Delayed Regrets: He Regretted Only After Her Death-Chapter 83: She’s His Biological Daughter! Daisy, Daddy Wants a Hug!
As for Tiana’s condition, Hector didn’t dare to make any promises either.
For now, let’s not tell Daisy yet.
...
After the funeral, Aiden, overwhelmed with rage and grief, coughed up blood and fainted.
By the next day, he still hadn’t woken up.
Staring at the unconscious Aiden, Vivian felt pained to the core.
She went to speak with Aiden’s attending physician.
"Doctor, why did my husband suddenly spit blood?"
"He’s never had any health issues before."
The doctor reviewed all of Aiden’s scans.
After analyzing them, he told Vivian the real situation.
"Mr. Grant experienced gastric muscle spasms and acute stomach trauma triggered by emotional upheaval."
"This typically only happens when the grief is too overwhelming."
Does this really happen in real life?
Coughing up blood and fainting from grief—isn’t that just something that happens in novels and movies?
At once, Vivian was consumed by unending worry and fear.
How much did Aiden care about Tiana?
To be so grief-stricken that he spat blood and passed out?
On the whole way back to the hospital room, Vivian couldn’t stop worrying about something else.
She and Aiden’s wedding was only half-finished before Aiden left her behind on Seraphina Isle.
All the guests who attended were there to see her made a laughingstock.
Now the wedding hadn’t even been completed.
Moreover, James Linden had hired a feng shui master to select auspicious days for both the wedding and the marriage registration, one after the other.
First the wedding, then returning to get their marriage certificate.
Now, they didn’t even get the certificate.
The wedding night she’d hoped for had completely vanished into thin air.
With Tiana’s passing, was there any chance for her and Aiden to go on?
This time, could she again retreat in order to advance—let go on her own terms?
If she really let go, Aiden would surely leave her immediately.
With a heart full of fear and trembling, Vivian pushed open Aiden’s hospital room door.
Inside, there was nobody.
On the bedside, the IV needle had been pulled out, lying there limply.
A bead of fresh blood clung to the tip of the needle.
She immediately called Aiden’s phone.
But nobody answered.
Completely frantic, she called Daniel next.
"Dan, Aiden’s gone!"
Hearing Vivian’s sobs, Daniel’s heart ached for her.
He quickly tried to comfort her: "Vivian, don’t cry, Aiden’s a grown man. He’ll be okay."
Vivian sobbed, "But he just woke up, the IV medication wasn’t even finished, and now he’s pulled out the needle—it was covered in blood!"
Daniel said furiously, "What exactly is he trying to do?"
Vivian kept crying, "Dan, do you think Aiden might have been so heartbroken over my sister’s death that he... suddenly lost all hope...?"
Daniel: "Don’t cry. I’ll figure something out."
...
After the funeral, Daisy seemed completely shattered.
She was supposed to be a little angel on earth.
But with her mom’s death, it’s as if her soul had been ripped away.
All her energy gone.
But Daisy stayed well-behaved.
Everything her mom told her to do, Daisy did perfectly.
She ate her meals, went to sleep on time, did her chores obediently.
Listened to her Daddy Leo, Grandpa Chaucer, Grandma Armstrong, and Mr. Chaucer.
Never gave anyone a bit of trouble.
Today, the Sutton family’s nanny, Ms. Quinn, was on leave.
So Gabriel Chaucer and Catherine Armstrong were doing everything at home themselves.
After dinner, Daisy helped clean up the dishes.
Catherine held Daisy’s little hand, her eyes full of loving kindness as she coaxed:
"Daisy, go play with your sister Laura."
"Let Grandma handle this."
Daisy wouldn’t let go of the dishes.
"Grandma, your back’s been hurting a lot lately. Please rest, I can wash the dishes."
"Daisy..."
Catherine wanted to speak again, but Gabriel pulled her back.
He watched as Daisy, holding the dishes, went into the kitchen.
