Chapter 538

“What’s your plan?” Jennifer asked Sanford.

Sanford said, “Just tell them I forced you to alter the test report.”

Jennifer was slightly confused by his suggestion.

Sanford explained, “Just tell them you’ve always known Jonathan and I are half-brothers, and that I’ve known all along Mike is his son. I made you fake the test results to get back at him, to make him suffer.

“Say I threatened you, and you had no choice but to go along with it. As for your sister…” He paused for a moment. “Just tell them that Teresa wanted to tell Jonathan about Mike, but I stopped her. Just put all the blame on me.”

Jennifer fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “Knowing Teresa, I don’t think she’d agree to this approach.”

Sanford said, “So what if she doesn’t agree? As long as you do, that’s all that matters. Just trust me on this. Anyway, Jonathan won’t let me off the hook this time.

“With all the old and new grudges piling up, he’ll make sure I serve a year or two. Two years, three years, however long, it’s all the same to me. I couldn’t care less.”

Despite all of Sanford’s heartfelt pleading, Jennifer remained unmoved. “No,” she insisted firmly.

Sanford grew agitated. He said, “Are you going to keep this hidden for the rest of your life? Just look at what’s become of me. I don’t want an innocent child to end up like I did.”

“No, Mike isn’t like you,” Jennifer said firmly.

Sanford pressed, “Where’s the difference? If you don’t tell Mike who his father is now, once he’s old enough to remember things, he’ll go looking for Jonathan himself. Unless you plan to tell him Jonathan is dead. But come on, could you do that?”

Jennifer fell silent.

Sanford continued, “Just do as I say. If Jonathan comes to confront me, I’ll tell him it was all my doing, out of revenge. I wanted his kid to know what it’s like to be fatherless. That’s why I did it.”

He thought, ‘That way, Jennifer would be off the hook. And Mike would finally know who his real father is.’

Jennifer’s lips thinned as she shook her head firmly. She insisted, “No, this solution is still unacceptable.”

Sanford pressed, “What’s wrong with it? This is the safest solution I could come up with.”

Jennifer said, “Actually, there’s another way. You could marry Teresa and become Mike’s father.”

Hearing this, Sanford fixed her with a complex, almost unreadable gaze. He said, “Teresa doesn’t have feelings for me, and you know that.”

Jennifer said encouragingly, “Love grows over time. She’ll fall for you sooner or later.”

Sanford said, “Impossible. Teresa’s heart belongs to Jonathan. If she could have loved me, she would have by now.

“I even foolishly thought about marrying Teresa and making her mine, just to make Jonathan jealous and get back at him. But the moment I found out Mike was his son, I just couldn’t go through with it anymore.”

Because Sanford realized that nothing could replace that paternal bond. That was a unique bond, one that only those bound by blood could ever truly have.

Jennifer shook her head, unconvinced. She said, “You said it yourself, Mike is still so young. If you and Teresa were together, wouldn’t it be perfect for you to be his father? Mike has such a cheerful personality, he’d get along wonderfully with you.”

Sanford pressed a hand to his forehead as a frustrated laugh escaped him. He thought, ‘I have laid it all out, yet Jennifer remained stubbornly lost in her world.

‘I already told her to shift all the blame onto me. That way, everyone else would be spared, everyone except me.’

“What’s so funny?” Jennifer asked.