Cold Husband Burning Regret: The Divorce He Couldn't Handle novel Chapter 281

Daphne’s smile stiffened as she set the cat down on the sofa. “So you came all this way just for a stranger?”

“Answer me!” Judd’s tone grew sharper.

The housekeeper, who had been in the kitchen, hurried out when she heard the commotion and found the living room crackling with tension, like a drawn bow ready to snap.

Mother and son stared each other down for a long time.

The housekeeper tried to calm things. “Sir, you shouldn’t speak to your mother like that…”

“What business is it of yours?”

His cold indifference made Daphne’s chest tighten. In the end, she relented first. “I only locked her up to teach her a lesson.”

“At the vineyard outside town?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

He clenched his jaw. “You just locked her up?”

Daphne looked at him, confused. “You already have someone you care about. Why are you meddling in another woman’s affairs?”

Judd frowned. “What do you mean, I have someone?”

“Don’t you?” Daphne’s surprise was genuine. “That Moore boy said you’ve been interested in a woman lately—someone who works in the same field as you.”

“Well, Tricia is a doctor too. She admitted it herself. Why would she lie?”

At that, Judd’s gaze turned cold and inscrutable. A moment passed before he laughed. “If I were interested in her, would I have left her hanging for three days?”

“…It’s not her?” Daphne sat on the sofa, her face suddenly drained of color.

Judd had already guessed the truth. He turned and headed for the door. Daphne called after him, “It’s late, you don’t have to go yourself. I’ll have the security team let her out—”

He stopped at the doorway and looked back. “If she’s had to wait this long, she could be dead by now.”

Daphne winced at the sound of his car engine fading into the night. She grabbed her phone and called the driver. “When you took that girl to the vineyard, you didn’t do anything to her, did you?”

He poured a glass of warm water from the pitcher on the nightstand, then used the remote to raise the head of her bed so she could sit up. He held the cup to her lips.

She steadied the cup with her left hand. “I can do it myself.”

Evander let her take over, not insisting.

“Ch—” Noreen burst into the room, then spotted Evander and quickly backtracked. “I’ll come by later!”

Evander took the glass from Charlotte and asked, “Are you hungry? Is there anything you want to eat?”

Charlotte leaned back on her pillow, gazing out the window. “Anything’s fine.”

He pressed his lips together and stood up. “I’ll step out to make a call.”

Evander walked to the end of the hall and called Natalie, asking her to send someone to pick up a healthy breakfast from the restaurant and deliver it to the hospital.

Natalie agreed, then added, “Miss Winthrop says she has something important to tell you. Would you like to see her?”