Marriage with my daughter's father: Darling please be gentle - Chapter 254

Chapter 254: Chapter 254:I want to know everything—his past, his present… all of it.

Stanley opened his mouth to say something, but Lilac cut him off.

“And what is it that Sean told you last night?”

At that moment, Stanley completely forgot what he was supposed to say.

He and Sean might have had an argument, but the real conversation had happened later in his room—with both Gina and Lilac deliberately kept out of it.

Last night, Lilac hadn’t bothered to ask. He knew she’d save her questions for another time.

Now, she stood waiting for him to answer, but his hesitation only made things worse.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and stepped back. “Fine, you can hesitate all you want. I’ll just go and ask Sean instead.”

She turned to leave, but before she could take a step, Stanley grabbed her wrist and pinned her against the wall.

“Why are you so stubborn?” he demanded, pressing her harder into the surface.

Lilac, though startled, refused to back down. “Because I want to know what you talked about,” she shot back, her resolve unshaken.

She knew everything about his real purpose—or so she thought. And yet, suddenly, he didn’t want her to know anything.

Why?

“It’s not what you’re thinking, Lilac,” he muttered.

“Then tell me,” she shot back, locking eyes with him.

Stanley would never want Lilac—or even Kalix—to know the truth, not now at least. But he also knew that the one person who could truly understand him needed to know that crucial part of his life.

Taking a deep breath, Stanley sighed and rested his forehead against her shoulder.

“Not here. Let’s go somewhere,” he murmured, lifting his gaze to hers.

He looked so distressed and tired that all the stubbornness in Lilac seemed to melt away. Without another word or argument, she followed him out.

***

Meanwhile, Winter arrived at the location Dorothy had asked her to come to. Eyes sharp and alert, she made her way toward the VIP room in the restaurant.

“It’s surprising to hear your desperation to meet me, Dorothy,” Winter said as she settled into the seat across from her stepmother.

There had been countless times when Dorothy had mocked Winter for her unfortunate life, or for how ungrateful she supposedly was. But now, seeing her so silent made Winter raise a brow in amusement.

“Don’t think so highly of yourself, Winter. I only wanted to meet you because there’s something I want to know.”

Winter chuckled, her earlier assumptions about Dorothy shattering yet again. She had sounded desperate on the phone, but the moment she opened her mouth, she was back to being rude and proud.

“Is this about the merger? Do you want to negotiate with me now?” Winter asked, the smile still lingering on her lips.

Dorothy wasn’t someone who would approach her unless she wanted to strike a deal. But when she didn’t reply, Winter’s amusement deepened.

“My mistake—” she leaned back slightly “—I thought you were here to blackmail me.”

“Why did you meet Agnes?” Dorothy suddenly asked, the question cutting through the air and wiping the smile from Winter’s face.

A long silence stretched between them as Winter studied Dorothy’s expression—still set in its usual sternness, but with a faint tightening around her mouth and a slight tremor in her hands resting on the table.

“And why do you think I met her in the first place?” Winter countered, her tone deceptively light. She knew Dorothy wasn’t a woman of patience—especially not with her.

And that was exactly why she played her.

“Because I know you met her!” Dorothy snapped, the edge in her voice betraying more than she intended.

Winter’s amusement only deepened. “And now you don’t know where she is.”

The words hit like a splash of cold water. Dorothy’s eyes widened before she could stop herself, her lips parting soundlessly. A flicker of panic crossed her features before she forced her composure back into place—but Winter had already seen it, and she savored every second.

She smirked, watching Dorothy struggle to hide her fear.

The moment Dorothy brought up Agnes, Winter had connected the dots. It was almost amusing—she’d already overheard Dorothy interrogating Eric on the phone about her daughter’s absence. Now, the suspicion she’d been harboring about Agnes was confirmed.

“What do you want to know?” Winter didn’t bother with pretense, diving straight into the point of this meeting.

And just like that, Dorothy’s shoulders eased ever so slightly, as though she finally believed Winter was willing to cooperate.

***

By the time Dorothy walked out of the restaurant, her thoughts were a tangled mess. The sharp click of her heels against the pavement barely registered in her ears. It wasn’t until she reached her car that she stopped, one hand bracing against the window as if the metal could steady her spinning mind.

Eric knew.

The words pulsed through her skull, refusing to quiet.

Eric knows Agnes is pregnant… and he tried to kill that child.

Her breath hitched. For a moment, she almost laughed—because it sounded absurd, because she wanted it to be absurd. But Winter’s voice still lingered, low and cutting, the kind that didn’t speak unless it was certain.

She’d wanted to dismiss it, call it one of Winter’s manipulations. But the truth had a way of rooting itself in the cracks of disbelief, and Dorothy had already confirmed the one thing that made denial impossible—Agnes was pregnant.

The air in her lungs turned heavy. Her nails dug into the glass as a slow, simmering anger began to build beneath her ribs. If Winter was telling the truth and all signs now pointed to the fact she was—then Eric hadn’t just lied to her. He had crossed a line that couldn’t be uncrossed.

Dorothy’s lips pressed into a thin line as her reflection stared back at her from the window. She barely recognized the woman looking back, someone who had just realized that the enemy might not be sitting across from her in a restaurant… but much, much closer to home.

“Who the hell are you, Eric Spencer?” Her voice was darker than the night as she pulled out her phone and made a call.

“I want you to dig deeper into Eric’s identity. I want to know everything—his past, his present… all of it.”