Chapter 92

“Oh, you mean Sherry? I know her, too. Let me take the child up for you. It’s inappropriate for a man to enter her house,” Miriam said.

Jonathan agreed and handed the child to Miriam. Miriam breathed a sigh of relief. Looking down, she saw Michael was asleep.

Teresa waited anxiously at home. She was about to go downstairs when Miriam arrived and handed Michael to her. “Don’t be so nervous. Jonathan didn’t suspect a thing,” Miriam assured her.

Teresa hugged Michael tightly. “I can’t stay at Rosary Estates anymore.”

Miriam said helplessly, “Why don’t you just tell Jonathan about Michael? You can’t keep it a secret forever.”

“I plan to keep it a secret forever.” When it came to Michael, Teresa was very headstrong.

“It’s not just about him. If Irene, Jonathan’s mother, finds out Michael has the Lynn family’s blood, she’ll try to fight for custody. I don’t want to go through a legal battle. It’s not good for Michael, and it’s unnecessary,” she added.

Teresa had carried Michael for nine months and had been raising him diligently for nearly three years. He was her only family. Since she wasn’t planning to remarry, there wasn’t a need to tell anyone about Michael.

Miriam, always supportive of her best friend, said, “All right. Since you want to move, let’s do it. I’ll help you pack your things.”

There weren’t many things in the house, mostly Michael’s belongings. They couldn’t take all his toys and just grabbed a couple. With that, they moved to the new place overnight.

After closing the door to her apartment, Teresa held the sleeping Michael in her arms as they left together.

Jonathan didn’t get much sleep that night. Irene kept calling, asking him to return to the Lynn residence because she wanted to see him. Jonathan delayed until the afternoon three days later.

“My calendar says I have two other meetings,” Jonathan stated.

“Ms. Astor, the one you had a blind date with, said you have a child. And a son at that! What’s going on?” Irene demanded.

“Just pretend I have a kid,” Jonathan replied.

The implication was that he didn’t want to go on blind dates anymore; there was no point in meeting someone he wasn’t interested in.

Irene, her lips twitching in anger, said, “Fine. If you give me a grandson, I won’t force you to go on dates anymore. Bring the child home and let me see him.”

“Another time.” With that, Jonathan hung up.

Not long after, Benny called. “This is ridiculous. Your mother called me asking if you have a son. What’s going on? Is it that little boy from last time? The one I took a picture of?”

Jonathan didn’t answer.

“Oh, by the way—I saw Teresa at the hospital the other day. She claimed it was nothing serious; just a cold and she needed some medicine. But she seemed nervous!” Benny added.

Jonathan raised his eyebrows and checked the calendar. They were just entering winter, and Teresa always caught a cold around that time. Without fail, she would develop a fever a few weeks later.

Even though he was waiting for her to reach out first, Jonathan still bought some medicine after work and went to Rosary Estates. He rang the doorbell to find that nobody was home. He wondered if she was still out.

He waited outside her house from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., but she never returned and wouldn’t answer her phone. Sometimes he leaned against the wall; other times, he paced until his legs went numb.

At dawn, the neighbor next door finally came out, and Jonathan approached them. “Hello—do you know where the woman who lives here is?”

“She moved out,” they replied.

Rosary Estates was passed down to Teresa from her grandparents. Where would she have moved to?

“Weren’t there two women living here?” Jonathan asked again.

“Yes, and there’s a child, too. It’s tough for that woman raising the kid on her own. Anyway, both women have moved out. I saw them leave two nights ago. They moved everything out overnight.”

Jonathan furrowed his brows.