"I suspect these twins are actually the illegitimate children of Mrs. Smith and her lover."

"Do you even need to question it? It’s so obvious! Otherwise, why would she insist on transferring all of Mr. Dellon’s assets to them?"

"Poor Mr. Dellon. He has been jilted."

The guests at the banquet whispered among themselves, their eyes filled with pity and disdain when they saw the turn of events.

Tears streamed down my mother’s face. "Allan, can you see? They had deceived you. Your father and I warned you long ago that this woman has evil intentions and a scheming one. She only married you for money. We even told you these twins had an unclear background, but you refused to listen!"

My father, who had initially left in anger, returned, his face darkened with disappointment. "How could the Dellon family have such a disgraceful son? Why did you hand over all your assets to a woman? Have you lost your mind?" he asked.

The chatter around me grew louder, but I kept my head lowered as I stared at the divorce papers. No one noticed the faint smirk on my lips.

"Allan, you can’t blame me for this," Clara excused. "I’m a normal woman. You got a vasectomy and can’t have children. I had no choice but to find someone else to have children.

Clara attempted to justify her action. She wanted to point out the reason for her affair.

I chuckled coldly. "You were the one who feared the pain of giving birth and insisted we live child-free. I got the vasectomy for you."

She cut my words, "That was back then! The reality is, you’re sterile and I wanted children of my own. So, I had to ask Sean …."

Sean bobbed his head smugly. "That’s right. Can a man who is sterile still be called a man? Sounds more like a eunuch to me."

Laughter erupted throughout the banquet hall.

When my mother recalled the past, with tears in her voice, she confronted Clara, "You came from a poor rural family. You couldn’t even afford tuition and lived off plain buns in your dormitory. Your mother was gravely ill with no money for treatment. If it weren’t for Allan supporting you both, you and your mother would’ve been long gone!"

"When he knew you loved grill ribs, Allan hired the best chef to make them for you. He even learned to cook them himself. When your younger brother was unemployed for years and abandoned by his wife and children, Allan’s father took him in and gave him a managerial position with more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for his annual salary."

At that moment, the three of us fell silent, lost in memories.

Then, my mother muttered, "Our family treated you so well, yet you repay us by stealing everything from the Dellon family."

Clara remained quiet for a few seconds before smirking. "So what? What's the use of talking about the past now?"

She turned to me. "Alright, Allan, how much longer are you going to stare at those papers? Even if you don’t sign, it doesn’t change anything."

"After all, you already transferred the assets to the kids. Our marital assets are down to just a few thousand dollars. However, since you have given up so much for us, I’ll let you keep that few thousand dollars. Consider that money as your retirement fund."

Her grin stretched so wide as Clara smiled in triumph.

Smack!

Suddenly, my father lunged forward in a quick stride and slapped her across the face. "You damn whore!"

His fury at losing the family’s fortune could not be contained any longer.

"She's right. If it weren’t for Mr. Dellon, her mother would’ve died long ago and she wouldn’t be living so well now."

"Mr. Dellon was just unlucky because he had put his trust in the wrong person."

The crowd blew their breath in sympathy.

"Someone! Grab this old fool and teach him a lesson!"

Clara who was humiliated could not take this insult and with a wave of her hand, several security guards stormed in and circled my father with a menacing expression.

They were the same security guards who were, just a moment ago, at the start of the banquet, fawning and smiling while helping my father carry gifts into the banquet.

Now that the tides had turned, so had their loyalty.

"You dare lay a hand on me, huh?" my father growled.

"Why wouldn’t we? Who do you think you are?" one of the guards sneered.

Even though they said that, they were intimidated by the past power so they hesitated to make a move. Well … at least until Sean strode forward and slapped my father across the face.

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!"

"Even when you got your first period and your mom did not pay any attention to you, it was your dad who awkwardly searched online to figure out how to help you He even went out to buy you sanitary pads."

The two kids fell silent.

It could not be refuted that I had taken care of the children with everything that I had.

After a moment, Fiona sneered, " "Enough already. No matter what he did, he's still not my real dad."

Rory chimed in, "Exactly. Look at your pathetic self, Allan. You’re not worthy of being my father."

With that, he threw a paternity test report at me. As expected, they weren’t my children. They were Sean’s.

Even though this had already become an open secret, the official confirmation still sent murmurs of shock rippling through the crowd.

"My god, the rumors were true!"

"Seriously, how could anyone believe he was their dad? He and his wife had agreed to be child-free and then suddenly she brings home a pair of twins. Even an idiot could guess what happened."

"This is brutal. His wife cheated on him, he raised another man’s kids for eighteen years and now he's handed them billions of dollars of family's fortune, only to have his children turn around and call someone else ‘Dad.’"

The crowd's laughter and ridicule were all directed at me. I had become the biggest joke of the night.

Everyone expected me to explode in rage, but instead, I calmly pulled out another document. It was a severance agreement. "Fiona, Rory," I said coolly. "Let’s end this here. We are no longer family."

A hush fell over the room. No one could not believe my statement. How could I let the children that I had raised for eighteen years just like that?

Fiona giggled. "Mr. Dellon. I couldn't ask for anything better."

Without hesitation, they signed the papers and happily took their seats beside Clara and Sean. The four of them looked at each other in understanding and laughed. They were finally abled to be together in front to public's and never had t hide again. This was a perfect little family reunion.

"Perfect," I said with a smile on my face.

I had given them the opportunity to redeem themselves. If they had even a shred of conscience, I might have left them a way out. However, human nature is like the sun; you can't stare at it for too long without being blinded.

No one could understand why a man like me, a sharp businessman who once controlled a hundred-billion-dollar empire, would willingly walk into this trap and raise someone else’s children like a fool.

"Mr. Dellon, this is a private celebration banquet now. You may leave," Clara said smugly. "Oh! While you're at it, please vacate the mansion today with your parents. The property now belongs to my children."

Clara was kicking me out.

"Not so fast." I smirked and turned to the guest to announce, "This is my children's graduation banquet. How could I leave before it even begins? Kids, come in."

Under everyone's bewildered gaze, two figures stepped into the hall.