Chapter 3

As soon as she saw Adrian, with his black hair and golden eyes, the thought crossed her mind that he might be a relative of Raon’s. But a biological father? That was unacceptable.Knowing the state in which Andrew had found Raon’s biological mother, Ramona’s blood began to boil.

“Listen, let’s just talk this out,” Adrian pleaded.

“Talk? Isn’t the time for talking long gone? Were you born without a shred of human conscience?”

Adrian grabbed Ramona’s wrist, stopping the movement of the sickle and speaking urgently. He had a gut feeling that he might actually die here if he didn’t act fast.

“Please, hear the whole story first. You can hit me or slit my throat after that!”

Her wrist felt fragile enough to break, yet her grip was incredibly stubborn. Adrian’s mind raced as he realized he might have to physically wrestle her just to stay safe—a daunting task given how strong she was for a woman.

“You lived not far from here all this time, and you’re only coming to find him now? Did you have no intention of looking for him until you suddenly became infertile and realized he was your only hope?”

Suddenly, Ramona felt the strength drain from the hand Adrian was using to hold her wrist.

“Wait, are you really…?”

Before Ramona—having double-checked that Raon’s door was shut tight—could finish her cautious question, Adrian’s head gave a slight, shaky nod. It was a stroke of unintended cruelty to poke at his wound like that, but she felt no guilt.

“They say that… ‘condition’ is a death sentence for a man.”

She felt a flicker of pity, but it didn’t wash away her anger over his late arrival.

“I was deployed in the war and only returned recently. That was when I first heard I had a child.”

“The war? Ah…”

The war that had dragged on for six grueling years had only recently ended. Knowing that survivors were just now returning, Ramona relaxed her grip on the sickle. If he had been on the battlefield, it stood to reason that he couldn’t have known about Raon.

“First… I am glad you survived. And thank you for protecting our country.”

Since he had risked his life for the nation and only just discovered his son’s existence, she couldn’t stay as furious as before. Ramona gave a polite bow, and Adrian quickly returned the gesture. Then, he explained his situation.

“So… you were severely injured during the war and diagnosed as permanently sterile. You returned home and happened to hear a story regarding your ex-wife?”

“Yes. During the divorce mediation period, my ex-wife said she would stay at her family’s villa. I let her go, and the divorce was finalized. But I recently heard rumors that she gave birth to my child before the divorce went through, so I came looking for him.”

He said he was twenty-five, so he must have married in his late teens. Divorces weren’t instantaneous; she knew they took anywhere from four months to a year. If the child was born at the villa before the final decree, Raon was legally Adrian’s son, not an illegitimate child. Ramona nodded, understanding that he had every right to be desperate to find the boy.

“But—and I hate to say this—couldn’t your ex-wife have had an affair with a man who looked like you and had Raon?”

“That’s why I have something to check. In our family, direct descendants are born with three red spots on their right shoulder…”

“Three of them?”

“Y-yes! That’s right! Which means Raon is definitely my child.”

Seeing Adrian let out a sigh of deep relief, Ramona felt a wave of complicated emotions. Just in case, she had always forbidden Raon from stripping off his clothes to swim in the stream with friends. But the fact that this man knew about those three red spots confirmed that Raon was indeed of Adrian’s blood.

“Then… did your ex-wife not know that Raon was your biological son?”

“The probability is high. Since she likely didn’t know about the marks, she probably assumed he was the child of the man she was having an affair with and never told me.”

Realizing the cause of the divorce had been the wife’s infidelity, Ramona sighed inwardly.

“Are you going to take him?”

“Yes, of course. I am incredibly grateful and sorry to you, Miss Ramona… I will repay the grace of you raising him more than a thousandfold.”

At first, Raon had been like a burden she took on to repay a debt of her life. And yes, she had received plenty of child support from her ex-husband. But over the time they had spent together, the bond of raising him had taken root.

They say the bond of raising a child is deeper than the bond of birth, and now she knew why. She had intended to take responsibility and raise him until the end if his father never appeared. But now that he was here, her heart felt a sharp, stinging ache rather than a sense of relief.

“I see. He is your son, so it’s only natural for you to take him… but you mentioned a fiancée. Won’t she resent our Raon?”

“I have already shared everything about Raon with her. We’ve agreed to raise him together once we marry.”

“That is a relief then. I was worried he might become a nuisance because he isn’t her biological child.”

“Never. We have many servants at the house, so that will never happen.”

Hearing there were many servants, she realized he was a man of wealth, perhaps as much as Andrew. At the very least, Raon wouldn’t starve. Thinking of the education he would receive—something she couldn’t provide—Ramona let out a soft sigh.

She turned and knocked on Raon’s door.

“Raon, open the door. Raon?”

Even if she had told him to hide under the covers, there was no way the child hadn’t heard the voices right outside. Perhaps that was why Raon was slow to open the door.

“Sweetheart, my little Grumpy Prince? Won’t you open the door for me?”

Creak—

Raon stood in the small gap of the half-opened door, his head hanging low. He had clearly heard everything. Seeing the wet spots on the floor at his feet, she knew exactly how he felt. But she couldn’t insist on keeping him when his biological father had come for him.

“Sweetheart…”

“Waaaaah! Sniffle… I want to live with Mommy! Mommy! Please don’t send me away!”

The child suddenly lunged forward, burying his face in her chest and sobbing uncontrollably. Ramona gently embraced him, patting his back.

“Uwaaaaaah! I’ll get the spots removed! Mommy, don’t throw me away! Please…!”

As Raon wailed, Adrian looked panicked, unable to even properly introduce himself as a father. He had finally met his son after six years, but seeing the boy cling to someone else and refuse to let go made him look quite troubled.

“Raon, let’s stop crying. Your head will hurt if you cry too much. Come on, stop now.”

“Hiccup.”

She wiped the child’s eyes with a handkerchief and held it to his nose.

“Blow!”

“Honk.”

Having cleaned him up, Ramona led Raon toward Adrian. Raon resisted, squirming, but he couldn’t escape Ramona’s firm hold.

“Raon, you have to say hello. This is your daddy.”

“……”

“Please understand, he’s still feeling awkward because it’s so sudden,” she said to Adrian.

The bravado Raon had shown when refusing to open the door was gone; he clung to Ramona and wouldn’t even look at Adrian.

“I understand. It’s awkward for me too, so it’s only natural for a child to feel that way. Raon, shall we say hello for the first time? I’m your father. You’ve grown up so well and bright. I’m so glad.”

“……”

As Raon remained silent, Ramona coaxed him gently.

“My little Prince, didn’t you say recently that the people returning from the war were so cool? Raon’s daddy was away at the war, so he didn’t even know he had a son, but he came to find you as soon as he could.”

“That’s different. I don’t need a daddy. I only need Mommy.”

Still muffled against Ramona’s chest, Raon gripped her clothes tightly. Seeing that, Adrian realized once again how Ramona must have raised him. Usually, a child who wasn’t one’s own blood would be raised with resentment, and in that case, the child would have jumped at the chance to leave. But because she had poured so much love into him, Raon wouldn’t budge.

“Raon, if you come to my house, you can eat delicious meat every day and wear wonderful clothes. I’ll give you anything you want.”

“What I want is to live with Mommy and eat the food she makes.”

Adrian tried to tempt him with the material things children usually want, but Raon didn’t flinch. He trusted and followed Ramona enough to refuse it all, and her food was better than anything else in the world.

“Sweetheart, what was the promise we made two years ago? Our smart Prince remembers everything, right?”

Raon flinched.