True Love Waits novel Chapter 1194

Erica walked away, leaving behind a silence that stretched on and on until Tam took a deep breath. With a casual air, he turned to his daughter. "Julianna, would you mind going too? I need to speak with Tessie about something."

Julianna didn't move, looking with suspicion at her father and her friend. "Dad, you... What do you two need to talk about?" Privately she wondered, 'Did my father know Tessie before? If so, why didn't I know about it?'

While Tessie's eyes stayed on the ground, Tam made the best excuse he could think of. "It seems there's a big problem between her and Erica. Since I just happened to stumble across it, I can't sit by and do nothing. If I'm able to have a talk with your friend, maybe I can help her resolve the conflict."

Julianna had her doubts, but she nodded and left in the opposite direction Erica had taken.

When only the two of them were left, Tessie finally raised her head and looked at Tam, her eyes deep with longing and love.

It was impossible not to see her feelings; they were present in every gesture. For his part, Tam would be lying if he said he had no feelings for this woman. Nonetheless, he kept his calm. "I have only two choices now," he explained. "One is to take our son home and raise him with my wife. The second is to divorce my wife and marry you, and then we raise our son together."

Tam had seen baby Ethan before and liked him very much. It was hard to say why; maybe the Li family had raised him too well, or perhaps it was just the fact that they were bonded by blood. Whatever the case, Tam couldn't simply forget the baby. He really wanted to take him back home.

His love for that child even exceeded his love for his daughter, who had accompanied him for more than twenty years.

Tessie flashed a lonely, bitter smile. "You think clearly enough about your own future, but what about mine?"

"You have two choices, too," he said. "One is to apologize to Erica and marry me. The second is..." He paused, and for that brief instant looked just a little pained. "...is to give me your son and devote yourself to your studies."

"Don't you want to know what happened?"

Tam shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Whether you're alive or dead, you were not lying to me, but to Erica." In fact, that was the reason he wanted her to apologize to Erica. "I admit that I flinched when I knew you were pregnant with the baby. But I regret it now." Indeed, he had found that no matter how busy he was at work, he couldn't help thinking of Tessie's child.

So he'd hired some people to monitor everything that happened with the Li family. As soon as he'd heard of Erica taking the child out of the Li family house, he had contacted her and gotten the chance to meet Ethan.

Tessie's eyes turned red. She looked at Erica, who was rather obviously watching them from the distance. She said, "I'm afraid... it'll be very hard to get Erica's forgiveness." Tessie was sorry for what she had done to Erica, but the way she saw it, she'd had no choice. The pregnancy had been an accident, but she hadn't wanted to abort the baby. She could only use Erica's kindness to rearrange her life.

Tam knew that it was indeed hard to get Erica's forgiveness for anything. It was clearly the biggest problem for Tessie at the moment. Erica had essentially been her scapegoat. Neither the Li nor the Huo families would go easy on them if they learned the truth.

"You should have thought of it back then," Tam pointed out. Truth be told, he was a little disappointed in Tessie. After all, she had gotten a good deal out of all that had happened; she'd been able to transfer to a new school and begin a new life. But her good friend had been left behind to deal with this whole mess despite being totally innocent.

Because of the baby, Erica's life had been totally changed. She had been forced to marry a man she didn't love. Fortunately, Matthew loved Erica so much that he didn't seem to care whether she had a child or not.