Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon Chapter 171

Audrey's POV:

Sienna quickly intervened, grabbing her mother's arm.

Eleanor, in her rage, turned and slapped Sienna hard across the face.

"You useless girl!" Eleanor screamed.

"Are you siding with her now? You two couldn't stand each other when she lived here! Now you're suddenly her loyal defender?"

She pointed a trembling finger at me.

"Do you think she'll spare you when she's done with us? Without Bailey Group, you're nothing! "

Sienna held her reddened cheek, her voice breaking.

"Mom... stop it. This isn't helping..."

I could see in her eyes that Sienna had already accepted the inevitable.

She knew their only hope now was cooperation.

"Don't call me 'Mom'!" Eleanor snarled.

"I don't have such a worthless daughter! Do you know how much we've invested in you? You can't give us any return at all!"

"Your career is a joke, but we thought at least you could marry well and be useful that way. But here you are, almost thirty, living at home with no prospects! You're beyond help!"

"If you had an ounce of ambition, would Audrey be able to humiliate us like this today? Would she have taken everything from us?"

"What was the point of raising you? You're nothing but a liability!"

Eleanor's words cut through the room like knives.

Even I was finding it difficult to listen.

I watched Sienna with new eyes as she stood there, head bowed, shoulders shaking with silent tears.

In that moment, I understood something fundamental about the Baileys.

Even with their own daughter, all they cared about was utility and advantage. Without value, a person meant nothing to them.

Looking at Sienna, I felt an unexpected pang of sympathy.

But I hadn't come here for family drama.

"Enough!" I slammed my hand against the coffee table, the sharp sound cutting through the toxic atmosphere.

"Have you finished this pathetic display? Because I'd like to discuss actual business now."

The room fell silent.

Eleanor's head snapped toward me, her face still contorted with rage.

"You," she hissed, her voice trembling. "What the hell do you want to do?"

"I want answers. About my child."

Eleanor's expression shifted unexpectedly, her rage melting into something more calculating.

Then, to my surprise, she laughed, a harsh, cutting sound that echoed through the apartment.

"Your child?" She shook her head, eyes gleaming with malice.

"You'll never know what really happened, dear Audrey."

Her words hit like a physical blow, but I refused to let her see how deeply they cut.

"I think you misunderstand the situation," I said, my voice steady despite the rage boiling beneath the surface.

"I'm now the majority shareholder of Bailey Group. I control your livelihood, your reputation, your future."

I leaned forward.

"Your comfortable life depends entirely on my goodwill. So I'll ask one more time: what happened to my child?"

Eleanor's mouth tightened into a thin line, her eyes burning with hatred.

"You ungrateful little bitch! Suffer forever!"

George, however, was visibly crumbling.

His gaze darted between the documents, his wife, and me.

I continued to coax.

"Tell me the truth, and I might consider returning Bailey Group to you."

"George," Eleanor warned, but it was too late.

George cleared his throat. "If we tell... you'll return Group?"

"Yes," I said, my heart pounding. "But I want the complete truth."

Eleanor continued to protest, but George silenced her with a look.

"The child didn't die," he admitted quietly. "It was taken."

The world seemed to stop around me.

Everything blurred around the edges as those words echoed in my mind.

*My child didn't die.*

My entire body quaked with the force of this revelation.

"T-taken?" I managed to whisper through lips that felt numb.

My hands gripped the edge of the sofa so tightly I could feel my nails digging into the expensive fabric.

"By who? Who took my baby?"

I leaned forward, desperate for answers, my carefully constructed composure crumbling by the second.

"We don't know," George continued. "The plan was to return the child to you after the wedding to Samuel West. But then... the baby was stolen."

"Where was he taken from? from hospital?"

"No," George admitted reluctantly. "From here. "

I stared at him in disbelief. "You're saying someone broke into the home and stole my baby? Without anyone noticing?"

"I was in Europe for Fashion Week," Sienna quickly said. "I had nothing to do with it."

"I was taking a beauty nap that day," Eleanor added reluctantly. "I didn't hear anything."

Everything was too suspicious.

I asked, ice forming in my veins. "And why didn't you call the police?"

George's shoulders slumped further.

"Samuel West—or rather, Caspar Thornton—was our salvation. The marriage arrangement would secure our future through the Thornton-Bailey alliance."

"If he discovered you had given birth," Eleanor interjected, her voice cold and practical, "he would have canceled the agreement immediately. No man would accept damaged goods."

Georg glanced at my clenched fists, helplessly and brokenly admitting his inner darkness and selfishness.

"As for you, we didn't want you to go looking for that child. You were about to marry Samuel, and we were afraid the child's existence would cause complications. In short, we really had nothing to do with the child being taken away, truly!"

I flinched at their cruel phrasing, rage building inside me.

"So you just... what? Let someone take my baby?" My voice rose despite my efforts to stay calm. "You chose money over a life?"

"You are the most cold-blooded, selfish people I have ever known," I roared, rising to my feet.

My composure shattered completely.

"Do you understand what you've done? You stole four years from me—four years I could have spent searching for my child!"

Eleanor backed away, clearly startled by my outburst. George simply slumped further into his seat.

"Wait, wait!" George held up his hands defensively, panic evident in his face as he witnessed my unbridled fury.

"We do have something that might help. I—I kept the surveillance footage from that day."

The mention of surveillance footage instantly shifted something inside me.

I forced my rage back down, replacing it with laser-focused determination.

"Where is it?" I demanded, my voice suddenly calm.

"In my study. I'll get it right away," George practically leapt from his seat.

He hurried from the room, returning moments later with an external hard drive.

"Here," he said, extending it toward me with a shaking hand.

"The footage isn't great—the person was careful to hide their face."

I took the hard drive, clutching it like the precious artifact it was.

Without another word, I turned and headed for the door.

"Wait!" Eleanor called after me, her voice sharp. "What about our agreement? You said if we told you the truth, you'd return control of the group to us."

I paused at the doorway, not bothering to turn around.

"As promised, I'll return Bailey Group to the family—but it will be in Margaret's name only."

I heard their collective gasp behind me. They understood the implications immediately.

"Margaret is elderly and in poor health," Eleanor protested desperately. "What use is the group to her? She can't possibly manage it!"

"That's no longer your concern," I replied coldly. "Who she chooses to leave it to after she's gone will be entirely her decision."

"Audrey! Wait! You can't just—" Eleanor lurched forward, her heel catching on the expensive carpet.

By the time she regained her balance, I was already gone, the sound of the elevator doors closing behind me.

"You calculating bitch!" I heard her scream from down the hallway. "You planned this all along!"

Her words meant nothing to me now.

All that mattered was the hard drive in my hand—and the child I would find, no matter what it took.