Forced Marriage: My Wife, My Redemption by Lilyheart

Chapter 273: Distraught Desmond

~Allen Family House~

Desmond drove into the Allen estate, his knuckles white against the steering wheel as he pulled to a halt in front of the grand family residence. His chest rose and fell rapidly, breath ragged with suppressed emotion.

"From the beginning till now... I’ve been treated like an outsider," he muttered bitterly, slamming the car door shut. "All this while, I thought I was fighting for what was rightfully mine."

He stormed into the house, fury radiating from every step. The silence that greeted him in the living room only deepened the roar in his mind. The vast space, once a symbol of pride, now felt foreign, cold and accusing.

Without wasting a moment, he marched upstairs and into his bedroom where the answers he is to find lay. He went straight to his drawer, yanked it open, and retrieved the sealed folder he had secretly taken from Elder Allen’s study the night the old man went into shock and got hospitalized.

His fingers trembled slightly as he sat heavily on his bed, the large folder in hand, his heart dreading the result inside.

For a long moment, he just stared at it, his mind playing through every conversation, every whisper, every sideways glance he’d dismissed over the years. Even the memory of Elder Allen asking him if he loves the family.

Now it made sense, now he understood. Now he understood why he does everything to placate him.

Slowly, deliberately, he opened the envelope.

Inside, there were aged documents and a collection of old photographs. The first image made his breath hitch. It was a black-and-white picture of a small infant wrapped in a cloth. Tucked behind it was another photo with Elder Allen and his late wife smiling as they cradled a baby. It was the same baby.

His heart thudded wildly as he unfolded the next paper. Legal documents. Birth certificate. Adoption agreement. Signatures. The proof was undeniable.

Desmond’s eyes widened in disbelief, then slowly clouded with unshed tears. His lips parted, but no sound came. His body slumped forward as though the weight of truth had collapsed his spine.

"This... this can’t be..." he whispered hoarsely.

"So it’s true. I wasn’t

blinked back the moisture blurring his

I sacrificed. I lived by the name Allen,

laughed bitterly, the sound broken and hollow.

hoping they would somehow change. That the ink would dissolve and rewrite a new

all along? That I was never meant to stand at the forefront?" he asked the silence,

dinners, corporate meetings, being addressed as ’Young Master

ran a hand down his face, dragging it over his jaw. Rage boiled beneath

was the overwhelming sting of rejection—blatantly told "you

he always chose Alex and Davis over me?" he choked

down at them, at the life

from, and why am I abandoned? And if the Allen family thought this revelation would end

himself, "I may not be an Allen by blood, but I will not

Desmond clenched his fists.

had taken everything from him, he would make sure they remembered who he was—even if he had to burn down the name he once called his

documents at his feet like shattered pieces of a life he thought he understood. His chest heaved. The silence of the room seemed to scream

didn’t wipe the tears away. He

beside the black-and-white photo of

he muttered. "Adopted... and yet I gave this family

his fingers moving slowly, reverently, as though

smiling as they cradled him was what crushed him the most.

knees buckled and he sank onto the bed again,

blood in my veins? I was raised in this house. I bore the Allen name. I protected it. I expanded the company, made sacrifices no one saw. I stood when others fell, all in the name of

a humorless laugh. "And now... now you say