Ethan's POV

By the time I got home from work, it was dark outside. The front door hadn't been fully closed. The entryway and living room were in disarray.

Our family portrait had been thrown on the floor. Harry was crouched over it with a marker, doodling all over the picture. With a pair of scissors, he cut out the part where I was.

As he worked, he muttered to himself, "I wish this were Mr. Lockood instead."

In the past, I would've tried to teach him right from wrong. Now, I simply ignored him and walked past.

Tracy was sitting on the couch. When she heard me come in, she looked up, displeasure evident on her face. "What took you so long? Dinner still isn't ready. Harry's starving."

My steps slowed as I looked at them. For five years, no matter how late I worked or how exhausted I was, I had to come home and cook for them, clean the house, and do the laundry.

"There are leftovers in the fridge from yesterday. Just put it in the microwave for three minutes," I said, then smiled sarcastically. "Don't tell me you can't even manage that."

Tracy's eyes widened in disbelief. She parted her lips and shot to her feet. "Hey—"

"Cook for me, Daddy!" Harry ordered loudly, barking instructions as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Exhaustion engulfed me. I didn't want to look at either of them.

The moment I pushed open the master bedroom door, my face turned pale. The documents I had stored inside had been cut into pieces. The vase, the lamp, and the picture frames had all been smashed.

My steps turned frantic as I rushed to the bedside. The box that always sat on my nightstand had been knocked to the floor. Fragments of a vintage pocket watch lay scattered everywhere.

It was the last thing Mom had left behind in this world. I had always kept it safely tucked away in that box, protecting it like a treasure.

I spun around abruptly, and sure enough, Harry was leaning against the doorway, looking contemptuous.

"Did you do all this?" I questioned him.

He curled his lips. "Serves you right. You're always picking on Mr. Lockwood, and you wouldn't even cook dinner for me."

A loud buzzing filled my head as I stared at Harry with bloodshot eyes. Without hesitation, I raised my hand and slapped him hard, snapping his head to the side.

My palm stung, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. This was the child I had held in my arms from the day he was born, the child whose first word had been "Dada". Now, he felt like a stranger.

Harry clutched his cheek, staring at me in shock and fear. The next second, his cries brought Tracy rushing over. Her expression darkened as she pulled him into her arms.

"How could you lay a hand on him, Ethan? You've really got some nerve."

I ignored her shouting. Like someone who had lost his soul, I crouched on the floor and picked up the fragments of the pocket watch one by one.

"It's just a watch," Tracy said impatiently. "Do you really have to make such a big deal out of it? If you want, I'll just buy you a better one later."

A sharp edge sliced my finger, splattering drops of blood onto the floor.

I remembered Mom pressing that pocket watch into my hand while she was still alive. "Tracy is a good woman, Ethan… After I'm gone, give this to her. It's a valuable antique, and it's been with me ever since I got married…"

I closed my eyes for a moment before standing up and looking at Tracy. "Is money your answer to everything?"

She seemed startled by the look in my eyes and froze in place. The words of condemnation she had been about to unleash got stuck in her throat. Her lips quivered, yet not a word slipped out.

Harry cried even harder, flailing and hitting me with his fists and feet. "I don't want you as my daddy anymore! I want Mr. Lockwood! Mommy, bring me to Mr. Lockwood!"

His sobbing made my temples throb.

At last, Tracy pulled herself together and scooped Harry into her arms, her face grim. "Ethan, I don't care what kind of tantrum you're throwing. We'll settle this later. And when you finally come to your senses and apologize, that's when I'll bring our son back."

Ethan's POV

I sat alone in the living room the entire night. Only when dawn broke did I finally get up and open the drawer. Inside was the prenuptial agreement, its pages yellowed with age.

Tracy's signature was still there, bold and unmistakable. My fingers brushed over the bottom corner of the document. The date on it was set for next month.

In the days that followed, neither Tracy nor Harry came home. I had more than ten surgeries lined up back to back. I didn't want to return to that barren house anyway, so I rented a place and stayed there.

I contacted a divorce attorney and asked him to draw up the papers. Honestly, I should've done this right after Mom passed away. Alas, I had been too attached to the idea of a family, to Tracy.

Letting go, it turned out, wasn't nearly as hard as I'd once thought it would be. I believed everything would proceed smoothly from there.

Then, a month later, things took a turn.

I was the speaker at an academic lecture. The hall was so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Suddenly, the doors were violently shoved open.

Max stormed in with red-rimmed eyes, shoving past the security guards trying to stop him. He rushed onto the stage and grabbed me by the collar. "If you're angry, take it out on me like a man! Why did you go after Tracy's baby?"

His furious voice boomed through my microphone and spread across the hall. Whispers broke out among the audience. Cameras flashed as television crews kept snapping photos of me.

My face drained of color.

