?<strong>Chapter 976:</strong>


    Joelle sniffled quietly, her fingers brushing away the tears that threatened to spill, and left the ward, pretending that nothing was wrong.


    Adrian leaned back on the sofa, crossing his legs with a practiced air of indifference. Rnd’s blood connection to him meant little.


    After all, Rnd’s mother, who was also Adrian’s cousin, had discarded him the moment he was born. If not for Joelle’s kindness in bringing Rnd back into their lives, Adrian doubted he would have ever known of the boy’s existence.


    He remained in this room for Joelle’s sake alone.


    “Tell me your condition,” Adrian said.


    Now that Joelle was gone, Rnd felt a strange sense of ease. “I want to see my mother.”


    Adrian raised an eyebrow. “Which one?”


    “I only have one.”


    Adrian’s fingers intertwined, his gaze unreadable as he remained silent for a moment. Rnd was talking about Katie.


    He recalled that Katie had been moved from prison to a sanatorium after being diagnosed with severe hepatitis. He had no idea how she was faring now.


    “What do you want to see her for?” Adrian asked.


    “That’s none of your business.”


    Adrian’s lips curled into a wry smile as he watched Rnd try to maintain hisposure. “You won’t see her.”


    Rnd’s head snapped up to look at Adrian. His pupils widened slightly, exposing emotions he hadn’t meant to reveal. “Is she dead?”


    Adrian sneered coldly. “She’s alive, though she might as well be dead. Fraud, murder—I let her live only as an act of mercy.”


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    Temporarily blinded by emotions, Rnd only heard thest sentence. “What did you do to her?”


    “Why do you care so much about her?” Adrian raised a brow, shrugging in a show of indifference. “If I recall correctly, she didn’t raise you for even a single day. Didn’t Wade tell you that?”


    Rnd fell silent, his fingers curling into fists at his sides.


    He had a photograph of Katie tucked into his pocket—a grainy image Wade had once shown him, the first glimpse he’d ever had of his mother. That picture had filled in the nks, helping him imagine what she might have been like.


    Did he hate her? Of course he hated her. Being abandoned had left him with scars—an unshakable fear that everyone he cared about would leave him eventually.


    But more than the hate, there was a gnawing need for answers. Why had she left him? Even if the truth hurt, he needed to know.


    After a long silence, Rnd’s voice broke through, low and defeated. “Was there any reason why she didn’t want me?”


    “No,” Adrian’s response was immediate, sharp, and unyielding. “You can be certain of that.”


    Rnd clenched his jaw, barely holding back the tears that threatened to fall. He had told himself he wouldn’t expect anything from her, yet the pain still sliced through him—the pain of the child he had once been, yearning for a love that never came.


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