CEO Ex-Husband, Don't Bother Me-Chapter 87 - 85: Fatal Misunderstanding 4

Seemingly unable to look Dylan in the eye, Julian Donovan lit a cigarette, looked away, and asked,

"What happened? The driver said... you went to see a woman?"

"Yeah. I thought it was Mom, but then I realized it wasn’t her, so I’m really sad!"

Dylan Donovan glanced at his father before finally giving his answer.

A while ago, when Willow Summers was staying at their house, her reaction to his dad’s Buddha Beads and to his mom’s photo convinced him that she must have met his mother before. That was why he had followed her back to Wincastle.

Over the weekend, Willow Summers went to volunteer at an orphanage, and he had the driver take him there too. Right at the entrance of that orphanage, he saw a woman he thought was his mother. He almost bolted from the car to run to her, but after opening the door, he froze.

He saw the man who had driven her there get out of the car, then take a little girl out and hand her over. She took the girl, smiled, waved at the man, and then walked into the orphanage, holding the child. The picture-perfect image of a happy family of three made him fall apart. Even at his young age, he could feel in his bones that the woman was his mother, but he didn’t have the courage to go up and claim her as his own.

’Mom looks so happy now. She has a family with another man and a cute little girl. Mom suffered so much before; I don’t want to ruin her happiness now. As long as she’s happy, I’m willing to just watch her from afar.’

In that one moment, all these thoughts filled his young mind.

Then he closed the car door and dejectedly told the driver to take him away.

It was just... the reality that Mom didn’t want him anymore, that he was no longer her one and only, made him break down in tears, and once he started, he couldn’t stop.

Julian Donovan listened to Dylan’s words and gave him a deep look. His heart clenched when he heard the first half of Dylan’s sentence, but the second half brought him back to his senses. Finally, he took a hard drag from his cigarette and said,

"If you can’t find her, then just stop looking."

Dylan looked at him and said quietly,

"Okay. I won’t look for her anymore."

’I shouldn’t tell Dad about this. Even if I did, it wouldn’t change anything. Mom doesn’t belong to us anymore.’

After checking on Dylan, Julian Donovan went to the hospital. Over the years, the hospitals he had established had spread across the globe. His founding principle was to serve patients with the most advanced medical skills at the lowest possible cost.

He had handed over most of the management of The Shaw Dominion to Arnold, who had returned from studying abroad, and Ken. As for SEVEN, Henry Hale was holding down the fort in Meridia. The only part he personally oversaw was the hospitals. This was both his lifelong dream and, subconsciously, a way to fulfill a wish she once had. She had once told him to stop doing... those things, and that it would be much better to use the money he earned to open hospitals.

The moment Julian Donovan walked into the hospital lobby, his attention was captured by a delicate, porcelain doll-like little girl sitting quietly on a nearby bench. It wasn’t just that the girl was beautiful and cute; it was that she looked so much like *her*.

He stood there, stunned, his feet seemingly nailed to the floor, unable to move a single step. ’If she and I had a daughter,’ he suddenly thought, ’would she look just like this?’

As he stood there lost in thought, the small, colorful ball the little girl was playing with suddenly dropped and rolled right to his feet. The girl glanced up at him impassively, then climbed down from the bench and toddled over to pick it up.

On impulse, he bent down, picked up the colorful ball, and handed it to the little girl. Then he asked in a gentle voice,

"Little one, what’s your name?"

The little girl took the ball but didn’t speak, simply staring at him with her wide, limpid black eyes, which were filled with wariness toward a stranger. Looking at her from this close, Julian Donovan felt his heart melt. ’I wish so badly,’ he thought, ’that, besides Dylan, I could have a delicate, doll-like daughter just like her.’

He couldn’t help but reach out, wanting to touch the little girl’s soft, rosy cheek. Just as his hand was about to make contact, a woman’s panicked cry suddenly rang out.

