Chapter 16 — The Child You Never Knew

“I won't.” Khuong Niem answered for him, "Because to you, I'm not important. I've never been important. What's important is your face, your control, your blood. Today I'm standing here not because I feel sorry for me, but because I discovered there is a child with my blood, and I can't stand it slipping out of my control."

The hallway was so quiet that the sound of the stage being dismantled could be heard in the distance.

“Before, I just wanted to ask you something.” Pho Tu Nien finally opened his mouth. His voice was a bit hoarse, as if something was stuck in his throat, "That day outside my office door, did you hear the conversation between me and Wen Tam Duyet?"

Khuong Niem's eyelashes moved slightly. Very slight, but enough to answer.

“You left with your unborn child because of that conversation.” Pho Tu Nien is not asking.

“I left because I was enlightened.” Khuong Niem looked at him, her voice was colder than the light in this hallway, "I've been at your house for three years, your mother despised me, your friends laughed at you for marrying an 18th-line actress. The light in your eyes when you saw On Tam Duyet, you never had for me. The day I got pregnant, you were with her celebrating rekindling your old love. Pho Tu Nien, if it's you, will you go or not?"

Pho Tu Nien's hand hung down at his side, slowly tightening.

“I saw the lawyer's letter.” Khuong Niem pulled out the withdrawal statement from his pocket that he gave her two days ago, "I withdraw the request for DNA testing, but I do not withdraw the application for joint custody."

Pho Tu Nien did not deny it.

“You left a backward move at this step.” Khuong Niem folded the paper and stuffed it back in its original place, "You people of the Pho family always do things like this, showing others your concessions, but hiding an attack. Your mother coming to stop me that day was also methodical."

“My mother came to look for you, I don't know.”

“There's a lot I don't know.” Khuong Niem turned and walked towards the end of the hallway, "I don't know what kind of person On Tam Duyet is, I don't know what my mother is doing behind his back, I don't know that I have a son. Pho Tu Nien, you manipulate a commercial empire, but you don't see anything clearly about the things around you."

She took a few steps and suddenly stopped. Don't turn around.

“That application for joint custody, withdraw.”

“Khuong Niem.”

"If you really want to meet this child, don't rely on a lawyer's letter, but rely on yourself to make him want to meet you. A five-year-old child is a hundred times smarter than you think. He can see who is sincere."

Pho Tu Nien stood in the empty hallway, listening to her footsteps getting farther and farther away. Fluorescent tube lights emit a weak, buzzing electrical buzzing sound, like a persistent noise that cannot be extinguished. He took out his phone and dialed Ha Than's number.

“Application for joint custody, withdrawn.”

The other end of the line paused for a beat. “Deputy President, on the Deputy Madam's side…”

“I'll go talk to myself.”

Hanging up, he stood in the hallway for a long time. Then he walked to the corner and looked out through that glass door. In the empty yard outside the door, Khuong Niem was squatting in front of Tieu Chau, helping him zip his shirt coat. Tieu Chau said something, she smiled, the smile was very light, but the corners of her eyes curved up. Pho Tu Nien looked at that image. Then he turned around and left from another direction.