She knew how to use the dishwasher.
She’d climb up on a stool, stretching her little arms to carefully wipe down the counters spotlessly.
Catherine covered her eyes and wept, "She’s just too sensible for her own good."
Gabriel consoled her, "Let Daisy wash. If you make her stop, she’ll just go into a daze again."
At least while she was busy, Daisy didn’t look like the living dead.
At that moment, Laura hurried over, "I’ll help my sister with the dishes."
The two girls were almost the same age.
Daisy had just turned five two months earlier.
And Laura was just five years and five months old.
The sisters both had to stand on stools to reach the counter.
As they wiped down the countertop, Laura consoled her:
"Daisy, Mommy just went to another world."
"One day we’ll see her again."
Laura had lost her mom, too.
But it didn’t hurt her as much as it used to.
Daisy understood this, too.
"Laura, I know. That’s why I have to listen to Mommy even more."
Mom wanted her to live well—healthy and happy.
Someday, when they meet again, she’d tell Mommy all the things she’d done and all the things she’d seen.
But... she missed her mom so much.
Tears threatened to fall. She scrunched her lips and did her best to hold them in.
Grandpa Chaucer and Grandma Armstrong watched the sisters.
Leo Sutton watched the two old folks.
The whole household—old and young—were blanketed in grief.
Leo couldn’t bear it anymore.
"Dad, Mom. Actually..."
Gabriel and Catherine looked up when they heard Leo’s voice and saw him returning from court.
Leo put down his briefcase, lowered his voice, and said:
"Dad, Mom, come here. There’s something I need to tell you—don’t let Daisy overhear."
The elders gave the two little girls washing dishes a cautious glance.
Then they followed Leo to the living room.
The three sat down.
Leo poured two cups of tea and handed them over.
"Dad, Mom, actually, Tiana isn’t dead."
"She’s still undergoing treatment."
They’d already taken the tea from Leo’s hands.
Clatter.
The cup in Catherine’s hand fell and shattered on the carpet.
Catherine was thunderstruck, "Leo, are you telling the truth?"
Leo nodded. "Do you remember the painkillers Hector gave Tiana?"
They were actually the M901 anti-cancer drug.
Leo explained it all to the two elders.
Where Hector got the M901 anti-cancer drug from, they didn’t think too much about for now.
All they knew was—Tiana was still alive.
They wept for joy.
Leo instructed, "Dad, Mom, Tiana’s condition is unstable. Wait a few days till she’s stable, then we’ll bring Daisy to see her."
Gabriel nodded in agreement. "Yes, let’s do it that way—just in case anything happens to Tiana, Daisy would be even more devastated."
...
Monday.
Daisy and Laura went to kindergarten.
After breakfast, Daisy’s dishes were taken by the caretaker.
Daisy’s saliva still clung to the chopsticks and bowl.
The teacher carefully packaged them up and delivered them to a black Hongqi limousine parked out front.
Inside, the man collecting Daisy’s saliva sample was Aiden.
"Thank you!"
Next to Aiden was Christopher Grant.
Christopher didn’t understand what Aiden was doing.
"Aiden, do you trust that paternity report—or do you trust Tiana?"
"Tiana died of lung cancer."
"She came to you, terminally ill, to entrust Daisy to you. Isn’t that enough to prove Daisy is really your daughter?"
"Besides, Hector told me himself—he and Tiana never betrayed you."
"What more do you need to prove?"
Christopher grabbed Aiden by the collar.
"She’s gone—are you still doubting?"
"Did you never have the slightest trust in Tiana?"
The hands gripping his collar, blue veins bulging in rage, were brushed away by Aiden.
He ordered the driver to pull away.
Then, weak as he was, he sank into silence.
In truth, he had nothing left to prove.
He believed every word Tiana had told him.
She truly died of cancer.
At the time, it was indeed because of her illness that she asked him to take care of Daisy.
He wouldn’t doubt Tiana anymore.
He just needed one final conclusion.
