Those hadn't been precautions. They'd been previews.
My nails dug into my palms. The pain barely registered.
I couldn't look away. I forced myself to watch.
Herman frowned.
"Don't use our son as an excuse to come to me asking for a title. I told you—Daniela Gill is the only woman I will ever marry. Whatever I felt for you is long gone."
Janet's downcast eyes reddened almost instantly.
"That's not what I meant. You know I'm terminally ill. I just want to make sure my son has somewhere to go before I die. I don't want him to lose his mother and then be rejected by his father too."
The moment the words left her mouth, Herman's expression softened.
"Focus on your treatment. No matter what happens, he's my son. I'll take care of him."
Janet shifted closer, pressing her forehead against his shoulder, her body trembling.
"But you're about to get married. I'm so afraid he'll be..."
Herman—who always kept his distance from other women—didn't push her away.
He looked resigned.
"I understand your concerns. But don't worry. I've already been slipping Daniela medication to make her infertile. When the time comes, I'll produce a premarital medical exam showing she can't conceive."
"Once I suggest adopting a child, she'll feel guilty enough to agree. And she'll take good care of Herbert."
A bomb went off inside my skull.
One deafening blast, and then nothing. I couldn't hear anything at all.
Never—not once—had I imagined that this man, who had made me so many precious promises, would turn his cruelest schemes on me.
I bit down on my lower lip until it nearly split, the only thing keeping the sob locked inside my throat.
The Barnes family had a sole male heir lineage spanning three generations. His parents had said more than once that they hoped for grandchildren—a boy and a girl at least, ideally more, to fill the house with laughter.
I loved children too. In all my years as a kindergarten teacher, I'd always dreamed of having my own.
Every time I showed Herman a photo of some adorable kid, he'd smile and say, We'll have our own someday. Even cuter than that one.
I'd been naive enough to believe him. It never crossed my mind that he'd been deliberately sterilizing me just to make room for his illegitimate son.
He knew full well that his mother valued lineage and fertility above all else.
If she ever found out I couldn't have children, she'd tear me apart.