When I pressed the answer button, Bella’s anxious voice spilled through the receiver.
“Dad, what do you mean?”
“Mom already cheated, and you’re not divorcing her? Are you keeping her for the New Year or something?”
Her agitation mounted.
“Don’t be afraid of going to court! My classmate’s mom is a lawyer….”
Before she could finish, I drew in a deep breath and cut her off, my voice cold.
“No divorce means no divorce. This matter ends here.”
I ended the call with a sharp snap.
In my previous life, the fury of netizens had exploded after my father-in-law accused me of cheating, and a woman, claiming to be my mistress, appeared online, sobbing and declaring she was pregnant with my child.
In this life, I had secretly found out which hospital the woman visited for her prenatal checkup. I asked an acquaintance working there to obtain a sample of her amniotic cells, and I immediately took it for a paternity test.
To my shock, the child in her belly truly was mine.
But I had never even met her. How could I possibly have a child with her?
One unanswered question after another pressed down on me, stealing my breath. My instincts screamed that if I didn’t uncover the truth soon, I would once again meet the same tragic end as before.
And that woman’s accusation had been the very reason I was dragged into the abyss in my previous life.
With that thought, I wasted no time; I paid a high price to hire a private detective to investigate certain matters for me.
I needed to uncover how this child had come to be, and how those so-called pieces of evidence proving my affair were nothing but fabrications.
But before I could get any answers, a divorce summons arrived from the court.
The moment I stepped into the courtroom, my father-in-law, Ashton Grant, suddenly stood up, trembling with fury, pointing at me and shouting, “Austin, you heartless bastard! How has my daughter ever wronged you? When you married her, she didn’t demand a bride price or a house, and she risked half her life to bear your children. And what have you done? Kept a mistress behind her back!”
“You’re a cold-hearted scumbag without a shred of decency, and you deserve to be struck by lightning!”
His teeth clenched so hard his jaw ached, and he lunged forward to strike me, but the bailiffs held him back firmly.
Even as he was forced back into his seat, my father-in-law’s fury hadn’t cooled.
“Your Honor, you must deliver justice!” he demanded.
“My daughter is remarkable, divorced or not, she’ll find someone better!”
“This scoundrel should leave empty-handed, not a penny to his name!”
Then my father, Hunter Mitchell, rose.
His face was drained of color, eyes filled with bitter disappointment and shame as they locked onto me.
“Austin, how could you betray us like this? Kinsley treated you so well, and you couldn’t be satisfied, you had to stray.”
“If you go through with this divorce, consider our father-son bond broken. The Mitchell name can’t bear such disgrace.”
He even raised his hand, as if ready, just like before, to strike me.
The disgust in his eyes carved a sharp ache deep in my chest.
I could bear that others doubted me.
But he was my own father, the one who knew me better than anyone in this world.
I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t believe me.
Not once had he tried to hear my side before choosing to stand against me.
But at that moment, I no longer had the energy to argue.
With a blank expression, I faced them all and said sharply, “I didn’t cheat. I won’t walk away with nothing.”
“The so-called evidence is forged; someone set me up.”
The judge’s eyes narrowed as he addressed me.
“Defendant, since you deny the evidence presented, do you have any proof to submit in your defense?”
