Faux Vows, True Desires

Chapter 354

"Mom, Dad's been poisoned. Kent said he couldn't do anything. Now only you can save him."

Keith knew his mother's aloof demeanor all too well, so he blurted out his words in one breath, not giving her a chance to interrupt him.

Janice's voice remained cold. She retorted, "I'm not a doctor, Keith. There's nothing I can do. I can't save your father."

Before Keith could reply, she continued, "The Blue family has its own hospital, with top-notch doctors from all over the country. What sort of poison could your father possibly have that they can't cure? Is it cyanide?"

"Mom, Dad's been poisoned with an aphrodisiac."

Janice was speechless.

Well, he might be fifty in her eyes and quite the old geezer, but to others, he was the patriarch of the Blue family, well preserved, not old at all but rather mature and stable.

She wondered how many women were vying for a spot in his bed.

And there was Madeleine, eagerly wanting to usurp her position.

She was willing to let them be, but the old man was reluctant to divorce, binding her to him for some reason.

Perhaps he didn't want to divorce her back when she was mentally unstable, considering her only nephew Hayes was the only family she had left. But now that she had regained her sanity and found her daughter, she was capable of taking care of herself.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

With her children by her side, she wouldn't starve even if she left him.

He despised her for her past mental instability and for her aging appearance and had found Madeleine, who was only two years older than their own children. Why was he still holding onto her after two years of mutual resentment?

It would be so much better if they simply parted ways and left each other be.

"Who poisoned your father?" Janice's words were laced with sarcasm, "Your father is the patriarch of the Blue family. His bodyguards are with him every minute of the day, except when he's eating or sleeping. Only someone he deeply trusts could possibly get the better of him. Was it Madeleine who poisoned your father? Perhaps this is a game they're playing. Keith, you should stay out of your father's affairs."

Perhaps Nathan was getting old, unable to satisfy Madeleine, so she gave him something to boost his stamina.

Keith, although an adult and aware of the birds and the bees, found it awkward to discuss these things with his mother. His cheeks were burning red over the phone.

But remembering how his father had coughed up blood and realizing some things he had only recently come to know, he couldn't just stand by and watch as Madeleine compromised his father's health.

Swallowing his embarrassment, he pleaded with his mother over the phone, "Mom, Dad hasn't touched Madeleine all these years. It's because he hasn't touched her that she's become impatient and plotted against him. It isn't the first time, either. Kent said it had happened several times before. Besides her, there are other women who regard Dad as a piece of meat."

Janice paused.

She had assumed that after her mental breakdown, there would be a constant stream of women in Nathan's life.

After all, Nathan had been a womanizer even after their wedding. Despite their happy marriage and his well-known devotion to her, women were still attracted to him like flies to honey.

She had expected that Nathan's life would be inundated with women after her mental breakdown.

Madeleine was only twenty-six and had only recently entered Nathan's life.

Ignoring the young and beautiful Madeleine, Nathan was indeed quite the ascetic.

"Mom, I only found out recently that Dad really hasn't touched Madeleine."

Keith thought that revealing his father's self-restraint towards Madeleine would soften his mother's heart. However, Janice responded, "So what if he hasn't touched her? They're clearly very close, and everyone says Madeleine will replace me. Who would dare to spread rumors about his private life without his consent? Keith, I'm going back to Pinehurst tomorrow morning. I need a good night's sleep, so I'll end the conversation here. Don't worry about your father. Even if he's been poisoned, he won't die. Kent is more than capable. Who knows, he might even be in on it with your father."

He deliberately made her son beg her to save Nathan.

Even if she wasn't planning on divorcing Nathan, she didn't want to be with him again. For twenty years, she had been unable to believe that he had remained faithful to her.

She was mentally unstable when he was not even thirty, at the prime of his life. Could he have abstained for over twenty years?

Suddenly, flashes of memory crossed her mind. Janice paused, unsure whether these fragmented memories were real or just fragments of dreams.

Had Nathan been intimate with her while she was mentally unstable?

Janice had no memory of it, but sometimes vague and ambiguous fragments would surface in her mind.

"Mom!"

Keith's voice was low.

"I'm going to bed now. If Kent doesn't want his boss to die, he better stop lying to me."

With that, Janice hung up the phone.

"Mom, Mom.."

Keith called out twice, but he couldn't prevent his mother from hanging up the phone.

Could it be that Kent was really helping his father deceive him, making him beg his mother to act as an antidote for his father? In that way, the couple would be tied together again, and his mother wouldn't be able to divorce.

And had his father really remained celibate all these years, not touching Madeleine?

If that was the case, why did he do it?

Keith felt that he should have a frank and open conversation with his father.

In the past, he was young.

But now, he was a grown man.

He had found his sister again, and his brother-in-law and the entire Anderson family had stated their support. He was no longer alone, with them as his backup.

If his father had difficulties, he, as a son, should be informed.

After hanging up the phone with her son, Janice lay back in bed, but sleep was far from her mind.

During her days of mental instability, some events she remembered, and some she didn't.

But she knew she was terrified of seeing Nathan and Madeleine together. Madeleine bullied her, so she was afraid.

She feared Nathan because his gaze always seemed like he wanted to devour her, which scared her.

Once she had the opportunity to return to the Blue family, she had to ask Shirley.

Should Keith tell his sister about this?

His sister was the one who stepped in to coax their mother.

"Knock, knock."

The sound of knocking echoed as Kent stood at the office door, asking, "May I come in?"

"Sure, come on in."

Keith, clutching his cell phone, rubbed his temples. After a long day at the office, he returned home late at night only to be met with more drama. He was physically and mentally drained.

"Sir, the boss just coughed up blood again. The cold showers can hardly suppress the love poison in his body. Have you contacted the Madam? What did she say? You need to arrange a flight to

take the boss to the Madam immediately."

Kent looked worried.

Keith stared at Kent, the man who had been his father's confidant and who had watched him grow up.

He remembered that during times when he was at odds with his father, Kent would always urge him to be more understanding. He'd say that his father was under immense pressure as the head of the family. As his father's only son, who would if he couldn't show understanding?