Chapter 234

At that time, Sandy was sick, and all his attention was focused on her. When the call came in, he was right there beside Sandy, taking care of her. But he had to drop everything and rush back to Oakwood Manor.
When he heard what the servant had to say, he immediately thought it was a ploy. He was convinced that Evelyn and Charlie had cooked up a scheme to drag him away from Sandy. He was furious!
The servant saw Charles, and once he grilled her, the truth spilled out. Evelyn had intentionally given Charlie a cold bath, making her catch a chill. The nanny mentioned overhearing Evelyn telling Charlie that her dad had married another woman only because her daughter was sick. So if Charlie got sick too, Charles would come to be with her.
Once he understood the truth about Charlie’s illness, his dislike for Evelyn deepened, and he grew colder towards Charlie, assuming she had been misled. When you view everything through a lens of dislike, it all gets twisted.
After that, he focused solely on Sandy, who was genuinely unwell. Because of this incident, whenever Evelyn later called saying Charlie was sick and needed money, he just laughed it off. He saw it as her newest trick.
After all, he had his secretary transfer a million dollars from his personal account to Evelyn’s card every month. She wasn’t lacking money. So, he never took her seriously when she said Charlie was sick. He didn’t buy into the idea that she was short on cash. Wasn’t a million a month more than enough for minor illnesses? Did Evelyn really need to butter him up for more money?
He believed her asking for money
was just a front to get close to him. So later, when Evelyn tried to use her charms to squeeze more money out of him, he went with it because he was already fond of her. He thought she was just using Charlie’s supposed illness as a cover, not for the cash, but because she loved him, was jealous of Dahlia, and wanted his attention.
“Is Charlie really suffering from kidney failure?” In that instant, Charles realized just how off-base he’d been Evelyn had told him Charlie was sick and struggling with kidney failure. He had turned it around on her and accused her of
being the sick one.
Evelyn didn’t say a word, but her icy stare and expression said it all. It was true. Charlie was genuinely ill and suffering from kidney failure.
He remembered when Charlie had
ét
called him. Her voice sounded soft and tearful as she asked, “Daddy, can you come and stay with me? am sick, and the shots hurt so much.” At the time, he thought she was just acting just like she did when she had a fever. So he coldly snapped back, “Don’t be full of lies like your mother.” And then he hung up.
Charles couldn’t bear to think about how heartbroken Charlie must have been after he scolded her. Sandy had kidney failure too. He was always there for her treatments. But with Charlie, he was never there. The one time she reached out to him, he shot her down.
He truly didn’t deserve to be Charlie’s father. The string of truths hit Charles hard, making him stumble. “I didn’t know Charlie was really sick. I thought…” Charles wanted to explain to Evelyn, but in that moment, he didn’t know where to start.