Chapter 2 The Child They Took From Me

After a week of agonizing struggle, I finally went to the villa—for my daughter, and also for closure.

When I rang the doorbell, Jon opened the door. The moment he saw me, the smile on his lips froze. "Lydia?"

Through the narrow opening, I saw Caspian feeding Tia strawberry shortcake.

Ian stood beside them, watching with a gentle expression.

But the moment they heard my name, the air fell into absolute silence. Everyone froze in place, their expressions as though they had seen a ghost.

After a brief moment of panic, Ian immediately frowned. "What are you doing here?"

If this had happened before, I would have been afraid of angering him and hurriedly tried to explain myself.

But this time, I didn't even look at him.

I walked straight up to Caspian and asked, "Should I call you Caspian Wyndham, or Caspian Laughton?"

Caspian pressed his lips together, his brows furrowing. "I guess you've found out. But how did you know I was still alive?"

"Does that even matter?" I stared straight at him. "Why did you take my child?"

The moment I thought of the son I had only been allowed to glimpse before losing consciousness, my voice began to tremble uncontrollably. "You lied to me for six years. Everything about you was a lie. Why did you have to hurt me?"

Before Caspian could answer, Ian growled, "You owe Tia all of this, that's why!"

I stared at him in disbelief, watching as he let out a long breath like he had finally gotten something off his chest.

"Back then, to make it up to you, Mom and Dad forcibly sent Tia away before bringing you home. Because of that, she was attacked and stabbed while she was in Kingsbridge, and the injury left her unable to have children. Giving Tia a child was the only way you could atone for what you'd done."

I had always felt guilty about our parents' death, and since returning, I had constantly reminded myself that I needed to atone for it.

When Ian first inherited the family business, he'd been in a rocky situation.

So, I stayed up night after night working on business proposals and negotiated with clients over drinks.

Even when I drank until I suffered a gastric hemorrhage, I never once complained.

Jon, meanwhile, had never taken his life seriously.

He was always getting into fights and causing trouble at bars, and every time, I was the one who rushed over to get him out of trouble.

The worst time, one of his sworn enemies kicked me so hard that two of my ribs broke.

I had tried so hard to make amends for everything I had done.

Little did I know none of it had been enough—Tia was the one who deserved compensation.

They had decided to make me pay her back by taking the child I had nearly died giving birth to.

A faint metallic taste of blood spread across my tongue. My gaze swept past Jon before settling on Caspian. "And you? I don't remember ever owing you anything," I questioned.

Caspian seemed conflicted. After a long silence, he finally muttered, "That knife wound Tia suffered? She took it for me. I owe her my life."

I stared at him blankly. "So, you thought you should use my child and me to repay that debt?"

An overwhelming sense of absurdity closed in around me.

The sharp, tearing pain in my chest finally shattered the calm I had been desperately pretending to maintain, and I hurled my bag at him.

"I only ever owed my parents anything. I never owed any of you a damn thing. How could you do this to me?"

The next second, something slammed violently into my stomach, and I fell hard to the floor. Pain exploded through me, turning my vision black.

Then, I heard a childish voice beside me. "Don't bully my daddy, you evil witch!"

I lifted my head, and stood before me was a little boy who bore a faint resemblance to me.