When did all of this begin to change? It seemed to be right after Cassandra came back.
Because he was constantly busy dealing with various matters for Cassandra, he gradually returned
home less and less.
One time, Cassandra suggested meeting the children, so he took them along.
It seemed that from then on, they had more and more contact with Cassandra, even spending most
of their time with her.
Elara had voiced her concerns. She had been angry:
“You are my husband, Leo and Mia are my biological children, so why do you constantly show
concern for others?”
She paused, seemingly unable to voice the rest, her eyes brimming with tears.
“With the way you are, I can’t even tell who you consider your wife, or their mother.”
But at that time, his mind was solely on Cassandra, who had just returned. Hearing Elara’s questions,
De found her even more unreasonable.
He had even coldly retorted, “Have you forgotten… if you hadn’t interfered…”
“Cassandra should have been the lady of this house, right?”
Elara froze, looking at him with an expression of unspeakable disappointment.
At that moment, seeing her pained and disbelieving gaze, he felt a slight pang.
But Cassandra was the one he truly loved, so he ignored Elara, who stood frozen, and turned to leave
3:49 pm S
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without hesitation.
After that, Elara never brought up the matter again, as if the conversation had never happened.
He felt satisfied, thinking she was quite sensible after all.
Thinking this, he impulsively pushed open the children’s room door.
Leo and Mia were fast asleep, their small heads close together.
On the bedside table, a photo frame held their picture with Cassandra, all smiles. Elara’s photo had
been removed at some point.
Looking at the empty spot where Elara’s photo used to hang,
For some reason, he felt a strange emptiness in his heart.
He didn’t return to the master bedroom but went to a guest room instead.
Outside the window, moonlight streamed in coldly.
Dominic took a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet and drank directly from the bottle.
The burning liquid scorched his throat but couldn’t extinguish the inexplicable irritation in his heart.
After that day, Dominic often used business trips as an excuse to spend less time at home.
He was often absent, and Cassandra, delighted by the freedom, spent her days at the beauty salon or getting her hair styled.
Leo and Mia, without anyone to pick them up from school, started taking advantage. Cassandra, in her efforts to win their affection, had often secretly allowed them to skip school and play.
The two children, taking cues from her, began to follow suit. They stopped attending school altogether, constantly skipping classes to hide outside.
Cassandra, when she found out, didn’t give it a second thought.
“Mrs. Sterling, the young master and young lady have been skipping school a lot lately. The teacher has called the house, saying she hopes Mr. Thorne and you can discipline the children more.”
3:49 pmD
