Chapter 157 - Family Regrets

The luxurious dining room of the Vexley mansion's smaller wing gleamed under the soft glow of a crystal chandelier, its facets creating fractured rainbows across the shiny mahogany table. Yet, the room was thick with tension, a storm brewing amid the clink of silverware and the distant hum of servants bustling in the halls. Mirabel Vexley sat at the head, her elegant fingers drumming impatiently on the arm of her chair, her immaculately styled hair framing a face etched with uncharacteristic desperation. For weeks now, she had been a woman possessed, her days consumed by phone calls to private investigators, her nights haunted by maps and reports strewn across her private study. The family dinner, once a ritual of superficial harmony, had devolved into a battlefield.