He personally delivered Daisy’s sample to the same reliable forensic scientist as last time.
And asked the expert to rush the test.
The entire way—from collection of Daisy’s saliva, to delivery at the forensics lab—Aiden watched the expert prepare and test the samples.
No one else was allowed to touch a thing.
Five hours later.
The forensic scientist emerged with the result.
"Mr. Grant, all 21 genetic markers are a perfect match."
"The CPI paternity index is 99.99%."
"You and Miss Ginny Linden are absolutely biological father and daughter."
Aiden had long expected this result.
As had Christopher.
Christopher asked miserably,
"Aiden, did you really not trust Tiana at all?"
"She’s dead, and you still need this paternity test to prove your relationship with Daisy?"
"Is it clear now that everything Tiana said was true?"
"Do you see how foolish you were?"
"From the start, when Tiana went to prison, I begged you not to trust the evidence on the surface."
"If you’d kept a clear head back then, Tiana wouldn’t have gone to prison."
"Maybe she’d never have gotten cancer."
"Aiden, Tiana was killed by you."
Christopher’s words echoed endlessly in Aiden’s ears and in his mind.
Daisy was his biological daughter.
Absolutely, and without a doubt!
And it was him—he was the one who killed Tiana.
He was a murderer.
Pain and remorse ravaged him like wild beasts, raging and howling inside.
Overwhelmed with grief, Aiden again spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Aiden..." Christopher hurried to steady him.
Aiden pushed him away.
Clutching the blood-stained paternity test paperwork in hand, he let out a mad, rabid laugh.
"Daisy is MY daughter, Aiden Grant’s daughter!"
"And I killed Tiana Linden..."
Why wasn’t it him who died?
The one who most deserved to die was him.
"Pff!"
Another mouthful of blood sprayed forth.
"Aiden!"
With a spasm of stabbing pain in his chest, Aiden indicated with a feeble wave that Christopher shouldn’t bother about him.
Christopher hesitated—helping, or not helping, neither felt right.
He could only let out a long, deep sigh.
"Aiden, why put yourself through this?"
Aiden wiped the blood from his lips and left.
He got into the Hongqi limousine alone.
"Aiden, get in the back. Let me drive you to the hospital."
Christopher rapped on the window.
From inside, Aiden locked the door, started the engine: "You go home. I have something to do."
"Aiden, it’s dangerous for you to drive like this."
But there was no reply from Aiden anymore.
The black Hongqi limousine quickly vanished into the ceaseless traffic.
...
Eastmere International Kindergarten.
Aiden went to see the principal.
The blood-stained suit he’d worn had been replaced.
He was now in a dark suit.
The principal had only seen him on the news recently.
He had represented Linden-Grant Pharmaceuticals at a press conference for the successful M901 anti-cancer drug.
He was noble and exceptional on TV.
In person, he was even more striking.
But today, he looked deathly pale and haggard—like a sick man.
The principal’s father had benefited from the M901 anti-cancer drug by Linden-Grant Pharmaceuticals.
With late-stage pancreatic cancer, his cancer cells had been cleared by more than ninety percent in just a month.
Still, when Aiden requested to pick up Daisy, the principal found it difficult.
"Mr. Grant, Daisy’s legal guardian is Mr. Sutton. We can’t give Daisy to you."
"It wouldn’t be proper."
Aiden presented the paternity test to the principal.
"Ginny Linden is my biological daughter."
"I’ll take full responsibility."
Then, he explained roughly to the principal about the situation between him and Daisy.
"I owe Daisy."
"As her father, I must make it right."
"Only with her real father can she be truly protected, truly happy."
He bowed to the principal. "Please, let me take Daisy."
He had to make amends for the harm he’d caused Daisy himself.
Finally, he donated ten million to Eastmere Kindergarten.
Half an hour later.
Daisy was brought to a strange villa.
This villa was another of Aiden’s properties—on the South Bank of the Pearl River.
