Joseph’s unease visibly grew as he realized sothing. "Mr. Knight...?"
Axel’s eyes locked onto his. There was no anger in his gaze, only cruel clarity.
"No, Joseph," Axel said quietly, his voice calm yet sharp enough to cut through bone. "It wasn’t her."
Joseph froze.
The reaction was imdiate and absolute, as if soone had pressed a hidden switch inside him. His body went rigid, his breath stalled, and for a brief second, even his blinking stopped.
The words did not simply surprise him. They shattered sothing far deeper.
Instantly, his mind was dragged violently back to that night.
Fragnts of mory surfaced, unstable. The noise of the gala. The dim lights. The burning frustration he had carried for months, watching Evelyn remain forever distant, forever polite, forever untouchable.
Then the drinks. The carefully executed plan. The subtle exchange. The quiet satisfaction of believing everything was unfolding exactly as he intended.
After that... Blur. Fog. Darkness.
Joseph’s temples throbbed faintly. ’No...’ His thoughts spiraled uncontrollably. ’How could that woman not be Evelyn?’
He lifted his gaze slowly toward Axel, searching his expression with desperate intensity. Axel’s face, however, revealed nothing but cold certainty. No hesitation. No doubt. No trace of deception.
And that was what terrified Joseph most. Because the truth, creeping rcilessly into his mind, was impossible to ignore. He had never clearly seen the woman’s face.
He rembered keeping the room dark. He rembered drawing the curtains just enough for faint light to slip inside. He rembered convincing himself it was necessary because if Evelyn was not fully drunk, if she recognized him too clearly, everything might fail before it even began.
So he had chosen darkness for safety. And stupidly, he also drank that night. He was too nervous waiting for her, and he drank the sa amount he gave her.
Joseph’s stomach twisted violently.
He also rembered, when morning ca, the woman had already left. There had been no lingering perfu, no scattered belongings, no familiar presence.
At the ti, he had accepted it as Evelyn’s quiet escape, her unspoken sha, her silent attempt to erase what had happened.
But now—
Now those mories felt unstable. Unreliable. Distorted.
’Damn it...’ Joseph’s head ached faintly as countless unanswered questions twisted inside him. ’If that woman wasn’t Evelyn... then who?’
Across the table, Axel observed him without rcy. He didn’t rush to say sothing because Joseph’s own mind was doing far more damage than any words could accomplish.
Finally, after savoring the visible cracks forming in Joseph Carter’s composure, Axel leaned forward slightly.
"The woman you slept with that night," he said with chilling calmness, "was not Evelyn. She was soone else."
Joseph’s chest tightened. His fingers trembled faintly against the edge of the table.
"And that woman," Axel continued, his gaze dark and piercing, "now claims she has a son with you."
Joseph’s face drained of color. The shift was imdiate and brutal, like lightning striking a man already standing in the rain. His lips parted, but no sound erged. His pulse thundered violently inside his ears.
Because suddenly—
Everything aligned.
When Evelyn invited him to Oliver’s birthday party, Joseph had been genuinely shocked. The boy was already four years old. The math had haunted him. The doubt had grown silently inside him like poison.
Could Oliver be his?
That single question had consud him.
Driven by suspicion, he had secretly collected strands of Oliver’s hair. The DNA test had been conducted in absolute secrecy. He had waited anxiously for the results.
Negative.
Oliver was not his.
At the ti, relief and confusion had collided. Now—
Now, confusion evolved into horror.
Axel leaned back slightly, watching realization dawn across Joseph’s features like a slow, devastating sunrise.
"Do you want to know who—"
The sentence was abruptly cut short as Axel’s cell phone vibrated sharply inside his pocket.
The sudden interruption shattered the tension for half a second. Axel frowned faintly before pulling the device out, his expression shifting the mont he saw the caller.
His father.
Unease flickered instantly across Axel’s eyes.
"Hello, father..." he answered without delay.
From the other end, Alexander Knight’s voice burst through with unmistakable panic.
"Axel, tell it’s a lie."
Axel frowned, confused. "What lie?" he asked, trying to sound calm, but worry was starting to slip in his heart.
"There’s news circulating online," Alexander said, his tone tense and restless. "They’re saying you abandoned your son."
Axel’s brows knitted sharply. "How could I do that? He is in my house, playing with his mother."
"Not Oliver," his father clarified hurriedly. "Another son. From another woman. If I’m not mistaken, her initials are HC. Hurry up and check the news. Your na is trending again. Everyone is talking about it."
Axel’s jaw tightened, knowing the source of his father’s panic.
"And now," Alexander added grimly, "almost all family mbers call for clarification."
"I will check!" Axel said and ended the call.
Axel stared briefly at the screen, his expression darkening with each heartbeat.
Without hesitation, he opened the internet. Axel’s eyes sharpened dangerously.
There it was. Headlines. The nonsense news about him having a son with HC. Speculation is spreading like wildfire.
’Harper Cooper, you are so impatient!’
Axel almost laughed because the irony was so absurd it bordered on cody. Harper Cooper, that relentless woman, had decided to drag his na through the mud.
Axel knew the truth. The child was not his. The child belonged to Joseph Carter.
A faint, cold amusent flickered behind Axel’s eyes. Before he could react further, another call appeared.
His mother.
Axel ignored it.
Instead, a text ssage from Collins flashed across the screen.
"Boss... sorry, I just checked the internet. Do you want to erase the news?" From: Collins.
Axel’s fingers moved swiftly.
"No. Let it be. We need evidence to sue them all. That woman, the dia, and the netizens!"
The reply arrived instantly.
"Got it!" From: Collins
Across the table, Joseph shifted uncomfortably. Confusion was now evident on his face.
Because Axel Knight, the man who monts ago radiated lethal fury, suddenly appeared... composed. Focused. Almost disturbingly calm.
"Axel..." Joseph finally spoke, unable to contain his impatience. "Can we continue? Please tell who the woman is."
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