Chapter 4

Henry stretched out his arms to block my way.

Holding back tears, he croaked, "Damian, I've tolerated your behavior and continued treating you with respect because you've looked after my child for the past five years. However, I never imagined that you would deliberately lead her astray and ruin her life like this."

He added, "You taught her to hate her own parents and even fed her food she's allergic to. What exactly are you trying to do?"

At that moment, Jody hurried into the room. She had overheard everything Henry had just said.

With an icy look on her face, she snapped, "Didn't I just tell you to stop causing trouble, Damian? Taking over Simmons Corporation is incredibly important to me. I don't have time to deal with your childish outbursts."

Suddenly, Natalie started coughing violently, and her tiny body began to convulse uncontrollably.

Unable to hold back any longer, I roared, "Ivy Simmons is my wife and the mother of my child! If you continue to stop me from taking Natalie to the hospital, she won't let you get away with this!"

"Damian, we can ignore your lies, but you really shouldn't go around telling other people the same things," Henry said in a timid voice.

"Jody has put a lot of effort into preparing to take over the company," he added. "If Ivy finds out that you're using her name to deceive people, she might take her anger out on Jody…"

Jody's expression darkened even further. Stepping forward to block my way, she spat, "It seems like I've been too lenient with you. If I don't teach you a lesson now, you'll just continue to spout nonsense."

She yanked Natalie out of my arms and roughly shoved her toward Henry. "You take the child."

All of a sudden, a dull thud echoed across the room.

Natalie slammed into the corner of the coffee table before she slid limply onto the floor.

"Natalie!" I screamed before lunging toward her.

To my dismay, Henry pulled her into his arms before I could reach her. Then, he turned her face away from me so I couldn't check on her.

Leaning close to my ear, he whispered, "I've known that she wasn't my daughter from the start, Damian."

Ignoring the horror on my face, he looked up at Jody, who was trying to pull me away, and said, "You should talk things out with Damian, Jody. I'll take care of the kid."

A chill ran down my spine. Everything suddenly made sense.

Henry had shown Natalie no compassion from the very beginning because he had already known the truth.

Natalie's face had already started to turn blue. Yet when she saw that I was being restrained, she croaked, "Bad lady… Let go of my daddy…"

Natalie's words only infuriated Jody further. Jody stood up and kicked her hard.

"You ungrateful brat. Who are you calling a bad lady? I'm your biological mother!" she snarled.

Natalie rolled across the floor several times. Then, after coughing up a mouthful of blood, she stopped moving entirely.

However, Jody wasn't satisfied. When she tried to kick Natalie again, I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around her leg.

"Please… Please don't kick her anymore," I pleaded.

She kicked me away impatiently. "Get lost! She needs to be taught a lesson today! I'm going to make sure she knows who her real mother is!"

Just as her foot was about to come down on Natalie's body, the front door burst open with a deafening bang, and an icy voice rang out from the outside.

"I am her mother!"