Just as I had expected, Nathan never came home for the entire night. Yet, when I turned over and felt the cold on his side of the bed, I still couldn't stop my heart from aching.

A series of rapid knocks sounded at the door, every knock louder than the last.

I went over to answer the door, and Robert Wiley, the butler, simply glared at me with contempt.

"Mrs. Galloway Senior wants you to bring the kid to Galloway Manor."

Marina Boyle, Nathan's grandmother, had never liked me and always looked down on me. No matter how much I explained things to her about my co-parenting arrangement with Nathan, she refused to accept it and simply treated me as a promiscuous prostitute who hated the idea of settling down.

She also looked down on Theo.

And since Nathan's family all treated me with disrespect, naturally, the butler and maids in the household also looked down on Theo and me.

When I arrived at Galloway Manor, I realized that all of the Galloway relatives were also present.

Nathan, who'd disappeared the entire night, was standing there with Catherine in his arms, his eyes gentle as he looked at her with tenderness and care.

Marina smiled so widely whenever she looked at Catherine's stomach that it was almost blinding.

"Catherine is finally pregnant. Since all of our relatives are here today, it is now time for us to fulfil our part of the deal from half a year ago!"

The oldest and most influential member of the Galloway family, Moses Galloway, then stood up and formally declared Nathan as the official heir and new head of the Galloway family.

"Since we now have another little heir coming along, it's time to pick a date for the wedding."

I looked up and realized everyone, including Nathan, was looking at Catherine instead.

He caressed her stomach like there was no one else in the room and said affectionately, "I'm going to be a father…"

He didn't say that he was going to be a father "again"—only that he was becoming one.

I suppressed the bitterness in my heart and tightened my fist.

Theo suddenly whimpered quietly in the silent hall. "Mommy, it hurts."

I hurriedly released his hand from my grasp, noticing that his little hand was now red all over.

"I'm sorry, Teddy. Here, let me blow on it to make it better…"

However, it was precisely Theo's sentence earlier that had everyone in the family suddenly turn their attention toward us, mostly looking at us out of the corner of their eyes.

Moses frowned. "If news of the head of the Galloway family having a child born out of wedlock gets out, the entire family's reputation will be destroyed.

"That kid is nothing but a prostitute's bastard child anyway."

Nathan's mother, Doreen Stanton, scoffed coldly at me and said, "We'll just tell the public that this kid was adopted into the family for charity."

Doreen didn't like me. She didn't like Theo either. Back then, it had been her idea for Nathan to sleep with Catherine and produce an heir before he could inherit the title of the head of the family.

And since Catherine was really pregnant with an heir now, Theo was naturally out of the picture altogether.

Nathan let go of Catherine's hand and said, "Mom, don't you think that's too much?"

He was just about to walk over to me when Catherine silently tugged him back to her.

I witnessed everything with my own eyes. So, I brought Theo over to Doreen and said, "Understood. From today onward, Theo won't be Nathan's son anymore."

I then crouched before Theo and explained to him with red-rimmed eyes, "Teddy, you can't call him 'Daddy' anymore, okay? You can only call him 'Uncle Nate'."

Nathan was stunned. He knew very well that I'd only been able to remain on amicable terms with his family for the past six months largely because of Theo.

He tried listening for any hint of indignation in my voice, but he couldn't.

Theo couldn't understand the gravity of the situation and began to cry. I hurriedly picked him up in my arms to bring him out, but Catherine stopped me.

"Jo, I heard that it's good for pregnant women to wear purple amethysts as it's good for their health. Nathan had been searching everywhere for one for days to no avail, but I just realized that you have one on you!

"Do you think you can give it to me?"

I stared straight at Nathan and asked, "Is this what you want too, Nathan Galloway?"

I then glanced at the series of hickeys littered all over Catherine's neck when she cocked her head at me. It felt like there were a million needles jabbing into my heart at that moment, making me numb with pain.

The purple amethyst necklace had been Nathan's engagement gift to me.

We'd met at the Cloudington Gemstone Conference back then, when we both laid our eyes on this amethyst at the same time. And on the day of our engagement, he personally wove the amethyst into a necklace with a leather cord and put it around my neck, vowing to love me for the rest of my life.

I knew that Catherine had always been coveting it, asking Nathan for it time and time again, but he never gave it to her.

This time, though, Nathan just averted his gaze when I stared at him, deliberation and guilt appearing in his eyes.

"If you don't—"

"Okay."

I chuckled aloud as I yanked the necklace off and handed it to Catherine. I watched her put it on gleefully and even said, "It suits you really well."

Then, I picked Theo up in my arms and left the manor, with Nathan staring at me in complete confusion.

Theo still wouldn't stop crying even after we'd gotten back to the villa. I suppressed my heartache for him and asked, "Teddy, would you want to leave this place with me? I want to take you away."

He just sobbed even more loudly after that. "Can't we stay, Mommy?"

"But Teddy, your dad and grandma both wouldn't like it if we continued staying here. Do you really want to call him 'Uncle Nate' for the rest of your life?"

I looked at him gently and suppressed my own tears.

I selfishly wished that Theo belonged only to me and would only love me as well.

However, that wasn't how it worked in the real world.

Theo hugged the Lego in his arms. It had been a birthday gift from Nathan last year.

