“I didn’t do it, Primrose. That needle wasn’t mine...”
Her face hardened like ice.
“Carson, I believed you were upright and honest. A refusal meant a refusal. I even spent days trying to persuade you. But I never imagined you could be so cruel, trying to kill my son.”
A wave of helplessness crashed over me. “I swear, I really didn’t do it.”
“You didn’t?”
Primrose stepped closer, her eyes sharp and unforgiving.
“That thick needle was lodged in Alec’s head. Today, only you and Gideon held him. And you still deny it?”
“You expect me to believe it wasn’t you, then that Gideon, his own father, tried to hurt his son?”
Disappointment darkened Primrose’s gaze.
“If you can’t accept this child, then go to the mountain resort for a few days. Calm yourself.”
That very day, bodyguards escorted me away. Primrose said I could return once I’d come to my senses.
The rain poured relentlessly the day I left.
Inside the house, Primrose paced restlessly, her steps quick and nervous. Suddenly, she bit her lip, snatched an umbrella, and dashed into the storm.
“Carson, take this umbrella,” she called out.
“While I’m gone, take care of yourself. I’ll wait for the day you come back.”
I caught the familiar warmth in her eyes and smiled, but I didn’t reach for the umbrella.
“We’ll see.”
Without a glance back, I turned and walked away, every step firm and certain.
Primrose didn’t know, I had no intention of returning.
The next day, settled in the mountain resort, a message popped up, another video from that mysterious account, the same one from two years ago.
The screen showed a noisy KTV sofa, but their conversation cut through the clamor with chilling clarity.
“Did you wear one?”
Gideon chuckled darkly. “You didn’t again? Aren’t you scared you’ll get pregnant and your husband will leave you?”
Primrose snapped out of her reverie and let out a cold, bitter laugh.
“If I get pregnant, I’ll just have the baby.”
“Carson has always insisted on being childfree. We’ve been married for eight years and still have no children. My parents are pressuring me hard. How could I just stand by and watch the family line die out?”
“I’ll never divorce him. So I’ll have this child with you, for now, you raise him.”
She took a slow drag from her cigarette, her voice casual, almost indifferent.
“When the time comes, I’ll find some excuse, say the child was an accident.”
A shock like lightning hit me, freezing me from head to toe, my body trembling uncontrollably.
That night, two years ago, she insisted it was a setup, a mistake.
But it turned out she had planned it all along.
I sneered, my eyes drifting toward the window.
The resort sat on the far side of a mountain, part of the Archival family’s private estate, isolated and silent.
Rain pounded down in torrents as if trying to wash the whole world clean.
After a long moment of hesitation, I finally opened an umbrella and began descending the mountain path.
Primrose, I silently wished her a future overflowing with children and grandchildren.
As for me, I knew deep down we would never cross paths again.
“Primrose, look how much this child takes after you. Just like you were at his age as if he was carved from the very same mold.”
Elizabeth’s face lit up with joy as she cradled Alec in her arms.
The doctor had just finished the examination, and the needle hadn’t pierced deep, only grazing the surface. Thankful relief washed over us all.
Primrose stood watching the peaceful scene, her mind clouded and her chest tight with a strange irritation.
Her eyes flicked down to her phone. It was already eight in the evening.
She wondered if I had reached the resort yet.
With the rain pouring so hard tonight, was I afraid to be alone?
Just as she reached for her phone to call her assistant, the line rang instead.
“President Archival, something’s happened!”
“This storm is relentless! There’s been a landslide at the mountain resort. Your husband... he’s missing!”
