The Missing Season

Our son's birthday celebration had just come to an end when my wife of seven years smiled and asked, "What do you think about one wife having two husbands?" "What?" I stared at her, certain I had misheard. Before I could make sense of the question, my half-brother walked in, holding a three-year-old boy’s hand. I was still trying to process what was happening when Nancy leaned back with casual ease. "I asked them to come." She reached down and took the little boy's hand, her smile impossibly gentle. "Let me introduce you. This is my son with Julian. "He was born the year you were stationed overseas to manage the Scott family's branch office." The words made my mind explode, leaving it completely blank. She calmly revealed the truth. She and Julian had been together for four years. "I know you've always blamed Julian for your father's death. “I suffered through hiding them for four years out of consideration for you." Her gaze never wavered. "I don’t want them living in the shadows anymore. I want them here by my side." I struggled to stay on my feet, my voice trembling as I forced out the words. "What are you saying?" Nancy raised a hand and gently brushed her fingertips beneath my reddened eyes. "I just want you to be a little more generous. Don't interfere when I spend every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with them." After a brief pause, she added matter-of-factly, "Or you can divorce me, but our son will stay with me." She smiled as though she were discussing nothing more important than the weather. "I just don't care about you anymore. Even if our son stays with me, I can't promise I'll take good care of him." Ignoring the color draining from my face, she looked at me indifferently. "So… "Have you decided which option to choose?" Chapter 1 My throat tightened until it hurt. I sat frozen, my body stiff as stone, and forced the words out. "Why did you have to tell me today?" Just a few hours ago, at our son Ethan's birthday celebration, she had smiled as she kissed me, saying the happiest thing in her life was having Ethan and me by her side. Nancy Scott let out a quiet sigh. "I was actually planning to keep it from you forever. "The day I gave birth, I found out you had gotten into a terrible car accident while rushing back to me. "Julian and Rory were with me. I realized I wasn’t worried about you at all." My burning eyes blinked. I remembered. That day, I had been lying on an operating table. My broken ribs hurt so badly I could barely breathe. The nurses had called Nancy over and over again, but she never answered. All I could think about was that she was giving birth. Even though I was terrified, I held on with the last bit of strength I had and signed the surgical consent form myself. Her voice was soft, almost as gentle as the whispers she used to breathe into my ear. "Do you know what I was thinking? "When I heard you had almost died trying to get back to me, I actually felt sorry for Julian." I stared at her in disbelief, wondering if I had heard her wrong. "I was dying, yet you felt sorry for him?" Nancy nodded. "I felt bad that Julian was always rushing over to see me. He stayed with me for four years without ever having a place by my side. I felt like I had failed him. "That day, while I was holding you and crying, I was comforting you, but all I could think about was how to make it up to Julian." My fingernails dug deep into my palms. I fought with everything I had to keep the tears from spilling over. "Julian and his father drove my dad to jump off a building. You know that, so why did you cheat on me with him?" Julian Carter was the son my mother had before she married my father. Nancy glanced at Julian, looking almost helpless. "I couldn’t help it. My dad has never liked you. After six years of marriage, you still haven’t learned how to win him over. I was caught in the middle. "Being with Julian let me forget all my worries." My father-in-law had never accepted me. Nancy and I had been married for six years, yet we never had a child. He had always believed I was the problem. No matter what I did, I was never good enough in his eyes. Every time we visited the family estate, he would deliberately pick me apart, then make me kneel in the family chapel to reflect on my mistakes. Nancy always comforted me, saying we could try IVF. I could not bear the thought of her suffering, so I refused. She was the one who insisted on having a child for me. To make things easier on her, I took every medication the doctors prescribed without complaint. People mocked me behind my back, calling me less than a man. I endured every insult. I never imagined that she had watched me suffer through all that humiliation while building a happy little family with Julian and his son behind my back. It felt as though a giant hand had wrapped around my heart and squeezed it. The pain was so fierce I could barely catch my breath. Nancy's eyes tightened with concern as she stepped toward me, reaching out to hug me. "Samuel, if you can accept having a wife with two husbands, we don’t