Chapter 3

"Are you sure Yolanda won't get suspicious? If she loses it and blows this up, we probably won't be able to keep us a secret anymore."

"No. She loves me, she loves you, and she loves Maurice even more. How could she ever guess that we've been together for three years already?"

I didn't hear anything they said after that.

Only that one line—together for three years—kept echoing in my ears.

My brother only passed away this year.

They'd been together for three years.

Once I came back to myself, I quietly took some hair from Maurice and Aaron and had a DNA paternity test done.

The results came back fast.

Maurice was actually related to me by blood.

But Serena had cheated on me long ago, so why would she save me?

If I died, the two of them could be together out in the open.

And she wouldn't have gotten herself tangled up in a criminal case just to save me.

There would have been even less reason for her to give birth to my brother's posthumous child.

Aside from objecting at first to Serena living in our house, Aaron had never had any problem with her having Maurice.

Was it because of love—that he couldn't bear to see Serena serve her sentence, so he accepted her giving birth to my brother's child?

The thought of the inheritance my brother left behind made my heart pound.

I quickly dug up the notary office's phone number and asked about how the estate was being handled.

The person on the line answered me:

"Ms. Sheldon, the will your brother had notarized states that all his property is to go to his biological children. If his spouse, Ms. Whitney, does not have any biological children, the estate passes to you as the heir."

"At present, because Ms. Whitney has given birth to your brother's posthumous child, the inheritance has already been transferred to Ms. Whitney to manage on the child's behalf."

In that instant I understood that she'd kept Maurice for the sake of my brother's inheritance.

But I still didn't understand why Serena, pregnant as she was, would jump out to save me.

If I died, her affair with Aaron could stay hidden for the rest of her life.

And she'd have one fewer person competing with her for the inheritance.

I couldn't make sense of it, so I could only bring in a professional to investigate everything.

After Aaron finished filing Serena's application to serve her sentence outside prison, he pushed Maurice into my arms.

"Yola, Serena's carrying now, so from here on I'm leaving Maurice's care to you."

"Don't worry. Even if she had my child, I'll still marry you."

"What do you have to marry me with? Didn't your father say only someone who produces an heir gets through the Rowe family's door?"

Aaron suddenly turned to Serena with a smile.

"Serena's willing to give the child to you, and my dad won't have any doubts about the paternity test."

So that was it—he wanted to lock me down to raise their child for them.

I didn't expose it. I just said flatly,

"Let's talk about it after she gives birth."

It just so happened that I needed time to look into everything.

Including my brother's death.

I turned, packed my things, and walked out with Maurice in my arms.

Aaron stopped me, his expression grim.

"It's this late—where are you taking the child?"

"The company's sending me on a business trip."

"Taking the child along on a business trip? Are you sure?"

"Then what about Serena?"

Aaron's eyes were full of suspicion.

I gave a slight tug of my lips.

"Aren't I here? Or are you saying you don't want to take care of your own woman and child?"

Our eyes met, and a flicker of panic crossed Aaron's.

A strange unease rose up in him.

Could Yolanda already know?

Otherwise why would she want to take away his little nephew who hadn't even been weaned?

When Serena heard I wanted to take Maurice away, she refused at once.

The woman who'd just been clutching her belly, claiming she felt unwell, snatched Maurice out of my arms quick and nimble.

"Yola, I know you hate me, but Maurice is your own nephew. Can you really bear to hurt him?"

"If you can't even stand to have Maurice around, are you going to go after the child in my womb too?"

Aaron's gaze turned icy the instant he looked at me.

"Yolanda, if you want to leave, I won't stop you, but you'd better drop your twisted little ideas."

Knowing there was no way to take Maurice from Serena, all I could do was leave for now.

I found a place in a run-down urban neighborhood where I could move in with just my bags and settled in.

I'd just finished washing up when my phone buzzed.

It was the private investigator calling.

"Miss Sheldon, we've got a lead on what you asked us to look into."