My father stood frozen on the spot.
After all, he was a man of high status. He had even held the position of the president of the province's business association and well-connected with the elites of this province.
Now, he was being humiliated by Sean. This was an absolute disgrace for him!
Furious, he was about to lash out when I pulled him back.
"This is outrageous! They even dared to hit Mr. Dellon Senior!"
"Mr. Dellon Senior has always been generous with charity. He often donates to struggling students and impoverished families and funds schools. However now, he’s being treated like this!"
"Well, what do you expect? You should blame his son. Hen is a spineless fool. A man who willingly lets a woman walk all over him deserves no sympathy."
"He even sold off the family’s fortune like it’s nothing. If I had a son like Allan, I’d beat him to death myself!"
"That adulterous couple should be drowned in a lake! Yet, they’ve managed to steal a fortune and become the wealthiest people in the city!"
The murmurs of the crowd grew louder and they were filled with indignation. Their contempt was not just for me but it was also directed at Clara.
"Enough!" Clara scanned the crowd and the look in her eyes feared them and instantly silenced the room.
Then she turned to me. "Allan, are you signing or not? Give me a straight answer."
I nodded. "I’ll sign."
The divorce agreement was simple. It only left me with just a few thousand dollars and essentially it meant that I walked away with nothing.
I picked up the pen and swiftly signed my name.
Clara looked over the document with a happy heart and a victorious smile spread across her face. She then sneered, "Good, very good. Allan, thank you! Thanks to you, our family now has billions of dollars in assets. We’ll never run out of money for generations! You are truly our greatest benefactor."
Sean raised his glass and drank it while grinning smugly. "You’re like a second father to me, Allan! I owe you one!"
I smiled inwardly. Oh, really? Let’s see who has the last laugh.
When my father witnessed the smugness on their faces and the loss of our family’s inheritance that was passed down to him from his great-grandfather. he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the floor.
His heart had always been weak. Years ago, when I decided to raise those twins, he nearly had a stroke from the shock.
"Dad!"
"Patrick!"
My mother, relatives and I rushed to his side. Some pinched his pressure points, others tried to get him water.
Clara, who was watching from the side, suddenly noticed a beautiful woman helping tend to my father. Her eyes widened in surprise. Alice Marshall? What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’ve taken an interest in this pathetic loser?"
Alice and Clara were best friends. They had grown up together in the same rural village. Back then, Clara would always tease her for being an unsophisticated country girl.
Alice simply smiled faintly and didn’t respond.
A moment later, my father regained consciousness and we helped him to a quiet place to rest.
"Where are those twins?" someone in the crowd asked.
"I heard they went to pick up their university acceptance letters."
Just then, two teenagers in school uniforms entered the banquet hall. They were a little overweight but had bright, cheerful expressions.
Upon seeing me, they immediately turned away with disgust and ran to Clara. My daughter, Fiona Dellon, said playfully, "Mom, Sean, we got our acceptance letters!"
Clara beamed and pulled them close. "From now on, you two should call Sean ‘Dad.’"
"Dad," The twins called out in unison.
Hearing the children I had raised with my own hands now calling another man "Dad," a pang of bitterness filled my heart.
Sean chuckled. "Good kids. Now I won’t have to sneak around to visit you at school anymore."
My mother couldn’t take it any longer. Furious, she pointed at them and shouted, "Fiona! Rory Dellon! Your father dedicated eighteen years of his life to raising you and this is how you repay him?"
She turned to my son. "Rory, you were a sickly child. You constantly caught colds and fevers. One night, when you had a fever up to forty degrees Celsius, your father ran through the pouring rain to take you to the hospital."
Then she faced my daughter. "Fiona, when you were in high school, you got involved with a no-good delinquent. That night, those thugs tried to drug you at a party. If your father hadn’t shown up in time and taken ten knife wounds in the process, your life would’ve been ruined!"
