Chapter II

After saying those words, I turned and went to the guest room to pack my luggage, ignoring their reactions.

Since my mind was made up to cut ties completely, I didn't want to leave a single trace of myself here, not even a design sketch.

The sound of laughter from the living room drilled through the door. The hand folding my shirt paused for a moment.

"Liam, I want the child to take your surname. That way, even if he calls someone else 'Dad' in the future, he will always remember that you are his great artist father."

Even without looking, I could imagine the look of self-righteous emotion on Sophia's face as she said this.

And my heart, already riddled with holes from her betrayal, seized up in pain once again.

I couldn't help but recall the scene last month when I rushed home, travel-worn, carrying an out-of-print art book I had bid on specifically for Sophia at an overseas auction.

But at the doorstep, I ran into Sophia and Liam holding hands, returning from a walk in the garden.

Unlike the sheer terror on Sophia's face, Liam merely looked me over with confusion, asking if I was a delivery driver who had the wrong address.

I didn't say a word, staring fixedly at Sophia's high, protruding belly.

After an eleven-month separation, my wife was pregnant.

Even if I wanted to deceive myself, I couldn't make myself believe the child was mine.

It wasn't until Sophia panic-strickenly blocked Liam, introducing me to him.

"This is my husband, Ethan Hunter."

I thought hearing this would make Liam show some restraint. Instead, he acted like the host, inviting me into the villa I had bought with cash in full.

As we brushed past each other, he whispered in a volume only I could hear:

"I heard you're a few years older than me? Since your wife is carrying my seed, I suppose I should respectfully call you 'Big Brother'."

In that moment, rage rushed straight to my brain, and I could no longer control myself. I swung my fist, landing it solidly on his seemingly innocent face.

I completely lost control. The longing of those eleven months apart transformed in that instant into monstrous anger.

If there had been a hammer at hand, I probably would have smashed them both.

It wasn't until the neighbors heard the commotion and called the police that we were taken to the station together. But since it was a domestic dispute, the police couldn't intervene much and simply told us to go home and cool off.

The moment we walked in the door, my in-laws, who had heard the news, began accusing me indiscriminately.

They scolded me for lacking grace the moment I returned, acting like a savage and using violence, making the whole family a laughingstock in the community.

They even reprimanded me, saying my years of higher education were wasted since I would beat a "terminally ill patient," threatening that if I had caused any real harm, they would never forgive me.

It turned out they had known about Sophia and Liam all along, and had even actively pushed them together to satisfy their so-called "artistic sentiments."

In just one short year, Liam had become the genius son-in-law in their eyes.

I was the only one kept in the dark, the fool responsible for making money.

A bitter taste rose in my mouth, and my heart felt desolate.

Sophia walked tremblingly to my side, trying to take my hand to explain.

"I never meant to betray you. Liam is very sick; the doctor says he has at most six months to live. I just couldn't bear to see his artistic genes end like this."

"I thought about discussing it with you before, but you were so busy with the project out of town. I was afraid of distracting you, afraid of affecting your engineering schedule, so I planned to tell you when you got back."

"If you're willing, can't we raise this child together? Just like our own."

She spoke of life-altering events like bearing children so lightly, as if she had merely adopted a stray cat.

Just as I stuffed the last piece of clothing into my suitcase, my mother-in-law pushed the door open.

Seeing the suitcase at my feet, she wore an expression that said "at least you know your place," and said, "Since you haven't been back for so long, I let Liam sleep in the master bedroom to make it easier to care for Sophia. The study has been converted into a nursery. You'll just have to make do on the living room sofa tonight, or you can go stay at a hotel?"

I was physically and mentally exhausted; I had no strength left to go out and find a hotel.

I nodded, preparing to settle on the sofa for the night.

However, in the dead of night, the sound of a baby crying came incessantly from the master bedroom.

I turned over, about to put on my noise-canceling headphones, when I heard Sophia's complaining voice.

"Can't you comfort the baby? He won't stop crying."

"Darling, aren't you my muse? My only job is to take care of you. A baby crying is just him practicing vocalization; he's a future tenor."

Sophia laughed coyly. "You're so bad."

Immediately following came the creaking sound of the bed rocking.

I pulled the blanket over my head, desperately trying to block out those nauseating sounds.

But closing my eyes, the image of Sophia proposing to me for the first time floated into my mind.

Back then, she was independent and confident, her eyes filled only with me.

It is a pity that that Sophia had long since died in the past.