Naomi's shove had caused Zachary to injure his already fragile stomach, which had resulted in internal bleeding.
He'd undergone IV treatment alone and returned home in a daze, barely conscious from exhaustion.
By the time he arrived, the mansion was dark and eerily silent.
But the moment he pushed open the door, the babies' cries erupted, piercing his eardrums.
The lights suddenly flicked on. Zachary stiffened as his vision went completely white for a moment.
Naomi's cold, ominous voice rang out. "Back already?"
Zachary looked at her in confusion. "Yeah. What's wrong?"
Naomi's eyes darkened, and she enunciated every word. "I left the children in your care, and now they've developed a severe allergic reaction. Don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
Zachary glanced at the bassinets nearby. Both babies were covered in red, swollen patches and crying so hard they could barely catch their breath. They looked utterly pitiful.
He frowned. "What exactly am I supposed to explain?"
Vincent tried to soothe the babies, his expression heartbroken and his voice helpless. "Ms. Cole, please don't blame Mr. Brooks. I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose.
"Mr. Brooks has never looked after children before, after all. He probably doesn't realize how fragile infants are. He must've overlooked something."
The moment Vincent finished speaking, the nanny beside them suddenly shuddered and dropped to her knees. "M-Ms. Cole, I swear I had nothing to do with this! It was Mr. Brooks! He told me to feed both babies peanut butter..."
Vincent jolted in shock. "What did you say? Mr. Brooks, didn't I text you specifically to warn you to keep the children away from peanuts? They were tested for allergies. They're severely allergic to peanuts..."
As Zachary watched the performance unfold before him, he finally understood.
This was a setup. They were coming after him.
A trace of mockery flashed through his eyes, but his voice remained surprisingly calm. "So, Naomi, you think I deliberately tried to kill the twins?"
Naomi's eyes were terrifyingly dark, her face livid with rage. "The evidence is right in front of us. Are you seriously going to deny it?
"Zachary, you've disappointed me completely. I understand that you don't want to accept these children. After all, they're not yours by blood.
"But how could you do something so wicked? You could've killed them!"
The babies' cries mingled with the deafening roar of the thunderstorm outside. A flash of lightning illuminated Zachary's pale, eerily calm face.
Things shouldn't have turned out this way.
Not long ago, the Cole family's company had been on the brink of collapse after its trade secrets were leaked. Every piece of evidence had pointed to Zachary.
Yet Naomi had stood firmly by his side, shielding him from every accusation. "Zachary, I believe you."
But now, a few words from Vincent were all it took for her to turn against him without hesitation and accuse him of attempted murder.
It felt as though an enormous wound had been torn open in Zachary's chest, allowing a bitter, cold wind to rush endlessly through it.
He was utterly exhausted. He no longer had the strength to defend himself. Instead, he offered a faint smile. "So, what do you want to do to me?"
"Ms. Cole..." Vincent murmured. "The children almost died!"
Naomi took a deep breath. "Zachary, when you've done something wrong, you have to apologize and accept your punishment. Tonight, you'll kneel outside the front door."
She turned to the bodyguards. "Without my permission, no one is allowed to let him inside!"
With a loud thud, Naomi's bodyguards forced Zachary to his knees on the gravel path in front of the mansion. Relentless pain shot through his knees.
The entire courtyard had once been covered in gravel paths like that.
Zachary had complained that the stones hurt his feet, so Naomi had ordered the gravel removed and the paths leveled. She'd left only this small patch of gravel beside the garden.
Back then, she'd told him she couldn't bear to see him in pain. Yet now, she was forcing him to kneel on those very stones for an entire night, exposed to the torrential rain and freezing wind!
…
By the second half of the night, Zachary could feel the agony in his still-injured stomach intensify once more.
"It hurts. God, it hurts so much!"
But no matter how desperately he cried out for help, the door remained firmly shut.
And so Zachary spent the entire night on his knees, enduring the excruciating pain until the skin split open and his legs were a bloody mess.
At daybreak, he finally received a call from David. "Zachary, I've taken care of the divorce papers for you. I've bought your plane ticket, too."
Zachary replied in a hoarse voice, "Okay. Thank you, David. I'll be leaving in seven days."
Just then, the front door suddenly swung open.
Naomi frowned as she stared at him, as though she were trying to see straight into his heart.
"What do you mean, leaving? Where are you going?" she demanded.
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