have to get divorced." Something inside me finally shattered. I shoved her away. "Have you forgotten what you promised me?" Before I could finish, someone slammed into me. I crashed onto the floor. A sharp burst of pain blacked out my vision. Then, I heard Julian crying. "Samuel, Nancy has already sacrificed so much for you these past four years. She loves you so much. Why can’t you try to understand her? "Or do you only care about yourself? Have you never cared about what Nancy wants?" The woman who had sworn she would love me forever had fallen in love with my mother's illegitimate son. Together, they had another illegitimate child behind my back, forcing me into the same nightmare my father had once faced, having to choose between family and responsibility. Now, they wanted my understanding? It felt like they were driving a knife straight through my heart. I laughed out of sheer anger. At the same time, tears poured uncontrollably down my face. Nancy froze for a moment. She reached toward me, but impatience quickly flashed across her face. "Think it over. When you’ve made your choice, let me know." She walked out hand-in-hand with Julian and Rory. The front door slammed behind them with a deafening bang. The noise jolted my sleeping son awake. His heartbreaking cries filled the room. The piercing wails, mixed with the agony crushing my chest, tore me apart. I clutched my son, Ethan, in my arms and broke down with him. I had barely caught my breath after the chaos finally settled when my phone rang. It was Nancy. Her voice was low and filled with anger. Chapter 2 "Samuel, who told you to tell my father about Julian?" "I didn’t—” Nancy cut me off sharply. "Get back to the family estate and calm him down. If you can’t even learn how to be my husband, then don’t expect to raise our son." My hand shook so badly I could barely hold the phone. The moment Ethan was born, my father-in-law had wanted to take him away. Back then, Nancy had seen how devastated I was as I sent people to drive off the bodyguards he had brought. "Ethan belongs with Samuel. No one else has the right to raise him." Now, for Julian's sake, she was using Ethan to threaten me. She had already betrayed me. I could not lose Ethan too. After forcing myself to calm down, I left Ethan with the nanny and hurried to the family estate. Inside the family chapel, Julian sat off to one side with Rory in his arms. The moment I stepped inside, my father-in-law slapped me across the face. "When Nancy insisted on marrying you, she stood outside the house for three days and three nights before I finally gave in. "I thought you had something worthy of her. Instead, your wife cheated on you with an illegitimate son and had another illegitimate son with him, yet you never even noticed. "Are you trying to make the Scott family a laughingstock?" When my mother brought Julian and his father home years ago, my own father did not throw them out. Instead, he had jumped to his death. My father-in-law had always looked down on him for that, which was one more reason he despised me. However, I had never imagined that even Nancy's affair would somehow become my fault. Nancy glanced at me before turning to her father. "Weren’t you always complaining that Samuel couldn’t give you a grandchild? I gave you one ahead of schedule. What’s so bad about that?" Her voice was lazy, as if she had done something worthy of praise. She looked at me with a mocking smile. "Mr. Carter, you created this mess. Clean it up yourself. "As long as we’re married, keeping my father happy and helping me solve my problems is your responsibility." Julian walked over, slipped an arm around her, and grinned at me. "Samuel, I have always been busy with work. I am terrible at dealing with family matters, so I’ll be counting on you from now on. "Unless you stop being the Scott family's son-in-law." I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek and stared at Nancy. I knew I should not waste my energy clinging to a woman whose heart had already changed. However, I could not let Ethan grow up the way I had, struggling to survive under a stepfather's roof. "Nancy, don’t even think about making me bless your relationship." As long as we stayed married, Julian and his son would never have a legitimate place in the Scott family. Julian's smug attitude finally pushed my father-in-law over the edge. He gave his bodyguards a look. They immediately forced Julian to the floor. "You dare set your sights on the Scott family? Give him a hundred lashes! "The Scott family's reputation is not something just anyone can trample on." My father-in-law despised Julian. I should have been happy. However, what Nancy did next nearly drove me over the edge. She kicked two bodyguards away and stood protectively in front of Julian. She looked at her father, then turned her disgusted gaze on me. "It’s only a hundred lashes. I’ll take them for Julian. "After today, Julian will be free to come and go as he pleases within the Scott family." Every lash that struck Nancy felt like a blade carving into my heart. In the fifth year