Chapter 4

Sofia and Simon's relationship didn't suddenly leap forward just because of this one meeting.

But in the last life, on her deathbed, she'd told me a secret only I knew.

Deep down, she had always liked Simon.

It was only for the arranged marriage, so the Belmonte family could survive, that she'd had to cut all ties with him.

By the time we got back from the bookstore, night had fallen.

The moment we walked in, we saw Leon sprawled drunk on the couch. He raised a foot and kicked his leather shoe right at Sofia.

"Come here. Pour me a drink."

Sofia remembered what I'd said earlier that day, clenched her fists, and said in a low voice,

"Leon, let's split up."

Leon paused, then burst out laughing and threw his other shoe at her too.

"What nonsense are you talking? Is it because I brought Lola back that you're upset?"

Sofia held on to my hand and wouldn't let go.

"It has nothing to do with the child. Our marriage was a deal from the start. You want Selena, so go after her."

Leon was dumbfounded.

He shot upright and grabbed Sofia by the throat.

"You think you're fit to even say her name?"

Seeing the pain on Sofia's face, I scrambled up onto the couch and launched myself at Leon, sinking my teeth into his wrist with everything I had and leaving several deep marks.

"Let go of my mommy! You bad man!"

Leon toppled back onto the couch from the pain, staring at me in shock, hurt written all over his face.

"You'd do this to daddy for a stranger? Did she say something to you?"

I smiled and stepped forward.

"She didn't say anything. I decided it myself. I want new parents."

The words sounded like harmless childish babble.

But they cut Leon to the core.

He lifted me up with one hand, then looked at Sofia.

"What have you been filling her head with? She's Selena's and mine child, and now she doesn't even want her own parents."

Sofia looked at me with an ache in her eyes and said quietly,

"Children are the most honest of all. She wouldn't be fooled by a few words from me. Leon, ask yourself honestly, do you really love Lola?"

A chill suddenly ran down my back.

In my last life, when I was ten, Sofia had said the exact same words to Leon.

Back then, someone at school had mocked me for being a wild child raised by a stepmother.

I couldn't take it, and I went home and cried in Sofia's arms for a long time.

When Leon came home and heard what had happened, instead of comforting me, he snapped at Sofia,

"If it weren't for you, Lola wouldn't have gotten bullied."

I'll always remember how, after he said that, he just gave me one tired glance.

That look, as if he were looking at something he had no use for.

Then he took his ledgers and went upstairs.

Sofia had a huge fight with him over me.

She shut the study door and demanded of Leon,

"Ask yourself honestly, do you really love Lola?"

Leon just thought she was being unreasonable and brushed her off like one of his men.

"I love Selena, so of course I love Selena's child. Handle the school thing yourself. If you can't, go to my advisor."

Hiding by the door and listening, I felt my heart sink.

By the time I came back to the present, Sofia had already thrown the annulment and custody papers in Leon's face.

Leon dropped me and said scornfully,

"You serious? Just because I brought a kid home? You've known all along, haven't you? You put up with it for five years, and now you're playing hard to get?"

Sofia's expression said she'd known all along he'd say exactly that.

She picked up a pen and signed.

"I'm not joking. I'll walk away with nothing, but I'm taking Lola."

"Take Lola? You're not even her real mother. What gives you the right?"

Leon was about to lose it again.

That was when Selena suddenly appeared at the door of the old Moreno house.