her moral high ground about how he had squandered her love and devotion. But in the end, wasn’t she the one who had been deceiving him all along? She had inherited a fortune and never once said a word about it.

“Ramona! How could you be so cruel?”

A searing pain tore through him, as if his organs were being ripped apart. His brow furrowed, and the unshed tears in his eyes seemed to turn to blood. She had let him drown in guilt, made him willing to defy his own family and break his promise to Brianna, all for a woman who was the most heartless of them all.

If she had ever truly loved him, how could she have hidden her identity? While he was sick with longing and consumed by regret, she was systematically destroying him and his family before turning around and marrying another man.

Only now did Jotham see how utterly laughable he had been. Ramona had never loved him. Hadn’t she been using him, too? Using him, deceiving him, and taking her revenge. She was the one without a heart!

“Ramona,” he hissed, his knuckles white as he nearly crushed the phone in his hand.

Winnie’s heart ached for her son. Tears welled in her eyes, but she forced them back. “Now you know. None of this was your fault. Ramona is the Covington heiress. She was just playing a game of cat and mouse with us. No matter what you did, the Holt family was doomed from the start.”

Discovering Ramona’s true identity had, strangely, brought Winnie a sliver of peace. The disaster that had befallen their family was inescapable.

Brianna had been a curse, but Ramona was their reckoning. Liliane was gone, too old and tired to support the family any longer. With Griffin still needing care, Winnie couldn’t let Jotham fall apart completely.

Jotham listened to his mother’s words in silence. Without a word, he knelt again before Liliane, pressing his forehead to the cold floor in a final, silent farewell.

After that, no matter what Winnie said, he refused to get up, remaining motionless and silent.

Eulalia even wanted to ask Flynn if the things she’d said to Ramona were truly awful. If he were in Ramona’s shoes, would he hate her enough to want her dead? But she didn’t dare ask, afraid the answer would keep her up at night.

“It’s the truth,” Flynn insisted. “Haven’t you heard? Ramona's husband is the president of the Jordon Group. Either one of them could crush the Holt family with a flick of their wrist.”

He made a pinching motion with his fingers, looking utterly defeated.

“We’re like ants to them. Have you ever seen an ant win a fight against a boot? I swear, your entire family, from the old to the young, is completely delusional!”

Normally, such a comment would have earned Flynn a slap across the face, but Eulalia felt adrift and scared, so she said nothing.

Flynn, for his part, was filled with regret. He had long suspected Ramona was no ordinary woman—her looks, her talent, her aura all screamed high society. If it hadn’t been for Eulalia’s meddling, he might have at least maintained a decent relationship with her.