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“Mother… Mother..”
“…… Damian.”
Turning away with a pitiful look on her face, Harriet stroked Damian’s dark hair.
When Rowena was around, he was an ordinary kid trying to monopolize his mother, but when she wasn’t around, he would act like a grown-up.
He was quick-witted and thoughtful, so even though he was the same age as the twins, he was like an older brother. This was why she had never seen such a look on his face.
“Mother……”
His voice was low and filled with sadness. Harriet looked at the tiny fingers that gripped the pillow as if grasping the hem of a dress and let out a sad sigh in her heart.
Along with her pity, she was curious about Damian’s real father; he must be a very handsome man; it’s easy to tell just by taking a glance at Damian. If he were here, the boy wouldn’t be so lonely.
“Please open the door!”
As her thoughts deepened, she heard an urgent knock at the door. She had been dozing off, but she opened her eyes quickly and went to open the door. When she opened the front door, it was not Rowena who was waiting for her but a familiar man standing there.
“Dr. Philip?”
“Do you have Rebecca’s address?”
“Why all of a sudden…….”
His always quiet and neat face was now agitated. Philip, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, said impatiently.
“A man came to visit me at the clinic the other day. I think he’s looking for Rebecca. I couldn’t tell you for a few days because I was afraid I’d be followed.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Harriet’s eyes widened.
“What the hell does that mean? What’s his connection to Rebecca?”
“I don’t know. I believe her original name was Rowena Philone.”
Harriet, who had been vaguely listening to Phillip’s story, interrupted him and said
“Perhaps, is it anything to do with Damian’s biological father?”
“It cannot be. That’s not even possible.”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn’t see a single similarity between him and Damian. Then there’s…….”
Philip, who had been looking around for a moment, saw that no one was there and added in a hushed voice.
“It was that Gilliters.”
“What…?”
Unable to believe her ears, Harriet covered her mouth with her hands.
Gilliters.
It was a name that had begun to surface over the past few years. On the surface, they operated a legal gambling establishment. However, behind the scenes, they were secretly known as an entrepreneurial organization that had expanded its scale in the underworld. They dealt with money loans using murderous interest rates as well as the import of alcoholic drinks—an item banned by the government.
“I stopped by on my way home, just in case, since you work with Rebecca at the same place. Please tell her to take care, also let her know that if she needs any medical care from now on, she can call me, and I will go directly to her.”
“Yes. Thank you very much, Doctor.”
Could it be that she had a huge debt?
Could this be the reason why she couldn’t remarry? Harriet, realizing the situation intuitively, expressed her gratitude again. As she sent Philip off, a tremendous jolt completely erased her drowsiness. She returned to her chair in the kitchen again, looking confused.
“Gilliters… Rowena Philone…?”
The confusing words filled her head.
If he wasn’t Damian’s biological father, he might be a debt collector.
Naturally, the worst assumption came to mind. A woman whose husband died and had a child in her stomach, and on top of that, she was in debt and had no money! No wonder she would move to a remote area like this one. If that was the case, even changing her name made sense.
Just thinking about what might happen to Rebecca and Damian made her heart skip a beat.
That’s when she heard the knocking again. It was too late in the evening for guests to be visiting.
It might be Gilliters. Her husband was away, performing his job as a miner, and she had three children at home that she had to protect.
Harriet got up, trying not to make a sound, and took a knife from the kitchen cabinet.
Slowly walking on the floor, she took a deep breath as she turned the doorknob to open the door.
****