Return With the Billionaire Baby Daddy-Chapter 112: Damian’s courage

At 5:00 PM, Valerie decided to leave the hospital with her family and also Hans, who would now always be with her since Samuel had not yet been captured. The girl walked with Adriana, while her mother led Daniel ahead with Hans and Leonne.

"It seems like Daniel doesn’t need to go to daycare for a few days, and you also need complete rest," Adriana said, watching Valerie walk unsteadily, unable to hide her exhaustion and pain.

"I was thinking of letting Daniel receive education from home," Valerie replied wearily.

"Yes, for now. But when the situation is comfortable, you should let him have a general education so he can have friends and socialize well. But for now, he’s really tough and seems unaffected by the trauma despite experiencing something so frightening. I don’t see any fear in his eyes at all," Adriana said admiringly. "He’s just like his father!"

Valerie laughed, remembering her plans with Damian that their extended family didn’t know about yet.

But suddenly, her smile faded when she saw a girl walking hastily with an elderly couple and Darius. They passed by without noticing her, making her immediately turn and think they were heading to Damian’s room.

"What?" Adriana asked.

"Could that be Karina?" Valerie asked back.

Adriana just shrugged.

"She’s beautiful, but it’s a shame she’s suffering from a serious illness, and she’ll be disappointed because Damian still hasn’t chosen her," Valerie said uneasily.

"So, are you implying you’ll let go of Damian so he can choose her?" Adriana asked, making Valerie turn to her with a frown. "You don’t need to sacrifice your happiness to please others... They might not even care about you," she continued before walking on.

Valerie sighed, quickly following Adriana, but her thoughts remained on Karina, imagining what she would discuss with Damian and their father. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Could it be that they’re brave enough to express their desire to marry me? Somehow it still feels strange to marry... Like something is missing."

....

Damian tried to shift his position, trying to alleviate the pain in his back.

"Damian!"

His attention was diverted to Karina, who had just entered and approached him with a worried look.

"What do you need? Let me help you."

"It’s okay..." Damian smiled faintly, but his face showed discomfort and pain. "I just want to lean to the right because my back feels stiff."

"Alright..."

Karina assisted him, then placed a pillow behind Damian’s buttocks so he could continue leaning comfortably.

"Are you feeling cold?" Karina asked, looking at Damian, who was only wearing a blanket covering his thighs, revealing his left hip wrapped in quite thick bandages.

"It’s okay... I’m just sweating," Damian replied.

Karina sat down on a chair while her father and Darius stood behind her.

"I’m really worried about what happened to you," Adam said, looking normal in his black suit.

"It’s not something to worry about," Damian replied with a faint smile. "This is just a manifestation of my failure as a father. I shouldn’t have let my son be raised solely by his mother so that evil people would have the chance to harm them. I should have been with them, not with your daughter, who should be getting attention from you, not me," he continued.

Darius furrowed his brow, realizing Damian’s words were a dig at Adam.

Karina fell silent, not expecting Damian to say that after hiding his resentment towards her father for so long.

"Why did you say that?" Adam asked with a thin smile.

"Do I have to answer? Wasn’t what I just said enough to make you understand?" Damian asked impatiently. "I followed your advice to stay with Karina until I had to neglect my son, and now he’s in danger as it happened today. Today, I realized I don’t need to constantly care for your daughter because she’s fine and she also has you who are more deserving to take care of her... Why should I take care of her if she has you? She’s not an orphan!"

"Damian!" Darius immediately stopped him.

"What?" Damian asked defiantly. "Are you going to say that I should respect him because he’s your business partner and Karina’s father? I don’t need to do that anymore! Seeing him prioritize his work over spending time with Karina makes me reluctant to respect him! He made me into a bad father... He made me unable to spend enough time with my son. But now I won’t let that happen, I won’t follow your advice anymore, that’s enough!" Damian asserted, fearless and unreserved.

Karina remained silent, but fear was evident on her face.

"I didn’t expect you to have ill thoughts about me because of this," Adam said calmly. "I thought you didn’t want to pay attention to your son anymore because Karina told me earlier that you and Valerie weren’t together anymore and you weren’t communicating anymore. You didn’t even know where she lived... Besides, you didn’t refuse when I asked you to..."

