Chapter 5

I set my phone down in silence. We had journeyed together from the campus to the corporate world, only to reach this bitter end where our paths finally diverged forever.

Even after all these years, I still underestimated just how selfish and cold this man could be.

I sighed and hung up.

When I turned around, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Tyson was standing right there at the landing, his face crumpled with grief.

My phone almost slipped from my hand. I had walked down two full flights, so there was no way he should have been able to hear me from the hospital room.

How long had he been standing there? How much had he heard?

He walked toward me with unsteady steps, and I fumbled for something to say, feeling embarrassed, "Mr. Harrington, should I call a doctor to..."

He shook his head with a bitter smile, replying, "No need. You're a good girl, Olivia. Go on up and keep my wife company."

He looked like he could barely hold himself upright. I knew he had always been frustrated with Edward's behavior these past few years, but in the end, blood was blood. It won over everything.

He had always told himself that Edward was still a young boy who figured things out. Boys make mistakes, and eventually they will grow up.

As a father, it was his job to be patient.

Now he understood the truth. Edward wasn't immature. He was calculating. He knew exactly what he was doing because he knew he was the only heir his parents had. And that knowledge made him untouchable in his own mind.

Edward was weaponizing their biological bond to hold his parents hostage, using the unconditional love as a fortress for his reckless behavior.

Tyson's throat tightened with suppressed emotion as he observed my concern, wondering how a stranger could show him more grace and empathy than the very son who carried his name and blood.

He forced his expression into something calm.

"I just came down to stretch my legs and walk the stairs a bit.

"I think I'll sit here for a while."

I nodded and headed back upstairs.

I paused a few steps up the stairs and glanced back, only to find that the man I had always known as sharp and commanding had suddenly withered, leaving him a decade older.

During Jane's hospital stay, Edward never visited.

I stopped reaching out to him, too. They were his parents. If he had no conscience, why should I keep humiliating myself?

Tyson must have spoken to his wife privately, because after that, Jane stopped making excuses for Edward. She stopped staring out the window, waiting for footsteps that never came.

Worried, I stayed by her side through all of it until the day she was discharged. That morning, my phone buzzed with a text from Edward.

[Olivia, today's the project launch. You're supposed to be on-site with the team. Where are you? Unauthorized absence?]

I was typing a reply when another message came through.

[If you don't want to work, hand your position over to Jenny.]

I snorted and texted: [Mr. Harrington, I already resigned. You're free to give my job to whoever you want.]

Not even thirty seconds later, my phone rang. It was Edward.

I barely had time to answer before his voice exploded through the speaker.

"Who the hell approved your resignation without my sign-off?"

I kept my voice perfectly even as I replied, "You did. The night you were out celebrating your wedding with your wife."

There was a long silence on the other end.

I was about to hang up when he finally spoke, sounding sulky, "I thought that was a routine work approval. I'm revoking it. Come back to the office. I won't mark you absent."

The way he played the benevolent boss was honestly ridiculous.

I couldn't pinpoint exactly when he began to grow so insufferably slick and arrogant during our nine years together, but the gap between this man and the bright youth who once brought me breakfast had become an unbridgeable chasm.

I wasn't going to waste another breath arguing, so I hung up.

On the other end, Jenny saw the call disconnect and immediately turned on the waterworks.

"Edward, Olivia must still be so mad at me," she sniffled, her voice small and wounded. "I should go apologize to her in person..."

Edward's heart melted as he replied, "This is my fault. I indulged her for too long, and now you're the one paying for it."

He knew I was beautiful and capable after I had stood by his side for nearly a decade. But I could never make him feel like the center of the universe. But Jenny made that.

I handled everything with airtight efficiency, and I never appeared to need him, so in his narcissism, he mistook my strength for a lack of love.

Back in college, he had loved that about me. Having a girlfriend that impressive made him look good.

But his parents started praising me more than him. Seeing them dote on me more than him, their only child, must have bruised his ego until something inside him shifted for the worse.

He resented how I had won over his parents so completely that he felt displaced within his own lineage.

The thought of my pregnancy suddenly made him erupt into cruel laughter, especially since he remembered that the child was conceived through IVF.

To him, my struggle to conceive was merely a forced submission.

With a mocking laugh, he bet on my helplessness. He believed that even if his affair with Jenny was a total scandal, I wouldn't dare rebel. After all, could I really bring myself to get rid of this precious child, the one that had cost me so much?

His grand design was to discard Jenny with a fat check once she gave birth and their passion wore off.

He expected to marry me as if nothing had happened. Jenny was sweet and attentive in ways I never was, so he couldn't just toss Jenny aside. She deserved something.

Jenny, oblivious to the calculations running through his head, pressed closer to him.

"As long as you love me, Edward," she whispered, "I can handle anything Olivia throws my way."

That made his chest ache with tenderness. He pulled her into his arms, murmuring, "Don't be scared. I'll go with you."

When Jenny realized he wasn't going to stop her from confronting Olivia, something dark flickered behind her eyes. But a heartbeat later, it was gone, replaced by that soft smile.