The Duke's Masked Wife 2: The Prince's Outcast Bride-Chapter 22: Revenge (1)

In the Kennedy home, Warren returned home in time for dinner. He went up to her mother’s room, where she had to be waiting to be carried out while his father did the cooking.

Warren stood by the door, watching as his mother tended to her hair. She had always obsessed over her looks, and despite not leaving their home, his mother always tried to get dressed up.

Warren wondered if in his mother’s little world, she still pretended to be the daughter of a baron. He knew she disliked the little life she had now. She had fallen far from grace, but it wasn’t all her fault.

"Stop staring at me," Kate Kennedy said, noticing her son’s presence in the mirror.

"You are too beautiful for me to look away. No one’s beauty compares to yours. Since I inherited all my looks from you, I had many women approaching me at the ball yesterday. You should have seen it," Warren said as he entered the room.

Kate put down the brush she was using. She couldn’t remember the last time she stepped foot in a ball at the palace. She was so used to them when her mother and father were alive.

"Don’t speak about the ball. You know I don’t want to hear about it. I told you not to attend," said Kate.

"I had fun, mother. I still need to search for a wife-"

"And give her what?" Kate questioned, angry that he continued to mention the ball and marriage.

Kate had the perfect life set up for her. She was the daughter of a baron, her beauty was envied by all her peers, and she had been set up to marry a nobleman, but she lost everything. She had fallen far to be the wife of a man with no title and a son who had nothing aside from the money she had inherited.

"I work," Warren said, tidying the room as he spoke. "Building homes gives me plenty of money, and father mentioned he had been saving to give me something to inherit."

"Tell the women you build houses and they will laugh at you," Kate said, since she would have done it years ago.

During the time she was the most sought-after young lady in Lockwood, Kate would have never batted an eye at any man like her son or husband.

"Stop going to balls looking for a wife. It’s pathetic. No young woman there will want a man like you. You should look around where we are and settle with someone who shares the same status," said Kate.

Warren wanted to ask if his mother had settled, but he did not want to upset her.

"I do not know if father told you, but men from the court came around again. You have to decide what you are going to do with that home."

"Do not speak of it," Kate said, gripping her dress.

The day she left the home belonging to her first husband was the last day she ever wanted to hear about it.

What was she to do with a home belonging to a man who kidnapped women and killed them when they did not please him with their behaviour?

Kate never wanted to hear of that home again.

"Why don’t you just sell it instead of keeping it in your name? You could finally be rid of it," Warren suggested.

Then their family would have the extra money they needed.

Kate picked up the brush and turned to throw it at Warren. Unfortunately, from the force of the way she turned, she slipped from the chair and fell onto the floor.

Kate could not raise her head to look at Warren. She did not want to ask for help, though she desperately needed it.

Instead, Kate tried once more to get her legs to move.

Warren came to his mother’s side to move her, only to be pushed away. "I was only trying to help," he said.

Kate grew angry that she could not feel her legs. She once again had to rely on someone to move her around. First, it had been her late uncle, and now it was her husband along with her son.

She was helpless.

Warren hated seeing his mother be so weak. He wanted to see the woman she spoke of from her past, who ruled her peers.

Warren knelt beside his mother, waiting for her to give in to the fact that she could not move her legs. "You should have just killed her," he said, upset that his mother had not gone all the way to get rid of her sister. "So you wouldn’t have ended up like this, you should have killed her."

"Why does she get to have a happy ending while you are like this?" Warren wondered.

This wasn’t fair.

Why was life so unfair for his mother?

Warren believed his mother had already paid for her past wrongdoings, yet she was still being punished. Why wasn’t it enough that she lost her parents and could no longer walk? Or that she married a man who almost killed her?

"You want to get revenge, don’t you?" Warren asked, knowing his mother still hated the duchess.

Warren had overheard his mother muttering about Alessandra having the life that was meant for her. It was during the moments when his mother would claim there were voices in her head telling her to do things.

Kate remained silent. She wasn’t the same silly little girl to go after a duchess, and what could her son do?

Warren sighed. His mother failed to realise that he would do anything for her.

Warren carefully picked his mother up and said, "Her daughter pushed someone today. Maybe that young woman won’t be able to walk. They’ve gotten away with too much for years, mother. Even if you don’t want revenge, I want it for you. I’ll get it."

Warren already had his plans set in motion to go after the Collinses. One by one, he would pick them off, but he first wanted to start with the duchess.

Kate rested her head against Warren’s shoulder. It was all she could do as he carried her.

Kate got a glimpse of the outside world from the window they passed by. She was curious how the town looked now after all these years, but she did not want to go outside to show the world what she had become.

Lockwood’s memory of her should be the young, beautiful Kate who was adored by many and had wealth at her fingertips. The current Kate wasn’t the woman anyone knew, and she still hated the ones who placed her in this position. freewebnøvel.com