Our Anniversary, You Chose Her – I Chose Divorce

Chloe Reed met his gaze, her clear eyes glacial. ”You still want to yell at me?”

”I...”

Charles Reed was angry, but more than that, he was conflicted.

They had grown more and more distant from their daughter, but as far as they were concerned, all of that was in the past.

’Autumn Linton could be gone any day now. Faced with a dying person, surely she could tell a few white lies.’

’At the very least, it would let Autumn Linton pass on peacefully, without any regrets.’

”I know what you’re thinking. Anyone can put on an act, but I refuse.” Chloe Reed’s voice remained cold. ”I was wronged a great deal in the past. From the time I was ten, you stopped loving me. So, why should I play along with your charade?”

Autumn Linton wept silently, looking at her with sorrow-filled eyes. She never imagined that Chloe would say such things, especially not now.

Charles Reed’s expression was grim. ”We gave you life, and this is how you repay us?”

”You’re not the ones who gave birth to me.”

Chloe Reed promptly produced a paternity test report. ”You were too biased. I started to suspect I wasn’t your biological daughter, so I had a paternity test done. The results confirmed it.”

The old woman started, looking at her in astonishment. ”Chloe?”

Chloe Reed’s features softened. ”Grandma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about this sooner, but I feel now isn’t too late either.”

She squeezed the old woman’s hand. ”Rather than letting them use our relationship to coerce me time and again, it’s better to just lay everything bare. If I’m not related to them, they’ll have no reason to make me do anything anymore.”

”Impossible!”

Autumn Linton was the first to cry out. She hadn’t even looked at the test report, her eyes just locked on Chloe Reed. ”I know you resent us, but you can’t deceive yourself with a lie like this! You are my daughter! I was so excited for you to be born, and your delivery was long and arduous. Even though more than twenty years have passed, I still remember those details!”

Chloe Reed raised her eyes, taking in the other woman’s desperate earnestness. ”If you don’t believe it,” she said, ”we can do another one.”

Charles Reed picked up the report and examined it. The official stamp couldn’t be fake.

’So, Chloe Reed wasn’t their biological daughter?’

His expression grew vacant. ’Then... where was their biological daughter?’

’What happened to their child?’

”I’d advise you not to go looking for your biological child,” Chloe Reed said with a sneer, as if she’d read their minds. ”So she can come back and be subjected to your favoritism?”

’And from their reactions, she could confirm they hadn’t known she wasn’t their biological daughter either.’

’So the mix-up must have happened at the hospital. Twenty-odd years ago, medical facilities weren’t as advanced; it would have been easy for a mistake to happen.’

”Impossible... It’s impossible... How could you not be my daughter...” Autumn Linton kept shaking her head, refusing to believe it.

Charles Reed held the paternity test out to her. ”Autumn, it’s real...”

”Impossible!”

But Autumn Linton shoved his hand away and struggled to get out of bed, trying to reach Chloe Reed.

”Chloe, you are my daughter! I remember every little detail of your childhood. Your father and I always loved you so much. We just wanted you to grow up healthy and happy. You...”

”And all of that ended the moment Sunny Reed arrived,” Chloe Reed said, watching her mother’s pained struggle with a detached gaze.