"Are you sure you were cheering me on, not adding insult to injury?" Edward rolled his eyes. He always saw through this woman. "Oops, you noticed that? I'm sorry, I'll be more subtle next time." Daisy pulled him up to his feet. A sly smile flashed in her eyes, though she dared not be too obvious about it. Her husband might get agitated and seize the opportunity to have a tantrum. In her eyes, men were even more unreasonable than women.
"Next time? How dare you! Alright, I'll forgive you this time in the spirit of generosity. But I feel so unwanted and unloved, and I have to lick my wounds alone." Oops. Men were indeed more unreasonable than women, and Edward Mu was especially so. He started whining already. Daisy didn't even know what was worth all this drama, but she knew better than make things worse. No one said anything yet, but Edward had already started playing the victim.
In response, Daisy tightened her grasp around his wrist. The expression on her face was still calm and cold, revealing no sign of her actual feelings. But Edward had been with her for a long time, he knew that she was giving him a warning.
What now, old man? Just admit it already, you're but an old and grumpy grandpa." Compared to Daisy, Cynthia was much gentler in character. Although she was complaining to her husband, her tone remained elegant and soft. She had the gift of expressing any emotion in a flirtatious manner.
"I didn't lose anything! I was being kind by letting the brat win. Do you really think there's any competition I couldn't win? Didn't you see how he was crawling and panting like a dog? He was exhausted from physical exertion, but I wasn't!" Jonathan took the cup from Cynthia's hands, and drank the water in a single gulp. He had always been unwilling to acknowledge defeat, even if the outcome of the competition was clear as day. He couldn't bow to other men in the face of the woman he cared the most, even if the man was his own son. Every man liked to show off and keep a perfect image in the eyes of their beloved.
"But I saw you stop first. And your son is injured. He's barely recovered from the gunshot. How could you compete with him?" Cynthia asked. In every mother's eyes, their child would always be their top priority. She was no exception. While she defended Edward, she forgot how dominant and bossy Jonathan could be. Fortunately, her husband didn't feel offended, but jealous. He started complaining with a dissatisfied frown.
Even though he's injured, I'm an old man. It's a competition between a healthy old man and an injured young man. I think our odds are even." Jonathan was jealous of his son. Since Edward was born, Jonathan was no longer the one and only in his wife's eyes. She kept thinking more about their son. Perhaps she wanted to compensate, or perhaps she was driven by the so-called motherly love. Whatever it was, Jonathan wasn't happy about it, even though it was good for Edward. But he had also chosen his role between an authoritative parent and a loving father. He placed family affection above everything else, like a responsible parent should. It was now time for him to leave other thoughts behind.
On the other hand, things were not going as well in the Ouyang family. Since his argument with Yakira, Leo had spent his night in the study, and hadn't returned to the bedroom since then. Early in the morning, he woke up from his sleep in anticipation of the DNA test results. During his anxious waiting, he decided to do some overtime work to kill time.
When the final report was presented to him a few hours later, his face turned pale from horror. His heart was enveloped by ice and his mind was a mess. He sagged into his chair as his eyes widened in shock. The report in front of him read, "The paternity test is a 99.99% match." The result left him in a shock greater than he had ever experienced, even when he learned of Grace's car accident.
His mind raced as he contemplated on the situation. Who was to blame for what went wrong? Who had deceived whom? At that moment, his mind was completely blank, except for the severe pain growing in his chest. Whose fault was this? How did it end up like this? Was it Yakira's fault? She had lied to him for such a long time. Or was it Daisy's fault? She could've stayed in the Ouyang house despite everything, but she didn't. No matter how much Leo tried to put the blame on others, he couldn't deceive himself. It was clear that everything was his fault, and he was the only one to blame. He was stupid for questioning his beloved woman, just because someone defamed her and set her up.
Leo always thought that he had been in love with Grace, but he finally realized today that he didn't deserve to love her. He was a stupid and filthy man, just as Yakira said. His love for Grace was superficial and pretentious. He never placed a sliver of trust on her, so he didn't trust her loyalty. Driven by jealousy and doubt, he even sent their daughter away on nothing but Yakira's words. He thought that Daisy was the result of Grace's extramarital affair, but it turned out that she wasn't. She was their child, his child...
Daisy, his good daughter, whom he had never loved. Now, fate slapped him with the fact that he had always treated her horribly. It tore his heart apart. How could he possibly make it up to her? How could he have her forgive him, despite how cruelly he had pushed her away? He was haunted by remorse. As the sentiment took root iin his heart, it started to grow out of his control.