Chapter 3

Instantly, all the guests turned mocking eyes on me.

Some elders even spat at me, and their crude insults drowned me out.

"Matthew spent so much money sending her abroad to study, and she went there to sleep around! I bet her fifty-year-old mom having a miracle baby at her age isn't innocent either."

Eleanor and Harold straightened their clothes and stood tall next to Susan.

Mom clutched her belly and groaned.

I rushed over to support her.

Sweat soaked her hair.

She gripped my hand and shouted loudly.

"Matthew, you have such a vicious heart! You had an affair with our housekeeper and even got her pregnant, but you don't have the guts to admit it? My daughter went abroad to study with a clean reputation, and you conspired with this tramp to photoshop pictures and ruin her name. I'll get a lawyer to sue you both!"

I scattered the copies I'd prepared in my bag — Susan's pregnancy ultrasound and intimate photos of her with Dad.

The atmosphere in the room instantly turned against Dad and Susan.

Seeing Susan couldn't withstand the pressure, her eyes red like a rabbit's, Dad couldn't pretend to be distant anymore and pulled her tightly into his arms.

The room fell deathly silent.

Dad simply came clean: "Susan and I love each other. It's rare that at over fifty, I've met true love. Claire and I had an arranged marriage. She almost let my family line die out."

"But I'm not a heartless man. I won't divorce Claire. And Susan isn't a shallow woman — she has her career to pursue. We won't get married."

Everyone cheered and applauded his declaration of true love.

Seeing he'd controlled the situation, Dad smugly pointed at Mom: "Just have the baby. After you've recovered, you can help Susan with her postpartum care. Megan, you shouldn't work outside either. Dad will pay you to take care of your younger brothers."

"Matthew, you bastard! My daughter is more capable than you!"

"Who do you think you're looking down on! We'll live better than you."

Mom cursed him out, but she didn't mention my upcoming position.

But all she got was roaring laughter.

Everyone thought she was talking big.

She firmly stood in front of me, angrily cursing those with ill intentions toward me.

"Matthew, I married you at eighteen when you were so poor you couldn't even afford rent. I worked three jobs a day to pay the rent and saved money to put you through college."

"The only reason you got into the energy corporation was because I traded my life for that opportunity. If I hadn't saved Director Smith, in those days when jobs were so scarce, you getting in would've been pure fantasy!"

"Shut up! That was my own ability!" Dad got angry.

"Your ability is sleeping with a nanny younger than your daughter! Shameless!"

As my parents continued arguing, Eleanor and Harold surrounded Mom, trying to calm her down and appease Dad.

After the guests dispersed, Dad stormed upstairs with Susan.

I took Mom to the hospital for oxygen.

She looked dazed.

In my memory, Dad had never raised his voice at Mom.

He'd always been smiling, helping Mom cook.

After I was born, we'd had a very happy childhood for a while.

But now everything was unrecognizable.

Some family ties needed to be cut when they needed to be cut.