Jonathan showed no reaction, as he simply didn’t believe the baby girl was Cheryl’s child.

He asked, “Why didn’t you bring the baby to me earlier? Now you finally decide to bring her here–do you even know why I called you here?”

Cheryl blurted out, “Donald already told me everything.” Realizing the gravity of the situation, she bowed, Serena in her arms, and said, “Jonathan, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have hidden Mike’s existence from you, shouldn’t have falsified the DNA test results in the first report to deceive you.”

Jonathan asked, “Then why did you pull this stunt in the first place?”

Cheryl hesitated, “Because…”

Jonathan pressed, “What?”

Cheryl said through gritted teeth, “Because Teresa and I had dirt on each other!”

Jonathan’s expression darkened–that name always rattled him. He thought, “Mike was Teresa’s leverage–so what was Cheryl’s? How did Teresa even get dirt on Cheryl?”

Cheryl looked down at Serena and said, “Serena is my leverage. She is my newborn daughter.”

The previous year, Cheryl got pregnant before marriage. By accident, Teresa stumbled upon her pregnancy test results. Still in college and naturally timid, Cheryl was terrified that her family would find out.

Teresa promised to keep it a secret. In return, Cheryl agreed to help Teresa hide the fact that Michael is her child. Teresa had made it clear that she didn’t want to remarry Jonathan, nor did she want him to know about Mike.

Cheryl looked up, only to be startled by the dark, menacing expression on Jonathan’s face. She pleaded, “Jonathan, I was wrong. I’ve completely realized my mistake. Please, just let me go. I swear I’ll never dare to do it again.”

Jonathan clenched his injured fist once more, his bones screaming in protest. He snapped, “Just because she didn’t want to remarry me, you helped her hide my son? And you, my own sister, you went along with her and kept this from me–yet you still dared to come begging me for everything you wanted. You should be ashamed of yourself, Cheryl!”

Cheryl’s face flushed crimson in an instant, tears welling up in her eyes. She pleaded, “Jonathan, I wasn’t thinking clearly back then. All I could think about was my family finding out I was pregnant. Please, just let me off this once–raising the baby alone has been so exhausting and hard for me.”

Jonathan cast a brief, indifferent glance at the sleeping Serena before looking away. He asked, “So, this child is really yours?”

After parking the car, Donald strode over and said urgently, “Jonathan, please calm down. This is Cheryl’s baby. I didn’t believe it at first either. Cheryl told me she didn’t want to keep the baby at first, but if she had an abortion, she might never conceive again, so she had no choice. She was scared of our family’s reaction–she was just young and didn’t know any better. I’ve already given her an earful on the way here.”

Seeing that Jonathan still looked somewhat skeptical, Cheryl handed Serena to Donald, and then frantically rummaged through her bag. She hurriedly produced her pregnancy test results and birth certificate. The evidence was conclusive.

Jonathan pondered, ‘Cheryl is barely in her early twenties, not even a year out of college, and already a mother. She is still immature in character, and her thoughts and actions are like those of a child. If the rest of the family ever found out she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock, no one would believe it–they’d be completely shocked.’

Donald explained, “Jonathan, Cheryl told me she got pregnant after hooking up with some bastard at a bar. That piece of shit just got what he wanted and walked away, leaving her to become a mother at such a young age."