Episode 70: The Son of My Husband, Born of Another Woman

Lara slowly helped Valérie up as she convulsed on the floor, unable to rise. The woman gasped for breath, her wet face streaked with tears.

After patting her back, Lara pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped the blood from her split lip. The touch of the fabric must have stung because Valérie flinched and slapped her hand away irritably. But Lara persisted, carefully wiping both her lip and the trickle of blood running down from her nose.

“I’ll call the physician,” she whispered as she straightened up, pressing the handkerchief into Valérie’s hand. Valérie bowed her head low, biting her torn lip. Her pride was clearly wounded. Had she been wrong to interfere between them?

Yet, if she had done nothing, something terrible might have happened. Alec might have actually killed Valérie. But Lara had not intervened out of concern for Valérie—she had done it because she couldn’t stand to see Alec like that.

“Rose,” she called, turning to summon a servant. But before she could take a step, Alec grabbed her wrist.

Lara stared at him impassively. A moment ago, he had been monstrous enough to make her tremble, but now he looked down at her like the most harmless, fragile man in the world.

She pulled her wrist free without a word. Alec’s lips parted slightly, his expression identical to Valérie’s from moments before—on the verge of breaking down, his face etched with raw wounds. But she felt no pity. Not even a little.

“I came to see the baby,” she murmured, looking up at him. “To offer my congratulations.”

Alec’s face darkened instantly. Unbothered, Lara glanced at Valérie, who was still gasping for breath. Her green eyes were filled with hostility. Normally, she would have masked such emotions with grace, but now they were laid bare.

Lara lowered her gaze to the swaddled baby. A few strands of black hair. A small, flushed face with distinct features. It reminded her of when she had given birth to Loras. But Valérie’s child looked nothing like her own son.

“He looks like you,” she murmured, as if entranced.

Unlike Loras, who had only slept peacefully when he was born, Valérie’s son blinked up at his mother. His gray eyes were the same as Alec’s, and his straight nose unmistakably resembled his father’s. He was an adorable child—so much so that it was heartbreaking. The pain was so sharp, she wanted to cry right there.

If she were Alec, she would hold this child in her arms and gaze at him all day. Even if he were born of a woman she did not want. A child who looked so much like her—it would be impossible not to love him.

Lara thought of her own son, who had inherited not a single feature from his father. She recalled Valérie’s cruel words—how she had failed to protect her own child. The familiar sorrow weighed upon her.

“May I hold him?” she asked.

Valérie glared at her with bloodshot eyes before looking down at her baby. Contrary to Lara’s expectations, Valérie hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

“He looks like his father,” Lara whispered as she gently cradled the child.

Valérie said nothing, simply watching her. As if trying to discern jealousy or despair in Lara’s expression. But instead, Lara pulled back the swaddling cloth slightly and turned toward Alec.

“Look at this,” she said, showing him the baby. “He resembles you more than Loras ever did.”

Lara smiled faintly, gazing at the wriggling infant. But Alec recoiled as if he had just seen the severed remains of a body he had killed with his own hands.

His expression twisted with something between fear and disgust. As if he were staring at the cause of a traumatic wound.

“Hold him,” Lara said, studying him carefully.

Alec bit his lip, glaring at her as if she were cruel for suggesting it.

“Go on,” she urged.

“…Take him back,” he said, his throat tightening.

Lara shook her head. No matter what, Alec was this child’s father. He had chosen this.

The baby was innocent. Lara did not particularly welcome his presence either. It was painful. It was agonizing. She found it fascinating and lovely that he resembled his father so much, yet when she returned to the First Empress’s Palace, she knew she would tremble in guilt and hatred.

Especially since this child had been conceived that night.

While she had been mutilating herself, Alec had been embracing Valérie, creating this child.

The irony was almost laughable. He had treated her with such wrath, as if he would kill her, and yet he and Valérie had still done what married couples did.

If Lara disappeared as Valérie wished, perhaps the two of them could build a family together. Her blood ran cold.

“Hold him. He is your son,” she repeated.

“Put him down.”

“Isn’t he beautiful?” she asked. “I always found this age to be the most precious.”

Even if Lara found the child uncomfortable, Alec was in a different position.

She and this baby were not related by blood. But Alec and the child shared half the same blood.

Yes, half his blood… A bond that could not be severed.

People often said that having a child tied a couple together in a bond that could never be broken. Even if they no longer faced each other as lovers, as parents, they would always be bound.

And now, through this child, Valérie and Eilec were tied together as well.

“Alec,” she called softly, offering the baby once more.

Then—

“Agh!”

Alec seized the baby from her arms and hurled him to the floor.

The infant wailed in agony.

Lara gasped, reaching out in horror, but before she could lift the baby, Valérie shoved her aside and scooped up her child.

“I-I’m sorry, I…”

Lara tried to apologize, her heart breaking, but Valérie responded by slapping her hard across the face.

The blow knocked Lara to the ground. She barely registered the pain, her mind reeling from the shock.

“Alec!“

Valérie’s scream rang out as Eilec’s foot struck her stomach.

“You filthy wretch…”

Alec moved to kick Valérie again, but Lara grabbed his leg, clinging to him.

“Stop, stop!”

She looked up at him. His eyes were blazing with madness, glaring at Valérie and the baby as if he would destroy them.

“Enough. Please, enough,” she begged, tears spilling down her face.

Alec’s lips pressed into a thin line, his murderous gaze fixed on Valérie.

As if he wouldn’t stop until she was dead.

The newborn’s wailing filled the bedroom.

Lara turned her head and saw Valérie staring at her, her eyes filled with bitter resentment rather than concern for her child.

Lara shakily rose to her feet and grabbed Alec’s arm. He reached out, clutching Valérie’s hair, preparing to slam her into the wall.

Lara screamed.

“STOP!”

It was almost a shriek.

“If you keep going, I swear—I will die. Right in front of you. Right in front of you…!”

Alec froze.

She had no other way to stop him.

Instead of merely holding him back, she threw her arms around him, using her entire body to restrain him.

Alec finally let go of Valérie’s hair.

Lara, still sobbing, clung to him.

“Please, please…”

A long hand stroked her trembling back.

“Let’s go back,” he said.

His deep voice rumbled in her ear.

Lara slowly pulled away, blinking her wet eyes.

Then, without another word, she left the bedroom.