Marriage with my daughter's father: Darling please be gentle - Chapter 201

Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Rita’s lies exposed
After ending the call with Roger, Lilac walked back into the living room, her expression carefully neutral. Inside, her nerves were a tangled mess, but she couldn’t afford to show it—not here, not now.

Beatrix paced the center of the room like a storm gathering strength, her voice sharp and rising with every accusation. “So this is it? Roger wants a divorce because he’s been fooling around with his mistress? Is this how my daughter suffers in this marriage? Betrayed? Humiliated?”

Her fingers twisted the hem of her expensive shawl, her face flushed with outrage. Each word lashed out like a whip against Roger’s reputation. On the plush couch, Rita dabbed at her tear-streaked face, her sobs perfectly measured—soft enough to seem sincere, yet loud enough to maintain the room’s sympathy.

“Mom, please… I never wanted any of this. I thought Roger loved me, but now…” Rita’s voice wavered, her hand covering her mouth as another tear slipped free. “Now he’s leaving me for that woman.”

“See what he has done to my daughter?” Beatrix’s gaze snapped to Sylvester, who stood by the fireplace, his expression calm—too calm. But beneath that surface, Lilac knew a storm was brewing.

“I understand Rita made mistakes back then,” Beatrix pressed on, her voice heavy with forced sorrow. “But she apologized. She regretted her actions. And yet Roger decides to betray her? To humiliate her?”

“Perhaps,” Lilac’s voice sliced through the rising tension, “we should wait for my brother to arrive and explain everything. After all, there are always two sides to a story. It’s only fair.”

Beatrix’s eyes narrowed, fury barely concealed. But Lilac remained unfazed. She knew this family too well—their reliance on her grandfather’s wealth, their constant efforts to maintain their status. And now that their carefully crafted facade was cracking, they were scrambling to secure their position before it shattered completely.

“Roger told me himself,” Rita’s voice cut through the silence, her tears momentarily forgotten. She stood, facing Lilac with a look of righteous despair. “He said he wants to be with his mistress. He said he wants this divorce.”

“And yet,” Lilac crossed her arms, her gaze steady, “you want us to condemn him without hearing his side?”

Rita’s eyes widened, anger flaring beneath her tearful mask. “Are you seriously defending him? After everything he’s done to me?”

“I’m not defending anyone,” Lilac replied, her voice calm but edged with steel. “I’m insisting on the truth. Something I know is often a rare commodity in this room.”

Silence fell, thick and suffocating. Beatrix’s jaw clenched, and Rita’s hands trembled, caught between maintaining her facade and revealing the bitterness lurking beneath.

Sylvester shifted, his gaze meeting Lilac’s briefly—an unreadable emotion passing between them.

But Lilac didn’t flinch. If they wanted to play this game, she was more than ready.

“You… how dare you talk like that?” Beatrix’s patience snapped, and she surged toward Lilac. But a deep, commanding voice froze her in her tracks.

“Dare you touch my sister, Aunt Beatrix, and I will make sure your daughter doesn’t leave this house without being exposed,” Roger’s warning cut through the room, sharp and unyielding.

All eyes snapped to him, but he wasn’t alone. Beside him stood Lily, her hand clasped in his, their expressions calm but resolute.

“She’s the one, Mom!” Rita’s voice was a shrill cry of indignation. “The woman after my husband!”

Beatrix’s face twisted with fury. “So it’s true, then? He even has the audacity to bring his mistress here! How shameless!”

But Roger didn’t spare her a glance. He walked straight to Sylvester, his gaze steady, a silent assurance passing between them.

Lily’s composure wavered for a moment under Sylvester’s intense scrutiny, his gaze lingering on her with unsettling keenness.

“Is it true, Roger?” Sylvester’s voice was calm but carried a weight of authority. “Are you divorcing Rita for her?”

Roger’s expression was unwavering, his grip on Lily’s hand tightening slightly—a gesture of support and defiance.

“Yes. And there is much more you need to know. But I won’t have this conversation filled with lies and accusations. We’ll discuss this properly, with the truth—every side of it.”

Beatrix’s lips quivered with rage, but her words seemed to falter under Roger’s unyielding gaze. Rita’s tearful mask cracked, her face twisting in a mix of shock and fury.

“What lies are you talking about? I never lied!” Rita stammered, her voice cracking as she tried to confront Roger.

Roger’s jaw tightened, his patience wearing thin. “Is that so, Rita? Then why don’t you tell everyone how you spiked my drink that night and dragged me to the hotel room? Or how you took those photos and sent them to Lily after you slept with me?”

