The moment the call connected and Ashley Bowen's crisp voice came through, Mary Preston lost all control. She jumped to her feet, snatched the phone from Hailey's hand, ended the call, and threw it on the ground.
As if the phone were a hot potato.
"I'll talk... I'll talk! Please, Empress Dowager, I beg you, don't tell Shay about this. She's such a poor child." Mary Preston was a sobbing mess, wiping at her tear-filled eyes as her body trembled violently.
All the secrets she had suppressed for so long came rushing back, piling up in her mind like an avalanche. Through her tears, she told the woman before her every last detail of the secret she had kept for nineteen years.
The Empress Dowager's hands were clenched tightly on the armrests of her chair, her agitation mounting as she listened to the shocking truth.