"Joy! Joy, where are you?"

The familiar yet distant voice made Julian Donovan freeze on the spot. Before he could even process it, a figure rushed over, sweeping the little girl into her arms and speaking in a panicked, tearful voice.

"Joy, why did you run off here without telling Mommy? Mommy thought you were lost!"

The woman was so focused on anxiously holding the little girl that she didn’t notice Julian Donovan standing opposite her. Julian stared intently at the woman before him, and he was instantly thunderstruck.

’It’s her!’

’This is her child?’

He had spent three whole years consumed by guilt and self-blame for her, yet here she was, living well in this city with another man’s child? In an instant, jealousy and fury turned his eyes red. His gaze fell on the medical file that had scattered at her feet. The word "autism" made the corner of his lip curl into a cold sneer. He straightened up, looking down at the woman holding her daughter, and mocked her icily,

"Naomi Shaw, I see the child you had with some other bastard isn’t exactly healthy!"

The woman on the ground finally looked up, and he got his wish, seeing that familiar, delicate face. His heart, which he had always considered strong, seemed to stop beating for an instant as their eyes met.

After seeing him, only the faintest, almost imperceptible ripple of emotion crossed her eyes. Then, she calmly picked up the medical file from the floor, stood up while holding her daughter, and replied with detached indifference,

"And you are?"

Julian Donovan was stunned once more, staring at her in shocked fury, unable to utter a single word.

’She hadn’t died in that shipwreck. She was alive. Alive and well. Alive and well, and she didn’t even remember me. And she had a daughter with another man.’

There could be no reunion more cruel than this.

While Julian Donovan’s composure was shattering, she had already turned and walked away decisively, holding the little girl. By the time he chased after her, she had already gotten into a taxi and vanished without a trace.

He stood at the hospital entrance, taking several deep breaths to regain his composure. Then he turned and went to the psychiatry department. When the psychiatrists saw him, they all rose to their feet at once.

"President Donovan!"

His face taut, he asked,

"Who just treated a little girl named... Joy?"

’He’d just heard her call the girl Joy.’

"I did!"

one of the doctors spoke up. He ordered in a low voice,

"Bring me her consultation records!"

"The family already took the medical file. We only have the registration slip here!"

The doctor glanced at him nervously before stepping forward and handing him the registration slip. When Julian Donovan saw the full name of the registered patient on the slip, he felt all the blood rush to his head. Joy Donovan!

’Donovan?’

’Could she be my daughter?’

He glanced at the registered age: just turned two. This instantly made him go cold and rigid. ’If I remember correctly, we’ve been separated for three years. If she were my child, even if she had been conceived right before we split, she should be more than two years old by now.’

’Of course!’

’She really is another man’s child!’

’She’s unbelievable. Hooking up with another man right after our divorce and popping out a kid! And here Dylan and I were, desperately searching for her!’

His chest heaved violently with rage. He viciously tore the small slip to pieces, threw it on the ground, and then turned and strode out.

’But what’s this about her not remembering me?’

’Is she faking it, or does she really have amnesia?’

’There’s no way I could be mistaken about that face!’

The woman who had turned and left with the little girl in her arms broke down the moment she got into the taxi, tears streaming down her face like rain.

’If happiness for him means a life without me, then I’m willing to erase every memory I have of him.’

It wasn’t that she didn’t remember him; she just didn’t want to remember him anymore.

Six years of waiting and torment, and the fatal shipwreck three years ago, had been a painful awakening. She had realized that in this world, no one is truly indispensable to another’s survival.

She’d had a bad feeling a few days ago, when that girl she met at the orphanage, Willow Summers, had mysteriously asked her about the Praying Bead Bracelet.

Every weekend, she would take her daughter to the orphanage to volunteer. It was an act of atonement and repentance for the son she had cruelly abandoned and neglected for three years. It wasn’t that she didn’t care; it was that she simply hadn’t had the energy to care for him.