18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 398

Daniel was back, his face as unreadable as a stone. The more emotionless he looked, the more anxious Lillian felt, but she forced a smile and stood up to greet him. "Welcome home, Dan." He glanced around the house with a nonchalant "Hmm."

Lillian stepped closer, reaching for his briefcase. "You barely come home. What would you like for dinner? I'll make something special."

Ignoring her question, Daniel shifted his gaze to Julia, whose face was bruised and swollen. "Julia, can you give us a moment? I need to talk to your mom."

Julia, nursing her wounds and mulling over a response, found herself tongue-tied under Daniel's stern gaze. His silent authority left her feeling utterly powerless, fear creeping into her very bones. She retreated to her room, closing the door with a sense of dread.

Daniel sat down and motioned for Lillian to do the same. "Sit."

Lillian took a deep breath, trying to maintain her composure. "What's wrong with you? Why the long face after work?"

He remained silent, just staring at her.

It felt as if he was looking through her, seeing someone else a woman who was once lively and passionate, who defied societal norms and promised to marry him no matter what. Thirty years had drastically changed that image.

Lillian hated his scrutinizing gaze; it made her feel like the worst kind of villain.

what could she do? She had always been the one to make amends during their heated arguments in the past. Back then, a teary-eyed tug

that to her?" Daniel finally

though she expected the confrontation, Lillian

the mall today? That

her off. "Stella is your

daughter. The child I had with the Riley family was killed during

briefcase and tossed two documents

she read the contents. They were paternity test reports. The other report was recent,

a 99.999% probability that Stella was Daniel's daughter, while Julia had no

submarines;

all these years?" she asked,

secret mission for over a year, barely surviving. When he returned to Griffith, eager to talk about marriage with Lillian, he found out she was marrying another man. A lot

she was pregnant, when she miscarried, and now, as she was

was when Daniel learned about the child they

Lillian's fiancé at a prenatal appointment, he realized that her choice was right. He couldn't offer her the happiness she deserved. So he stepped aside and wished

have imagined that, decades later, Lillian would call to say the child was alive-that she had secretly given birth and that the Riley family had raised the child after she confessed to

never married, not for lack of suitable partners, but because his career didn't leave much room for family life. He didn't want to hold anyone

he saw lively, mischievous children, he'd think of the one he never got to meet. If only he hadn't taken that mission, maybe their child would have been born safely, and he would have had the chance to be a