Free Web NovelChapter 66: Chapter 66 She Can’t Be Gone
Jade’s POV
No.
That was the first thing that slammed into my head when the words left the resort manager’s mouth.
No.
Not disbelief. Not shock.
Just, no.
I stared at him like he had suddenly started speaking a language I didn’t understand, like he’d made some kind of mistake and hadn’t realized it yet.
“That’s not funny,” I said, my voice coming out too sharp, too loud. I could hear it echo in my ears. “You shouldn’t joke about things like that.”
The manager didn’t respond.
He just stood there, hands clasped in front of him, face solemn. Too solemn. Like he was playing a role he had rehearsed.
Something snapped inside my chest.
“You’re lying,” I said, shaking my head. “Something’s wrong. You got the wrong person. My mom is fine.”
Ronan stepped closer. “Jade....”
“No,” I snapped, turning on him. “No. Don’t start. She’s not dead.”
The words felt wrong in my mouth. Ugly. Impossible.
Renzo exchanged a glance with Ryder, and that was when it hit me, harder than anything else.
They believed him.
“You see?” I laughed, a sharp, brittle sound that didn’t even sound like it came from me. “You all look ridiculous. This is some kind of prank, right? Maybe my mother got sick, maybe there was an accident, but dead?” I scoffed. “She wouldn’t just die. She doesn’t get to do that.”
My hands were shaking now. I shoved them into fists, nails biting into my palms.
“I need to go home,” I said abruptly. “Now. There’s been a mistake. I need to see her.”
The manager opened his mouth again, but I cut him off.
“No explanations. I don’t want any explanation. I’m not listening. I want to go home.”
I could feel it then, the way I must have looked. Hair undone by the sea breeze, eyes wild, breath coming too fast. I didn’t care.
I wasn’t wrong.
They were.
The boys didn’t argue. That was the strange part.
Ronan nodded once, jaw tight. “We’ll take you home.”
Within minutes, everything moved too fast and not fast enough all at once. Staff scattered. Phones were brought out. Arrangements made. A private jet prepared like my world hadn’t just tilted off its axis.
As they ushered me toward the car, Ryder gently reached for my arm.
I flinched away. “Don’t touch me. I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
But if I admitted that, even for a second, something awful might become real.
The flight blurred together. I remember the hum of the engines, the pressure in my ears, the way my leg wouldn’t stop bouncing.
“She’s alive,” I muttered, staring at the floor of the jet. “She has to be. She always waits for me in the mornings. She complains when I don’t eat breakfast. She yells when I come home late.”
No one answered. freeweɓnovel.cøm
“I talked to her not long ago,” I insisted, louder now. “She was fine.”
Ryder shifted beside me, his hand hovering like he wanted to reach for me but didn’t dare. “Jade...”
“No,” I said again. “Don’t say it.”
Silence swallowed us.
They didn’t try to convince me. They didn’t tell me I was wrong.
They just stayed.
Ronan sat across from me, elbows on his knees, eyes never leaving my face. Renzo leaned back, fingers clenched so tightly I could see the veins in his hands.
They looked... helpless.
Good.
Because that meant they didn’t know either. That meant there was still room for error.
When the jet landed, my heart started racing again.
See? I told myself. We’re home. Everything will be normal.
Renzo dismissed the driver waiting on the tarmac and slid into the driver’s seat himself. “I’ll drive,” he said, already starting the engine.
The car took off fast, too fast, but I didn’t tell him to slow down. Every second felt stolen.
The Alpha estate came into view, grand and unchanged. Guards stood at their posts. Servants crossed the courtyard, chatting quietly.
Normal.
Relief flooded my chest so hard it almost knocked the air out of me.
I laughed, a real laugh this time. “You see?” I said, twisting in my seat to look at them. “I told you. Everything’s fine.”
No one replied.
The car barely stopped before I jumped out, gown clutched in my hands as I ran.
“Mom!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the servants’ quarters. “Mom!”
Nothing.
I frowned, slowing down. Of course. She wouldn’t be here right now.
She’d be in the kitchen.
“She’s always in the kitchen by this time,” I muttered to myself as I turned the corner. “Always walking around, bossing everyone.”
I burst through the kitchen doors.
The room was busy, but not the right kind of busy.
People moved stiffly. Quietly. No laughter. No shouting. No familiar voice cutting through the air.
My chest tightened.
I grabbed the arm of one of the women who worked with my mother, spinning her around. “Where is she?” I demanded. “Where’s my mom?”
She froze.
Her eyes darted away from mine.
“Answer me!” I shouted.
She pulled her arm free and stepped back, lips trembling, saying nothing.
Something cold slid down my spine.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, turning in a slow circle. “Where is my mother?”
Ronan and Ryder stepped in behind me. “Jade, please...”
I shoved them. Hard. “Don’t. Don’t do this. I need to see her.”
Footsteps sounded behind me.
The head of the kitchen walked forward, her face flat. Empty. Like she was announcing the weather.
“Your mother died this morning,” she said calmly. “She slipped down the stairs while delivering breakfast.”
My world cracked.
“Her body was dumped in the empty barn at the backyard.”
