Chapter 4

I began struggling violently, screaming with everything I had.

Soren had to press down harder on my hands. He didn't control his strength well—crack.

The clear sound of my shoulder dislocating rang out. I gasped, tears soaking the sofa beneath me.

Only then did the man release me, but he didn't immediately set it back in place. He looked down at me.

"After all these years, you still like making things harder on yourself."

He bent down, brushing aside my wet hair to reveal that scar, his eyes half-closed.

"If you were pregnant, why didn't you tell me back then? After you gave birth to this child, why didn't you come find me?"

Back then, I kept telling him the truth, begging him to believe me. I told him I really was pregnant, that his father's death had nothing to do with me.

But he'd rather believe Fiona, whom he'd known less than a year, than me, who'd been with him for five years.

I avoided his hand, my face full of sarcasm.

"Soren, Jenny really isn't your daughter."

"And wasn't it you who said I should get as far away as possible? Why are you appearing in front of me again?!"

The man fell silent.

To me, this silence was more like an admission that he was hiding some scheme.

The commotion downstairs finally woke Jenny upstairs.

When she saw me covered in tears, pinned on the sofa by Soren, she ran barefoot down the stairs.

"Mommy! Let go of my mommy! Bad man, you big bad man!"

She cried and shouted while pounding on Soren.

The butler appeared in time, pulling her sobbing form aside.

Soren looked at Jenny, then at me, amused.

"Call me daddy, and I'll let your mommy go."

Jenny had already labeled him a bad guy. She shouted,

"You're not my daddy!! I have a daddy! My daddy isn't a big bad man like you!"

My heart ached. Ignoring my dislocated arm, I struggled hard, cursing.

"Soren, you bastard, let me go!"

The man gripped my jaw, sneering.

"You're not a bastard? You gave birth to my child and ran away. All these years, not a word."

I bit my lip, refusing to admit the child was his. Jenny also steadfastly refused to speak.

Seeing this, Soren lost his temper. He restrained Jenny and pulled out a lighter.

He threatened that if she didn't call him daddy, he'd burn her with fire.

Enormous panic engulfed me. I knelt on the ground, using my good hand to grab his leg, pleading.

"Soren, please spare the child. She's innocent!!"

Jenny's face went deathly pale with fear, tears dripping onto my face, so scalding they seemed capable of melting my heart.

"Burn me instead! Burn me!"

I tried to rush forward, but two of his guards locked my arms behind me and held me down. My arms were nearly dislocated, and cuts appeared on my body from their violent movements, bleeding.

Soren remained unmoved. He pressed the lighter, bringing the flame close to Jenny's face.

Watching Jenny's terrified face illuminated by firelight, I nearly fainted, finally giving in.

"You are—you are Jenny's biological father!! Jenny is your daughter! She's yours!!"

After I shouted this sentence, the guards released their hold on me. I sat powerlessly on the ground.

Jenny returned to my arms as she wished, crying so hard she could barely breathe.

"If you'd admitted it earlier, the child wouldn't have had to suffer like this."

His palm landing on top of my head made me instinctively tremble.

Watching Beta Leo hurrying over from a distance, my heart turned to ashes.

If Soren dared harm Jenny, I would fight him to the death.

Even if I died, I wouldn't let him take my child.

Soren was supremely confident, pushing aside the paternity test Leo brought.

"No need to look. The child is mine."

As his words fell, Leo said tremulously,

"Alpha Soren, you should still take a look. The child... the child really isn't yours..."