The CEO's Seductive Doll-Chapter 95: Ephemeral Sorrow (2)

[Warning: This Chapter mentions borderline incest. Please be warned!]

Dolores disappeared for months, and when she returned, she was very round and pregnant, close to giving birth to a baby girl she later named ’Cynthia’.

It took a while before Evan warmed up to Dolores again.

After all, she betrayed him and chose to run off with some man for the sake of pursuing a dream that was barely within her reach. But when she realized that her dream was the same as merely grasping smoke, she came scurrying back home like an injured animal.

When he finally opened his heart to her again, they became closer than they were before. After all, it was challenges that made bonds stronger.

But it seemed that Dad didn’t feel the same way and wasn’t open to mending his relationship with Dolores.

"You should be thankful that everyone thinks you’re my daughter, or else I wouldn’t have accepted you back in my house!" Dad shouted at Dolores, who was holding Cynthia in her arms.

"Dad, please, we’ve had this talk so many times already." Dolores begged, cradling Cynthia in her arms. "You’re also scaring your granddaughter..."

"That child is no granddaughter of mine!" Dad’s voice boomed across their small house, causing Dolores to flinch and for Cynthia, who was just a few months old, to cry even louder.

"... Dolores isn’t my sister?" Evan whispered, causing both of them to turn around in surprise.

He had heard Dolores declare that Dad wasn’t her father years ago, but this was the first time he got confirmation from Dad himself that she was, in fact, not his offspring.

"Evanescence!" She spoke in a hushed voice, walking toward him before kneeling down to his level. "Forget what Dad said; he’s just angry with me, that’s all!"

"I have no daughter that is a whore!" Dad declared.

"Dad!" Dolores admonished.

"And you, Evan," Dad said as he walked toward him, pointing his index finger menacingly at him. This was the first time Evan saw and heard Dad so angry, especially since to Evan, who was usually the perfect kid who could do no wrong. "You’re--"

"Dad, please!" Dolores cried along with Cynthia, though the baby’s cries were more powerful. "Don’t tell Evan!"

Dad clicked his tongue and walked out of the room. Evan felt curious about what Dad was going to say, but his relief that he wasn’t related to Dolores was stronger.

Evan didn’t know when it started, but something in his heart was forming for Dolores. He was still young and was unsure how feelings worked at that time, but he was sure it was more than familial love.

His feelings grew in the year and a half that passed, where Dolores turned into a new leaf. She didn’t bring any more men to their house; she stopped drinking and smoking entirely.

Without the constant bruises her strings of lovers had left on her body, Dolores appeared happier and better. But what made Evan’s feelings grow for her more was that she focused all her attention on Cynthia and Evan, was generally a better sister to him, and was a good mother to Evan’s niece.

Evan thought it was because they both grew up without a mother figure, so Dolores made sure that Cynthia wouldn’t suffer the same fate.

But one day, Dolores left again.

This time, she never returned.

"Where are you going, Dolores?" Evan asked as he saw Dolores all dolled up.

This hadn’t happened in a while since Dolores only wore makeup in front of her lovers or when she had a singing gig in some club.

"I told you to call me ’Dolly!’" Dolores pouted. "But that doesn’t matter anymore. No one would remember that I went by the name ’Dolores’ before. I would be known as ’Dolly’ by everyone in this country in a few months!"

"What do you mean?" Evan raised an eyebrow.

"I got scouted by a talent agency, Evanescence!" Dolores shared excitedly. "I’m one step closer to achieving my dreams!"

It was Evan who called Dad at his workplace to tell him that Dolores had not returned home since yesterday.

At first, Dad assumed that Dolores was back in her rebellious phase again and was merely acting up. It was a normal occurrence in their household for Dolores to disappear with a man, only to come back a few days later when her lover got bored with her. That was why he didn’t file a report with the police that she was missing.

Dolores’s whereabouts remained a mystery until now.

Evan knew that Dad felt guilty for Dolores’s disappearance since he had been harsh on her ever since she came back home. And it was his guilt that caused him to be absent-minded, resulting in his accident while he was at work, causing him to be incapacitated for the rest of his life.

"You already know that Dolores is not my daughter," Dad said as he lay on the hospital bed.

"What?" Evan perked up in his seat, confused at why Dad was saying this out of nowhere.

"I just want to tell you the truth, Evan." Dad said it with a completely grim tone. "You aren’t my son either."

"Wait," Evan’s voice cracked as he felt a panic swelling within his chest. "Why are you saying this--"

"Because I don’t plan to keep this secret until my deathbed," Dad interjected. "In fact, I took in Dolores when she was pregnant with you."

"I’m... Dolores’s son?" Evan’s voice quivered, his whole body shook, and he struggled to understand this revelation. "But why did you--"

"She was on my doorstep and was pregnant at the age of 13," Dad continued. "She had nowhere to go. Her parents had disowned her while the man who got her pregnant left her to the dust, so I took her in."

His head was spinning from all the information, but Evan had no option but to listen to Dad as he continued.

"She gave birth to you after a few months, and I officially adopted you as my son. She begged for me not to tell you that you’re her child, and we brought you up like you were siblings."

"But why?" Evan asked, and a mixture of confusion and anger were boiling inside of him. "Why would she ask for you to do that?’

But Evan already knew the answer.

Dolores didn’t just want the responsibility of being a mother.