CHAPTER 10: CHAPTER 10: DOES MY STEPFATHER LIKE SEDUCTIVE WOMEN?

Claire North sighed, looking both happy and melancholy: "What can I do? I’ve already got Beau, right? The Shelby Family may not match up to the Hawthorne Family, but Beau loves me so much. How could I bear to abandon him and marry anyone else?"

"Let me give you a piece of advice: showing off your love is a fast track to a quick demise."

"You!"

If Raina North couldn’t hear the boastfulness in her words, she’d be a fool.

But Beau Shelby...

A fleeting pain passed through Raina’s eyes, but it quickly vanished.

After parting with Claire North on bad terms, Raina returned to her home in the city center.

As she changed shoes and entered the living room, she saw Casper North sporting a flashy "Instant Millionaire" T-shirt, shuffling around in slippers two sizes too big for him, with a messy head of bed hair, stepping out from his room.

As soon as he saw Raina, he enthusiastically ran over.

"Mommy’s back! How was it with my stepdad?"

"Not great." Raina gave him a cold glance, pulling off the heavy wig and black frames on her head as she returned to her room.

Shortly after, the door opened, and out came a cool and stylishly beautiful woman.

"What’s ’not great’ supposed to mean? My stepdad didn’t take a liking to you? Can’t be; you were dressed quite like a good woman today. Or does my stepdad like seductive vamps? Mommy, why don’t you try being yourself?" Casper North waddled over on his short little legs, eagerly asking as soon as he saw Raina come out.

Raina flung a slipper at him.

"You cheeky brat! Daring to call your mom a cheap vamp, aren’t you bold?"

Casper flatteringly picked up the slipper and brought it over: "I’m just worried since there’s no progress with my stepdad."

Raina scoffed: "What, you’re scared that if I get rejected by a wealthy family, it’ll block your path to becoming a wealthy heir?"

She understood her own cheeky child well. "Casper North, stop with the fawning. Calling him so affectionately as ’stepdad’—does he even know you?"

"Even if he doesn’t, he’s still my dad." Casper patted his little chest, clearly obsessed with Elias Hawthorne’s wealth.

Half of his assets were thanks to that man.

My sugar daddy!

It’s confirmed!

Casper, wise beyond his years, patted his mommy, comforting her: "But don’t be discouraged, Mommy. Today, Dummy the Husky and I did some data analysis on my stepdad. With someone as rich as him, there must be lots of women trying to attach themselves. To break through the competition, you need to work your absolute hardest."

That said, Dummy the Husky then fetched a stack of papers, "While you were out, I did some research for you. Take a good look and strive to win over my stepdad as soon as possible. Go for it!"

Raina glanced at the so-called guide and found it too much to bear: "Alright, Casper North, give up on that idea. Although he might be impotent, he has a biological son. You think you’ll enter the wealthy circle, inherit the Hawthorne Family’s billion-dollar fortune? Not a chance."

Casper was thunderstruck, clutched his chest, and howled: "Why don’t I have such a billionaire biological dad?"

Queen North squinted her eyes: "Are you blaming me for not making you a rich second generation, giving you a life on easy street?"

Casper shrank back, quickly shaking his head: "Absolutely not. It’s just that every time I look in the mirror and see such an excellent version of myself, I can’t believe my biological dad is some potbellied, middle-aged man hiding from a fierce wife at home, spending a fortune to have children outside."

Casper sighed deeply, his large, dewy eyes looking at Raina.

"Mommy, do you think there’s a possibility you got it wrong and my real dad is like The Hell King Hawthorne, a hidden big boss?"

Looking at the exceptionally handsome face in front of her, Raina had to admit her kid’s looks could really take down others, but...

"Don’t ask me. I don’t know either. Back then, I was set up, and I have no idea how I got pregnant with you. But later, I did some investigation and found the old man, the one Claire North mentioned who offered a fortune for a child..."

Raina never hid the origins of Casper and Shea from them, mainly because both her kids are sharp; they wouldn’t be fooled.

"And then?" Albie North looked at his mom expectantly.

"Unfortunately, DNA results showed he’s not your dad." So to this day, Raina still doesn’t know who Casper and Shea’s father is.

"Huh? Then where did I come from?" The little one’s typically cool face showed a rare moment of confusion.

Raina: "It’s a question I want an answer to as well. You can try finding out. In the meantime, consider yourself a child who popped out of a rock crevice."

The little one’s fair and charming face fell, his mature-for-his-age self sighed: "Never mind, compared to the elusive biological father, maybe focusing on the present stepdad is more pragmatic. Maybe stepdad will find me adorable and filial and hand me a few hundred million, and then I’ll hit it big."

Casper’s eyes sparkled with the image of little money flying down from the sky, grinning ear to ear, his eyes practically forming dollar signs.

Raina pinched the baby fat on his cheeks, ruthlessly shattering the little one’s daydreams: "Enough, stop rambling. Have you got any results from what I asked you to investigate?"

Raina wasn’t interested in hearing more nonsense from this kid.

When it came to serious matters, the little guy’s energy perked up immediately.

"Mommy, I hacked into The North Witch’s entire communication system and found no children my age around her. It’s the same with the other members of the North Family; none of them are related to this poor brother of mine, Mommy. Could The North Witch be deceiving you?"

Raina shook her head: "Impossible. I retrieved the hospital’s surveillance footage, which indeed showed Claire North leaving with a child. When Claire returned, the child was gone, but her account had five million more in it. I couldn’t track anything after that; it seemed to be deliberately erased."

Back then, during labor, she wasn’t totally unconscious and vaguely heard a baby’s cries.

Despite further investigations yielding nothing, and originally being told during prenatal check-ups in the countryside that she was having twins, she hadn’t pursued the matter.

"My poor brother, taken by the wicked witch right after birth and sold off." Casper was unusually touched, "Don’t worry, Mommy. I’ll definitely help you find my brother."

Casper declared confidently, though he soon began calculating how much it would cost him to support another brother with his current savings. The more he calculated, the poorer he felt.

The money from selling my mom isn’t enough at all.

This baby feels bitter inside but won’t say anything.

Sigh...

The road to riches is long; I should focus on securing a wealthy stepdad.

Seeing the cheeky brat’s dark eyes darting about, Raina knew he was planning something sneaky again.

Normally, Raina would surely teach him a lesson, but now her mind was only on that elder son she never met.

The next day

Quinn Thorne carefully gave Elias Hawthorne a check-up.

"How is it?" Elias asked, straightening his shirt.

"There’s nothing wrong," Quinn replied, packing up his medical tools.

"Impossible. That woman must have done something." After she left yesterday, he had to take three consecutive showers before calming the heat within.

That wasn’t all; he had a long-missed dream that night.

Upon waking, he took two more cold showers.

If that isn’t being set up, then what is it?

"From what you’ve described, it might not be a set up; rather... you’ve been holding back too long."