---- Chapter 36 The divorce from Serena was swift and squalid. She signed the papers with a smirk, already eyeing her next mark in the courtroom hallway. She abandoned him without a backward glance, latching onto a new, wealthier-looking man almost immediately. Michael was free of her, but the knowledge of her full deception, especially her tormenting of Liv, left him hollowed out, exhausted He was a broken man, his reputation ruined, his finances depleted. He sold what few possessions he had left, living in cheap motels, haunted by regret. His desperate search for Liv resumed, this time with a new, frantic urgency. He had to warn her about Serena's further malice, though he suspected Elizabeth had already insulated her. More, he had to tell her the truth about "Mikey" - that the child wasn't his, that Serena's entire story was a lie. Perhaps it would lessen Liv's (invented) pain about the "other child." He returned to Kennebunkport, a gaunt, wild-eyed figure. He tried the Hayes estate again. Mr. Hayes met him at the gates, his expression unyielding. "| told you to settle your affairs, Michael. Not to return until you had." ---- " have, sir! | divorced her! She's... she was a fraud. The child, Mikey, he wasn't even hers. It was all a lie!" Mr. Hayes looked at him, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. Disgust? Pity? "It changes nothing, Michael. Olivia is not here. She does not wish to see you. Ever again." Rejection. Absolute and final. Despair washed over Michael. He had done what was asked, and still, it wasn't enough. He had been played. He sank to his knees on the gravel driveway, a broken man As Mr. Hayes turned to leave, the butler, Jennings, who had been standing silently by, stepped forward. He leaned down, his voice a low whisper only Michael could hear. "Mr. Thorne. What Mrs. Hayes-Thorne told you... about the abortion... It was not true." Michael's head snapped up, his eyes wide with disbelief. "She... she lied?" + Jennings nodded, a flicker of pity in his usually stoic eyes. "Miss Olivia is due to deliver her child very soon. On a private island. For her safety and privacy." 1 The child was alive. Their child. A shocking revelation. A surge of unimaginable joy, quickly followed by renewed, desperate hope. Jennings, with a final look of warning towards the retreating Mr. Hayes, slipped a piece of paper into Michael's hand. An address. A name. A boat rental service in a small, nearby ---- harbor. "If you truly wish to redeem yourself," Jennings murmured, "perhaps you can find a way to protect them. From afar. She will never take you back. But a father... a father protects his child." Jennings straightened up and retreated into the house, leaving Michael clutching the piece of paper, his world tilting once more. Anew quest. Not for reconciliation. But for redemption. For his child.