Starting Over, Standing Tall - Chapter 7

Noah wasn’t entirely unmoved by me over the years, but he couldn’t forget that my actions had led to his mother’s death.

In a days, he seemed to see me walking toward him.

Noah hugged the figure, whispering, “Sarah, is that you? You’re back.” He greedily inhaled her scent, but it wasn’t Gardinia.

It was the pungent smell of opium.

Noah suddenly snapped back to reality, realizing who was in his arms.

“Vivian!” She softly patted his face.

“Noah, let me be your wife. I can do everything she did for you.” She was wearing a low-cut dress, pressing herself against him.

Noah angrily pushed her away.

“Who let you in here? Get out.”

Vivien’s face turned pale, eyes full of resentment.

When I was alive, Noah had brought her to the house more than once, even allowing Billy to call her Margaret.

Vivien thought she was important to him.

But now that I was gone, Noah couldn’t let go.

She was furious.

Vivien touched her belly, a glint of calculation in her eyes.

“Noah, I’m pregnant with your child.”

Noah quietly observed her belly, a smirk curling on his lips.

“Are you sure it’s mine?” Vivien trembled under his penetrating gaze.

But this was her last chance to stay with him.

She had to seize it.

“It’s your child. Don’t you believe me?” Noah’s smile deepened.

How many months? F4, she stammered.

As soon as the words left her lips, Noah dragged Vivien to the hospital.

Vivien thought he was taking her for a checkup, but instead it was for a paternity test.

An hour later, the report was slapped in her face.

Vivien was incredulous.

“It’s yours. It’s impossible. During ovulation, I clearly slept with you. You tampered with it, right?”

Noah sneered, pinching her chin.

His eyes were full of disgust.

He had always been cautious about such things.

He wouldn’t allow any woman besides me to bear his child.

That was his bottom line.

Vivien let out a bitter laugh after a long silence.

“Everyone says you’re a womanizer, but it seems you’re actually a devoted lover. But Sarah will never know your deep affection. She’s dead. Haha.”

Looking at her crazed expression, Noah’s eyes grew colder.

That day, Vivien was fired from the dance studio.

The jewelry she had taken from song shops was returned with a lawyer’s letter accusing her of extortion.

She went back to her old job.

Her live stream had over 10,000 viewers, but no one dared to send her gifts.

For months, Noah lived in a days, his heart feeling empty, as though something crucial had been lost.

Sometimes he’d wake up in the middle of the night, parched, and call out, “Sarah, get me some water.”

He would touch the cold space beside him in bed, his heart feeling suffocated by the weight of the loss.

One day at the family home, he overheard his father and grandmother arguing in the study.

“Old man, that body was fake.”