Chapter 5

I stood rooted to the spot in silence.

Was he really in any position to say that?

Still, this was another chance to test her.

I turned my head and watched Su Tao’s slightest changes of expression without revealing anything myself.

“Taotao, why don’t you spend the two months before university starts at the apartment in City S? It’s quiet there.”

To my surprise, she jerked her head up. Tears instantly filled her beautiful eyes.

“Mommy! I—I don’t want to!”

She was so upset she could barely get the words out.

And I felt as though I was seeing this girl for the first time.

I looked at her wordlessly, a trace of disappointment entering my eyes.

Did she truly love him?

Was the heroine of an erotic story really beyond saving?

I even felt a twinge of regret.

Perhaps that mountain child would have been better off staying in the mountains.

Su Tao hurried after me, biting her lower lip as she caught my sleeve.

I raised a hand and lightly brushed the tears from her cheeks.

Then I smiled, though my gaze was cold and sharp.

“Taotao. Who is it you can’t bear to leave?”

She flung herself into my arms, wrapping both arms tightly around my waist.

Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed.

“Mommy, did you find out I did something bad to you? I don’t want to leave you! You’re the one I can’t bear to leave! Please don’t send me away!”

At last, Su Tao had admitted it.

My voice turned utterly cold.

“You’re saying the person you can’t bear to leave… is me?”

Was she using me as an excuse to stay with Xie Ting…?

If she hadn’t looked so guilty that night, deliberately avoiding my attempt to take her pulse, I might almost have believed her.

I’d given her chance after chance, and she’d missed every one.

I was really starting to lose it.

I’d spent five whole years raising this sweet, devoted daughter.

She was always bringing me little surprises and telling me everything.

She’d even insisted on applying to my old university.

She’d asked which dorm room I’d lived in, and which bed had been mine.

Half joking, I’d pinched the tip of her nose.

“What’s this? You want to sleep in the same bed Mommy used back then?”

Her cheeks had instantly flushed, and her eyes darted away.

I stopped teasing her.

But she lowered her lashes and gave a muffled little “Mm.”

Only recently had she seemed to acquire a secret.

I’d been quick to notice the first stirrings of a girl’s crush.

I didn’t know who it was. She kept looking at me as though she wanted to say something, then holding back.

But I’d never imagined that the object of her awakening feelings would be Xie Ting, with whom she’d always seemed so distant.

After my cold question—“You’re saying the person you can’t bear to leave is me?”—

the girl in my arms sniffled and gave a quiet but unusually resolute “Mm.”

I had no words.

Into that awkward silence, Xie Ting gave a chilly little laugh from beside us.

“Pei Xue, if you can’t bear to part with her, forget it.”

His gaze drifted over Su Tao in my arms, and he closed the door for us.

I was left standing there, frowning after him in utter bewilderment.

The comments popped the champagne.

[Waaah, I’m crying. Our devoted, self-denying male lead loves her so much! He knows his wife’s getting jealous of our girl, so he wants to send her away and keep her safe under his wing.]

[Exactly! I love this struggle between family duty and desire. But he just can’t let her go, can he? He keeps her around so he can have her every day~]

[But why did he say the wife couldn’t bear to part with her?]

[Oh, for fuck’s sake, you don’t even understand that? He’s preserving what little dignity his wife has left. He can’t exactly tell her he can’t bear to lose our girl. What if she gets irrationally jealous and takes it out on her?]

…

Once again, the comments had twisted their bizarre logic into something that made sense to themselves.

Why were they so sure I’d take my jealousy out on Su Tao?

If I hadn’t run my husband and adopted daughter over for getting involved, it was only because there’d never been much love between Xie Ting and me to begin with.

As thoughts crowded my mind, Su Tao raised her head in my arms and asked tentatively:

“Mommy… I still want to stay with you. I don’t want us to be apart at all…”

“Please don’t send me away. Okay?”