?<strong>Chapter 640:</strong>


    Colton, visibly shaken from his time in Muisvedo, staggered slightly under her sudden embrace.


    “I’m…fine,” he muttered.


    “Thank God! You don’t know how worried I’ve been,” she said, her red-rimmed eyes fixed on his face. But beneath the surface, her concern was shallow; the tears were more for effect than for empathy. Colton didn’t notice—or perhaps didn’t care. His gaze drifted, eyes clouded as his thoughts sank into the darkness he’d endured these past days.


    “Did… did Allison agree to let me go?” he finally asked, his voice strained.


    He had never thought the ex-wife he had previously hated would show such a wild and captivating side. He seemed to have lost himself entirely in his own thoughts as well; it wasn’t only Mny.


    “Of course not.” Mny tugged at his shirt with a mix of frustration and hurt. “Colton, why don’t you look at me?”


    At her words, Colton seemed to finally register her presence. “Sorry… I’m just tired, that’s all.”


    His voice was t, his mind somewhere else entirely, likely still reeling from the thought of Allison.


    Seeing this, Mny fought down a wave of jealousy, putting on an innocent, wounded look.


    “You know… you can’t really me Allison for all this. It’s on me. I never should have… challenged her like that. But I didn’t realize she hated me enough to make even Lindy fall ill with worry,” Mny remarked, wiping her eyes, her voice clogged with emotion, as if she were too upset to speak.


    Colton’s brow furrowed as he looked at her. “What… what exactly happened?”


    Mny looked at him pitifully. “A few days ago, Lindy and I… we went to see Allison. We knelt in front of her, Colton. Both of us, begging her to show a little mercy… But she wouldn’t even listen. She actually made us p each other!”


    She carefully avoided sharing the whole truth, instead letting selective details settle in Colton’s mind, casting herself in the light of a victim.


    “And then… she even had her people push Lindy into the water.” Colton stared in disbelief, his eyes finally catching the faint swelling on Mny’s cheeks, still visible beneath theyer of makeup.


    “How is my mom?” he asked.


    “Her headaches are worse,” Mny replied, biting her lip, looking on the verge of tears. “She’s in bed,pletely drained from all the stress. It’s really bad, Colton. It’s not Allison’s fault… It’s mine. I shouldn’t have married into your family and upset her like I did. If I hadn’t, your mom wouldn’t be in this state.” She leaned into the pity act, hoping it would shift the focus away from her involvement in the gambling fiasco.


    After all, she had really taken a financial hit back then. Colton’s face tightened, his frustration simmering. “So, you’re telling me she did this to my mom… for revenge?”


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