Chapter 13
Walter returned home to find Nathan rushing into his arms, coaxing. “Dad, you haven’t played with me today! Buy me toys!”
“Grandma said that wicked woman died. Is it true?”
Walter’s brows furrowed at “wicked woman.”
He coldly pushed Nathan off his leg, clamped his shoulders, and lifted him up. “Who said you could call her that?”
His stern expression frightened Nathan into wailing. Michelle snatched the child away.
“Mr. Davis, kids say the darndest things. Don’t blame Nathan.
“He only calls her that because your mother scared him.”
“I’ll discipline him properly. He won’t say it again.”
But spoiled rotten these days, Nathan pointed at Walter through tears. “I hate that woman! She stole my home.
“This is Mom and Dad’s house. I don’t want my tutor–Mom is my mom!”
“She tried to kill me! She even killed her own baby!”
“Good riddance she’s dead!”
Sobbing hysterically in Michelle’s arms, he acted utterly wronged.
Michelle frantically covered Nathan’s mouth–too late.
Walter’s face darkened as he yanked Nathan away. “Who taught you this?”
Nathan wet himself at Walter’s glare. Michelle signaled the butler to fetch Walter’s mother.
Nathan’s screams echoed through the mansion, but Walter remained unmoved.
He locked him in the basement, forbidding food, water, or release without permission.
Walter couldn’t fathom why Nathan harbored such hatred. How could a child wish death upon anyone?
Staggering to the bedroom, he collapsed onto Amy’s pillow. Her faint scent dissipated instantly.
Clutching the pillow, he revealed a diary beneath it. Its thin pages overflowed with writing.
The first entry–dated Robert’s death–was tear–smudged and crinkled:
“I’m a failure. I failed my child. I hate myself. I deserve to die.”
0.0%
00:30
Chapter 13
“I quit my beloved research today. Forever.”
Walter remembered Amy fainting from sobs in his arms that day.
He’d held her tightly, guarding her while swallowing his secret.
Let her blame herself. He’d protect her, love her, make amends.
Time would heal everything. They’d be happy again.
Flipping pages, he paused at Amy’s decision to move on after canceling Robert’s household registration:
“I truly believed everything could go back to the way things were.”
“I’ll have another baby with Walter, and we’ll have a happy family.”
“But reality tells me it won’t happen. He has another child named Nathan.
“I watched the three of them playing on the lawn, so blissfully happy.”
“I saw him sneaking around with Michelle in the basement, casually discussing my child’s death.
“The truth I’d agonized over for four years was this: my husband’s affair killed my baby!”
“He witnessed my suffering yet never spoke a word of truth!”
“I hate him!
“I want a divorce!
“I want to forget him!
“I’ll never forgive him in this lifetime!”
288 Vouchers
Each word tore through Walter’s lungs like ice shards. He clutched his chest, gasping for air that felt too thin to breathe.
“No, it wasn’t like this…”
After that day, he tried to end things with Michelle. But she came to him claiming pregnancy, insisting this child was Robert’s reincarnation.
He planned to let Michelle deliver the baby and give it to Amy.
This was his atonement.
Yet these explanations rang hollow, unconvincing even to himself.
She wanted to forget him.
This realization terrified him more than her witnessing the betrayal or her hatred–it shattered him completely.
He could endure her accusations, her vengeance, but vanishing from her life like he never existed? Unbearable.
47.3 %
00:30
Chapter 13
288 (Vouchers
“Amy, I beg you… don’t forget me…”
Walter knelt on the floor, choking back sobs.
His body trembled like a leaf in the wind, consciousness fading into agony with one thought–she didn’t want him
anymore.
94.3 %
00:30
Chapter 14
288 Vouchers
Chapter 14
