I shook my head slowly.
What hurt was knowing I'd failed in my duty as a wife.
“Just now downstairs, I heard that man and that woman talking. Their illegitimate son refuses to acknowledge the family. He'd rather die than come back to the Delgados.”
“Ma'am, as long as you have a baby soon, no outsider can take the Delgado family fortune.”
The moment I heard Edith's words, I shot to my feet.
“The boy won't come back?”
“That's right. At least he has some self-awareness. He knows his origins aren't exactly respectable.”
No. No, that wouldn't do.
I was a traditional wife. Stand by your husband, raise his children—that was the job, and the job was mine.
I hadn't given him a single child of my own. I certainly couldn't let his child stay out there on his own.
A family should be whole.
I had to bring him back.
Natalie made some inquiries downstairs and found out the boy was in college.
I sent for my makeup artist straightaway, sat for a full face, then chose something gentle—an outfit that said approachable, not intimidating.
I was a traditional wife. A wife's looks were her husband's face to the world.
So for all these years,
I had taken meticulous care of myself.
All so that at every banquet, someone would say,
“She's stunning. Edgar Delgado is one lucky man.”
A university campus, tens of thousands of people milling around.
Of course I needed to look even more polished than usual.
The Delgado family's image mattered.
I stood outside the university gates comparing faces to the photo on my phone for ages, but I couldn't spot the boy.
The investigator I'd hired said he went to the café across the street to work a shift at this time every day.
So why hadn't I seen him?
Had I come to the wrong school?
I stepped back a couple of paces and looked up at the sign.
Kingsbridge University.
No, this was right.
After a moment's thought, I headed straight for the building where his class was held.
According to the file, his last class was Engineering Mechanics, in Building Fifteen.
I walked in my heels, poised and elegant, for what felt like forever.
Then I walked for another eternity, faking the poise.
The campus was enormous, and I was exhausted.
But I was a traditional wife. I couldn't complain about being tired, and I absolutely could not look anything less than put-together.
By the time I reached the building, spine stiff and one hand braced against my lower back,
I saw the boy from the photo cornered at the bottom of the stairwell by a group of thugs.
They were bullying my son?
Wait. No.
Bullying my husband's son.
Absolutely not.
I ignored the pain screaming through my feet and swept up those stairs like a woman who had never suffered a day in her life.
I put myself in front of the boy, shielding him behind me.
“I'm telling you right now, campus security and the faculty are on their way.”
“If you know what's good for you, I suggest you leave.”
The thugs exchanged a look.
Probably not wanting the trouble, they spat a few curses and left.
I spun around to face him. ：“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
He looked at me strangely.
He stammered, ：“You're the woman they mentioned.”
What woman?
Oh.
His father's wife.
“That's right.”
I reached out, took his arm, and didn't let go. ：“Good. You're coming home with me.”
He froze, and both ears flushed cherry-red in an instant.
“That fast? That's……isn't that a bit much?”
“What's wrong with it?”
“We just met. I mean, you're beautiful, but……going home together already? Besides, I still have my part-time shift.”
“Come home with me. I'll provide for you.”
For some reason, the shy expression he'd been wearing a second ago vanished, replaced by something dead serious.
His brow furrowed, and his voice dropped a few degrees.
“You want to keep me?”
The moment he came back to the Delgado family, he'd be Edgar's son. And Edgar's son was my son.
