A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 635

At Fairfax's words, Darleen's heart plummeted into her stomach. Her face, already pale and sallow from weeks of malnutrition, drained of whatever color it had left, turning practically translucent.

"Y-you..." Darleen choked out, her voice so thin she could barely hear it herself. She stared at her son in absolute horror. The shock in her eyes fractured into pure terror.

Fairfax slammed the heavy file directly into her chest. "Tell me. Is it true? All those people—you killed them, didn't you?"

He phrased it as a question, but his voice shook with a barely suppressed, explosive rage.

Fairfax had ruled the Yelchin Group with an iron fist for years. He knew he wasn't a saint. He had orchestrated boardroom bloodbaths and crushed competitors without a second thought. But he never preyed on the innocent. He never targeted the weak. His victims were corporate rivals who knew the rules of the game.

He had never, in his darkest nightmares, imagined that his own mother could be so vile.

The file smacked against Darleen's chest, and she fumbled it with violently shaking hands. The pages scattered across the ground. The events detailed inside had happened decades ago, yet the shame and ugliness of her past rushed back to choke her.

She was a mother. No mother ever wanted her darkest, most monstrous secrets exposed to her own child.

"How... how did you..." she whispered.

She wanted to ask how he knew. Staring at the documents littering the ground, her mind spun frantically, trying to figure out why Fairfax had even started digging into ancient history. But the words died in her throat. She couldn't bring herself to ask. Asking *how* he knew was a confession in itself. She didn't want to admit it. She couldn't.

"Why would you do something like this?" Fairfax demanded, his voice cracking with disgust. "I thought you were just vain. I thought you just liked parading around as the great Mrs. Yelchin. I didn't know you were actual poison."

He stepped closer, towering over her. "Did you think you were a god? Did their lives mean nothing to you? Did you crush them like ants just to secure your status?"

Fairfax's eyes blazed with lethal intensity. "You want to know why? I'll tell you why. Because everything happening to you right now is your own damn karma. The chickens are coming home to roost!"

Darleen flinched.

Karma? What did he mean?

Seeing her genuine confusion, Fairfax's voice dropped into a deadly, gravelly register. "You've been screaming about how heartless Starla is. You've been agonizing over why she suddenly refused the divorce, why she locked you in this house just to torture you!"

Darleen's breath caught.

Yes. Why? For weeks, she had been racking her brain. She knew she and Starla had bad blood, but their past clashes were just standard mother-in-law disputes. It wasn't nearly enough to justify this level of calculated, sadistic revenge.