Our Anniversary, You Chose Her – I Chose Divorce

A wry smile touched Chloe Reed’s lips. ”Your own desires or your nephew’s physical and mental well-being... Walker Grant, which will you choose?”

With that, she pushed him away and left the shooting gallery.

A helpless smile touched Walker Grant’s lips, and he promptly followed her out.

He instructed the staff to prepare a guest room, furnishing it with all sorts of things for a child. The clothes and other supplies he bought were all new.

When Annie York saw this, she found Chloe Reed and asked, confused, ”Chloe, why the sudden child’s room? Is a kid coming to stay with us?”

”Mhm,” Chloe Reed replied. ”It’s his nephew. He’ll be living here from now on. If you have time to play with him, please do. The poor boy has been through a lot.”

Annie York nodded. ”Of course. I love kids.”

Her grandmother also noticed something was amiss, so Chloe told her what was happening.

Hearing this, her grandmother’s brow furrowed. ”Is it Sunny Reed’s child?” she asked.

Chloe Reed nodded, then gently corrected her. ”Grandma, she doesn’t use the Reed name anymore. The Reed family has disowned her.”

But her grandmother said, ”Bringing her child to live here... Chloe, won’t that upset you?”

In her grandmother’s eyes, Sunny Reed had hurt Chloe time and again, driven a wedge between Chloe and her parents, and was the root of all their troubles. Now she would have to face her child every day; how could Chloe not be upset?

”Grandma, Noah Grant is only three years old. He doesn’t understand any of this.” Chloe Reed held her grandmother’s dry, warm hand and spoke softly. ”Besides, I’ve been thinking about Julian a lot these past few days. He was a good man, and he was very kind to me. For his sake, I have to take care of his child.”

Her grandmother stroked her hair, sighed helplessly, and said, ”Chloe, you’re such a kind, good-hearted child.”

Chloe Reed sat beside her, watching TV with her, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

’Grandma still has these after-effects, even though she took the antidote right away,’ she thought. ’So what about Noah? There was a nearly month-long gap between when he was poisoned and when he took the antidote. I can’t even imagine how much damage the poison has done to his little body in that time.’

’Will he be able to grow up healthy?’

...

Walker Grant went to the hospital several times a day and even stayed there at night. Seven days later, the toxins in Noah Grant’s body were completely cleared, and he learned of the poison’s lingering after-effects.

The poison had damaged the nerves in Noah Grant’s lower limbs. His legs would grow weaker and weaker until he could no longer stand at all.

Walker Grant’s expression turned grim when he heard the news. In front of Noah, however, he carefully masked his feelings, scooped the boy up, and carried him to the car.

”Your auntie has your favorite toys ready and is waiting for you at home. There are a lot of people there. Besides your auntie, there’s her grandmother—you can just call her Great-Grandma.”

Walker Grant patiently told him about everyone at Jardinelle.

Noah listened very attentively, but after a while, he still asked, ”Can I still see my mom?”

”No,” Walker Grant said.

He mercilessly rejected Noah’s request, crushing his hope.

’It had to be done while he was young,’ he thought. ’The longer it’s put off, the harder the choice will be.’

Noah was crestfallen. He hung his head and was silent for the rest of the ride.