The Lie Of That Night Chapter 16
After Gretchen left, only a bone-deep loneliness remained in the villa.
Every piece of furniture, every corner, even the air itself seemed to retain traces of Gretchen’s presence.
At the entrance, she had once stood there, waiting for him to come home with hope in her eyes; on the living room sofa, she had cradled Roderick, humming softly; at the long dining table, she had eaten in silence, her head bowed, as quiet as a shadow…
All the ordinary details he had once ignored, belittled, or even resented now became the sharpest needles, piercing his heart again and again. Regret, like a creeping vine, wound tighter and tighter around him day and night, suffocating him.
“Daddy, when is Mommy coming back?”
Roderick curled up in his arms, his little face so thin it was almost unrecognizable.
Ever since he learned the whole truth, the child had changed. He was no longer spoiled or willful, often waking up in the night, crying for “Mommy.”
He was full of guilt. “It was me… I yelled at her, pushed her, called her a bad person… I even…”
He sobbed so hard he could barely breathe, his small body trembling violently. “I threw away the necklace Mommy gave me… Daddy, does Mommy not want me anymore?”
Countless nights, father and son clung to each other in the empty, icy villa, weeping bitterly.
Holding his son, Terrence felt as if his own heart had been hollowed out.
He could not go on like this.
This thought grew wildly in Terrence’s mind.
He had to find Gretchen. Even if it cost him everything, he would win her back.
After that, he tried several times to go to the Ashford’s mansion, even using all his connections to search for Gretchen’s whereabouts.
But every time, he ran into an invisible wall.
Flights were inexplicably canceled, and the people he sent kept having “accidents” one after another.
In business, his core enterprises suffered blow after blow, partners turned against him, and his cash flow was on the verge of collapse.
Terrence was at his wits’ end.
The once high-spirited Terrence had been worn down to skin and bones in just a few months.
“Sebastian, I want to see Greta. Let me see her just once, I only want to say a word to her.”
After overcoming countless obstacles, he finally arrived at the gates of the Ashford’s mansion.
But there was no response from inside.
Three days later, Roderick was gone.
He left behind a crooked note: “I’m going to find Mommy.”
Terrence’s mind buzzed, and he nearly fainted.
He immediately mobilized all his resources to investigate, and the destination was none other than the Ashford’s mansion.
He abandoned his company, which was on the verge of collapse, and chased after him without hesitation.
This place was a chaotic mix of people, a gray area even Sebastian struggled to control.
“Terrence, you can’t even keep an eye on a child.”
Sebastian’s face was ashen, his eyes filled with rare agitation and hostility.
Although he hated the Mendez family, the child was still half Gretchen’s blood, and when Gretchen was in a coma, she had still held that child’s hand…
“If anything happens to Ricky, I’ll make sure the Mendez family disappears for good.”
The two of them temporarily set aside their past grievances and began a thorough search.
As each second ticked by, Terrence’s heart sank lower and lower, fear nearly consuming him.
At dawn on the third day, they found Roderick in the cellar of an abandoned factory.
The child was curled up on a tattered burlap sack in the corner, his little face burning red with fever, mumbling, “Mommy… cold… scared…”
Roderick’s eyes were empty, barely responding to voices or light.
It was as if his mind had been burned away by the fever.
“Ricky! Ricky!”
Terrence rushed over, trembling as he picked up his son’s weightless body, feeling the burning heat at his touch.
He saw that Roderick was clutching tightly a necklace made of rough shells and colorful plastic beads.
It was a gift the child had secretly made, wanting to give it to “Mommy.”
“Mommy… necklace… for Mommy…”
Roderick murmured in his father’s arms, but his fingers only tightened, refusing to let go no matter what.
“Ah-!”
Terrence let out a wail of anguish, scalding tears streaming down his face.
He hated his own foolish trust, hated that he had torn his son from his birth mother and handed him to a wicked woman, hated how he had ignored Gretchen’s pleas and pain again and again, hated his ridiculous pride and indecision…
It was him, it was he who had pushed his wife and child step by step into the abyss.
On the way back, Terrence was in utter despair.
Suddenly, a heavy truck lost control and crashed violently into their lane.
“Bang-!”