The Heir Who Returned

Chapter 9

Five years later

Mrs Sophia was in her room, sobbing. In her hands was Ethan's picture. She just stared at it and cried, her eyes red and swollen.

"Why are you still crying? Your son has died and his body has decayed," Vicky said, walking in.

Mrs Sophia did not raise her head. She wanted to be alone.

"Grandma is coming today. I just wanted to inform you," she said mockingly.

Grandma had always favoured Vanessa ever since she found out Ethan was dead. The arrival of Grandma was like a nightmare, Mrs Sophia thought.

Later that evening, Grandma Titan walked into the mansion, carrying her bags.

"Is anyone home?" she asked.

"Grandma!" Mrs Vanessa and her son Gideon ran to welcome her. She pulled them close and held them tight.

"Oh, my little baby boy," she said, kissing Gideon's forehead. "The only heir to this family."

Mrs Sophia heard the noise from her room. Her heart lifted a little, and she quickly wiped her face and hurried downstairs to greet Grandma too. But Grandma only turned her eyes on her for a moment, then looked away and walked past her, as though she were nothing more than a shadow on the wall.

Sophia stood frozen by the stairs, her chest tightening with a pain she knew too well by now. She remembered a time, many years ago, when she was the one Grandma loved best, when Vanessa was treated like nothing in this house, an outsider who did not belong. But everything had changed the day Ethan was said to have died. From that day, Grandma had turned her love toward Vanessa and Gideon completely, as though Sophia had never existed, as though she had never given this family a son at all.

Sophia swallowed the hurt down, the way she had learned to do a hundred times before. She turned quietly and went to the kitchen to fetch a cup of water for Grandma, telling herself it would be alright, that she just needed to keep busy, keep moving, keep breathing.

While she was gone, Gideon wandered into the sitting room. His eyes landed on a small picture frame sitting quietly on the shelf, the same spot it had rested in for five years. It was Ethan's picture, the one Sophia dusted every single morning with her own hands. Gideon picked it up and turned to Grandma with a scowl.

"Grandma, I don't want to see this again," he said coldly, holding the frame away from himself like it disgusted him.

Vanessa smiled at her son, a slow and satisfied smile. "There should be nothing between the dead and the living," she said softly, her eyes glittering with something close to pleasure.

Without waiting for grandma’s reply Gideon lifted the frame high above his head and threw it down onto the tiled floor with all his strength. Glass scattered in every direction, sharp pieces skidding across the floor and catching the evening light. Grandma said nothing at all. She only watched, arms folded, her face calm as still water, as though nothing wrong had happened in her presence.

At that very moment, Mrs Sophia stepped out of the kitchen, carrying a cup of water for Grandma. She had no idea what had just taken place inside. But the second she entered the sitting room and saw the shattered frame lying broken on the floor, her son's smiling face torn beneath jagged glass, the cup slipped from her fingers and shattered too, adding to the mess already scattered across the tiles.

Her knees gave way beneath her. She dropped down and began gathering the broken pieces with shaking hands, tears falling fast and hot down her cheeks, not caring that the glass was cutting into her fingers.

"Who did this?" she cried, her voice cracking apart. "Who smashed my son's picture? May whoever did this never know a single day of peace in their life!"

Before the last word had even left her mouth, Grandma raised her walking stick high and brought it down hard across Sophia's back.

"How dare you curse in this house!" Grandma shouted, her voice shaking the room. "You dare curse the only heir to the Titan Group, when you could not even protect your own son?" She struck her again, harder this time. "It has been five years, Sophia! Five years, and what are you still doing, weeping over the picture of a dead child? Have you no shame left in you?"

Sophia curled forward on the cold floor, gathering the broken glass and the torn photograph close to her chest, saying nothing in return. The sting on her back was nothing at all compared to the ache tearing through her heart.

Just then, Mr Titan walked into the room. He saw his wife crumpled on the floor, crying, with his mother standing tall above her, stick still raised. He saw the shattered frame, the pieces of his own son's face scattered across the tiles. His mouth opened, as though he meant to speak, to defend her, to say something, anything at all. But no words came. He only looked away, his shoulders sinking, and said nothing.

That evening, the family gathered around the long dining table to eat. Grandma sat proudly at the head, with Vanessa and Gideon seated close beside her, laughing softly together as though the afternoon had never happened.

"Sophia, serve the food," Grandma commanded, not even glancing her way.

Sophia rose slowly, her back still throbbing with pain, and moved around the table with shaking hands, filling each plate one by one.

"Look at her," Vanessa said sweetly, watching Sophia serve with a small, cruel smile. "Still crying over a dead boy after five whole years. Some people simply never learn to let go."

Gideon laughed loudly, reaching for his spoon. "Maybe she enjoys suffering."

Grandma chuckled too, shaking her head slowly. "Some women just don't know how to move on with their lives."

Sophia stood beside the table, an empty tray pressed against her chest, and said nothing at all. Her heart was breaking into more pieces than the glass still scattered on the sitting room floor, but five long years had taught her that her tears carried no weight in this house, that her pain was simply something for others to laugh about over dinner.

Mr Titan sat quietly at the table, eating without looking up, his eyes fixed on his plate. He heard every cruel word spoken about his wife. He heard the sharp edge in his mother's voice, the mockery in Vanessa's laugh, the careless cruelty in his own son's words. But he said nothing at all, and his silence cut into Sophia deeper than any stick ever could.

She finished serving the last plate and turned to walk back toward the kitchen, tears sliding silently down her face. No one at the table so much as looked up to notice her leave.