of our marriage, Nancy still had not gotten pregnant. My father-in-law flew into a rage. Claiming that the Scott family did not accept me, he dragged me into the family chapel and ordered a hundred lashes as punishment. I had secretly gone to the hospital for a full examination. There was nothing wrong with me. I wanted to fight back. I even hoped Nancy would stand up to her father again, just like she had when she insisted on marrying me. Instead, she kissed my cheek and whispered softly, "Samuel, Dad just needs to vent his anger. It’s for our future together. Please endure it a little longer." In front of Nancy and every member of the Scott family, I endured all one hundred lashes. The last thing I remembered before losing consciousness was the unbearable pain of my torn flesh sinking deep into my bones. The blood I had shed that day overlapped with the horrifying blood now soaking Nancy's clothes. The memory hit me like a loud slap across the face, leaving my cheeks burning with shame. When only nine lashes remained, even my father-in-law could not bear to continue. He looked toward Julian. Before he could speak, Nancy weakly said, "Let Samuel take the last nine lashes for him." My blood froze in my veins. She wanted me to take his place? Chapter 3 Cold sweat covered Nancy's forehead from the pain, yet she still forced out a faint smile. "Samuel, Julian has never suffered a day in his life. He can’t even survive one lash. "You’re different. You’ve made it through a hundred lashes before. You can handle nine." When I didn’t move, her face darkened. "If you cannot even help carry your wife's burdens, then you don’t deserve to raise our son." The Scott family stood at the top of high society. The fading Carter family was no match for them. Besides, the Carter family had long since stopped being my support. I staggered back two steps and forced a smile that looked more like a grimace. To keep them from taking Ethan away, I endured another nine lashes. I believed that if I kept giving in, I would eventually earn at least a little kindness. Instead, Nancy officially acknowledged Rory and accepted him into the Scott family. I hated Nancy. I hated that she had stopped loving me and trapped me in a situation with no way out. I hated that, for Rory’s sake, she had turned our own baby, who was only a hundred days old, into the Scott family's biggest joke. I stopped trying to protect my image as the Scott family's son-in-law and leaked the truth about Nancy and Julian to the media. However, she had already planned to make their relationship public. My expose only made them even more shameless. I became the laughingstock of our social circle. Consumed by anger, I completely lost control. I wrote a long post exposing how Julian and his father had driven my own father to his death. Before I could publish it, Nancy intercepted it. To punish me, she threw a lavish ceremony to officially welcome Rory into the Scott family. Even my father-in-law had no objections to what she did. On the day of the ceremony, I stayed home with Ethan and locked the doors. For Ethan's sake, I did not want to cause any more trouble. However, Julian refused to leave me alone. He sent me a video. In it, Nancy was tightly wrapped in his arms as they kissed passionately. Their heavy breathing echoed through the speakers. "Nancy said that even if you two get divorced someday, I’ll never have to hold myself back in front of her father again." My fists clenched so tightly my nails dug into my palms. What had all the humiliation I endured been for? A moment later, he sent another photo. The last thread of self-control I had fought so hard to hold onto finally snapped. My family pendant hung around Rory’s neck. My father had custom-made it for me with his own hands. Years later, I had personally fastened it around Ethan’s neck. I rushed all the way to the Scott family's welcome banquet for that child. Ignoring every mocking smile and every look of contempt around me, I walked straight toward Nancy. The moment she saw me, satisfaction flashed across her face. "Samuel, so you've finally come to your—" "Give me back my family pendant," I cut her off, my voice trembling. "It was the last thing my father left me. What gives you the right to hand it to someone else?" I could barely keep my emotions under control. After my father died, Julian had stolen my family pendant once before. I refused to give it to him. My mother beat me mercilessly for it. Then she locked me in a dark storage room without food for an entire day and night. When Nancy found out, she was not even twelve years old. She stormed into my house and set it on fire. Using her age as protection, she stabbed my mother three times. After taking back my family pendant, she pointed at Julian and warned him fiercely, "If you ever steal Samuel's things again, I'll stab you!" Julian was older than she was. Even so, he was so terrified that he fainted on the spot. Now, eighteen years had passed. Julian had not only stolen her away from me, but all he had to do was ask, and she would take anything of