Chapter 19

"You've been living together for five years. You even have a daughter together. So tell me, have you fallen in love with Silvia?"

Hearing this made Ryan freeze up for a brief moment. He turned away, avoiding his mother's question. "Mom, we're talking about you and Dad…"

He thought to himself, ‘Does it really matter if I love her or not? I never intended to end the relationship after we got married, anyway.’

Ophelia continued to stare at her son for a few seconds, then sighed. "Ryan, I don't know why Silvia made the decision to file for a divorce. But I want to say…you should just let her go if you don't love her."

Ryan didn't expect his mother to encourage his own divorce. Yet he could understand his mother's intentions, as she too was a victim of a loveless marriage. It was natural for her to stand by Silvia's decision.

Ophelia continued as she smiled softly, "She's still young, so just let go of her. Let her find her own happiness. Don't hold her back…and don't hold yourself back any longer."

"I heard Mariah's back. Don't worry, I won't have any prejudice against her just because she's been with that woman's son. I'll accept her as long as you genuinely love her."

His mother was being absolutely sincere with her words, but Ryan found it quite annoying when she spoke of Mariah's past relationship. He was even more frustrated when she told him to let go of Silvia so Silvia could find her own happiness.

Not wanting to continue on this topic, Ryan headed straight to Nora's room. It seemed his sister went back to bed after being woken up by his previous call.

Nora was a twenty-two year old university student, which meant Ryan was ten years older than her. Hence, he would usually pamper her despite looking down on her simply-mindedness.

Every time he mocked her intelligence, Nora would always refute his words with a justified expression. She would say that their parents have raised him to be too complicated, which was why she ended up being so simple-minded when they raised her.

Entering Nora's bedroom, he took Nora's phone without any hesitation and grabbed one of her hands. He knew exactly which finger she usually used to unlock her phone, after all; especially when she was always glued to her phone at home.

Nora was awakened by his sudden movement, and immediately tried snatching her phone back. However, he had already walked away from the bed, dialing Silvia's number while he was at it.

Seeing that it was a call from Nora, Silvia answered without much thought. "What's up?"

She had just ended a short conversation with Nora earlier, which was why she got straight to the point instead of greeting Nora over the phone this time.

In response was Ryan's upset tone. "Where are you now?"

Silvia instantly understood the situation as soon as she heard his voice. It was likely that he contacted her through Nora's phone because he was unable to reach her.

It was true she blocked his number, as she didn't wish to maintain contact with him anymore. She refused to talk to him, let alone see him in person.

She was instinctively alarmed. Getting ready for yet another fight, she retorted in a cold voice, "What do you want?"

Ryan clenched his jaw, but was persistent in finding where she was at the time. He figured he would be able to feel at ease once he had total control over her and know her whereabouts.

With that thought in mind, he decided to use their daughter as an excuse. "I need to know where you live because I have visitation rights. Besides, we're not even divorced yet."

"Hah…"

It would've been better if he hadn't mentioned Autumn, as it only reminded her of what she saw at the hospital that night.

Scoffing, she asked, "Do you really still care about your daughter? I thought you only ever cared for your little lover!"

She couldn't help but feel a chill down her spine as she remembered how she had to rush her sick daughter to the hospital, all the while he was embracing another woman tenderly.

Her indifferent tone infuriated Ryan even more, causing him to raise his voice. "What do you even mean by that, Alberich?!"

Instead, she responded to his question by hanging up right away.

Ryan was so angry that he wanted to smash the phone, but Nora quickly dashed towards him, snatching it back with her own two hands. Clutching the phone to her chest, she said, "Come on, Ryan! Smash your own phone if you need to. I'm not done with this phone just yet. I just bought it, you know!"

Ryan stormed out of the room, slamming the door on his way out. As he went downstairs, he bumped into his father Greg, who had just got out of his car.

Due to his foul mood, Ryan merely greeted his father briefly before driving off.

It was quite obvious his father wasn't feeling any better either. He looked even more haggard now, although it had only been a night.

On the other hand, Silvia had just calmly hung up on Ryan. She realized they had only ever argued as soon as they spoke to each other, and would likely just end up on worse terms than before.

She was tired, but she knew she had to stay strong for her daughter, her parents, and most importantly, herself.

Autumn took three whole days to fully recover. Hence, Silvia had to inform the school about her absence while occupying herself with taking care of the little one at home.

Rosaline helped her to ask the boutique manager about the job, and they said that Silvia would have to go in for an interview some time soon. Silvia personally thought that she would have no problem taking on this job, as she was familiar with fashion despite having been married to Ryan for the past few years.

She had found a new lawyer regarding their divorce as well. The lawyer seemed interested in taking on her case, so she decided it would be best to meet up with them for the specifics after her daughter had recovered from her sickness.

Her current life was rather peaceful and plain, but she had no idea that Ryan was going insane during this period of time. He tried picking up their daughter from school, only to be informed that Autumn was sick and absent from classes.

To make matters worse, he was still unable to reach Silvia. The kindergarten teachers didn't know where Silvia stayed, and she refused to pick up any calls coming from Nora or Ophelia's number.

Ryan nearly called the police out of desperation, but realized she wasn't a missing person; she simply didn't want to be in contact with him.

With that, his frustrations ended up making everyone within Pierce Group quite concerned and scared for the past three days.

On the third evening of this entire incident, Silvia noticed that her daughter was getting much better. She wanted to take Autumn for a walk downstairs and buy some groceries along the way.

Unexpectedly, just as they were out of the apartment building, they were met with Ryan, who was getting out of his car seething in rage.

Silvia stood there calmly, as she wasn't surprised that he had eventually found them. His power and wealth made him rather invincible, and there was nothing that he couldn't do.

The man had actually found this place through Mr. Smith, as the lawyer had previously helped Rosaline with her divorce case. Being the one who helped her gain ownership of this apartment, Mr. Smith naturally knew of her address.

After living in turmoil for the past three days, Ryan almost wished that he could strangle Silvia to death upon seeing how carefree she seemed.

However, he soon noticed the little child next to her. Her little hand was in Silvia's as she stared at him with an excited yet terrified gaze.

Thus, he had no choice but to suppress his anger for now.