Falling For My Accidental CEO Husband
Chapter 91: Fight Back

Chapter 91: Fight Back

"Mom! I don’t want to do this!" Nathan’s voice cracked with frustration, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "Aiden... he’s been lenient until now because I’ve kept my head down. But last time—" he broke off, his voice lowering as if the mere mention of it filled him with dread, "he already warned me. If I pull any more underhanded stunts, he won’t tolerate it."

Smack.

The sharp crack of the slap echoed through the cafeteria. Serena flinched, her body tensing instinctively, even though she couldn’t see what had happened, she could guess. And she’d guessed correctly, she realized as she caught Nathan’s reflection in the mirror. For a moment, everything went still.

She shifted in her seat, trying to look back without getting attention and strained to catch a glimpse over her shoulder. That sharp had been quite harsh but Nathan remained silent behind her.

"Nathan," the woman’s cold and unrelenting voice broke the quiet, as if the slap hadn’t phased her at all. As if it was common for her to slap the boy. "Are you really going to sit there and tell me you’re afraid of him? Is that what this is? Fear?" Her words were laced with disgust as she rappped her fingers on the table. " You are a Hawk. When Aiden was yuor age, he had already started to train with his grandmother. But you? You haven’t even been able to broach the topic. And now your grandmother is grooming Aiden’s wife. Do you know what that means? Even an outsider like her is better than you!"

"She is not an outsider. She is Aiden’s wife."

"Nathan Hawk! Do you have water in your brains? I am telling you to fight for your right but you are talking on behalf of others. Whether she is ounsider or not. You are a rightful heir. So, stop your drama and listen to me carefully."

"According to Charles," she continued, her words precise and deliberate, "Aiden has something that belongs to Sidney Prince. Something... valuable. I don’t have all the details yet, but once I do, I’ll tell you exactly what you need to smuggle out. Auden is outside on business now. So, you can get close to Aiden’s wife, gain her trust, and when the time is right, you’ll slip it out from under his nose. Until then, use his absence to make a good impression on your grandmother and on Aiden’s wife so that she would trust you easily. Also, gain any inside confidential information that you can so that we can sell it here and there. "

Finally, Nathan’s voice sounded again, and Serena heard the slight tremble in his voice as he answered,"I can’t. I don’t want any part of this. I don’t want to work in the office or follow in Aiden’s footsteps. I’m not like him. I want to be a singer, not—"

"A singer?!" the woman cut him off, her voice scathing. "Nathan, stop this foolishness. Just because you want to be a singer doesn’t mean you will be successful. Do you really think the world is waiting for some privileged boy with half-baked dreams to succeed? You’re delusional!"

"I don’t care what you think," he said quietly. "I don’t want to be like Aiden, and I’m not going to be your pawn in this. I’m not smuggling anything for you."

"Nathan," she hissed, "you don’t have a choice. You were born into this family, into this legacy. Whether you like it or not, you will fdo this because that is what is.Being a Hawk is not something you can simply choose to walk away from."

"It also does not mean that I have to do something like this. I have some money saved. I can go and..."

"If you refuse, Nathan, you’ll be throwing away everything. Your future, your inheritance... everything. And don’t think for a second that your precious music career will save you or that I will give you anything to help you! When this dream of yours, falls apart, you’ll come crawling back to me, and by then, it will be too late."

"Tomorrow," she continued, as if his refusal didn’t even register and she had not just trampled on her son’d dream, "you will go to the office and tell that old coot—your grandmother—that you want to start training with her. You need to show her that you are ready, that you can step into the family’s legacy. Once you’re in, I’ll feed you the details, and you will retrieve what’s mine... I mean what is yours."

"I told you, I’m not doing it," Nathan repeated. The woman’s face twisted with fury, her patience officially shattered as she hissed. "You will do as I say, Nathan. Do you understand? I will not have you disgrace this family over some childish dream of being a singer!"

Serena, felt a pany of sympathy for the boy as she heard him try to stand his gorund even as the woman continued to berate and belittle him.

"I am not doing it! You want the money, you can do it yourself." Nathan continued stubbornly.

Nathan’s defiant words, thought spoken in a low tone, seemed to have silenced the woman. In a split second, Serena sensed what was about to happen—the slap that Nathan had endured in silence was about to be repeated, but harsher this time.

She clenched her hands and stood up, turning around at the same time and that is when she saw it. The woman’s hand raised high, ready to deliver another blow to Nathan’s already red cheek.

Instinct took over.

Serena moved forward quickly, her hand shooting out and catching the woman’s wrist mid-swing, the sound of it also echoing in the space. The sudden halt made the woman mother freeze in place, her eyes wide with shock and fury as she turned her cold gaze toward Serena, ready to tear her into pieces.

"Who do you think you are, girl? This is a family matter. You have no place here." The woman sneered as she jerked, trying to make her let go of her hand, but it wasn’t so easy.

Serena smiled and tightened her hold on the woman’s hand," I am his family."

As the woman frowned in confusion and anger, Serena turned to look at Nathan who looked as shocked as the woman and then with a smiled and picked up the glass of water in front of him. He winced and ducked, ready to escape the attack but instead she turned and threw the water in the woman’s face, making her gasp.