Chapter 441: You’re Unmarried, She’s Unmarried

Chapter 441: Chapter 441: You’re Unmarried, She’s Unmarried

Dylan Dawson froze. Arabella Donovan’s words were a clear indictment: his best friend had suffered an unforgivable betrayal.

It wasn’t a betrayal because Dylan was old-fashioned, thinking that after his friend died, the man’s wife should remain a chaste widow for the rest of her life and never remarry.

Rather, it was because when he first met his late friend’s supposed widow and daughter, the birth date she had provided for the child was about six months after his friend had passed away.

Afterward, to be cautious, he had sent someone to the hospital where she claimed to have given birth. The retrieved records confirmed the date she had given, which was why Dylan Dawson had naturally assumed the woman’s child was his friend’s child.

But now, hearing Arabella’s explanation, if they ruled out the possibility that someone inside the hospital had helped her tamper with the records, it meant the woman had cheated on his friend while he was still alive!

The thought made him so furious he saw stars and nearly lost his footing.

Seeing his father’s state, Tristan Dawson’s brow furrowed slightly. He quickly stepped forward to steady him, though even he was surprised that there was such juicy, years-old gossip to be uncovered!

"This... How is this possible?"

"Why wouldn’t it be possible? Otherwise, why do you think your friend’s parents died in the earthquake, while she and the child just ’disappeared’? It’s because she had already run off with another man long before the earthquake. Thanks to that twist of fate, she saved her own skin and was free to elope with her lover and go far, far away."

"But the good times didn’t last. Because she gave birth to a daughter, her lover soon grew tired of her. They had a rocky relationship for two or three years, which ended when he found someone new and threw both mother and daughter out of his house."

Arabella remarked with a sigh as she said this.

’So, you see, a man with no integrity or morals, who would elope with a married woman for the sake of "love," will naturally toss her aside like an old shoe for the next woman tomorrow. Still, birds of a feather flock together. That woman isn’t any good, either. You could say he was her karma, but she wasn’t necessarily his.’

"Right at that moment, she happened to learn about your connection to her husband. Looking at her daughter, she started getting ideas."

"So when you say ’getting ideas,’ you mean she deliberately passed off her and her lover’s daughter as my friend’s child, all to get more out of me?"

"Let’s be honest, if it weren’t for this daughter, would you treat them as well as you do now?"

Dylan Dawson was speechless. Without that child, he would have still looked after his friend’s widow, but he couldn’t possibly have been so devoted to her every need, much less grant their every wish as he did now.

Besides, he had to admit that some requests, which would have sounded materialistic coming from an adult, were far more acceptable coming from a child.

Jolted awake by Arabella’s words, Dylan Dawson instantly realized just how many outrageous requests from that mother and daughter he had unwittingly agreed to over the years.

"Of course, for greedy people, appetites only grow the more you feed them; they can never be truly satisfied. At first, the mother and daughter’s goal was probably just to seek protection in your friend’s name so they could get back on their feet and live a decent life. But your kindness to them over the years has successfully inflated their greed.

"Just look at the situation. You’re a widower, she’s a widow. You’re single, she’s single. Doesn’t that seem like a perfect match? Being properly married to Mr. Dawson as the new Mrs. Dawson, with access to the Dawson family’s fortune of hundreds of millions, is a lot better than being the widow of a supposed friend, living off a few small handouts."

Arabella’s words made Dylan Dawson shiver. "D-don’t say such things! My son is right here!"

He quickly turned to his son to declare his position. "Son, you have to believe me. I have absolutely no feelings for that woman beyond the gratitude I owe my friend."

Tristan gave him a cold look. "What good does it do if I believe you?"

"How can you say that? Your belief in me would be the greatest validation I could ask for!" Dylan Dawson said miserably, grabbing his son’s hand, trying to feel a shred of warmth and validation from him.

But his son ruthlessly pulled his hand away, giving him a cold look one might give a fool. "I can vouch for her. What she said... is all true."

"What?" Dylan Dawson’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Tristan was probably fed up with his father’s idiotic behavior, and said with disdain, "You may not have had any such ideas, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t. That woman approached me in private several times. Every time, she would deliberately tell me how wonderful you were to her and her daughter, implying that she would soon become your wife—the new mistress of the Dawson family."

Dylan Dawson was utterly stunned. "Is that all true? Why didn’t you ever tell me?"

Tristan rolled his eyes at him again. "And if I had, would you have believed me? How many times did I tell you I hated that woman and the daughter she brought with her? And what did you always tell me? You said they were our family’s saviors. That without that little girl’s father, neither you nor I would be here today. You told me to always give in to them and not argue with them."

Dylan Dawson was at a loss for words. He had indeed told his son that, and more than once.

Thinking back, he realized that must have been when his son started to grow distant. At first, he’d thought it was just a rebellious phase. He figured Tristan was throwing a tantrum because he couldn’t handle seeing his father being so nice to another child.

So he’d tried to compensate by being twice as good to his son, buying him this and that. But instead of mending their relationship, Tristan had only grown colder.

Dylan Dawson had felt wronged before, but now that he knew the truth... well, he realized his attempts to make it up to him had completely missed the point. No wonder his son wouldn’t forgive him!

With a key witness like Tristan Dawson corroborating her story, eighty percent of what Arabella had just said was effectively confirmed. The remaining twenty percent hinged on the identity of the woman’s daughter.

Based on what they knew, almost all of Dylan’s friend’s blood relatives were dead, making it nearly impossible to find a DNA sample to run a paternity test against the girl.

’But the girl’s biological father isn’t dead. As long as they can find him and do a paternity test, the truth will come out.’

That’s what she thought, anyway. But Arabella didn’t share this insight with Dylan Dawson. As she would put it...

’Before, I could say you were just blinded by the debt you felt you owed for your life being saved. But if you can’t even figure *this* out, then you’re a lost cause as a boss. Your company is bound to go bankrupt sooner or later. The best-case scenario is you don’t have to sell a kidney, but you’ll still end up homeless on the streets with your son.’

Hector Donovan: PFFT... You know, she actually... makes a good point.