Chapter 4

People around me were subtly sizing me up.

Some with pity.

Others with a hint of schadenfreude, enjoying the spectacle.

I pretended not to notice any of them, walked straight into the main house, and handed Grandpa his birthday gift.

"Grandpa, I wish you good health."

He looked at me with affection.

"Good, Grandpa received it."

Ethan lingered a step behind, standing shoulder to shoulder with Chloe. They looked like an affectionate couple.

Grandpa paused.

Then he took my hand and Ethan's, placing them together. "Is it because you're giving me a great-grandchild soon?"

Ethan and I froze simultaneously.

I was the first to pull my hand away, saying under Ethan's somewhat stunned gaze, "Grandpa, Ethan and I..."

The man beside me cut me off, then told Grandpa, "Don't worry, Grandpa, we'll get to it soon."

Grandpa roared with laughter.

Ethan, however, pulled me to the backyard. His expression was a little dark, with an inexplicable irritation.

"What do you want to say?"

"To tell Grandpa the truth: that we're getting a divorce, and there won't be any children." I said expressionlessly.

His thin lips tightened, brows furrowed.

"Why are you bringing up divorce again? Didn't we agree to let it go? Sophia, can you stop making a scene?"

I was a little confused.

"Since we've reached a point where we detest each other, why don't you just marry Chloe, the woman you love?"

His breathing instantly grew heavy. "Detest? I never..."

"Ethan!"

Chloe, from a distance, interrupted him, making the tension even heavier between us. She looked at me pitifully, biting her lip.

"Sophia, can you stop using Grandpa to threaten me?"

I frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Chloe looked utterly wronged.

"Are you trying to say today that I broke up you and Ethan? You know Grandpa isn't well."

"I couldn't just watch you mess things up, so I had to compromise and leave Ethan. Is that your plan?"

I was astonished.

Then came an uncontrollable sense of absurdity, a sneer.

"You watch too much TV."

Who would fall for such a clumsy attempt at sowing discord?

"Sophia."

Ethan, standing nearby, suddenly spoke in a low voice. "Is that true? You're threatening me again."

My lips moved.

He believed her...

I wanted to say something to defend myself, but facing his questioning gaze, the words died in my throat.

In the end, it just became,

"Believe what you want."

I turned and walked away, not even looking at his somewhat complex expression.

In my earpiece, Sophia was comforting me.

"Don't be sad."

A strange ache welled up in my nose.

"I'm not sad. So, Sophia, on your end, he'll propose to you after your surgery is successful. Don't accept him."

This time, she hummed without hesitation. "I know. Don't worry."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Not long after, at the birthday party, Grandpa cut the cake and then went to his room to rest.

Without him there, the people at the dinner table openly mocked me.

"Look at some people, they've been challenged right in their own home, yet they're still timid like a quail."

"Oh, you also have to consider who Chloe is. She's Ethan's sweetheart, you know."

I listened to it all.

My hand gripping the forks tightened abruptly, then loosened. I looked up with a cold chuckle.

"You're so brave, yet isn't your older brother raising his illegitimate son?"

Her face instantly turned ugly.

"You! Sophia! What does our family business have to do with you?!"

I retorted expressionlessly, "Then what do my affairs have to do with you?"

She choked on her words.

The atmosphere at the dinner table became awkward.

Ethan interrupted us in a deep voice, "Sophia, that's enough."

I turned my head blankly.

Only then did I notice his tie was the same color as Chloe's.

His stance was clear.

That's why they felt emboldened to mock me so brazenly.

The strength in my hand gripping the forks suddenly left me. I put them down and murmured, "Ethan, you have the least right to criticize me."

His breathing grew heavy.

And I rose from the table, the emotions I had suppressed came flooding out the moment I left the mansion.

Tears streamed down my face, an endless flow.

The mansion was quite a distance away.

I walked and walked, never had this road felt so cold and lonely.

I looked up at the sky; the sun was bright, but I felt no warmth at all.

Just then,

A choked voice in my earpiece spoke.

"Sophia, Ethan is back with the doctor."