mine that he wanted. Nancy stepped in front of Julian and Rory, shielding them behind her. She stared at me coldly. "It’s only a family pendant. What difference does it make who wears it? "Besides, Rory can call you Dad too. What’s wrong with giving it to him?" Her matter-of-fact tone shattered the last of my restraint. "I’m not his father. And I will never give my belongings to an illegitimate child." Just then, the boy charged at me. His little fists slammed into the injuries from my car accident that had still not fully healed. The pain was so intense that I instinctively raised my hand. However, before I even touched him, Nancy shoved me with all her strength. I fell backward. The back of my head crashed into the sharp corner of a table. Blinding pain exploded through my skull. Just before everything went dark, I heard Nancy scream my name in terror. Chapter 4 When I opened my eyes again, Nancy was sitting beside my hospital bed. She looked exhausted. The moment she saw I was awake, irritation flashed across her face. Instead of asking how I was, she started scolding me. "Look at yourself! Is this how a gentleman from a wealthy family is supposed to act? You actually fought with a child over a family pendant in front of everyone." A bitter smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. I ignored her. Finding my silence boring, Nancy tossed out a few more icy remarks before leaving. She did not come back for the next two days. On the third day, Julian showed up. He casually spun the family pendant around his finger before tossing it onto my blanket with a mocking grin. "You got yourself beaten half to death over a family pendant. "What a shame. It still ended up belonging to my son." My fingers stiffened. The numbness inside me vanished instantly. "What do you mean?" He burst out laughing. "Do you know why I never tried to hurt Ethan despite wanting to marry Nancy?" I stared at him without saying a word. "Because he’s Nancy's son. "My biological son." The words hit me like a bolt of lightning. I locked my eyes onto Julian's smug face. "I never wanted Nancy to have your child, so she took birth control pills. "When I decided I didn’t want her to get pregnant naturally with your baby, she agreed to IVF. "While she was going through the IVF procedure, I had the doctor switch the embryos. "You never suspected a thing. Isn't that hilarious?" As if afraid I would not believe him, he pulled out a DNA test report and handed it to me. My whole body shook violently. Julian pointed at me and laughed so hard he nearly doubled over. "Watching you protect my own son, refusing to divorce Nancy, and even fighting me over that pendant for his sake... "It’s the funniest thing I have ever seen." He leaned close to my ear and whispered each word slowly. "The embryo switch only worked because Nancy allowed it. "So what if you’re her legal husband? "My father beat your father, and I beat you. You and your father were born to be stepping stones for us." Grief and fury exploded inside me. I could not endure another second. I lunged at Julian and tackled him. By the time Nancy rushed into the room, I was slapping him across the face. She kicked me hard in the stomach. "Julian came here out of kindness to return your family pendant. What are you going crazy over now?" Fighting through the agonizing pain that felt as if it were tearing me apart, I looked at her in despair. "What about our child? Don’t you owe me an explanation?" Nancy froze for a split second. Then her brows knitted together. "What explanation? "If you've lost your mind, go get treatment. "Look at yourself!" The humiliation crushed me like a tidal wave, tearing my heart to pieces. My fists clenched so tightly they trembled, my bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the two of them. Nancy supported Julian as they stood together, coldly watching me at my lowest. "When you've cried enough, get discharged from the hospital and go take care of your son." With that, she turned and walked away. Her figure disappeared down the hallway without another glance. I was shaking so badly I could barely breathe. My father was gone. The woman who once loved me had abandoned me. Even the son I had cherished more than my own life was never mine. What was the point of living anymore? Despair and hatred spread through me like poisonous vines, sinking their roots deep into my soul. At that moment, I made a reckless decision. I grabbed the fruit knife from the bedside table and charged after Nancy. However, just as I reached the hospital room door, a woman suddenly wrapped both arms around my waist and stopped me. "Samuel, don't. "Let me avenge you." Her voice trembled with fear, as though she had almost lost me. "Everyone who has hurt you... "I will make them pay." ... For some reason, an overwhelming sense of dread settled over Nancy. She stopped walking. An uneasy feeling made her instinctively turn back toward the hospital room. The moment she did, she saw something that filled her with absolute terror. She shoved Julian aside without a second thought and ran.