“I n-never did that.”

Rita’s eyes widened, panic flickering across her face. She glanced nervously at her mother.

Roger took a deep breath, fighting to keep his anger in check. “I should have seen through your intentions from the start, but I was too consumed by guilt to question anything. If Lily hadn’t exposed your lies, I would have stayed trapped in this loveless marriage.”

Rita’s face went pale, her hands trembling as she looked at her mother for support.

Beatrix, equally shaken but unwilling to back down, stepped forward with a defiant glare. “What nonsense are you spewing? You forced yourself on my daughter and took her virginity! She was pregnant with your child!”

Roger raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. But before he could respond, Lilac, his sister, cut through the tension with a scoff. “Oh, really? You might want to rethink that, Beatrix.”

All eyes turned to Lilac as she walked forward, a folder in her hand. “Your daughter was never pregnant with my brother’s child. In fact, she was carrying someone else’s baby and tried to pin it on him.”

A stunned silence fell over the room. Lilac tossed the folder onto the table, the paternity report slipping out. “The DNA test confirms it—the child wasn’t Roger’s. Rita lied.”

Rita’s legs gave way, and she crumpled onto the nearest chair, her face stricken. Beatrix snatched the papers with shaking hands, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

Roger looked at Rita with a mixture of betrayal and relief. “You never loved me, did you? You just needed someone to clean up your mess.”

Lilac crossed her arms, her expression icy. “And you almost ruined my brother’s life for it.”

The room remained engulfed in a heavy, suffocating tension, deception hanging thick in the air.

Sylvester stared at the reports, his eyes blazing with a fire that threatened to consume him. Each word, each line, peeled away the delicate layer of deception Rita had woven around him. The truth was a venomous sting, one that tore apart the fragile trust he had placed in those he once considered family.

Betrayal—its bitter taste settled on his tongue as the weight of his misplaced faith bore down on him. He had always prided himself on his judgment, on protecting those he cared about. Yet here he stood, a fool blinded by loyalty.

The day Sylvester learned of Rita’s supposed pregnancy with Roger’s child, he hadn’t hesitated. He demanded Roger take responsibility, believing he was shielding an innocent life from suffering the absence of a father. He hadn’t allowed Roger a choice, hadn’t listened to his protests. His faith in Richard’s family had been unwavering—a faith born from years of loyalty and respect.

But now that trust lay shattered at his feet, a pile of twisted lies and broken promises. His fingers clenched around the edges of the report, the paper crumpling under the force of his grip.

“I forced him… I never even gave him a chance to speak,” Sylvester whispered, shame and anger mingling in his voice. Regret clawed at his chest, a relentless ache that would not let go.

Because in his haste to be a protector, he had become an enabler of deceit.

“You lied to me, Rita.”

Sylvester’s voice sliced through the tense silence like a blade, cold and unyielding. The sound was enough to make Rita flinch, her entire body trembling under the weight of his piercing gaze.

“I-I didn’t lie, Grandpa!” Rita’s voice wavered, desperation clawing at her words. “Lilac is lying! Everyone here is lying!”

But Lilac stepped forward, her eyes sharp and unrelenting. “Lying? Would you like me to bring the man whose child you actually carried, Rita?” Her voice was a whip, cutting through the room and ripping away the last threads of Rita’s deception.

Beatrix, who had been shrieking accusations at Lily and Roger just moments ago, now stood frozen, her face pale, words dying on her tongue.

Sylvester’s gaze swept over the room, but his focus remained on Rita and Beatrix. He felt like a man stranded in a collapsing house, each revelation another crack in the foundation of his beliefs.

He had spent years protecting Richard’s family, believing it was a way to honor his friend’s sacrifice. He had sheltered them and trusted them, thinking they shared the same loyalty and integrity that Richard had once shown him.

But he had been wrong.

So horribly, painfully wrong.

They weren’t the family of an honorable man. They were parasites—leeches who drained his kindness and twisted his goodwill into a weapon. Liars who used his status as a shield for their deceit.

“Enough,” Sylvester’s voice was hoarse, his fists clenched at his sides. “I thought I was repaying a debt to a loyal friend, but all I’ve done is enable the lies of a family that never deserved my protection.”

His words struck like a gavel, final and absolute.

Rita’s knees buckled, and she sank onto the floor, tears streaming down her face. Beatrix looked around, searching for an escape, but there was none. The truth was laid bare, and Sylvester’s faith in them was beyond repair.