CHAPTER 440: CHAPTER 440: CRIMINAL

The moment Aurora saw the middle-aged woman standing at the restaurant entrance, her face fell.

The woman’s presence demanded attention, styled hair, an elegant pearl necklace, and a refined dress that exuded wealth, but her expression was anything but graceful.

Rage burned through every line of her face.

Aurora blinked, then looked at Jules, and finally at the woman again. She recognized her instantly. Annie. Jules’s mother.

And just like that, Aurora’s chest tightened with irritation. Of all people to show up now, it had to be her.

If someone had asked Aurora to list people she wished would disappear from society, Annie would’ve easily made the top five. It was a wonder, a miracle even, that Jules had survived growing up under her.

Annie didn’t waste a single second. She marched forward with the fury of a storm, her heels clicking against the marble floor. Before anyone could react, she raised her hand and swung it toward Jules’s face.

The sound of that movement sliced through the air.

Everyone froze.

Lucas reacted purely on instinct. He lunged forward and grabbed Jules, wrapping an arm around her protectively. The slap never landed on Jules; instead, it crashed hard against Lucas’s shoulder with a sharp crack.

The sound echoed in the room. Lucas’s expression twisted in pain. For a moment, he wondered if Annie had actually tried to kill her own daughter with that strike.

Annie staggered back, stunned that her hand hadn’t reached its intended target. Her eyes blazed, and she pointed furiously at Lucas.

"Get out of the way!" she shouted. "You have no idea who you’re protecting! That woman..." she jabbed a finger toward Jules "... is a criminal! She once tried to kill her own sister!"

The air grew cold. Jules’s body trembled violently.

Mary’s face remained calm as she reached for Jules’s trembling hand and squeezed gently. "Is what she’s saying true?" she asked softly.

Seeing Mary’s calm expression instead of outrage only further fueled Annie’s anger. "Of course it’s true!" she snapped.

"I saw it with my own eyes! How can you accept a murderer into your family? What if she kills him after marriage?"

Mary’s expression darkened. "Mrs. Annie," she said quietly, but her tone carried power. "You are an outsider. You have no right to interfere in our family’s affairs."

Annie’s jaw dropped. "Outsider?" she spat. "I’m her mother! I have every right to interfere!"

Aurora, who had been watching the exchange unfold, couldn’t stay quiet any longer. She leaned back in her chair and shouted, "Wow. I’ve seen Karens in real life, but never in high definition."

Olivia immediately joined in, covering her mouth with mock surprise.

"You’re right. For a second, I thought a reality show camera crew would appear. When did a full-fledged Karen step out of the TV?"

Adriana, catching on instantly, placed a hand dramatically over her chest.

"If she really is Jules’s mother, then as long as our sister-in-law admits it, we’ll officially recognize her as ’Karen Annie.’"

The table erupted in quiet laughter. Jules froze, completely taken aback... not by Annie’s insults, but by the support of her three sisters-in-law.

Their teasing tone wasn’t cruel; it was warm, deliberate. They were mocking Annie to protect Jules.

Something inside Jules’s chest loosened. The clawing fear that had been gripping her heart slowly began to fade.

Annie, however, was livid. Her face turned crimson as she glared at the three younger women.

Just as she opened her mouth to retaliate, her gaze landed on Theodore, and suddenly her expression changed.

"Oh my goodness!" she gasped, clutching her chest in excitement. "You’re Theodore! The actor! I’ve seen you on television! My niece adores you! Please, can I get your autograph?"

Theodore looked at her without even blinking. He turned calmly toward Jules and said, "Sister-in-law, are you all right?"

Jules blinked, then smiled faintly. That simple gesture, Theodore’s casual dismissal of Annie, meant more to her than words could express.

’This is what family is,’ she thought. ’They protect you, even without saying much.’

Annie’s excitement crumbled into fury again. She glared at Theodore, but instead of directing her anger at him, she turned it back to Jules.

’She must have poisoned them against me,’ Annie thought bitterly. ’She’s turned them all against her own mother!’

Fueled by that thought, Annie stepped forward again, determined to strike Jules once more, but Aurora’s chair slid abruptly into her path.

