Chapter 2
When I returned to my daughter's hospital room, I put on an apologetic face.
"Sweetie, I'm so sorry, I couldn't find your earrings."
Then, pretending to just notice Levi, I said, "Oh, Dr. Carlisle, you're here too? Making rounds so late, you're really going above and beyond."
"By the way, when I was on the sixth floor, I ran into your son looking for his dad. I was going to take him back to his room, but I turned my head for a second and he disappeared."
In reality, I had just left him in a stairwell corner on one of the floors. He'd be easy to find.
Hearing my words, both of their expressions changed instantly.
Meadow's voice trembled with anxiety, but she still managed to shoo me away, asking me to go buy her some spaghetti.
Seeing her so worried, I could only inwardly scoff.
She had the heart to try to kill my daughter, but when her son just wandered off, she was beside herself with concern.
They were both her children. How could this woman be such a hypocrite?!
I pretended to agree and turned to leave.
Meadow didn't even wait to make sure I was really gone before she ran out of the room crying with Levi, going straight to look for her son.
I took the opportunity to take my daughter away.
Sitting in the car, I fell into deep thought.
I'd saved my daughter for now, but where could I hide her? In my previous life, Meadow's parents slandered me relentlessly in court.
And my own parents, having believed Meadow's lies, looked at me with utter disappointment and accused:
"Zoran, are you even human? From now on, it's like we never had a son!"
That feeling of being abandoned by the whole world still makes me tremble with despair when I think about it.
Wait...
There was still one person who didn't give up on me back then!
My eyes lit up, and I quickly drove off in a certain direction.
Twenty minutes later, I was rapping on a door.
A sleepy-eyed woman opened it. Her delicate face instantly lit up with joy when she saw me.
Then came a look of bewilderment.
"Zoran? It's been years since we've seen each other. Why are you suddenly showing up at my place in the middle of the night?"
This was my college classmate, and also my lawyer in my previous life, Genevieve.
Back in college, she had confessed her feelings to me.
But I was so focused on dating Meadow at the time that I flat-out rejected her.
She didn't seem too upset about it then, so I didn't give it much thought.
After graduation, we didn't keep in touch for several years. I always just thought of her as an ordinary college acquaintance. But later, when I was falsely accused of arson and the whole world was cursing me, urging the judge to sentence me to death.
Only Genevieve stood firmly by my side, running around for me, appealing several times, right up until the last moment before my execution.
My soul floated in mid-air, watching her hug my tombstone, drinking and crying herself to sleep, refusing to leave for days on end.
It was then that I realized just how important I was to her!
If there's only one person in this world I can trust, it's probably only Genevieve.
I turned to her with an apologetic smile, my daughter in tow:
"I have an urgent matter. Can you look after Melody for a few days? Don't let anyone take her away except me, no matter who comes for her, okay?"
Genevieve agreed, looking utterly bewildered.
Maybe the sedative had worn off. As I was putting my daughter to bed, she woke up.
She gripped my collar tightly with one hand and said softly:
"Daddy, Melody doesn't want to be apart from you."
At that moment, my heart melted completely.
It also strengthened my resolve to protect my daughter and seek revenge against those two.
I kissed my daughter's forehead:
"Daddy will be back soon. Be a good girl and stay with Aunt Genevieve for a few days."
Daddy has some very important things to do."
Saving my daughter wasn't the end.
It was just the beginning of my revenge!
I glanced at the clock - 2:35 AM. The time should be about right.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, my phone suddenly rang.
The caller ID showed: darling.