I had barely made sense of the situation when Max grabbed my throat and roared, "You inserted yourself into our relationship, and I let it slide. But that was my baby! How could you do this? Because of you, Tracy lost our baby!"

He broke down crying, then suddenly dropped to his knees before me. "Please, I'm begging you, let Tracy go. Stop holding on to her and destroying our family!"

My mind went blank as I stared at his theatrics, confused.

"Wait… so Dr. Lowe is a homewrecker?" someone in the crowd muttered, and the hall erupted.

I instantly snapped my head up to deny it. "No. I'm Tracy Montgomery's legal husb—"

Unfortunately, the chaos in the room swallowed my voice. People surged forward. One hurled a spare microphone at me. Others pointed and shouted obscenities. Even my colleagues looked at me with disgust.

Amid the chaos, Tracy finally arrived. She walked over and pulled Max to his feet, soothing him. "Hey, pull yourself together. It's just a misunderstanding…"

Someone in the crowd recognized her and immediately started seeking confirmation. "Is that Ms. Montgomery? The CEO of Montgomery Group?"

"No way. Dr. Lowe got himself involved with a billionaire CEO?"

"Ms. Montgomery, Ethan Lowe just claimed he's your legal husband. Is that true?"

Tracy, who had been out of the loop, finally understood what was happening. She snapped her head up at me. I clenched my fists and stared at her, but she avoided my gaze almost immediately.

"I have a baby with Max," she said evenly. "Dr. Lowe is just my OB-GYN"

Something inside me snapped. Tracy wouldn't look at me. She grabbed Max's hand and dragged him out of the hall, abandoning me to weather the full storm of hostility and humiliation on my own.

Naturally, the lecture was ruined. The dean said I had brought shame to the hospital and suspended me from my position. Even my training slot abroad was reassigned to someone else.

In five years, I had lost my mother, my family, and now, my career. Because of Tracy, I was left with nothing.

Ethan's POV

After the ordeal, Tracy reached out to me by texts.

"What happened was my fault. Max and I had an argument, and I told him out of spite that I had terminated the pregnancy. I didn't expect him to actually believe it and cause you trouble. I'm so sorry.

"Once the baby is born, I'll set the record straight with the media. Just bear with it for now."

Along with the messages came a large bank transfer.

My grip tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white. Because of their petty fight, I had lost my reputation and my career. That scene kept replaying in my mind, and I couldn't get over it.

But in the end, I bent forward, and whatever fight I had left drained right out of me. At the end of the day, Tracy didn't love me anymore. Max would always be her priority.

If that were the case, I would step aside and give them what they wanted.

I had already booked my flight. All the paperwork was done. The only thing left to do was collecting the prenuptial agreement and the fragments of Mom's pocket watch from that house.

When I got there, the house was packed with people, particularly kids about Harry's age. I glanced at the decorations on the wall, and only then did I remember it was Harry's birthday.

In the past, I would've never forgotten such an important day. Instead, I would've started preparing his gift two weeks in advance, though I had long suspected those presents ended up in the trash the moment I gave them.

I kept my head down and tried to make myself invisible, only planning to grab what I needed and leave. To my surprise, Harry's eyes lit up the moment he saw me. "Daddy…"

If I wasn't mistaken, I hadn't seen him since the incident at the house. Same as before, I paid no heed to him and simply walked right past.

A sharp-eyed kid suddenly pointed at me and said, "Hey, isn't that guy from TV? My mom said he's a homewrecker. What's he doing here?"

"Ethan Lowe? He actually has the nerve to show up at their house?" a concerned parent muttered.

Harry's face was washed with panic. Faced with his silence, his friends started teasing him. "Wait a minute… He's not actually your dad, is he? Are you the child of a homewrecker?"

"I'm not!" Harry screamed, his neck stiff with defiance, his face burning red.

Tracy frowned and made her way over, grabbing my arm and whispering, "What on earth are you doing here? Don't you know it's his birthday? Every media outlet was reporting on you. Do you have no shame? We still have to live our lives!"

I calmly pulled my arm free without saying a word. After I got what I came for, I turned to leave. As soon as I stepped out of the master bedroom, a plate of sliced cake flew straight at me.

It smashed hard into my face, and the fruit knife resting on the plate cut into my palm as well.

Pain shot through me, and my face turned pale. When I looked up, Harry was standing there, his face flushed, chest heaving violently. "You homewrecker! Why are you ruining my family? It's my birthday today! Get out!"

The kids who had been mocking him fell silent for a second. Then, as if amused, they started clapping and cheering.

I clenched my bleeding palm, my body trembling from rage. I knew Harry hated me, but I had never imagined he would go this far.

Tracy quickly came up to me, trying to grab my hand and check my injury. I shoved her away.

"You're right," I said hoarsely. "I'm not your husband. He's not my son. And this is definitely not my home."

The five-year agreement was up. Whether it was Harry's custody or Tracy's commitment, I didn't want either of them anymore.