"Lily is your daughter, Dan. Your biological daughter."
Words couldn’t describe the shock that washed over Dan in that moment.
"What?" His throat tightened as he stared at Sophie in disbelief. "You’re saying Lily is my daughter?"
Sophie nodded. A tear finally escaped from the corner of her eye. "Yes."
Dan’s breathing became uneven. He stood completely still, staring at her as though waiting for her to suddenly laugh and tell him it was some kind of misunderstanding.
But she didn’t. Sophie simply sat there, tears gathering in her eyes as she carried the weight of a secret she had kept from him for more than two years.
’System, is she telling the truth? Is Lily really my biological daughter?’
[Yes, Host. What your wife said is the undeniable truth.]
Still in shock, Dan rubbed his temples as his mind raced.
If Lily was really his daughter, then there could only be one explanation.
That night; the night he and Sophie had been drinking together. The night he could barely remember.
A fragment of memory he had always dismissed as nothing more than a drunken blur.
Dan’s expression changed. ’This means that after I drank those drinks, I actually had sex with her that night. But could something bad have happened that night besides the drunken sex? Could that really be the reason Sophie had never told me?’
’Could something have happened that night that she had been too afraid to explain?’
He looked at Sophie again. "That night..."
His voice was barely audible as he locked eyes with her, but Sophie broke eye contact and lowered her gaze.
Dan’s heart tightened. There was clearly something about that night that he didn’t remember, and Sophie didn’t seem willing to explain it herself...
And now, for the first time, he desperately wanted to know what had really happened. Fortunately, he had the system. There might be a way for him to uncover the truth.
’System.’
The moment he spoke in his mind, the familiar interface appeared.
’Can you help me remember what happened that night?’
There was a brief pause then...
[Host’s request has been acknowledged.]
[Attempting to recover missing fragments of Host’s memories...]
Dan’s body stiffened. ’Yes.’
His hands slowly clenched. ’Help me remember. I need to know.’
Then...
[Missing memory fragments successfully recovered.]
The world around Dan seemed to disappear right that instant as his consciousness was suddenly dragged backward through time.
He found himself in a different room with a younger Sophie and a younger version of himself.
The mood seemed festive, with alcohol and laughter filling the room.
Warmth spread through his body.
Then the memories became increasingly blurred. His vision swayed, and his thoughts became chaotic. He remembered himself losing control. He remembered Sophie trying to calm him down.
Trying to get him to stop drinking. Trying to bring him back to his senses.
But he hadn’t listened. And then the memory became something Dan had never imagined himself capable of.
His eyes widened. His entire body went rigid. He watched the scene unfold through his own recovered memories, completely drunk and barely aware of what he was doing.
He had been intimate with Sophie that night. But there was nothing romantic about the memory.
He had been far too intoxicated, far too rough, and far too disconnected from his own actions.
Sophie had been intoxicated as well, but she wasn’t completely drunk, she had been repeatedly trying to calm him and bring him back to his senses.
Dan’s stomach twisted. The memory vanished. He returned to the present with a sharp breath.
His face had gone pale. "What the hell..."
He stumbled backward and caught himself against the edge of the sofa.
Sophie immediately looked up. "Dan?"
He didn’t answer. His hands were trembling. He stared at them as though they belonged to someone else.
His mind replayed the memory again and again.
He had always known he had anger issues, he had lost his temper before, he had gotten into fights, he had even entered that terrifying state of rage earlier with Joe. But he had always believed there was a line he would never cross.
Now he wasn’t sure anymore. Dan swallowed hard. ’Was that...’
He couldn’t even finish the thought. His chest tightened painfully. ’Was that rape?’
He looked toward Sophie. She had never described that night to him. She had never told him what had happened.
And suddenly, her silence made a terrifying amount of sense.
Dan lowered his head. He couldn’t use alcohol as an excuse.
He couldn’t hide behind the fact that he hadn’t been in his right mind.
Whatever state he had been in, it had still been him.. And knowing that made him feel sick.
’What the hell was wrong with me?’ His breathing became heavier. ’How could I have done something like that?’
His eyes reddened. He had always considered himself a decent man. Flawed, perhaps. Short-tempered, stubborn. But decent.
Yet the memory had shown him a side of himself that he had never known existed.
A side that terrified him. Dan’s hands tightened into fists. ’If that was why Sophie never told me...’
His thoughts became increasingly painful. ’Then I understand.’
She had been pregnant. She had been carrying his child.
And instead of telling him, she had chosen to raise Lily alone.
Maybe she had been afraid. Not merely afraid of his reaction to discovering the child. Afraid of him.
Dan’s heart sank. Then another thought struck him.
’Lily.’ His eyes widened. ’What if I lost control again?’
The thought was unbearable.
’What if I hurt Sophie?’ His breathing became unsteady. ’What if I hurt Lily?’
That possibility frightened him more than anything else. He could accept being hated. He could accept losing everything.
But the thought of becoming a danger to his own family made his entire chest ache.
’I’m actually a monster. How could I have done something like that...’
For several seconds, Dan couldn’t move.