Garland’s POV

Her voice turned hoarse as she questioned me again. “You know how much Barrett means to me. Tell me—where is he?”

I was utterly hopeless, shaking my head frantically. “I told you, I really don’t know! Instead of wasting time interrogating me, why don’t you send someone to go look for him?!”

Cherity was silent for a long while, then she said coldly, “Bring Ashwyn here.”

My breath hitched. A wave of hopelessness crushed over me.

Ashwyn had been a teacher at an international school. He was still in class when Cherity’s men came and dragged him away.

Now, standing in front of me with a confused look on his face, he asked, “Bro, what’s going on? Why are you kneeling?”

I shut my eyes for a moment, then rushed over and grabbed onto Cherity’s pants, begging her, completely lowering myself.

“I’ll do whatever you want! You can even take my life. Just please… let my brother go!”

But her expression remained as cold as stone.

In a panic, I grabbed the fruit knife from the table, pressing the tip hard against my neck—just a bit more pressure, and it would slice through the artery.

“I swear on my life,” I cried out, “if I ever did anything to Barrett, may I bleed out and die right here!”

I asked, “Cherity, didn’t you say that no matter what happened, you’d believe me?”

My voice started to break, trembling with sobs.

“I don’t want anything anymore. I don’t want to be the head of this family! I don’t want my status and name. I don’t even want you anymore…”

Cherity frowned slightly, as if weighing the truth in my words.

Just then, the nanny burst in, holding a wailing baby in her arms.

“Ma’am, where is Sir Barrett? The baby keeps crying for her daddy. He’s never been gone this long. Could something have happened to him?”

The warmth that had started to return to Cherity’s face vanished instantly.

She barked, “Tie Ashwyn up and drag him to the rooftop!”

Then she turned her sharp gaze on me. “Garland, you get one last chance to speak. If you still won’t tell me, I won’t hesitate to let you watch your brother die in front of you—again.”

I was beyond despair, completely drained.

I thought to myself, ‘If she really dares kill my brother, I’ll drag her up that rooftop with me and take her to hell!’

Just as the bodyguards began to move, her assistant ran in, breathless and holding up a phone.

“Ma’am! We’ve found Sir Barrett!” he reported.

Cherity finally located Barrett at a church on the outskirts of Newark.

He was kneeling in front of the altar.

“What do I do, oh Lord?” he cried. “I did something terrible… I never wanted to steal Garland’s woman. I tried everything to stop it, but Cherity insisted on keeping the baby.”

“Lord, do you think I’m an ungrateful traitor too?” he asked. “Garland supported my studies for years, and I turned on him like a bastard. Oh, he must hate me to death! I might as well just die…”

He had taken Cherity’s gun when he snuck out and was now holding it to his head.

But he didn’t even know how to pull the trigger. He fumbled around, completely overwhelmed.

The next second, she rushed in and snatched it away from him.

In one swift motion, she pulled him into her arms.

Even though I was tied up and dragged to the church gates, I could still hear her ragged, panicked breathing from afar.

“It’s okay now. It’s okay…”

Her face was pale with worry as if she wanted to absorb him into her body, to protect him with everything she had.

“Oh, babe, you absolute fool…”

Barrett kept sobbing, trying weakly to break free. But eventually, he collapsed tearfully in her arms, looking heartbreakingly pitiful.

I had imagined that scene countless times in my head.

But even knowing it would happen didn’t stop the sharp, suffocating pain from stabbing through my chest when I finally saw it with my own eyes.

Garland’s POV

Five years ago, Barrett was an underprivileged student I sponsored.

When I went to the school to select a student to support, a crowd of boys and girls rushed over to show off, each desperately sharing the hardships of their lives. Everyone wanted to be chosen as the recipient of the sponsorship.

Everyone except Barrett.

He stood at a distance in a clean white shirt, his sneakers washed so many times they had faded. He looked like a quiet butterfly, staying far away, neither fighting nor begging—just calmly watching.

At that moment, he reminded me of my younger self.

In the end, I chose to send him the stipends to support his studies and living expenses. When he couldn’t find a job, I even kindly recommended him to work at Cherity’s company.

If it hadn’t been for that initial sponsorship… maybe that night would never have happened—the night Cherity was drugged and, by some cruel twist of fate, ended up sleeping with him.

Thinking back now, maybe all of this was karma. I got involved in someone else’s fate, and I had no one to blame but myself.

Cherity had more patience with him than I’d ever seen. She gently coaxed him for a long time before Barrett finally calmed down. When he turned and saw me, the tears started to fall again.

“I’m sorry, Garland…” he cried.

“You don’t need to apologize to him,” Cherity cut in coldly, staring straight at me. “That night wasn’t your fault. The fact that I got pregnant with your child means that was all meant to happen.”

She turned her attention back to Barrett. “Babe, you’ve been like family to me for a long time. No one can take your place.”

She pulled him back into her arms and kissed him softly.

“Don’t ever run off like that again, or I’ll truly lose my mind.”

In the end, she took Barrett home with her.

Heart aching, she held his small frame with trembling hands, kissing his forehead over and over—five or six times on the way back.

Moved by her possessive love, Barrett dropped to his knees in front of me the moment we got back to the villa.

“Sir, I know I’ve betrayed your kindness. I can never repay what I owe you. But the truth is…” he said, “I’ve fallen in love with Cherity. Can you… Can you…”

He choked on his words, on the verge of crying again.

