I looked up and locked eyes with Kylie.
She pushed through the crowd, hurrying toward me. Her gaze swept over me, disbelief clouding her expression.
“Brody Jameson, y-you’re still alive?”
“Does my being alive disappoint you?” I asked coldly, meeting her eyes without flinching.
Even after six years, she was still breathtaking, as if time had never touched her. She looked exactly like she did the day we married.
But the tenderness in her eyes was gone. In its place was something cold, unfamiliar.
She was still the same on the outside. But her heart had changed.
“Y-You’re my dad?”
My daughter looked at me, stunned.
And then, without warning, she threw herself into my arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Daddy, I missed you so much. Why did you only come back now? I dream about you every night, but Mom burned all your photos. I can’t even remember what you look like in my dreams.”
I gently and sorrowfully stroked my daughter’s hair, letting her release all her grievances in my arms.
Then I looked up, my eyes dark with hatred, my voice cold as steel.
“Kylie, in the six years I was gone, you stopped loving me, remarried, fine, I won’t blame you.”
“But what did my daughter ever do wrong? What gave you the right to treat her like this?”
Kylie’s expression instantly darkened, her voice filled with mockery.
“Ariana is also my daughter. How I treat her is none of your business. You have no right to lecture me, Brody. Now that you’re back, let’s settle the divorce.”
The crowd stirred in shock.
“That guy’s actually President Jones’s husband?”
“Husband? That was a lifetime ago. Everyone knows she’s married to Young Master Velez now, and they already have a kid.”
“With how much Young Master Velez adores her, this guy’s done for. If he falls into Velez’s hands, he’ll beg for death.”
I blocked out all the noise around me and drew in a deep breath.
“Fine. But I have two conditions.”
“Kid, don’t tell me you’re eyeing President Jones’s massive company and planning to make some outrageous demands?”
Before Kylie could say a word, Tanner cut in again with a mocking tone.
“I suggest you drop that thought. Or you’ll choke to death on your own greed.”
I simply gave him a cold glance, then turned back to Kylie.
“First, I want you to return the wedding gift my mother gave you.”
“You mean that worthless little pendant?”
Kylie frowned and pulled a dark pendant out of her bag.
My eyes trembled at the sight of it.