Chapter 2

As soon as we reached the garden, Lewis roughly shoved me, sending me crashing into a flowerbed.

The branches scraped my hand, sending a sharp pain through me.

But seeing Damon struggle in Katherine's arms made me feel worse.

I pushed myself up, trying to grab Damon, but Lewis snatched him up into his arms.

Damon fought back with everything he had, his arms and legs flailing as he tried to break free and reach me.

But Lewis held him tightly and slapped him hard on his backside. "You brat, how dare you challenge your father? Pushing people at your age? How vicious. Your mother clearly failed to raise you right. I'll do the job for her."

As he said that, he raised his hand again, ready to hit Damon.

I rushed forward and slapped him across the face. "Are you out of your mind? I've told you he's not your son!"

"Alicia, how dare you slap me?" Lewis stared at me in disbelief.

"You were the perfect image of a virtuous woman five years ago. How did you end up like this? Is this how you've been raising my son all this time? I'm so disappointed.

"Luckily for him, I'm back, or he would've grown up to be a killer. Now I have to take on the role of a father and teach this disrespectful brat a lesson."

He threw Damon to the ground and shoved him toward Katherine. "Get on your knees and apologize to Katherine."

Damon had never been treated this way. Furious, he cried out, "My daddy runs Bauer Corp! If he finds out what you're doing to me, he won't let you get away with it! You're a bad guy!"

My heart shattered as I moved to comfort him, but Katherine held me back, stopping me from reaching him.

Damon's words only made Lewis glare at me with even more disdain and revulsion.

"Alicia, you really disgust me. I can't believe you've known about my identity all this time. Was that why you got close to me? To secretly get pregnant with my child and use him to threaten me at Grandpa Johann's birthday party?"

I was confused. What was he talking about? I couldn't understand a thing.

Was he connected to the Bauer family?

A terrible feeling surged inside me. My voice trembled as I asked, "Who are you? What's your connection to the Bauer family?"

He glanced at me with utter contempt. "Really? You're still playing dumb at this point? You don't know who I am, but you brought my son here to trap me?"

Katherine scoffed. "Older women are always so calculating. You've known all along that Lewis is the heir to Bauer Corp. That's why you secretly gave birth to his son, right? But guess what? Your plan's about to fail."

Her words hit me like a thunderclap.

Oh my god! What kind of nightmare was this?

The awkwardness was off the charts.

I didn't dare stop to think. I wrenched myself free from Katherine's grip. Catching them both off guard, I grabbed Damon in my arms and bolted.

This was a high-profile party, filled with the social elite.

If Lewis exposed our relationship, it would cause a scandal that would be disastrous for Bauer Corp.

"Stop right there!"

Katherine suddenly grabbed Lewis and whispered something in his ear.

Lewis' expression changed, and he stormed forward, grabbing both me and Damon by the arms. "You want to leave? Fine, but leave my son here."

My eyes burned with anger, and I spoke clearly. "Lewis, what we had back then was nothing more than a childish game of house. We never slept together. Damon is not your son."

"Shut up!" He interrupted coldly. "You old hag, now you don't want to admit it, huh? The night I left, you begged me to sleep with you in that private room. With how desperate you were, you were no different from a prostitute."

I quickly covered Damon's ears, making sure he didn't hear. My eyes locked on Lewis. "Don't spread lies. I left early that night. So, who did you actually sleep with?"