"Mommy, can I spend one more birthday with Daddy? Please?"

Theo stubbornly refused to back down. So, I closed my eyes in surrender and pulled him into a hug instead, nodding.

"Okay."

…

Theo's birthday was on February 12. I had purposely reminded Nathan about it two days before so that he could prepare adequately.

After all, this was most likely the last birthday he would spend with Theo. So I hoped that Theo would get his wish.

On his birthday, Theo woke up early and changed into his favorite outfit. He then asked me cautiously, "Mommy, Daddy will be coming back to celebrate my birthday with me, right?"

"Of course," I said, gently comforting him as I texted Nathan.

"It's Teddy's birthday today. Where are you?"

I sent the text, but I never got a reply. It was as if I were texting a blank wall instead.

Theo lowered his head, tightly clutching the ribbon on the cake box.

"Daddy's not coming after all, is he?"

A short while later, Theo seemed to have thought things through. He comforted himself, saying, "It's okay. Uncle Nate's busy. We shouldn't be disturbing him.

"Let's cut and eat the cake, Mommy."

This was the first time Theo had ever referred to Nathan as "Uncle Nate".

He seemed to have finally accepted the fact that Nathan didn't care about him anymore. However, the huge pout on his face and his red-rimmed eyes betrayed how upset he really was about it.

I watched Theo fight to put on a brave face and felt something ignite in my chest. It burned and blazed in my chest, filling me with heartache and pain.

I grabbed my phone and tapped into the chat window with Nathan.

"You can't even spare some time to attend your own son's birthday party, can you? Do you really like Catherine so much that you have to glue yourself to her hips every second of the day?"

My finger hovered over the "send" button, but I couldn't find it in myself to actually send it out.

Just then, a new text message arrived from him.

"Come to Galloway Manor now."

Joy immediately filled my heart. I showed Theo the text message on my phone and exclaimed, "Look, Teddy! Your dad remembered!"

Theo, who'd been hanging his head earlier, snapped his head up as a huge, happy smile graced his lips.

"Daddy must have prepared a lot of presents for me, Mommy! Let's go! Hurry!"

Theo was so excited with Nathan's response that he wouldn't stop chattering all the way there, wondering out loud what presents Nathan had probably prepared for him.

However, as we reached Galloway Manor, the yard full of roses had my heart squeezing all of a sudden.

This was not the typical birthday decoration for a kid's birthday party.

However, Theo didn't seem to have noticed and excitedly tugged me into the venue. I had no choice but to follow him with a heavy heart, getting more and more anxious by the second.

Nathan had better not have done anything that would completely destroy our relationship and render it unsalvageable.

Theo caught sight of Nathan standing next to the cake in the main hall, and his eyes brightened up at once. He ran right into his arms, squealing in delight.

"Daddy!"

Nathan looked at the boy in his arms, his eyes suddenly narrowing at him. His voice went hoarse as he asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

Nathan's tone of voice confirmed the unsettling hunch I'd had. At once, I felt that something terrible was going to happen.

The guests around us, all from the upper echelons of society in Ravelton, began whispering to themselves.

"Isn't it Nathan Galloway's and Catherine Wilkins' engagement party today? What's a random kid doing, calling him 'Daddy' like that?"

"Didn't I hear that the Galloways' second son wasn't married yet?"

"Wait, don't tell me that he's got a lovechild with someone else…"

Nathan's face turned ashen. He immediately shoved Theo off and barked, "What did you just call me?"

Theo stumbled backward and fell to the ground on his butt at once. He stared at Nathan in disbelief, the tears pooling in his eyes as he fought not to cry. Eventually, he cautiously said, "Uncle Nate."

A while later, he looked at the cake in the center of the hall and smiled again. He asked, "Uncle Nate, are you celebrating my birthday with me? I want to cut the cake with you!"

Theo had been looking forward to his birthday for days now, and he didn't seem to mind how Nathan made him address him as long as he could spend time together with him.

However, long, slender arms gently held Nathan's hands, still holding the cake knife.

"Of course you can't. This is not a place for beneficiaries of the Galloways' charities like yourself. Am I wrong, Nate?"

I felt the fire burning in my chest.

With Catherine putting it so plainly like that, I'd have to be dumb not to understand the meaning behind her words.

That text message had been from her. Her only objective had been to publicly announce me as nothing more than just a beneficiary on the receiving end of their so-called charities.

"Is that the case, Nathan Galloway?" I asked, shielding Theo behind me.

Nathan went blank for a second. Then, he looked at me with guilt in his eyes.

With everyone's eyes on him, he stated, "Yes. Just a beneficiary."

A smug, satisfied smile appeared on Catherine's lips as she stood behind him. She looked like a proud peahen who'd just won a battle.

The other guests around us immediately remarked, "How shameless can they be, throwing such a public fuss on such an important day for the Galloways?"

"Exactly! They probably don't know how to behave themselves since they're from such lowly families."

Theo's face went as white as a sheet with everyone talking shit about him. His eyes turned bloodshot.

I couldn't suppress the fire in my chest anymore. It had finally reached its peak.

I marched up to the towering cake and shoved it, toppling the whole thing to the floor.

"It's such an important day, isn't it? Then let's make sure everyone has their fun!"