Clyde let out a sigh：
“I've spoiled those two.
“You know how it is. Mom and I both doted on them.
“After what you did yesterday, neither of them has eaten a thing.”
“What I did?”
I set my coffee cup down and locked eyes with him：
“Mr. Harding, are you telling me I no longer have the right to manage my own family's affairs?”
“That's not what I meant……”
Clyde hesitated for a beat：“It's just that anyone with eyes can see it.
“This is clearly revenge.”
I smiled：
“If you insist on putting it that way, then fine. I admit it.”
“But isn't the real reason you're angry just that I didn't marry you back then?”
Clyde grew agitated：“What happened back then can't be undone.
“If you want revenge, come after me. Don't take it out on two innocent women!
“Name your price.
“As long as you let Linda marry Morris, you can have everything I own!”
I stared at the man in front of me, genuinely surprised.
Then I laughed：
“Clyde.
“You're self-made.”
He froze.
A sigh escaped him, and he turned his face away.
“You swore you'd never let yourself live in poverty again.
“And now you'd throw away everything you've built? For them?”
Clyde sighed again：
“They……mean more to me than money ever could.”
My smile turned bitter.
He'd said those same words once.
To me.
Clyde.
I had him escorted out in the end.
On his way out, he kept looking back：
“Can't we talk about this a little more?
“I meant what I said about the compensation. I'm not joking.”
“Julia. Please.”
“They're really hurting.”
I gazed out the window.
And what about the girl who'd knelt on the ground twenty years ago, sobbing that she'd been set up?
Clyde had barely been gone when another visitor arrived.
Someone else wanted to see me.
The moment the door opened.
We both went still for a heartbeat.
Jim Winfield.
The man who'd been lying beside me that night.
My sister's boyfriend.
All these years.
He'd believed I was the one who drugged him.
And in the twenty years since.
He'd been just like me.
Never married.
“I didn't expect you to come too.”
I spoke first.
Jim sat down across from me.
His expression was complicated as he glanced around my home.
Then he looked at me.
And said：
“I didn't realize how determined you were.”
“Hm?”
“Morris. I only found out yesterday that he's your son.”
I said nothing.
“That night?” he asked.
I knew what he meant. The night my mother had set us both up.
I shook my head.
He sighed：
“You don't have to deny it. I understand.”
“He really isn't yours.”
He studied me.
A helpless look crossed his face：“You always were stubborn.
“But you should know by now who I've been staying single for, all these years.”
I drank my coffee and said nothing.
“Making things difficult for Ella and her daughter, honestly, that's a bit much.”
“So you're going to meddle in my family's business too?”
I swept him with a cold look.
He sighed：
“Julia.
“Strictly speaking, Morris is my child.
“That makes this my family's business too.”
“I already told you. He's not your child.”
Jim looked at me：
“Julia, I have eyes.
“That boy looks like me.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity：
