Yes, I Have a Child with the Villain

Yolanda Young and Franklin Whitman turned at the sound of the voice, just in time to see Ryan Grant flash a smile and greet Miss Lynch with practiced familiarity.

"Hi, Miss Lynch."

"Grandpa, Grandma." After his greetings, the little guy excitedly dashed over to Yolanda and Franklin.

Miss Lynch turned her head and, seeing Caroline Whitman right behind him, asked with a smile,

"Miss, will you be staying for dinner tonight?"

Caroline Whitman replied, "I’m not sure yet."

Adrian Grant had come along on the trip, but she’d told him to wait in the car.

’There’s no need for him to get involved in my family matters just yet.’

’Too many people might just make things more complicated and backfire.’

’Of course, if I really can’t get through to them, it won’t be too late to call for reinforcements and have Adrian come in.’

’In short, I have options.’

’Not sure?’

Hearing this reply, Miss Lynch acknowledged it and decided to make a few extra dishes just in case.

By the time Caroline Whitman walked through the door, Franklin Whitman was already holding the boy and playing with him.

When they saw her, an unspoken understanding passed between her parents, and they both fell silent.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the little one, Yolanda Young handed Ryan Grant over to Miss Lynch to be looked after for a bit.

「In the study.」

"All right, out with it. What’s the real story with this child?"

Franklin Whitman, sitting in his chair, was clearly the first to lose his patience, getting straight to the point.

Caroline Whitman first observed their micro-expressions; they didn’t seem particularly curious.

Yolanda Young was the most composed. She didn’t press her daughter, even when Caroline remained silent for a long moment.

’I’m just as nervous now as I was when I first confessed my feelings to Adrian,’ Caroline thought.

Despite this, she kept her expression under control, walked over to a chair, and slowly sat down.

Then, she said with studied nonchalance, "Ryan’s last name is Grant. He’s my and Adrian Grant’s son."

Franklin Whitman said, "Oh, that’s wonderful news."

Then Franklin asked, "So when are you two planning to get married?"

Caroline Whitman was speechless. "..."

Clearly, her father’s reaction had far exceeded her expectations.

’He even said it was wonderful news.’

’This reaction isn’t normal at all.’

Yolanda Young, who had been quiet, added calmly, "When did this happen? How is it that we didn’t know?"

Caroline was again at a loss for words. "..."

’By comparison, Mom’s reaction is much more normal,’ she thought.

’But even her reaction is far too placid.’

’Could they have found out yesterday during their get-together with Jonathan Grant’s family?’

’No, that can’t be right.’

’Adrian already told his family not to reveal anything about the child to my parents. They wouldn’t have let it slip, would they?’

"Don’t you have any questions at all?" Caroline began to wonder where things had gone wrong.

Yolanda Young raised her eyes, her gaze falling on her daughter’s flat stomach. "We do. We’re asking you when this all happened."

The child was almost four years old.

From conception to birth, and then raising him for a few years, it would have taken nearly five years in total.

Five years.

Caroline had still been in school back then. Where would she have found the time to be pregnant?

She came home from school every single week. No matter how well she might have hidden a pregnancy, it would have been impossible to keep it a secret.

Yolanda and Franklin’s placid reactions left Caroline feeling both flustered and relieved.

Seeing their expressions, she quickly began to explain the situation.

"It happened this May. And to be precise, rather than saying he’s my and Adrian’s son, it’s more accurate to say he’s the son of another version of me and Adrian from a parallel universe."

"..."

"..."

’Now she’s bringing up parallel universes.’

Franklin Whitman felt he couldn’t hold it in any longer. His lips parted, but Yolanda Young placed a hand on him, signaling for him to let their daughter finish speaking.

"I’m guessing you don’t believe a word of this parallel universe talk, but it’s the truth.

The boy suddenly appeared in my room at the end of May this year. You can check my security footage.

During that time, there’s no record of a child entering the house from the outside, but there is footage of him suddenly walking out from inside.

You can have an expert analyze it to see if I tampered with the footage.

I’m sure you’re thinking that I must have gotten together with Adrian in college and hidden the pregnancy.

But the truth is, back in school, Adrian and I only ever communicated about our lab projects. We had absolutely no contact outside of that.

I’ve never donated any eggs, and he’s never donated any sperm.

And we certainly wouldn’t have hired a surrogate to have a child for no reason.

That’s the truth of the matter. Do you have any other questions?"

Because they hadn’t interrupted her, Caroline had managed to get everything out in one go.

"..."

"..."

The study fell silent for several seconds.

It was unclear whether they were digesting her words or simply contemplating the issue.

Franklin Whitman had a million questions, but they all coalesced into a single sentence: "Are you serious?"

"I’m serious!"

"..."

Franklin Whitman wore a pensive expression.

Yolanda Young, meanwhile, turned to look out the study window, where Ryan Grant was playing in the backyard.

During the few short days he had stayed with them before, they had set up a children’s sandbox and a small slide in the backyard for him.

’They truly treated this child as their own grandson.’

’Even if he were just an adopted or god-grandson, they wouldn’t have treated him any differently.’

’And now she’s telling us he’s our biological grandson?’

"Didn’t you notice? The first day he came to the old house, he was already very familiar with the staff, especially Miss Lynch.

Wasn’t he completely at ease the first time he came here, as if he knew the layout of the house perfectly?"

At Caroline’s reminder, realization dawned on Franklin Whitman and Yolanda Young.

’Now that she mentioned it, that did seem to be the case...’

Looking back now, that detail they had overlooked did seem rather strange.

No matter how outgoing a child might be, that level of innate familiarity wasn’t something he could have faked.

Still, Franklin Whitman remained skeptical. "You didn’t show Ryan photos of everyone beforehand to memorize, did you?"

Caroline retorted, "I don’t have that kind of time. If you hadn’t stumbled upon us, you might never have known the child existed at all."

"It would have saved me the trouble of worrying about you finding out, and then having to explain his origins to you like I am now."

Remembering another thorny, unavoidable issue concerning the child, Caroline knew she had to give them a heads-up.

"If Adrian and I really did have a child out of wedlock in this reality, given how well you’re taking it, we could have just told you the truth. There would have been no need to make things more complicated by inventing a story about parallel universes and time travel.

I’m telling you the absolute truth now to give you a chance to prepare yourselves mentally.

Since the child came from the future or a parallel world, it’s possible that one day, he might go back."

"Wait a minute," Franklin Whitman’s mind was struggling to keep up. "What do you mean, ’he might go back’?"

Yolanda Young quickly seized on the key point. "Are you saying the child might disappear someday?"

"Disappearing is a very strong possibility. After all, we have no idea if, in his own time, he’s currently considered ’missing’."

Caroline recalled the moment the child had appeared.

Ryan Grant had suddenly materialized in her room right after she woke up.

’It’s hard not to wonder if the Ryan from the future—or the other universe—disappeared in his sleep.’

’I can’t even imagine how devastated my future self, or my parallel-universe self, must have been, waking up to find her child had suddenly vanished.’

Although a part of Caroline hoped the child could stay with her forever, having experienced motherhood for a while now, she could empathize with the pain of losing a child. More than anything, she hoped he could return to his real parents as soon as possible.