Chapter 3 3

The heavy, solid wood double doors of the Manhattan townhouse swung open.

Hazel stepped into the grand foyer. She unbuttoned her trench coat and handed it to Aine, the trembling maid waiting by the door.

Braden walked in right behind her. He watched the way she moved. The effortless, aristocratic grace made his skin crawl. It felt entirely wrong, yet undeniably natural.

He stopped at the end of the hallway. His hands balled into tight fists at his sides.

"Why the hell are you doing this?!" Braden shouted, his voice echoing off the high ceiling.

Hazel stopped walking.

She turned around slowly. Her eyes swept up and down his body, looking at him with the same disgust one might reserve for a cockroach on a dining table.

She didn't answer him. Instead, she walked over to the marble wet bar.

She picked up a crystal glass and poured herself a measure of sparkling water. Her movements were slow and deliberate.

The sharp clink of the glass hitting the marble countertop echoed in the quiet room. The sound made Braden's shoulders flinch.

Hazel took a sip. When she spoke, her tone carried the heavy, arrogant cadence of 19th-century European nobility.

"I do this," she said softly, "simply to earn the right to evaluate your profound stupidity."

Braden's face flushed a deep, angry red.

"I am fighting for my freedom!" he spat back. "I am rebelling against the hypocrisy of this damn family!"

Hazel let out a short, cold laugh.

The sound carried no humor. It was laced with raw, unfiltered pity.

She set the glass down and began walking toward him. The sharp click of her high heels against the hardwood floor sounded like a ticking metronome counting down to his execution.

"Freedom?" Hazel sneered. "Using your family's wealth to fund your little extreme sports hobbies is not freedom. It is the pathetic pastime of a parasite."

Braden opened his mouth to scream back, but the words caught in his throat.

Hazel didn't stop. She closed the distance, her presence suffocating him.

"You call this pain?" she whispered, her eyes boring into his skull. "You have never known a single day of real hunger. You have never seen a real war. Your suffering is nothing but the imaginary whining of a spoiled child."

She took another step forward.

"If I freeze your trust fund tomorrow, how many days do you think you would survive on the streets of Manhattan?"

Braden stumbled backward. His shoulder blades hit the cold, painted wall of the hallway. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Hazel's expression softened, but the pity in her eyes grew sharper.

"You are not even competent enough to be a proper failure," she said quietly.

That sentence was a physical blow. It shattered the very core of Braden's carefully constructed rebel identity.

His chest caved in. He grabbed his own hair, letting out a choked, miserable sob, and slid down the cold wall until he hit the floor.

Hazel stood over him. She looked down at his broken, weeping form like a queen observing a traitor at the gallows.

"Go to your room," she commanded. "And think very carefully about what exactly you are."

Braden didn't argue. He didn't even look up.

He pushed himself off the floor, his limbs heavy and useless. He dragged his feet across the floor, walking toward the spiral staircase like a beaten stray dog.

Halfway up the stairs, Braden stopped.

He turned his head and looked down at Hazel standing under the crystal chandelier.

For the first time in his life, he saw the exact same terrifying, iron-fisted aura that his late grandfather-the ruthless founder of the Powers family-used to possess.

Braden quickly looked away, a deep sense of self-doubt eating at his chest, and disappeared into his bedroom.

Hazel picked up her glass and drank the rest of the water. A flicker of deep disdain for the weakness of modern youth crossed her eyes.

In the shadows near the kitchen door, the head butler stood perfectly still. He slowly pulled his phone from his pocket and typed a quick message to Chandler.

Hazel's eyes darted to the shadows. She saw the glow of the phone screen.

She didn't stop him. A cold, calculating smile touched her lips. She wanted Chandler to know.

She turned on her heel and walked toward her study. It was time to discipline the next child.