I gave him a bitter smile, the corners of my lips barely lifting. “You want to know if I can step down as the head of the family?”

It had been a year since I last saw him.

He’d filled out a little—looked healthier and more like a grown man now, even carried a hint of a married man’s presence. But there was sorrow in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

During Cherity’s pregnancy and delivery, she’d told the media that Barrett had been sent abroad to further his studies.

But only I knew the truth—she had secretly hidden him in her private villa.

Every time she didn’t come home at night, she was with him.

At first, Cherity just wanted to keep the baby and raise her with me.

But people weren’t made of stone. Day after day, she too was moved by this pure and kind-hearted boy. Eventually, she gave her heart to him.

Panic flashed across Barrett’s face. He shook his head exaggeratedly. “That’s not what I meant! I know it’s just wishful thinking on my part. It’s just that… Sir, we already had a child…”

I lowered my head and gave him a faint smile before pulling up the identity cancellation form on my phone and showing it to him.

“Don’t worry. In seven days, I’ll go abroad.”

I said it slowly, but with unwavering certainty.

“By then, you’ll be the only head of this family.”

When I returned to my room, my younger brother was still anxiously waiting for me.

As soon as he saw me, he rushed over, his brows furrowed with concern.

“Bro, what happened? You and Cherity always got along so well, so who’s that guy?”

I shook my head, worn out. “Come with me abroad, Ashwyn. Let’s leave this place.”

My brother had always understood me.

I told him everything—even the truth about my rebirth.

Listening to all that, Ashwyn was filled with sympathy. He grabbed my hand and said, “Alright. I’ll go with you, bro. Let that bitch spend the rest of her life trying to find you—and never succeed.”

Garland’s POV

In the days that followed, Barrett’s existence was no longer a secret.

He had fathered the Prestiss family’s little princess with Cherity—and overnight, he became a hero to the entire family.

Even my once-biased in-laws turned on me, sneering, “You said our daughter couldn’t have children, but how did Barrett manage to get her pregnant then? Sounds more like you’re the one who couldn’t give her a child, hogging the position for nothing.”

I pretended not to hear and walked past them in silence.

After all, in a few more days, I would be leaving this place for good.

“Sign this,” Cherity said flatly, handing me a document.

Across the top, bold letters read [Share Transfer Agreement].

I knew exactly what she meant—she wanted me to hand over part of my shares to Barrett.

When I didn’t respond right away, her voice turned cold.

“The title as the head of the family… That’s been yours. Barrett won’t fight you for it, but these shares—he deserves them. He gave my family an heir. That makes him a contributor. This is also what my parents want,” she stated firmly.

I nodded. “Alright,” I said simply.

After signing, I slipped the divorce agreement underneath the contract before handing the papers back to her.

Just as I expected, she didn’t even glance through them. She just signed without a word and walked out the door.

Only then did I finally breathe a long sigh of relief.

Cherity was always busy with work, yet she somehow made time for Barrett and their daughter.

She would sit beside him to watch the sunrise and sunset. She even built a sturdy crib with her own hands and sang lullabies to their baby at night.

And yet, the truth was—if it hadn’t been for that one night of mistake, the man living that happiness… should have been me.

The sight before me stung my eyes. I couldn’t bear to watch any longer; I turned away and left.

That day, I had just finalized everything with an overseas research team. Tickets were booked. All that was left was for my identification to be canceled before I could leave this life behind.

But just then, something happened to the newborn.

I was packing my suitcase when Cherity stormed in, her eyes red. With one swift kick, she sent the case flying.

“You cause trouble and think you can just sneak off?!” she snapped.

My suitcase hit the wall, and anger surged through me. “What the hell is wrong with you, Cherity?” I shouted.

But the next second, she had me pinned against the wall, her hand tightening around my neck like it had so many times before.

“What’s wrong with me?” she asked back hoarsely. “What the hell did you do to my daughter?!”

Facing her accusation, I was utterly baffled.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

But at the same time, a creeping sense of dread rose in my chest.

Ever since she had moved Barrett and their daughter into her private villa, any time something went wrong over there, she would come straight for me.

All because, in our past lives, I had refused to divorce her.

Even now—after all my compromises—Cherity still saw me through that same twisted lens.

She yanked me down to the first floor, where the nanny stood clutching the crying infant, her expression frantic.

Still trying to make sense of it all, I watched as Cherity pulled back the swaddle and lifted the baby’s sleeve.

I froze.

The child had just turned one month old, yet her delicate skin was covered in red rashes.

Cherity looked like she was about to lose her mind.

“Do you have any idea how dangerous this is for an infant? One wrong move and she could die!” she screamed.

I stared at her, unable to process. “If she has a rash, why didn’t you take her to the hospital?” I asked, stunned.

“You make it sound so easy, sir!” The nanny, still cradling the baby, shot me a glare full of resentment.

“If it wasn’t for that swaddle you gave Cady, would she even be in this condition? And you seriously want us to believe this wasn’t intentional?” she hissed.

“Sir Barrett has always been kind and gentle to you, sir. He never wanted to fight you. In fact, when he found out about the pregnancy, he begged Miss Cherity to abort the baby just to avoid making things difficult for you,” she continued bitterly.

“But what about you, sir? With all due respect, sir, you’re a man too. Sir Barrett never once tried to take your place in the family. But why do you keep targeting him? And now, are you trying to kill his child too?” she accused, her eyes burning with hatred.