Chapter 439 439

Maria knew that it would be quite disturbing for most people to see a man having a weird fetish by beating and suppressing his wife.

But Vernon wasn't part of that 'most people.' He was also part of the Gray family. He had the same blood as Vaughn Gray and his predecessors running in him, so he must've developed the same fetish as his father and Big brother.

"If he doesn't like what Vincent is doing, he shouldn't have that kind of reaction," Maria assumed. "He should be indifferent at least."

Maria had a few assumptions in her head. One of them was;

"Judging from his reaction, I think it's safe to assume that Vernon has something with Chloe, maybe a childhood crush? I remember him as a little kid being so sticky with Chloe at many parties hosted by the Gray family," Maria guessed. "Is it only a childhood crush, though? I feel like there's something more…."

Maria was already on full guard against Vernon. She had the gut feeling that Vernon wanted to attack his Big brother instead of worshiping or working together with him.

She didn't really care about these two brothers' relationship, but if it would threaten the stability of the company she devoted her life to, then she must do something.

"Let's just wait and see…."

**

Vincent proudly showed all the videos of him beating Chloe inside the Principal's office. He closed his eyes, engrossing himself in listening to Chloe's voice who tried to fight him back despite her hopelessness.

Her struggle was a big turn-on for him, so he had to cross his legs because he didn't want his mother to notice he got a boner.

Though, he didn't need to worry about that because Dorothea was too shocked to even blink her eyes, let alone check on him. She watched until she got to the part where Vincent strangled Chloe and pulled her up until her feet hovered above the ground. Then Mackie suddenly came in and tried to save her Mommy.

She gasped when she saw Mackie, who tried to rush in and save her Mommy, not knowing how dangerous it was to approach Vincent when he was in a crazed state.

She wanted to yell at Mackie to stop or hug her so she shouldn't be in danger. After all, Dorothea had always loved her granddaughter and missed Mackie a lot after Chloe brought her away.

Vincent opened his eyes when he heard the gasp coming from his mother. He saw Dorothea with a pale face and trembling lips. Her eyes were red as if she had just watched a horror movie.

"Mom? What's wrong? Why did you make that kind of face?" Vincent asked. "Aren't you used to this stuff? I remember Dad beating you a few times before."

Dorothea quickly tried to fix her expression and looked away. She swallowed her saliva as she tried to maintain her composure.

"Did you do this often with your wife?"

"Beating her? Well, yeah," Vincent admitted without shame. "It's the usual thing in the Gray family. You told me when I was a kid that it's just a thing Dad did to de-stress, and you don't mind it since it's normal for a woman to obey her husband."

Dorothea's heart sank when she got the answer from Vincent.

She remembered that period when Vaughn started beating her even for the slightest mistake. She was too scared to fight back and too in love to leave him.

Besides, divorce was a huge shame back then.

So she endured, and when five-year-old Vincent asked her what Dad was doing, she answered that it was all okay, and Vincent shouldn't question his Dad's activity even further.

And who would've expected that small thing she said back then would hugely impacted Vincent's development, creating another cycle of abuse that the next woman had to suffer?

"Did you enjoy doing this?" Dorothea asked. Her voice was already shaking.

"Beating or cheating? Either way, I did both to de-stress," Vincent replied. "I didn't expect the method that my Dad did back then actually worked. I become less stressed and more efficient with my job. I should've done this way sooner."

…

Dorothea was unsure of what to feel right now.

She was heartbroken to know that her son was no different than his late father. They were both serial cheaters and abusers.

When Chloe reported Vincent's cheating to her, she already felt the pain in her heart, but she tried to ignore it as she thought it was just a one-time— or two-time thing that Vincent did, so Chloe had to tolerate it since Chloe was a low-value woman.

And about the abuse… Chloe never reported Vincent's abuse, so Dorothea thought Vincent was too good to stay with a useless leech-like Chloe.

Dorothea also thought that Chloe wasn't really the ideal wife of a Billionaire. She didn't have the class, nor was she born into an influential family. So she contributed nothing other than giving birth to Mackenzie.

When Vincent and Chloe were just married, Dorothea tried to open her heart to her new daughter-in-law by inviting her to many socialite parties.

But Chloe always refused without specifying the reason. Thus, Dorothea despised her daughter-in-law even more, thinking that Chloe didn't respect her as a mother-in-law.

'Can I still blame Chloe now?' Dorothea pondered in her heart. 'We're suffering the same fate….'

'But even if I sympathize, what should I do to help her or my granddaughter? I barely have any contact with her. I don't even think I have her contact in my phone anymore….'

Dorothea slowly turned her head to check on her son.

Vincent was smirking as he watched the video on his phone. His eyes were filled with lust and cruelty, and Dorothea couldn't bear to see them.

Because she saw the face of Vaughn Gray when he was hurting her, and she still couldn't handle the fear that always crept up whenever she saw those eyes.