Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1246

*Smack!*

A sharp slap silenced the room.

Noah's lips trembled, his remaining screams choking into quiet sobs.

Sebastian's strike had instantly knocked the hysteria out of him, but the boy simply bit his lip as tears streamed down his face.

At this point, the truth was glaringly obvious to Lillian.

All of Sebastian's claims about Noah missing her and wanting to see her were nothing but pathetic lies.

Since returning from abroad, Noah had clearly slipped from Sebastian's control.

Sebastian couldn't manage his own son. He couldn't discipline him, and he certainly couldn't force the boy to follow his carefully laid plans.

Lillian looked at Noah one last time before turning her freezing gaze onto Sebastian.

"I hope you don't orchestrate this kind of farce again, Mr. Blake."

Without waiting for a response, she turned, looped her arm smoothly through Leonard's, and walked straight out the door.

A fiery rage burned in Sebastian's chest. Slapping Noah hadn't alleviated an ounce of his frustration.

He shot the crying boy a lethal glare, pointing a trembling finger at him. "You just wait, Noah."

With that threat hanging in the air, he bolted out of the room, desperately chasing after Lillian.

"Lillian... Lillian, wait!"

Lillian didn't slow her pace for a second, keeping her arm firmly linked with Leonard's.

Sebastian caught up to them, breathlessly spitting out excuses. "Lillian, I swear I didn't teach him to say those things. Please don't misunderstand.

"I don't know what got into him today. He's sick and in pain, that must be why he..."

Lillian finally stopped, turning to face him as he blocked her path.

"Sebastian, I don't care what sick goal you're trying to achieve by using Noah.

If there was one thing she truly regretted, it was being so naive as to bring a child into that toxic environment.

Marrying Sebastian had been a blind mistake, but marriages could end in divorce.

Noah, however, was a permanent consequence. She couldn't undo his existence.

She hadn't come today because she bought Sebastian's lies about Noah missing her.

She had come because, deep down, she still felt a lingering sense of responsibility as the woman who brought him into the world.

She came solely out of an obligation to that maternal bond.

But seeing it all firsthand—Sebastian's blatant manipulation and Noah's absolute hostility—clarified everything.

She didn't know how the father and son had spent the last few days, but she recognized the fierce backlash of a child backed into a corner by his father's pressure.

Sebastian was desperately trying to force an affectionate reunion, and Noah, unable to fake it, channeled all his resentment toward his biological mother.

In Noah's mind, if she didn't exist, his father wouldn't be terrorizing him into playing the loving son.