When Daisy came in, she saw gardeners planting flowers.
The flowers being planted were all her mother’s favorite lisianthus.
Daisy looked at her teacher in confusion. "Teacher, weren’t you taking me to see Daddy? What is this place, where’s my daddy?"
The teacher held her little hand and led her forward.
Soon, with the help of the housekeeper, they arrived at a vast living room.
"Teacher brought you to see your Daddy!"
Daisy was still confused. "But why didn’t Laura come if we’re here to see Daddy?"
Just then, a man came down the stairs in the living room.
It was Aiden—someone Daisy wanted to run away from at a single glance.
Now she understood, the ’Daddy’ the teacher mentioned wasn’t her Daddy Leo or her Mr. Chaucer.
Her little hand immediately twisted free.
The tiny figure ran straight back toward the door.
But the main entry was tightly locked.
She pounded on the door with her small fists.
"Let me out! Open the door!"
No matter how she pressed, the door didn’t budge.
She turned and looked at the teacher.
"Teacher, I don’t want to see this horrible man."
"Take me back! I want my Daddy Leo and Mr. Chaucer."
The teacher, embarrassed, glanced at Aiden.
Aiden looked at Daisy.
The "horrible man" referred to him.
He was keenly aware of it.
He really was horrible.
Even he hated himself.
Daisy was just like him.
Loved grapefruits, highly allergic to peanuts, brilliant at art, hated both onions and cilantro.
How could he have, based on a fake paternity test, rejected such an adorable, obedient daughter?
The one who should have died was him.
It should never have been innocent, pitiable Tiana.
Look at the daughter Tiana gave him—how beautiful she was.
Her face was a mirror image of Tiana’s.
At that time, Tiana gave birth to Daisy in prison. How desperately helpless must she have felt?
Now he wanted to make things right for Tiana, but the chance was gone forever.
All he could do was pour his guilt into making things up to their daughter.
Daisy was the fruit of his and Tiana’s love.
He’d repair his relationship with Daisy at all costs.
He would make sure she grew up happy.
He squatted and opened his arms to Daisy.
"Daisy, come to Daddy. Let Daddy give you a hug!"
Daisy glared at Aiden, furious.
Her little fists clenched tightly.
From her tiny body seemed to spill forth a torrent of hatred.
"You’re not my daddy!"
"My daddies are Leo Sutton and Hector Chaucer."
"Not you."
The anger and screams of his daughter weighed on Aiden’s chest like a truckload of cement.
He could finally understand the despair and pain Tiana and Daisy had once felt.
He knew, too, that he deserved this.
He took a step toward Daisy.
How he wished he could hug Daisy just once.
But little Daisy only retreated, further and further away.
Pressed against the wall, those big eyes full of resistance: "I don’t want you. You’re not my daddy."
The arms reaching out to hold her dropped back, defeated and limp.
He was afraid to force her, afraid that would make Daisy suffer more, resist even more.
He didn’t dare get any closer.
Just half a step separated them—but between this father and daughter, it felt like an unbridgeable divide.
Helplessly, he tightened his fists.
He hated that he was so stupid, so useless—such a bastard.
"Daddy knows—you really hate me."
"Daddy won’t hug you today."
"But from now on, you’ll be living with Daddy, and I promise to make it all up to you."
From Daisy’s little face, Aiden saw so much of Tiana in her.
The child looked as if she’d been carved from the same mold as Tiana.
So beautifully made, so perfect.
Looking at Daisy, he saw again the girl Tiana had been.
He and Tiana had loved one another since they were kids, always so close.
One step away from a perfect home and family.
But now, Tiana lay beneath cold earth—all because of him.
His stomach roiled with a wave of spasms and nausea.
He pressed his chest, bearing the searing pain, and gently said to Daisy, "Daddy will show you your princess room first."
At that moment, Uncle Carter came over and handed him the phone.
"Mr. Grant, it’s for you—many people are calling."
