Chapter 2The Thirty-Year Bluff

Since it was already out in the open, Thomas had no choice but to endlessly apologize and explain. His excuses were pathetic, boiling down to one tired cliché: a drunken mistake in his youth.

What a load of crap. Setting aside the fact that Thomas was famous in his youth for his high alcohol tolerance... even if he were blackout drunk, could he really have performed?

After thirty years together, the man sitting in front of me, his hair more than half gray, suddenly felt like a complete stranger.

I looked at them and asked the first question since Liam walked through the door: "Why didn't your mother come?"

Liam twitched the corner of his mouth. The look he gave me screamed, I knew you'd ask that. "Mrs. Sterling, my mom is very busy. She's traveling with some friends right now and didn't have time to come."

I narrowed my eyes slightly, taking a hard look at the young man who shared a striking resemblance to Thomas. I had, after all, lived twenty-odd years longer than him; I wasn't deaf to the passive-aggressive undertone in his voice.

He held his chin slightly high, an arrogant air seeping through his casual demeanor.

Just an illegitimate bastard, and he actually thought he had the right to feel superior in front of me?

I let out a cold scoff: "So, your mother raised you all these years without ever trying to find your father. And now, she sends you looking for him. What, can she not afford to keep you anymore?"

Liam's face darkened. But before he could even respond, Thomas was already barking at me: "Stella!"

I glared at him coldly. He still didn't have the guts to meet my eyes, just muttering under his breath that even if I was angry, I shouldn't take it out on the kid. The kid was innocent; he didn't know anything.

Innocent?

Of course he wasn't innocent. As an illegitimate child, his very existence was the original sin in this marriage.

Liam didn't stay long. He only came to deliver a message: he had a girlfriend and wanted to get married, but his current apartment was too small for a married couple. He wanted to move in with us.

After all, the penthouse Thomas and I currently lived in was over three thousand square feet.

What kind of fever dream was he having? I didn't bust my ass for half my life just to hand everything over to someone else.

I immediately vetoed the idea, but Thomas just kept his head down and stayed silent.

As Liam was leaving, he shot me a smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes. Thomas had already done a DNA test with him. Even as an illegitimate son, his right to inherit was set in stone.

I could block him for now, but I couldn't block him forever.