Chapter 3

Hearing the word "orphanage,"

Toby panicked completely.

He sobbed and screamed, wrapping his arms tightly around my leg.

"Dad, please! I don't want to go to the orphanage! Please!"

I said coldly, "Your mother abandoned you, and I am not your father. The orphanage is your only option."

I pried Toby's hands off my leg.

But he kept begging.

"Dad, I don't want to go to the orphanage. Please don't throw me away!"

His loud cries attracted the next-door neighbors.

When the neighbors heard I was sending Toby to the orphanage, they frowned.

"John, what are you doing?"

"If you didn't want the kid, why did you fight for custody in the first place?"

I replied flatly, "Oh, because he's not my biological son."

The neighbor's lecture died in their throat, replaced by instant curiosity.

"What? He's not yours? What do you mean?"

I said, "Exactly what it sounds like. Chloe cheated on me and had another man's kid."

"I've already wasted ten years of my life raising another man's bastard. I'm not doing it for another second."

In my past life, I would have never dared to say these words out loud.

I wanted to save face. I was terrified of what people would say behind my back.

But in this life, I didn't care about any of it.

Someone in the crowd muttered, "How could Chloe be so shameless?"

Another said, "But the kid is innocent. How can you take your anger out on him?"

And someone else chimed in, "You've already raised him for ten years. Why not just keep going?"

I glared at that person. "If you want him so badly, you take him."

He shut his mouth instantly.

I dragged Toby into my car.

I slammed on the gas and drove straight to the nearest orphanage.

Toby refused to get out.

He clung to the car door for dear life.

"Dad, please don't leave me at the orphanage!"

"I'll be good, I promise! Please don't abandon me!"

In my past life, after Chloe ran away,

Toby indeed became very obedient.

He would wash the dishes and sweep the floors.

He would buy birthday gifts for me and his grandparents.

His grades were always excellent.

At every parent-teacher conference, his teachers praised his responsibility and diligence.

Even during the summer after he got into college,

he proactively took a part-time job.

He even used his first paycheck

to buy a $50 massager for his grandma.

I truly believed Toby was a filial, sensible boy.

Back then, I thought to myself: Raising him was the right choice.

But I never, in my wildest dreams, expected

that the child I spent twenty years of hard work to raise

would block every single one of us on social media

the very second he graduated from college.