Nancy went missing for several days and did not reappear until the day my mother's body was scheduled for cremation. Luis showed up with her at his side, not so much bringing her as escorting her.

She looked completely unwilling, nothing like before, as if she could not even be bothered to pretend to care about me anymore.

I had stepped away to the restroom when I happened to run into them, father and daughter, talking in a quiet corner.

"Dad, how much longer do I have to put up with this?" Nancy complained.

"What's the rush?" Luis shot back. "Did you forget how you used to beg me, skipping meals and everything, just so I'd help you marry Joshua?"

Nancy let out an icy laugh. "I did love him, once. But I loved the version of him who controlled everything and stood at the top. Not this man who spends all day circling the kitchen."

She gave him a dismissive glance. "Just look at him now. Does he even look like a man anymore? All he does is cook and eat. He's driving me insane."

"Even if you're going insane, you're going to endure it," Luis said sharply. "The contract isn't in your hands yet. If you let even a hint of this slip out, don't expect me to still recognize you as my daughter."

Luis left first.

I did not miss the bitterness written all over Nancy's face.

By the time I returned, Luis had already gone off to handle something. Nancy was left standing there alone, distracted while waiting for me.

I had no energy to focus on her.

I held my mother's urn in my arms, while Nancy silently opened an umbrella over us.

The weight in my hands felt like a thousand pounds, but the weight on my chest felt even heavier.

I broke down, crying uncontrollably.

This time, Nancy did not mock me like before. Instead, she suddenly reached out and wiped the tears from my face.

"Joshua, you still have me."

If I did not know the truth, I might have believed her right then.

After all, I had truly loved her once.

If I had not loved her, how could I have personally taught her how to run a company, how to read financial statements, and how to understand people?

I knew Luis had never been satisfied with her as his daughter and that he had plenty of other illegitimate children, which meant he had no real need for her, so I wanted Nancy to have the ability to protect herself.

I handed over the entire company to her, not because I wanted to slack off, but because I knew how badly she wanted to prove herself to Luis.

I planned everything for her.

However, I never imagined that the sharpest blade I forged for her would be the one she used to stab me in the back.

After finishing all of my mother's funeral arrangements, I turned and went straight to the company.

The receptionist was new and did not recognize me, so I introduced myself.

"I'm Mr. Lawson, Vice President here… and Nancy's husband."

She looked me up and down, suspicion written all over her face. She was just about to say something when someone called out to her.

"What are you doing? How could you stop Mr. Lawson like that?"

My former executive assistant stepped forward, shooting the receptionist a glare. I waved it off, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

As I turned to leave, I heard her mutter under her breath, "I thought Mr. Shaw was the only VP here. Where did this Lawson guy come from?"

That was when it hit me.

Nancy had promoted Gilbert to Vice President.

My hand clenched into a fist as I headed toward Nancy's office. Just as I was about to walk in, her assistant stepped in front of me.

"Sir, Ms. Cooper is in a remote meeting right now. It's not a good time."

The assistant's eyes flickered nervously.

Faint laughter drifted out from behind the door. I heard a male and female voice.

Without another word, I shoved the assistant aside and kicked the door open.

Nancy sat behind her desk and looked up at me, her brows knitting slightly. "What are you doing here?" Her face was flushed, and her breathing was uneven. Just as I was about to step forward, she suddenly stopped me.

"I'm in a meeting. Go wait outside for a bit."

I glanced around the office. Nothing seemed out of place.

For a moment, I thought I might be overthinking things, so I turned and closed the door.

I had not come here for her, anyway.

Once I stepped outside, I pulled out my phone and made a call.

"I'm waiting for you on the thirteenth floor."

After I finished taking care of everything, I did not wait for Nancy to come looking for me. I turned and left the company.

That afternoon, Calvin’s school was holding a parent-child sports day.

No one knew how I had painfully confronted the truth of not being Calvin’s real dad over the past few days, going over every old memory

When I was alone, I kept going through old photographs and videos of him as a baby, looking at them again and again.

I was the one who changed his diaper for the first time after he was born. Night after night, I woke up to his cries, getting up over and over to make formula, feed him, and carry him around the room, gently patting his back to help him burp.

Back then, Nancy could barely take care of herself, let alone a baby. I poured all my energy into taking care of both of them. Between Calvin and me, there were too many memories, too many bonds for me to ever let go.

However, somewhere along the way, things changed.

My son started looking toward the mother who had never cared for him for even a single day, rather than me. He began to resent me, the father who told him to eat his meals and not watch too much TV.

I called Nancy, but she did not pick up.

With no other choice, I went by myself. Traffic was terrible, so I parked the car beside the road and ran all the way to the school.

By the time I got there, the event had already started.

Someone was already standing beside Calvin.

"Joshua." Nancy's face flashed with a hint of unease as she quickly walked over to me. "I thought you were busy, so I asked Gilbert to step in."

For a moment, I felt like my soul had been pulled out of my body. I did not even know how to react.

Suddenly, Calvin squeezed his way over. "Mom, Dad, hurry up. The teacher's calling us!"

He reached out and grabbed Nancy, trying to pull her along.

I watched as he held Nancy's hand with one hand and Gilbert's with the other, smiling brighter than I had seen in a long time.

"Joshua, we already signed up over here. If you're not busy, why don't you head home and cook dinner?"

Gilbert glanced back at me, his eyes full of smug satisfaction.

Nancy called in the evening. She said she was taking Calvin to stay at her parents' place for the night. I said a casual, “Okay,” and did not say anything more.

Just as I thought she was about to hang up, the line suddenly went quiet.

"Joshua, aren't you going to ask me anything? You usually pester me with questions."

A wave of bitterness rose in my throat as my gaze drifted to the wedding photograph by the bed, where Nancy was smiling like she had the whole world in her hands. It was a smile that vanished from my life not long after we got married.

I let out a quiet, mocking laugh, about to speak, but she cut me off first.

"You're not still mad about this afternoon, are you? Or is it because I promoted Gilbert to Vice President?"

Her tone was confident, as if everything were under her control. "You hurt Gilbert. Making him Vice President was just a way to apologize on your behalf."

She let out a soft laugh. "He’s smart and capable. Having him help is a good thing for the Lawson Group."

Then, her voice turned icy. "Stop acting like a victim when you're the one benefiting from all this."

With that, she hung up.

I stayed expressionless as I continued packing up everything in the house that belonged to me.

Nancy had never given me many things, but I always kept her gifts to me carefully, afraid they might get scratched or damaged.

Now, I stuffed all of them into a large plastic bag and threw it into the trash downstairs.

My phone buzzed with a message from Gilbert. It was a photograph of the three of them looking like a happy family, though at the bottom of the frame, you could see the man’s hand resting between the woman’s legs.

[Guess when this was taken.]

My eyes turned icy. I exited the message and dialed a number I did not recognize.

"Is everything ready? I'm heading to the airport now."

Just before passing through security, I received a text from Nancy.

[Joshua, I'm craving egg tarts from Westfield Street. I'll give you one hour to get them. Do it, and I'll forgive you and bring our son home.]

I let out a bitter laugh, pulled out my phone’s SIM card, and dropped it into the trash, knowing I was never going back home.