"I didn’t refuse because I respected you!" Damian cut off Adam. "But what did I get? You kept busy with your affairs, thus continually letting Karina depend on me. I endured because I felt sorry for her, but in reality, I missed my son and wanted to give attention to him. I wanted to fix my relationship with Valerie... And today I found out about them... They’re in danger... I’m grateful I could still save them... And from now on, I’ll never let them be away from me again..."

"Damian!" Darius sharpened his gaze.

Damian sighed, ignoring his father’s stare. "Sorry... I can’t be with Karina anymore."

Karina widened her eyes, swallowing hard, her heart pounding suddenly, feeling like it was pierced by thousands of thorns.

"Damian, you can’t do this!" Darius exclaimed.

"What’s stopping me?" Damian asked, then glanced at Adam. "Are you afraid he’ll get angry and sever ties with our company? If that happens, then he’s not professional at all!"

"It’s not about being professional or not, it’s about dignity!" Adam retorted, glaring at him. "If you ultimately don’t want to be with Karina, you shouldn’t have accepted the arranged marriage in the first place!"

"Why blame me now?" Damian asked with a sardonic smile. "Didn’t you already know I spent time in Korea with Valerie... You knew I intended to return to her but you asked me to be with Karina while she was ill... You should realize that all this time I endured because of your orders because I respected you... Of course, it wasn’t because I wanted to play with you or Karina!"

"But..."

"Enough!" Karina stood up, her breath racing. "There’s no need to argue about this!"

Everyone there fell silent, their attention focused on Karina.

"Damian and I had agreed not to continue with this arranged marriage," Karina explained angrily, then looked at her father. "You don’t need to be angry or feel like he played us. That’s not true at all, and I’m fine with his decision. Please don’t involve our business in this... Besides, I can still manage because of the medicine, not because he’s by my side!" she continued angrily, then left immediately.

"Karina!"

Adam quickly followed Karina, while Darius glared at Damian, even clenching his fists.

"What?" Damian asked. "Are you going to hit me?"

Darius clenched his fist harder and punched Damian’s nose, causing him to fall back.

"You bastard!" he shouted.

Damian smirked slightly despite the pain, quickly wiping his bleeding nose.

"I didn’t expect you to hurt me while I’m sick just to defend them, especially when you know I’m doing this to be a good father to my son!" he said cynically.

"Stop your nonsense!" Darius replied, then promptly left the room.

Damian sighed, occasionally grimacing in pain but feeling relieved because he had expressed all his frustrations and desires.

"It’s okay... Once everything is broken, let it all be shattered. But not my relationship with Valerie," he said with a smile. "We’ll get married soon... Maybe I should take her away from here."

The door opened.

Demian saw his mother approaching him hastily with a worried look.

"Oh my, Son..." Elena was very surprised to see Damian’s bleeding nose. "What happened? Did your father do this?" She wondered as she grabbed tissues from the nightstand and carefully wiped the blood.

"It’s Okay... He’s just angry... He loves Adam and Karina too much," Damian replied, enduring the pain as the tissue touched his nose.

"What happened? Why is he so angry?" Elena asked while disposing of the blood-soaked tissue and grabbing another clean one. "I also saw Karina rushing out followed by her father... Then your father followed them, but he stopped briefly and gave me an angry look... What’s wrong with all of you?" She continued in bewilderment, folding the tissue and placing it on Damian’s nose.

"It’s because I decided to end my relationship with Karina," Damian answered.

"Really?"

"Yes..." Damian lowered his gaze, imagining Valerie and Daniel. "I simply can’t give myself to anyone else but Valerie. I don’t want any more distance between us... I don’t want what happened today to happen again because Samuel still hasn’t been caught."

Elena fell silent, understanding Damian’s intention, and she didn’t want to intervene.

"Don’t you still have our wedding preparations like the dress and the ring?" Damian asked.

Elena nodded.

"I will marry her as soon as I’m allowed to leave this hospital. We’ll get married at the hotel, the location of our failed wedding before... I want to make our dream come true," Damian explained with a vacant look, imagining Valerie walking towards the altar to join him, escorted by her father. "And I’ll make her father proud again. Maybe he won’t need to go to sea again... I’ll give him the best, for his family," he concluded with a smile, envisioning Valerie’s happy face.