《Daddy by deception - My ex husband's fake heirs》全部章節：第 1 章 - 第 10 章

The bakery box rested carefully on the passenger seat like a fragile treasure.Gregory Thornton glanced at it every few seconds as he drove through the quieter streets on the outskirts of the city, his fingers tapping lightly against the steering wheel to an invisible rhythm of anticipation. A faint, genuine smile tugged at the corners of his lips — the kind of smile that reached his eyes and softened the sharp lines of exhaustion that had become permanent on his face. It was a smile Cathrene hadn’t seen in years.Beside the towering chocolate cake sat two neatly wrapped gifts: a bright red remote-controlled racing car for Caleb and a children’s science kit for Josiah. In the back seat, a bundle of blue balloons swayed gently with every turn, their strings dancing like hopeful promises.His phone vibrated in the center console. He didn’t need to look to know who it was.Cathrene: Drive safely.Gregory picked up the phone, stared at the simple message for a brief moment, and then locke

The first thing Cathrene did after ending the call with Dr. Rowan was close her eyes and lean back in her executive chair.“I believe it’s time you knew the truth.”Those words echoed relentlessly in her mind, heavy and ominous, like a storm cloud gathering on the horizon. Her heart pounded with a mixture of fear and desperate hope.She wanted to drive straight to the hospital right then. She wanted answers. She wanted to understand why the doctor’s voice had sounded so heavy, so burdened — as if he were carrying a weight he no longer wanted to hold alone.Instead, she opened her eyes and looked at the towering stack of documents waiting on her massive oak desk. A board meeting in twenty minutes. Three critical contracts requiring her signature. Payroll approvals for over two hundred employees. A major overseas shipment that could make or break their expansion into new markets.Life didn’t pause simply because her heart was breaking.Taking a slow, steadying breath, Cathrene pushed th

The drive home was unbearably quiet, the kind of silence that pressed down on the chest like a physical weight.Rain drizzled softly against the windshield as Gregory guided the luxury sedan through the dimly lit streets. The rhythmic sweep of the wipers was the only sound inside the car, a steady metronome marking the growing distance between them. Cathrene stared out the passenger window, watching streetlights blur into streaks of gold through the rain-streaked glass. Tears threatened to gather again, hot and insistent, but she refused to let them fall.Not in front of him.Not anymore.Gregory loosened his tie with a tired sigh. “You’ve been quiet.”Cathrene almost laughed — a bitter, broken sound she managed to swallow. Quiet? What was there left to say that wouldn’t shatter what little remained of them?Instead, she answered calmly, her voice steady through years of practiced restraint. “I’m thinking.”“About what Father said?”She slowly turned toward him, studying the sharp lin

The anonymous photograph stayed burned into Cathrene’s mind long after she left the office.She had opened it again and again on the drive home, as if staring at it long enough might change what she saw. Gregory. A smiling woman. Their hands resting across a small café table in a way that was far too familiar, far too comfortable. There was nothing explicitly scandalous in the image itself—no embrace, no kiss—but the ease between them was unmistakable. And the smile on Gregory’s face… she could not remember the last time he had smiled at her like that.By the time she reached the mansion, the sky had already darkened. Thomas opened the door with his usual quiet respect. Cathrene handed him her bag and walked upstairs without a word. She did not cry. She did not throw anything. She simply stood in the middle of their bedroom and stared at the perfectly made bed that still carried no trace of her husband.She made a decision then.She would not confront him tonight.The fertility consul

Cathrene returned to the mansion in the late afternoon, the clinic’s words still echoing inside her.You are physically capable of conceiving.I have found no evidence that you are infertile.She had carried the opposite belief for so long that the truth felt almost unreal, like a language she had forgotten how to speak. For eight years she had apologized with her silence. She had absorbed every disappointed glance from Gregory’s parents. She had let the absence of a child become her private shame. And now the ground beneath that shame had shifted.Thomas greeted her at the door, but she only managed a quiet nod before climbing the stairs. In their bedroom she stood for a long time in front of the window, watching the light change over the city, trying to steady the storm inside her chest.Relief was there — fragile, disorienting relief.But it was tangled with something sharper.If her body had never been the problem… then why had Gregory grown so cold? Why had he stopped attending a