Annie stopped short, her face twisting in irritation. "Move," she hissed.

Aurora didn’t move. She looked up, her smile polite but sharp. "Sometimes," she said sweetly, "it’s better to control your anger before it controls you."

"Don’t talk to me like that, you little brat," Annie snapped. "You have no idea what’s going on. Stay in your lane!"

Aurora chuckled softly. "Oh, I understand plenty. You, on the other hand, seem to have skipped basic decency."

Annie raised her hand again, but this time Olivia was faster. She stood up, grabbed Annie’s wrist mid-air, and twisted it slightly. Her calm voice carried steel.

"If you so much as touch my sister again," Olivia said with a chilling smile, "I’ll make sure you never raise this hand again. And trust me, even the police will agree with me."

Annie froze. The cold intensity in Olivia’s eyes was enough to make anyone’s blood run cold.

Adriana and even Alex quickly joined in, subtly forming a human wall in front of Aurora. In the Waters family, if there was one unspoken rule, it was this: no one laid a hand on Aurora.

Annie realized, with dawning fear, that she had crossed an invisible line.

She had come here planning to ruin Jules’s relationship, to make everyone hate her daughter enough to send her away. But instead, she had turned the entire Waters family against herself.

For a brief second, she considered retreating. But then she remembered her younger daughter, the one who had died, and bitterness surged through her like poison.

’My daughter is dead. How can I let the murderer live happily?’

That thought burned away her hesitation.

She forced a brittle smile and said to Olivia, "You misunderstood. I wasn’t going to hit anyone. It was a mistake."

Olivia laughed softly. "Even if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have succeeded."

She released Annie’s wrist, and Annie immediately flinched; her arm had gone completely numb.

She stared at her hand in disbelief. How strong is this woman?

Shaking her arm to restore feeling, Annie tried another tactic. She sidestepped around the chairs, sneaking along the edge of the table like a determined cat.

It was an awkward maneuver, one that made her look less threatening and more like a stubborn duck, but she persisted, repeating in her head that she was doing this for justice.

When she finally reached Jules’s side, she straightened up and pointed a trembling finger at her daughter.

"You’re not marrying Lucas," she said coldly. "That’s final."

Lucas’s expression hardened instantly. "And who," he demanded, "gave you the right to decide that?"

"I’m her mother!" Annie snapped, her voice rising again. "Of course I can decide what’s best for her!"

But this time, Jules didn’t shrink back.

She looked up at Annie, her eyes steady, voice firm. "Even if you are my mother," she said quietly, "I cut ties with you a long time ago. So stop pretending you still have that right."

The room fell silent.

Annie’s face twisted with outrage. "How dare you speak to me like that! Have you no shame? No guilt? After what you did..."

"Enough."

Jules’s voice, though soft, carried power. It silenced the entire hall.

She stood slowly, meeting Annie’s eyes head-on. For the first time, she wasn’t trembling.

"Where was this mother," Jules asked, her voice trembling only with emotion now, "when I was being tortured by my husband? Where was this mother when everyone accused me of killing my sister? Where were you when I begged you to believe me?"

Annie’s lips quivered. "You did kill her..."

"No," Jules said, cutting her off. Her tone was sharper than a blade.

"You know I didn’t. You’ve always known. But you needed someone to blame, someone to throw your pain at, and that person became me."

Her eyes filled with unshed tears, but her voice didn’t break.

"You talk about shame, but it’s you who should feel it. You lost one daughter and decided to destroy the other to fill the void."

Annie took a step back. Her hand, still aching from Olivia’s grip, trembled slightly. For once, she didn’t have a ready retort.

Mary rose slowly from her seat and placed a hand on Jules’s shoulder. Her gaze was calm, but there was quiet authority in it.

"That’s enough," Mary said to Annie. "You’ve said what you came to say. You’ve hurt your daughter enough for one lifetime. Now, leave before you embarrass yourself further."

Annie shook her head before shouting, "I won’t! You... you know nothing."

Suddenly she remembered about something and shouted with excitement, "You know, she had a miscarriage?"