Chapter 513

Maurice doted on Teresa like she was his little princess. Looking down into her big, doe eyes, he asked with a wry smile, “Sweetie, if I put you down, will you come home with me?”

Teresa pouted adorably, her eyes twinkling like grapes in a vineyard, and nodded her head with an irresistible cuteness. “Of course! Daddy, if you put me down, I’ll go home with you.”

Maurice was a goner when it came to Teresa’s charms. As he reluctantly set her down, he never expected the little rascal to make a break for it, darting into the wall of bodyguards and sticking her tongue out at him.

“Daddy, if you want to take Mommy away, then go ahead, but I’m not moving! Bye-bye, Daddy!”

She waved at him mockingly, then turned tail and disappeared faster than a rabbit down its hole.

That little trickster!

Maurice had planned to use Teresa as leverage to bring Marguerite back home, but the tables had turned. Teresa had played him like a fiddle, and he’d fallen for it.

His handsome face clouded over, his aura darkening as he glared at the human barricade set up by Frederick. He knew breaking through was a lost cause.

“I don’t want to repeat myself,” he said with a tone that brooked no argument.

Turning to Marguerite, he exuded an air of command that seemed to weigh down the atmosphere. “Get in the car.”

Marguerite stood her ground, unflinching.

“Do you expect me to leave Teresa here at the hospital all alone?”

“Marguerite Lockwood!” Maurice snapped, his voice rising sharply in warning. “No man can tolerate the humiliation of being cuckolded. My patience has limits, and I hope you don’t test them!”

However, Marguerite remained cool as a cucumber, her gaze meeting his steadily. “You’re overthinking it. Even if I wanted to make you a laughing stock, it would have to be consensual between me and the other man. And since he despises me so, I’m not comfortable leaving Teresa alone here.”

She lied to Maurice with that last remark. She wasn’t worried Frederick would harm Teresa; she just wanted an excuse to stay at the hospital.

Yet, she couldn’t deny feeling a pang of loss. Nothing hurt more than facing the raw wounds over and over again.

Frederick’s feelings for her were nothing but hatred, a constant reminder that she didn’t even have the luxury of self-deception.

“Maurice, it’s over between Frederick and me.”

Ever since Frederick had said that his love had worn away, she had made up her mind.

Any further entanglement would only fuel Frederick’s disdain.

After all, the intensity of his love in the past was now matched by the depth of his hatred.

Hatred was born from love; if she eroded that too, she and Frederick would truly become the complete strangers.

She needed to let go of Frederick, and herself. Maintaining the status quo was the best course of action.

Maurice closed the distance, looking down at Marguerite as if from a great height, asking, “Is that really what you think?”

She nodded firmly. “Yes. Since it’s over, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Maurice clenched his jaw, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

He couldn’t tell if Marguerite was just placating him or if she meant it. But Hayes was Marguerite’s flesh and blood, and even if he loathed admitting it, Maurice couldn’t deny her the right to care for her own son.

Maurice’s affections for Marguerite were always steeped in love, a feeling that frequently resulted in his submission to her. This occasion proved to be no different.

He glared at her fiercely, his gaze threatening as he warned, “You’d better be telling the truth, because if I find out otherwise, you know the consequences will be severe!”