The Officer's Runaway Wife and Secret Son novel Chapter 476

He pressed his lips together. “I don’t know how she got this photo…”

Rhys didn’t know how to explain.

He could have thrown it away himself, but he was afraid a seed of doubt would remain in her heart.

Clara lowered her eyes and took the photo from his hand.

Time had frozen the scene at its most cruel, and also its most innocent, moment.

“I actually saw this photo four years ago,” Clara said quietly. “The first day you had me stay with the Huntington family. It was in a drawer in your bedroom desk.”

Rhys’s pupils contracted.

“When I saw it back then, I felt like my world was collapsing,” Clara said with a small smile. “I felt like a thief who had broken into your past, like I could never squeeze my way into your world. I thought it was an impenetrable wall you’d built, one I could never get over.”

“I’m sorry,” Rhys said, lowering his head. “I haven’t looked at that photo in years. I don’t know how it ended up in her hands.”

Clara looked at him, surprised.

Back then, Margot had stood before her, clutching that box of old keepsakes, looking so pitiful as she claimed Rhys had given them to her for safekeeping, afraid Clara might go through them.

And she had believed her.

So, Margot had secretly taken it, knowing Rhys would never look at those things again, just to use it for her own dramatic performance?

A bond built on guilt could never blossom into love.

“Forget it. It’s all in the past,” Clara said, handing the photo back to him. “You deal with it.”

Her tone was so light, so detached, that it was clear she truly no longer cared.

Rhys took the photo and, without a moment’s hesitation, tore it with a decisive tug. A sharp *rip* cut through the air.

The boy and the girl in the wheelchair were separated into two different worlds.

He stacked the two halves and tore them again, and again, until the photograph was nothing but tiny scraps of paper.

Clara’s mom saw the little boy in Rhys’s arms and burst into tears, snatching him from Rhys and pulling him into a crushing hug.

“You scared Grandma to death… If something had happened to you… Grandma wouldn’t want to live anymore!”

Clara’s dad stood nearby, his hands trembling as he pounded his own chest in anguish. “It’s all my fault, all my fault! I was just taking out the trash… How could I have let him out of my sight!”

Clara was startled and rushed forward to grab her father’s hand before he could strike himself again.

“Dad, it’s not your fault. This was premeditated. She was plotting this, you were just caught off guard. You couldn’t have prevented it!”

Held tightly in his grandmother’s arms, Felix reached up and patted her back, his small voice comforting her. “Don’t cry, Grandma. I’m okay. Mommy and Daddy came to get me, and they even bought me toys!”

Hearing his innocent, childish voice only made Clara’s mother cry harder.

Rhys set down the boxes of toys and walked over to Clara’s father, bowing his head slightly.

“Dad, Mom, the responsibility for this is entirely mine. My past mistakes are what brought this trouble to our family. From now on, I will protect Felix and Clara. Something like this will never, ever happen again.”