Chapter 134

Margaret Hamilton trembled as she clutched Grandma Hamilton’s frail hand, leaning closer to the elderly woman’s cracked lips. "Mom, what do you want to say?"

The old woman’s throat emitted a hoarse, rattling breath. Her clouded eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, her wrinkled fingers clawing weakly at the air.

"Annabelle, shut up!" Margaret turned with tear-streaked fury. "These are her last words!"

But Annabelle Taylor was beyond reason. Even as Alexander Hamilton restrained her, she thrashed like a wild thing. "Evelyn Carter, you bitch! So what if the old hag favored you on her deathbed? Alexander loves me! Always has, always will!"

The heart monitor shrieked a single, unbroken tone.

The green line that had pulsed with life moments ago flattened into a cold, unfeeling straight line.

Margaret collapsed onto the hospital bed, her wail of grief tearing through the room. "Mom—!"

Grandma Hamilton’s eyes stayed open, her lips still parted as if mid-sentence—but no sound would ever come again.

Annabelle froze. She stared at the flatlining monitor for a beat before letting out a derisive laugh. "That’s it? She’s dead? How anticlimactic."

Alexander released his grip on her and staggered to his knees beside the bed. His bloodshot eyes locked onto Evelyn’s, his throat working as if swallowing glass.

"I’ll get the doctor." Evelyn turned away, her voice unsteady.

Margaret grabbed her sleeve like a lost child. "Evelyn, she—"

"I know." Evelyn gently squeezed her hand. "But we still need the doctor."

As she moved to leave, Annabelle flung out her arms, blocking the doorway. "Running away?"

Crack!

A sharp slap echoed through the room.

Annabelle stumbled back, clutching her cheek with a shriek. "Alexander! You’re just going to let her hit me?!"

Still kneeling, Alexander pressed his forehead against the edge of the bed. Margaret’s fists rained down on his back as she sobbed, "This is all your fault! You brought this monster into our home!"

"Alexander!" Annabelle screamed, hysterical.

Slowly, he lifted his head. His eyes were blood-red. "I’m not deaf."

"What?"

"I was blind." His voice was raw, barely human. "To have loved you for so many years."

The room plunged into suffocating silence.

Only the heart monitor’s relentless drone remained—a dull blade sawing through every frayed nerve.