---- Chapter 23 "Mr. Hayes, your... that girl, Tara, keeps crying for her dad. What should we do with her?" the nanny asked, exasperated. The child's constant tantrums were impossible to soothe. Joshua frowned. He had nearly forgotten the girl at home With her parents dead and no blood tie to him, he had no intention of keeping her. Tara ran to him, smiling, and threw herself into his arms. "Daddy, you're back! | missed you so much." Joshua pushed her away, repulsed. Her face, identical to Ella's, reminded him of Ella's venom, erasing any trace of kindness he had left. "I'm not your dad. Your parents are dead," he said. Ignoring her cries, he had her sent to an orphanage. 2 He once cherished and loved her, believing she was his hard- won daughter. Now, everything had changed. He was utterly alone. "Mr. Hayes, the company won't survive," his secretary said hesitantly. ---- box with a mysterious smile. Kathleen opened it, finding not a treasure but a key. "What's this? A car?" she asked. Adrian chuckled. "No, it's a home. A home for just the two of us. Even with a hundred lives, he wouldn't betray Kathleen, or Ellen and her husband would end him. "| won't make empty promises, Kathleen. Watch my actions," he said. He scooped her up, carried her to the large bedroom bed, and ---- kissed her passionately. Kathleen, caught in the moment, clutched his shoulders. Maybe she could find happiness after all. Two months after their wedding, Kathleen got pregnant. Adrian looked displeased. "I took precautions. How did this happen? No, I'll book a doctor tomorrow. We can't keep this baby." He worried about her health. Her well-being meant more than having a child. Kathleen snatched the ultrasound from him. "No way. This is my hard-won baby. I'm not listening to you." She had consulted doctors. Her recovery was solid; pregnancy wouldn't harm her. No one knew how much she longed to be a mother. Adrian still objected. "Sweetheart, I'm worried about you. If anything happened, | couldn't live." Kathleen laughed off his dramatics. "Enough. Ellen knows, and we checked with doctors. I'll be fine." Adrian couldn't win. He tended to her meticulously throughout her pregnancy, terrified of any mishap. Thankfully, Kathleen gave birth to a healthy boy. Adrian, eyes red, kissed her pale forehead. "I'm getting a vasectomy tomorrow. One child nearly killed you. | won't let ---- you suffer again." Kathleen, tears in her eyes, glanced at their son and nodded, reassuring Adrian. When news of Kathleen's child reached Joshua, he was fishing in the mountains. For two years, he cut off the outside world, living alone. Only monthly updates from abroad stirred him. "Kathleen, congratulations on becoming a mother," he murmured to the still lake. A month later, at the baby's fullmonth celebration, Kathleen received a gift from back home-a bank card. The sender said it was Joshua's legacy, a gift for her child. He had taken his life two weeks earlier. + With it came a letter, but Kathleen didn't glance at it. She tossed it into the shredder. Looking at her son's tender face, she cast the past, and that paper, behind her. She wouldn't grieve for Joshua anymore. A brighter future awaited her. (The End)