Chapter 272 I Am Truly Happy

Chapter 272 I Am Truly Happy
Alexander's POV

I carefully eased Katherine down onto the pillow and pulled the covers up around her. Watching her sleep, I felt a profound contentment wash over me.

My wife and children were all under my roof, safe and sound. Things were finally falling into place.

Yet a nagging thought prevented me from joining her in sleep. Scott's mysterious death didn't sit right with me.

The timing was too convenient, and the missing information from his phone suggested someone had gone to great lengths to cover their tracks.

Whoever was behind this knew far too much about Katherine's life to have placed Scott in her path by coincidence.

I needed to know who was pulling the strings—and why they seemed so determined to destroy our family.

Unable to sleep, I slipped out of bed and headed for the study, only to find Ryan already in the hallway, clearly with the same destination in mind.

"Couldn't sleep either?" I asked quietly.

He shook his head. "I was thinking about Scott's phone. We should examine it more closely."

I smiled. "Great minds think alike. Let's go to the study so we don't wake everyone."

In the dim light of the study, Ryan connected Scott's cracked phone to his laptop with practiced ease.

The mysterious camera failure in this very room suddenly made sense—Ryan had been covering his tracks all along, with Katherine's help.

"The call logs and transfer records have been wiped clean," Ryan reported after several minutes. "There's nothing useful here."

I frowned. "That's strange. Scott died just minutes before we arrived. There wasn't time to delete everything so thoroughly."

"Unless someone did it remotely," Ryan suggested, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "A hacker could have erased everything as soon as they confirmed he was dead."

"A gambling addict like Scott wouldn't have connections to such skilled hackers," I mused. "Whoever's behind this has significant resources."

Ryan suddenly said, "Wait—I found something! A hidden file that wasn't properly deleted."

He clicked on it, and a scratchy audio recording began to play. Through the static and broken phrases, we could make out Scott's voice and a woman's, though the words were fragmented: "I told you... bitch... no matter what I..." and "Scott, I... money..."

"We can't tell who she is," I said, "but at least we know it's a woman. That narrows things down."

Ryan nodded. "I'll need time to clean up this audio. I'll let you know when I have something."

I reached out and ruffled his hair, unable to contain my pride. "My son is so impressive."

He started to duck away but then stopped, allowing the touch.

To my surprise, Ryan then pulled out a stack of property listings from a drawer. "Pick one you like, Dad. I want to buy you a house."

"A house?" I asked, confused. "Are you planning to move?"

"No, I like where we live," he explained seriously. "But you're my dad now, and I already gave Mom a house. I'm not playing favorites."

I couldn't help but laugh at his earnest expression. "Ryan, I already own many houses. I don't need that gift. If anything, I should be giving you houses."

His brow furrowed slightly. "But—"

"What I mean," I continued gently, "is that I want you to enjoy being a child. Let your parents take care of you for a change."

Understanding dawned in his eyes, and he nodded. "Goodnight, Dad," he said, heading for the door.

"Goodnight, son," I replied, watching him go with a mixture of amusement and profound love.

The next morning, I woke early to prepare breakfast. Katherine's favorite, I reminded myself as I moved around the kitchen.

I had several days' worth of work piled up at Hudson Financial Group, but seeing Katherine's face when she woke up to breakfast was worth the extra hustle I'd face later.

When she finally appeared in the kitchen doorway, her hair tousled from sleep and her eyes still soft with drowsiness, I felt my heart skip a beat.

"You made breakfast?" she asked, surprise evident in her voice. "You didn't have to do that. The kids aren't even up yet."

"I wanted to," I replied, pulling out a chair for her. "Besides, I didn't want you dealing with cold water. How are you feeling today?"

She smiled, shaking her head slightly. "Alexander, we have warm water in this house. But thank you for Mr. Hudson's thoughtful care," she added playfully. "I'm not in pain anymore."

I loved hearing her say "we" and "this house" — little reminders that she was home to stay. I couldn't resist leaning in to kiss her cheek.

As we sat eating breakfast together, I mentioned Ryan's housing proposal from the night before. "Our son has quite the business mindset. A true CEO personality, impossible for ordinary people to match. He gets it from me, clearly."

"He's trying to make peace with you," Katherine explained, her eyes warm. "He feels bad about misunderstanding you before and all those things he did while at the Hudson house. He wanted to make it up to you."

"What things?" I asked, curious.

Katherine told me about Ryan's various schemes to drive me away, and I found myself both amused and touched. "He did all that to protect you?"

"Are you mad?" she asked cautiously.

I reached across the table to gently pinch her nose. "He's my son, Katherine. There's nothing to forgive. Actually, I'm glad he was there to protect you when I couldn't."

"Such a magnanimous man," she teased, her eyes sparkling. "Very handsome."

I felt myself grinning like a fool at her compliment. It had been so long since we'd shared moments like this.

"Was the surveillance camera in the study also Ryan's doing?" I asked.

She nodded. "He was quite the little spy. Remember when we switched identities? It seems so silly now."

Our conversation drifted to our own upcoming celebrations. Katherine's eyes lit up when she realized my birthday was approaching. "Can I plan everything? The whole surprise?"

"Of course," I agreed, making an OK sign with my fingers. "I trust your taste completely."

I had no idea what she might be planning, but seeing the excitement in her eyes was gift enough.

After all our time apart, all the misunderstandings and pain, simply being together felt like the greatest celebration imaginable.

My family is whole again, and nothing will tear us apart this time.