Chapter 635

Rowan turned his gaze to Elissa, finding her expression perfectly composed, without a trace of guilt.

He let out a low chuckle. "So my grandmother knows, but I didn't?"

Elissa dipped her dumpling in sauce, answering without missing a beat. "I told you."

"When exactly did you tell me?"

Rowan paused, thinking it over. "Was I asleep?"

II п

...

Elissa stayed quiet.

She couldn't exactly say that she *had* told him while they were in bed, just not while he was sleeping.

That night, she had laid everything out clearly. But it had been far too long since they had been together, and the man was so entirely consumed by his own desire that he hadn't processed a single word she said. He had just blindly assumed she was asking him to raise the child as his own.

"Why so quiet?"

Seeing that she wasn't going to answer, Rowan was about to press her further when he caught the faint, rosy flush spreading across her ears. The memory suddenly clicked into place.

Before he could say another word, Janice dropped a dumpling onto his plate.

"Eat your food and stop talking."

Janice motioned for the staff to place more pastries in front of Elissa while she continued scolding Rowan. "She finally has a moment of peace to sit down and enjoy a meal, and you won't let her eat in silence."

To Janice, Elissa looked noticeably thinner, and she was determined to make sure the girl ate and slept properly from now on.

Rowan, on the other hand, was acting completely out of character.

Normally, the boy was as silent as a stone. But around Elissa, he suddenly turned into a chatterbox.

Years ago, she used to worry he was too brooding to ever win a woman's heart. Now, she just wished he would shut up.

Watching the usually commanding CEO of the Murphy family sit there taking a scolding like a little boy made Elissa bite her lip to hold back a laugh. "She's absolutely right."

Rowan shot her a dry look and surrendered. "Fine. You're the favorite grandkid now, and I'm just the tag-along husband."

Janice didn't skip a beat. "You couldn't even pull that off."

Rowan blinked. "?"

"You talk too much," Janice replied in total seriousness.

Elissa, who was mid-sip of her soup, nearly choked as she nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Grandma is always right."

Seeing the brilliant curve of her eyes, a fierce, undeniable warmth bloomed in Rowan's chest. The look in his eyes softened entirely. He grabbed a napkin and gently wiped the corner of her mouth, completely stripped of his usual edge. "Traitor."

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at Atwater Manor was the polar opposite of the warm, lively breakfast at Rivercross Residence.

The tension was suffocating.

Frank was halfway down the stairs when he saw Carmela screaming at the household staff. The moment she spotted him, her anger boiled oyer Do you have any idea what the Wilkinson's just did?" Content"

"Because you refused to go propose yesterday, you completely insulted them! They bypassed us and sent Marcia straight to the Crest family!"

She had actually driven to the hotel where the Wilkinson family was hosting their banquet last night.

But right at the entrance, she ran into Frank and Rowan. For reasons she couldn't comprehend, Frank had lost his mind and forced his men to physically drag her back to the estate.

Now, a guaranteed, elite marriage was officially dead in the water!

Frank looked as though he hadn't slept a wink. His expression was completely void of emotion as he murmured two flat words: "That's good."

"How is that good?!"

Carmela was practically hyperventilating, her chest heaving as she ground her teeth together. "I know you think she's beneath you, but she's the long-lost daughter of the Wilkinson family-"

"She has absolutely nothing to do with the Wilkinsons."

Frank's voice was a dead, hollow monotone. He walked over to the dining table, picked up a cup of black coffee, and took a slow sip.

It was intensely bitter.

In a fleeting haze, he suddenly remembered how Elissa used to hover around him whenever he did this She would always remind him with endless patience, "Frank, drinking coffee on an empty stomach is bad for you. Please eat something first."

He had watched her grow up from a young girl into a wife who was relentlessly attentive and thoughtful.

Up until yesterday, he had clung to a desperate sliver of hope that eventually, he could bring her back to him.

But last night, when he watched her curl up so naturally in Rowan's arms—when he saw the absolute, unbreakable trust shining in her eyes a freezing realization had shattered him.

She had...

She had never looked at him like that.

She had never trusted him like that.

Perhaps the words she had

screamed at him before hadn't just been said in anger. Perhaps, over the three years of their marriage, she

had fe exactly the way he

did trapped, with absolutely no way

out.

Carmela froze, blinking rapidly as her brain caught up. "Wait, are you saying she

isn't actually the Wilkinson family's daughter?"

"Yeah."

"Oh my god..."

Carmela let out a massive breath, her heart still hammering in her chest. "Thank God! Thank God!"

If they had finally gotten rid of Elissa only to replace her with someone from an even worse background, it would have been a disaster.

It took her several minutes to calm down, but a lingering frustration chewed at her. "Then what about the real Wilkinson daughter? Did they find her or not?"

Seeing that his mother would never let this go, Frank sighed impatiently. "I don't know."