Archer fell silent. For a while, all Lamont could hear was Archer’s heavy breathing.
Archer was startled by the news. He never thought that he would have a daughter, what’s more, Natalie and his daughter!
Then, it dawned on him that he had a child with the woman he loved the most. The realization brought him so much joy that he was frozen in place, and he couldn’t even give an appropriate reaction.
Archer had no problem sealing hundreds of millions worth of business deals, yet he didn’t know what to do with the sudden piece of good news.
“President, are you still listening?” Lamont urged in a lowered voice when he didn’t get Archer’s reply.
“I… What is going on?” Archer’s voice trembled with excitement. “Lamont, why did you hide it from me?”
“It’s a long story. President Saunders, now that you know who Miss Brown really is, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Archer answered truthfully. He always thought he had no one else, so he had a hard time imagining a life with such a beautiful and kind daughter.
He couldn’t help but remember Valeria’s joyful face. God must have been on his side, blessing his daughter so that she grew up to be a pretty and well-mannered woman.
It had been a long time since Archer had felt this happy. However, a wave of sadness hit him again when he remembered that Natalie had passed away long ago.
His one and only Natalie, the only woman he had ever loved, had left him forever.
Lamont could tell how Archer was feeling. He lowered his voice and said, “I suppose Sir Gavin is trying to please Miss Brown because he wants to bring her back to the family. What about you, President? Do you want her back?”
“Of course! But will she accept me as her dad?” Archer murmured.
There was no doubt that Archer wanted to reunite with Valeria. After all, Valeria was his daughter, his own flesh and blood that Natalie had left him with. If he could, he would take her back into the Saunders family to love and pamper her with whatever he could.
Archer wanted to make up for her, but he just didn’t know if Valeria would want it.
“Now, I’m worried about Miss Brown’s safety. Madam Savannah probably found out why Sir Gavin is seeing Miss Brown so frequently these days. I’m afraid she might do something against Miss Brown. Also, Sir Hayden is a wise man. He’ll know Miss Brown’s true identity in no time.”
“Oh, they won’t have a chance to lay fingers on my daughter,” Archer hissed, sounding murderous. “I’m not who I was twenty years ago. They’d have to step over my dead body if they want to harm Valeria.”
“President, I believe you’re capable of that, but you have to be careful of Madam Savannah’s trap! Before we can ensure Miss Brown’s safety, I think you should tell Sir Gavin to be patient about bringing her back.”
“Leave it to me.”
After ending the call, Archer jumped in giddiness. He had never been this happy in his entire life, and it was all because he finally had a real family.
He had a smart, kind-hearted, and beautiful girl. Archer wasn’t alone anymore!
Archer felt like his dull life had brightened up at just the thought of Valeria. Determined, Archer was willing to do anything to keep her safe.
Also, he was going to donate his assets to a charity fund to keep Savannah’s wicked hands from the Saunders’ fortune. But he changed his mind. He wanted Valeria to inherit the business he built.
Archer would give Valeria the best in the world for as long as he could.
In the Wolf Group Hotel’s presidential suite, William was efficiently working in his study. After going through a few contracts and proposals, he got up and poured himself a cup of coffee.
As he sipped on the coffee, he looked at his watch, waiting for the maternity test result that Marcus should have gotten by then.
Perhaps the test result had proven his assumption wrong.
Giving Marcus some more time, William waited until he finished his coffee to call Marcus. But Marcus showed up just before that.
And he came in with excitement. “Mr. Howard! You’re unbelievable. It’s exactly the same as you predicted.”
“Is it Natalie?”
“Yes. Madam Natalie’s DNA matches Madam Valeria and Sir Raymond. I also ran a test between them both to be sure, and the result is the same. Mr. Howard, what is going on?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Natalie’s child didn’t die. Savannah swapped him away because she needed a child to complete her fake pregnancy. That was her only way to get married to Archer.”
“She wasn’t pregnant?”
“Yes. Other than that, I think…” William frowned. “I think there’s something more to her story with Archer on that night where she allegedly got pregnant.”
“What should we do now?”
“Let me think,” William said as he sat down, still frowning. He didn’t understand why Natalie needed to fake her own death, at the cost of lying to Valeria at that!
Natalie could have just exposed Ronald and Julie when she found out the truth about them and sent them to prison. Yet not only that she failed to do that, but she did something that didn’t make sense instead.
William thought, “What exactly was Natalie planning?”
Looking at William’s furrowed brow, Marcus prompted, “Well, Mr. Howard, should we tell Madam Valeria that Miss Garcia is still alive?”
William shook his head, “No, not for now. We shouldn’t tell her anything before we are clear of what Natalie is trying to do.”
“Besides, I still think Natalie’s staged death is a part of something bigger she’s brewing. Let’s watch what she’s going to do next before we decide to do anything. I don’t really care about her plans if it didn’t involve my loved ones anyway.”
At night, Valeria went home with Oreo and Mocha, satisfied.
Strictly speaking, pets were not allowed in the Wolf Group Hotel. But no one dared to stop her from entering the hotel with Oreo and Mocha.
Not only that the securities acted like they didn’t see her, the staff working in the lobby as well. After all, they all got orders from the higher-ups to leave her alone and do anything as she wished.
However, William was unsettled to see Valeria bringing the pets into their presidential suite.
He had only tried to think of solutions to stop Gavin from seeing Valeria the night before, yet Gavin apparently was one step ahead of him.
Once they were in the room, Valeria unleashed Mocha and walked towards William with Oreo in her arms.
“Honey, look at Oreo. Isn’t she beautiful?”
“It’s just a big fat cat,” William didn’t seem to like the cat very much. “Babe, isn’t it heavy? Don’t you feel tired holding it?”
“She is, but she’s so cute!” Valeria passed Oreo to William, “Here, try snuggling her too!”
“No, thanks. I only want to snuggle my wife,” William rejected her offer. He didn’t understand how Gavin managed to raise a cat almost as fat as a piglet.
Oreo let out a cry in disappointment after being given the cold shoulder.
At the same time, Mocha had run across the room to sit obediently in front of William, extending one of his paws to William.
Unlike Oreo, William didn’t seem to mind the nicely brushed dog. He shook Mocha’s hand and gave it a firm shake.
Seeing that William had accepted him, Mocha came closer and rubbed himself against William’s hand. Naturally, Oreo noticed how differently William was treating them both, and she didn’t handle it very well.
Oreo had always liked to compete with Mocha for attention. So, she jumped out from Valeria’s embrace and went to William. His overt dislike made her want to be close to him even more.
William was startled by Oreo’s sudden appearance in his arms at first. But when he noticed the cat hairs sticking on his clothes, he couldn’t hide his disgust for Oreo any longer.
“You’re not only fat, but you’re shedding as well? Gosh, there’s really no hope for you.”