Chapter 8: Cruelty in Silence
The heavy front door creaked open, echoing through the empty halls of the Sterling estate.
Leon had just returned home after a long business trip abroad, the dust of travel still clinging to the dark charcoal folds of his heavy coat. The cold air from the central system seeped into his clothes, but it did nothing to cool the uneasy tension that had coiled deep inside him throughout the fourteen-hour flight.
Housekeeper Klair appeared from the hallway, her expression hesitant and unreadable.
— “Mr. Leon… there's something I must inform you of. It’s… extremely important.”
Leon stopped walking, his brows drawing together.
— “What is it, Klair?”
She smoothed the edge of her apron, her voice slow, as though bracing for impact.
— “Miss Anna’s mother… passed away last week. On the day you boarded your plane, to be exact.”
Leon froze. It felt like his chest had been sucker-punched, all the air forced out in one painful blow. His eyes widened, but no words came. Not because he didn’t believe it — but because he didn’t know how to respond.
— “Why wasn’t I informed?”
Klair looked at him, her aged eyes heavy with sorrow.
— “I did try to reach your assistant… but was told not to disturb your urgent business matters. I’m… terribly sorry. I also overheard… Miss Anna pleading to attend the funeral. But… due to the terms of her contract, no one allowed her to leave the estate.”
— “I never gave such an order!” Leon's voice cracked like a whip, sharp and furious.
But Klair merely lowered her head in silence and fear.
Without another word, Leon turned and strode through the sun-drenched hallway. The afternoon light filtered in through glass windows, painting faded streaks across the floor like dried blood from a dying memory. His footsteps echoed through the silence — a solemn knocking against the door of fate.
He paused before Anna’s room.
Inside, silence held its breath.
When he knocked and stepped in, the first thing he saw was her — sitting motionless by the window. The sheer curtain fluttered faintly, sunlight glazing her pale blonde hair in a translucent gold — as if she, too, was slowly fading from the world.
Anna turned.
That look.
Leon froze, his heart lurching violently in his chest.
There was no rage.
No tears.
Only a void — so vast and bitter it felt as though her eyes had stared straight into hell and returned without a soul.
— “My mother died. And I never got to see her one last time.” Anna spoke, her voice steady, but every word fell like a blade carving through him.
— “I begged them. I pleaded. But they said… you didn’t allow it. Leon Sterling, you’re cruel beyond words…”
— “Anna… I was away. I didn’t know. No one told me— I swear—”
— “Don’t you dare swear anything.” she cut him off, letting out a hollow, lifeless laugh. Her eyes were red, but not a single tear fell.
She broke down. The storm she had held in cracked open:
— “You think I still believe you? A man who hides behind wealth and convenience, who silences others with money… What would you know about grief? You’ll never understand what it feels like to lose your mother — or the helpless agony of not being able to say goodbye.”
Leon took a step closer, desperation trembling in his voice.
— “If I had known— I would never have let—”
— “Never?” Anna stood up, eyes ablaze. “Don’t feed me that word, ‘never’, when in your eyes I’m nothing more than a walking womb. A surrogate. A vessel. That’s all I ever was to you, wasn’t I?”
— “Anna, please… I’m sorry…”
— “Sorry?” she scoffed, shaking her head. “I waited, Leon. I waited for a call, a message, a single damn word from you. But all I got was silence. Your housekeeper was cold. Your assistant treated me like I was some burdensome woman disrupting your glorious career.”
She cradled her belly with both hands, trembling slightly.
— “Even though I know this child came from a contract, I refuse to let it grow up believing its father is a man as heartless, selfish, and emotionally bankrupt as you. I'd rather this baby never know who you are… than grow up knowing the monster I’ve come to see. I hate you, Leon. I curse you.”
Each word was a needle plunged straight into Leon’s heart.
He reached out instinctively, hand shaking, wanting to touch her — to hold her — but Anna stepped back.
— “Don’t touch me.”
Her voice was barely audible. But cold. So cold, it could have frozen fire.
Leon stood there, paralyzed. Speechless.
The setting sun bled across the room in amber streaks, a withering light soaked in the color of dried wounds. And in that moment, between two people once connected by desire, by a contract, by life itself — there now stood an abyss no bridge could cross.
It wasn’t a gap of distance.
It was the chasm of trust — shattered, irreparable.
Behind the composed façade Leon Sterling had worn for years, now trembled a man drowning in chaos.
When the door shut behind him, it felt like the sound was swallowed by silence. He stood frozen, arms limp at his sides, heart hammering out a frantic rhythm — each beat a blow of guilt and grief.
Anna — now a living indictment of his indifference — had lost her chance to say goodbye to her mother.
And him — directly or indirectly, cruelly or carelessly — had been the reason.
His heart clawed at his ribcage, a wild animal desperate to escape. Each step down the hallway landed like thunder, as though he were trying to outrun the weight of his own conscience. In his mind, her voice rang out, over and over:
“I hate you. I curse you.”
His hand slammed against the cold wall, the sharp echo cracking through the air — yet it paled in comparison to the scream echoing inside him.
Leon shut his eyes, leaning against the wall, his tall frame trembling with a storm of fury and shame.
He never wanted to hurt her like this. Never imagined things could spiral so far out of control.
But now…
Was there anything left he could want — that he could still save?