Chapter 2

She was the eldest daughter of the Richmond family in Harbor City. She was no helpless orphan.

After a week of agonizing over it, I decided I needed answers. I went to the mansion and rang the doorbell.

Daleyza opened the door. The moment she saw me, the smile on her face froze. "Kyson?"

Through the narrow opening, I saw Aislinn feeding Memphis a spoonful of strawberry cake.

Zara stood nearby, watching them with a tender smile.

But the moment they heard my name, the air fell silent. Everyone froze, their faces as though they'd seen a ghost.

"What are you doing here?" After a brief moment of panic, Zara put her cold expression back on.

In the past, I would have been afraid of making her angry. I would have nervously tried to explain myself.

But this time, I didn't even look at her. I walked straight up to Aislinn. "Should I call you Aislinn West or Lyanna Richmond?"

Aislinn pressed her lips together and frowned. "So you know everything. How did you find out I wasn't dead?"

"Does that matter?" I stared straight at her.

When I thought about how she'd handed my biological child over to Memphis to raise without even letting me meet him, my voice began to tremble. "You lied to me for six years. Everything about you was fake. Did you enjoy deceiving me?"

Before Aislinn could answer, Zara spoke in a low voice, "Because this is what you owe Memphis!"

I stared at her in disbelief.

She let out a long, relieved breath. "Mom and Dad sent Memphis away against his will before you came home because they wanted to make things right with you.

"Later, Memphis was in an accident and was diagnosed with azoospermia. Giving him a child was the only way you could make it up to him."

My parents were dead, and I felt guilty about it.

After returning to the Compton family, I'd never stopped thinking about how I could atone for what had happened.

Zara had inherited the family business, but her position was unstable, so I stayed up late working on proposals for her.

I negotiated deals with clients over drinks. Even when I drank so much that I started bleeding internally, I never complained.

Daleyza had no interest in doing anything productive and was always getting into trouble at bars. Every time, I was the one who rushed over to get her out of it. During the worst incident, one of her enemies smashed a bottle over the back of my head.

I'd done everything I could to make up for what I believed I'd taken from them. I never imagined that, in their eyes, none of it counted.

Memphis was the one who deserved compensation, and they were going to use my child to pay him back.

A faint metallic taste spread through my mouth. My gaze passed over Daleyza before settling on Aislinn. "What about you? I don't remember ever owing you anything."

A complicated emotion flickered in Aislinn's eyes. After a long pause, she finally spoke in a quiet voice, "Memphis took a knife for me. I owe him."

I stared at her. "So you repaid him by using my child and me?"

The sheer absurdity of it overwhelmed me.

A sharp, tearing pain in my chest finally shattered the composure I'd been struggling to maintain.

I broke down and screamed at her, "I owe my parents. I don't owe any of you a damn thing! How could you do this to me?"

The moment I finished speaking, something slammed into my abdomen, knocking me to the floor.

Pain exploded through me, and my vision went black for a moment. Then I heard a young child's voice.

"You're a bad man! Don't you dare bully my mommy!"

I looked up and saw a little boy who resembled me.