Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress

Chapter 1651: I had to do it... to protect my child.

"You better have answers. I'm not in the mood to play nice either."

The woman trembled under their gaze. She could hear her own gulp echoing in her ears, and her throat drying up quickly. The tension in the room was so thick it felt like it had grown limbs, reaching out to choke her.

"Priscilla Reed," Mint called to get her attention, stressing each syllable. "Let's have a nice chat, shall we?"

The woman, Priscilla, Nina's biological mother, turned to Mint. She drew a deep, jagged breath as she clasped her hand on her lap. But before she could say anything, a painful throb struck her head.

"Aw-" Priscilla winced as she touched the side of her head where it throbbed painfully.

"Don't be dramatic," Slater clicked his tongue in irritation. "You were hit in the head, but it's nothing serious. Sleep it off and you'll be fine."

Priscilla clenched her teeth and glared at him.

"What?" he asked dryly. "Why are you glaring at me? If anyone should be glaring here, it's us at you."

"Third Brother." Penny gently raised a hand and rested it on his chest. "It's alright.'

Slater gritted his teeth silently but held back the storm of words brewing inside him. Priscilla might have been around their parents' age, but that didn't stop him from wanting to unload every harsh word in his vocabulary-words he'd practically rehearsed for a moment like this.

Penny, by contrast, maintained her composure. Her gaze locked with Priscilla's— cold, distant, unyielding.

"Priscilla Reed," she began, her voice low and tightly controlled. "You owe us an explanation. It's time to repay that debt."

"You better start talking," Mint added, giving a casual nod. "Or would you prefer we spell out all the questions we already know the answers to?"

She bit her inner lip, her head

asked at last,

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responded with

"Please... just this once-"

like that?" Penny cut in, her

Priscilla said nothing.

had no right. Not even to look at Nina from afar. The moment she did what she had done... she forfeited any claim to

slightly at the edge, thick with

eyes flicked to

had to do it...

your child?" Slater, barely holding himself back, scoffed. "By endangering someone else's?

"Third Brother "

raised as someone else's niece. Your daughter grew up believing she belonged to a family that never saw

heaved with every breath. "How the

lips into a tight line as she stared at his profile. Slater might be too emotional-but in truth, he was voicing the very things Penny refused to

every move, every twitch, every flinch. She could

her head

to save her," she whispered, her voice thin but clear in the silence. "I knew I had no right to be

brimmed at the corners of her eyes. "I had to act quickly. I had so little

I knew I had to leave her behind... even if it meant entrusting her to a stranger... I had no other

the only way," she added, voice cracking. "If I had another option, I never would have done

lower. "And if I had

Penny grabbed his arm and held him back. His eyes burned with rage, jaw clenched so tightly it trembled. There was no remorse in