Chapter 2

Chloe POV

"Chloe, you did so well. It's a boy."

When the smell of disinfectant rushed into my nose, Adrian held my icy hand and spoke in a gentle voice.

I forced my eyes open. The baby in my arms had his eyes shut, and his cries were faint.

But my head was heavy and foggy. I couldn't remember the tearing pain of labor, couldn't remember the details of carrying the baby for nine months, and even what happened before I entered the delivery room felt like it was hidden under a thick fog.

But the moment I looked down at the child, my heart still softened against my will. I instinctively held him tighter, as if he were the most important thing in my life.

Until that day, when Adrian flew to Naples and said there was an important shipment he had to receive in person, with no return date set.

The huge estate suddenly fell quiet.

With nothing to do, I went to the study to tidy up the things he had not had time to organize before leaving.

In one corner of the desk sat a black tablet, Adrian's dedicated device for handling overseas affairs and confidential files. He must have left in a hurry and forgotten to take it with him.

I was just about to lock the tablet in the safe when the screen suddenly lit up and a private message from a medical center popped up.

I thought it was just a routine medical archive notification, so I tapped it without thinking. Then a document titled Medical Custody Authorization Agreement appeared right in front of me.

On the patient name line, it clearly read Elena Rossi.

That name stabbed into my nerves like a needle.

She was the Bellini family's youngest daughter, and also Adrian's first love.

Back when she found out Adrian was going to marry me, she kept harassing me like a madwoman, even staging a car accident in an attempt to make me disappear.

After Adrian saved me, the Moretti family had her driven out of the country and banned her from ever coming back.

Over the years, Adrian had never once brought her up on his own.

But now, her medical file was on Adrian's private device.

I forced myself to stay calm and kept scrolling:

Informed consent for emergency C-section, postpartum hemorrhage resuscitation record, intensive care record...

The family signature line was Adrian's handwriting. I would never mistake it, and the surgery date was the very same day I gave birth.

Same time, same medical center, and then the blank memory in my head from when I delivered the baby. All the scattered pieces snapped together, and an icy sense of wrongness instantly swept over my entire body.

My hand started shaking. I took out my phone and called Adrian, wanting to ask him clearly what was going on.

But the receiver only played a cold robotic voice. "The number you dialed is turned off. Please leave a message after the tone."

After the call automatically ended, my mind only grew more chaotic.

I headed straight for the private dock behind the estate, wanting to make sure he had really left Sicily.

Just as I got close to the deck, I saw a black yacht slowly pull into shore.

The next second, a familiar figure appeared.

Adrian carefully supported a weak woman.

I knew that face all too well. It was Elena.

My heart sank little by little, and I instinctively retreated quickly into the shadows between two rows of shipping containers.

They walked over the gangway, and their voices grew clearer and clearer.

"The doctor said the C-section incision heals slowly. You need to rest properly and stop running around all the time." Adrian draped his coat over her shoulders, his movements so gentle it hurt to look at them.

"Does it still hurt?"

Elena shook her head gently with red eyes. "I just couldn't relax. I wanted to see Leo with my own eyes."

Leo. That was the name I had given my child.

My whole body turned cold, and Adrian's next words shattered every fantasy I had left.

"Don't worry. Chloe is taking very good care of him. She even loves this child more than you do now."

Elena swayed and leaned weakly against his shoulder. "But what if one day she finds out the truth?"

A confident smile curved Adrian's lips. "Relax. I've already cleaned up every trace that needed to go. She won't know."

"But the baby was born by me..." Elena choked softly.

"I know." Adrian pulled her tightly into his arms. "It's better for everyone if the child stays at the estate. Chloe will raise him for you."

The sound of waves crashing against the shore rang dull and heavy, but my mind went completely blank with a buzzing roar.

I slowly crouched down and covered my mouth hard, not daring to make a single sound.

All these years of Adrian's tenderness and promises suddenly became a joke.

He didn't love me. He just needed someone who would never question the truth to raise the child he had with another woman.

The sea wind grew colder and colder, but my thoughts had never been so clear.

Then I suddenly remembered something.

Back when Adrian's grandfather had just passed away, I helped sort through his belongings and found a folded medical report of Adrian's tucked between the pages of his diary.

In the diary, his grandfather had handwritten:

Adrian had suffered a gunshot wound when he was young, and his reproductive system was severely damaged. The chance of natural conception was practically zero.

Because it involved the family's honor and the godfather's dignity, he worked with the family doctor to hide the truth. Not a single person in the family knew.

Later, when I successfully "got pregnant," I naturally assumed it had just been a misdiagnosis.

But now that I thought about it, if that report was true, then Leo's existence itself was a huge lie.

I took out my phone, contacted an underground fixer, arranged a new identity, and urgently applied for overseas residency.

After I gave one last look at the two people embracing in the distance, I turned and left.

The sea wind lifted my long hair and scattered the last thread of attachment with it.

That secret buried for so many years, I would uncover it myself and treat it as the final farewell gift I gave Adrian.

I couldn't help but start looking forward to it. When he found out that the heir he had destroyed another life to protect wasn't his own blood, what kind of reaction would he have?