Chapter 132

Chapter 132

Vivienne was silent for a moment before responding softly. "I'm fine. I have a nutritionist managing my diet, and all my health indicators are normal. You don't need to worry about me. But there's one thing I need to make clear. Once all of this is over, I don't want any further interference from Archibald."

"You have my word." Elowen agreed immediately. "I promise you, he absolutely won't disturb you again. Absolutely not. Leave Holden with me. Focus on your pregnancy. Whenever you want to see Holden, you can come get him anytime. I won't let Archibald come near you ever again."

Vivienne acknowledged this with a brief sound, said "I'll hang up now," and prepared to end the call.

"Vivi!" Elowen suddenly stopped her.

"Is there something else?"

Elowen gripped the phone, her lips trembling violently.

Tears streamed down her face. She lifted her hand and roughly wiped them with her sleeve, drew in a hard breath, and finally released the words she'd been holding in her heart. "Vivi, I want to apologize to you on Archibald's behalf. Everything he did was despicable. I raised him for over thirty years, and I'm too ashamed to defend him even once. The truth is... the root of all this is actually my fault. If I hadn't agreed to adopt Allegra back then to repay a debt, none of this would have happened. You wouldn't have suffered so much. It's all my fault."

Vivienne's confused voice came through. "Repay a debt? What debt?"

She only knew that Allegra's father had been an old friend of Archibald's father, and after the couple died, Archibald's father had adopted Allegra.

Later she'd learned that Archibald's father had allegedly harbored feelings for Allegra's mother. Beyond that, she knew nothing.

Elowen's suppressed sobs came through the phone.

"Vivi, I wronged you. At the time, I thought it didn't matter, so I never told you. Allegra's father was named Heath Mellon." Elowen's voice shook as she spoke.

"Heath was a friend of Archibald's father. They met before Archibald was born, shortly after his father and I got married. Because our families lived nearby, we'd visit occasionally, but we weren't particularly close."

"Then one day, Archibald's father took Archibald along on an errand. Archibald was only four at the time—the age when kids run everywhere. His father looked away for just a moment, and Archibald ran under a building under construction. A crossbar on the scaffolding above came loose somehow, and a whole bundle of steel rebar fell. Heath threw himself forward and pushed Archibald out of the way."

Elowen's voice broke suddenly. "Archibald was pushed into a sand pile nearby. He only scraped his knee. But Heath was struck in the back of the head by the rebar. He died on the spot. Before he passed, he grabbed Archibald's father's hand and said he had a daughter, only two years old. Her mother had died from hemorrhaging during childbirth. If he died too, the child would be an orphan. He said... he said he knew it was too much to ask, but he had no one else to turn to. He begged Archibald's father to look after his daughter."

Vivienne's lashes trembled.

She suddenly remembered something Archibald had once told her: Allegra only has me.

At the time, she'd thought he was making excuses for his indulgence. But now, hearing this, those words carried the weight of a life lost and two generations of guilt.

"Archibald's father swore at Heath's bedside that he'd raise Allegra as his own daughter." Elowen's voice turned bitter. "But Vivi, I'll be honest with you. If it were only about repaying the debt, only about repaying Heath for saving Archibald's life, I wouldn't have felt this knot in my chest all these years. I raised Allegra for over a decade. I gave her the best food, the best clothes, the best schools. What did she ever want that I didn't give her? But there was always a thorn in my heart. That thorn wasn't her—it was Archibald's father."

Vivienne's brow furrowed slightly.

"Archibald's father didn't agree to adopt Allegra purely to repay a debt." A trace of bitterness seeped into Elowen's tone. "I mentioned this before—you might remember. When Archibald's father was young, he had feelings for Heath's wife. Back then everyone was young, and we all lived nearby. He'd seen Allegra's mother from afar a few times and developed feelings for her. Before he could say anything, she married Heath. Later, when Allegra's mother died from hemorrhaging during childbirth, he buried those feelings and never mentioned them to anyone. But I spent most of my life with him. How could I not know?"

Elowen let out a bitter laugh. "So when he agreed to adopt Allegra, I knew there was more to it than just repaying a debt. Whether it was lingering feelings for that woman or guilt over doing nothing after she died, I can't say. But I knew it wasn't just about the debt. What could I do? Heath really had saved Archibald's life—that was undeniable. The man traded his life for my son's. If I refused to raise his daughter, what kind of person would I be? So I swallowed it. I kept his secret for a lifetime. To outsiders, I said she was an old friend's daughter. At home, I raised Allegra like my own. I thought, no matter what Archibald's father's motives were, the child was innocent. If I raised her well and taught her right, I'd have done right by Heath's spirit."

Elowen's tone grew even more bitter. "But I raised a snake."

Vivienne didn't know what to say.

"Vivi, I wronged you." Elowen's voice was hoarse. "If I hadn't indulged Allegra so much, she wouldn't have become what she is today. And Archibald wouldn't have kept going soft on her again and again, trying to repay this debt for us. You don't know—when Archibald was little and hospitalized with a high fever, his father said something to him at his bedside. He said, 'Your life was bought with Heath's life. You have to honor the Mellon family's kindness for the rest of your life.' Archibald was only seven, delirious with fever, but he remembered. He's remembered it his whole life."

Vivienne closed her eyes.

Seven years old.

From the age of seven, Archibald had carried a debt forged from a man's life.

Every time he'd softened toward Allegra afterward, every time he'd indulged her, every time he'd chosen silence when Vivienne needed him most—it hadn't been because of love.

It was because he believed his life wasn't his own. It belonged to the Mellon family.

Allegra's tears, her pleas, every time she'd said "I only have you"—to his ears, it wasn't a sister acting spoiled. It was a creditor knocking at the door.

Vivienne suddenly felt the absurdity of it all.

She'd suffered so much in this marriage, shed so many tears. But in the end, that man had never given his heart to anyone.

He'd simply been trapped in an old debt he could never repay, turned himself into a debtor, and dragged everyone else into a pit that could never be filled.