chapter 8

Melanie was restrained by the bodyguards.

She snorted coldly and spat.

"Feelings? Robin, from the moment you silently broke up with me and later married that woman, all I've felt for you is disgust. You're not worthy to talk about love with me."

"Break up…"

Robin suddenly let out a low, bitter laugh, a sound more grating than crying.

"Yeah, break up…"

He lifted his head, staring at Melanie, his eyes swirling with a madness and pain I couldn't comprehend.

"If I hadn't found out I had low sperm count back then, how could I have let you go?"

Melanie's arrogant expression froze instantly.

Robin laughed bitterly.

"I thought I would never have children in my life! I can't let you stay with a useless man like me! I love you, Melanie!

"Being with Winona… it was only to find someone who could give me a child, to fulfill the duty of continuing the family line!

"When I have a child, I will get a divorce. I will come back to you, clean and free!"

Every word he spoke felt like a knife, cutting me to pieces.

So, in his eyes, I was nothing but… a tool for giving life.

Robin's tone suddenly shifted. The tenderness and pain in his eyes vanished, replaced by overwhelming hatred.

He pointed at Melanie, roaring, "But you! Melanie! Why did you do this to my children? Why!"

I looked at the two of them.

One was insane, the other even more so.

I let out a sudden, bitter laugh.

Robin and Melanie both turned to me in shock.

I met their stunned eyes and said, "You're cut from the same cloth."

I turned to Robin, staring at his face, a mixture of love and betrayal written all over it.

"And now you play the devoted father? You hate her for what she did to your three kids."

A cold smile curled at the corner of my lips.

"Robin, let me ask you this. What about Fred, the fourth child I was carrying—the one you personally pushed into the lake and killed? How do you explain that?"

Robin's expressions shattered instantly.

His pupils dilated as he stared at my flat stomach.

It was as if only now he realized.

He, too, was a killer.

"Ah!"

He buried his head in his hands, letting out a cry of despair before collapsing heavily.

Marsh's men dragged him out like a dead dog.

Later, I heard he had gone insane.

He was sent to the city's top psychiatric hospital, complete with a VIP hospital suite.

Marsh assigned people to "monitor" him 24 hours a day.

Every second he was awake, he repeated the same thing.

He slammed his head against the wall.

Under his breath, he kept whispering, "I'm sorry."

Sorry to me, and to the children.

Blood and flesh blurred together, over and over again.

He couldn't live, yet he couldn't die either.

As for Melanie's fate, I never asked.

It was Dad who brought it up first.

He sat by my bed, peeling an apple for me, his voice sounding much older than before.

"That girl from the Dolton family… I originally wanted Raymond to make her pay. I was ready to risk our entire family fortune, demanding that he repay you 10 times, even 100 times over, for all the suffering you endured."

He paused, offering a small piece of apple to my lips.

"He didn't agree."

My heart sank.

"But one call from the Wade family, and Raymond begged us, sending his daughter over and leaving her entirely in Marsh's hands," Dad continued, a flicker of light in his eyes.

He looked at me with unprecedented seriousness.

"Winona, you always thought I was forcing you into that marriage alliance. But you were wrong. I wasn't forcing you. I was protecting you in my own way."

Tears streamed down my face immediately.

The chains I thought bound me were my true armor.

I buried my head in Dad's chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

I never inquired about Melanie's ending again.

Now, I only wanted to protect my three children and Dad.

…

A year later, on an early summer afternoon with the sun just right, I pushed the stroller through the villa's garden.

The three little ones inside cooed and gurgled, grabbing each other's fingers and laughing with pure delight.

Marsh had quietly stepped beside me.

He pulled a velvet box from his pocket.

Opening it revealed a sparkling diamond ring.

"Winona, marry me."

His voice was steady as always, yet carried a barely perceptible nervousness.

I smiled.

Reaching out, I gently closed the box.

"Marsh."

I looked at him, then at Dad a short distance away, playing on the lawn with my children.

The sunlight fell on them, warm and golden, like a dream.

"See, like this, the way we are…

"Don't we already feel like a family?"

Marsh froze.

Then, the tension in his eyes melted away, replaced by a gentle, tender smile.

Yes.

Love doesn't always need a piece of paper to prove it.

Having it is already enough.