The Mafia Lord's Secret Lover (Evelyn and Axel) novel Chapter 433

Chapter 433: The Shocking News

Joseph’s unease visibly grew as he realized something. "Mr. Knight...?"

Axel’s eyes locked onto his. There was no anger in his gaze, only cruel clarity.

"No, Joseph," Axel said quietly, his voice calm yet sharp enough to cut through bone. "It wasn’t her."

Joseph froze.

The reaction was immediate and absolute, as if someone had pressed a hidden switch inside him. His body went rigid, his breath stalled, and for a brief second, even his blinking stopped.

The words did not simply surprise him. They shattered something far deeper.

Instantly, his mind was dragged violently back to that night.

Fragments of memory surfaced, unstable. The noise of the gala. The dim lights. The burning frustration he had carried for months, watching Evelyn remain forever distant, forever polite, forever untouchable.

Then the drinks. The carefully executed plan. The subtle exchange. The quiet satisfaction of believing everything was unfolding exactly as he intended.

After that... Blur. Fog. Darkness.

Joseph’s temples throbbed faintly. ’No...’ His thoughts spiraled uncontrollably. ’How could that woman not be Evelyn?’

He lifted his gaze slowly toward Axel, searching his expression with desperate intensity. Axel’s face, however, revealed nothing but cold certainty. No hesitation. No doubt. No trace of deception.

And that was what terrified Joseph most. Because the truth, creeping mercilessly into his mind, was impossible to ignore. He had never clearly seen the woman’s face.

He remembered keeping the room dark. He remembered drawing the curtains just enough for faint light to slip inside. He remembered convincing himself it was necessary because if Evelyn was not fully drunk, if she recognized him too clearly, everything might fail before it even began. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

So he had chosen darkness for safety. And stupidly, he also drank that night. He was too nervous waiting for her, and he drank the same amount he gave her.

Joseph’s stomach twisted violently.

He also remembered, when morning came, the woman had already left. There had been no lingering perfume, no scattered belongings, no familiar presence.

At the time, he had accepted it as Evelyn’s quiet escape, her unspoken shame, her silent attempt to erase what had happened.

But now—

Now those memories felt unstable. Unreliable. Distorted.

’Damn it...’ Joseph’s head ached faintly as countless unanswered questions twisted inside him. ’If that woman wasn’t Evelyn... then who?’

Across the table, Axel observed him without mercy. He didn’t rush to say something because Joseph’s own mind was doing far more damage than any words could accomplish.

Finally, after savoring the visible cracks forming in Joseph Carter’s composure, Axel leaned forward slightly.

"The woman you slept with that night," he said with chilling calmness, "was not Evelyn. She was someone else."

Joseph’s chest tightened. His fingers trembled faintly against the edge of the table.

"And that woman," Axel continued, his gaze dark and piercing, "now claims she has a son with you."

Joseph’s face drained of color. The shift was immediate and brutal, like lightning striking a man already standing in the rain. His lips parted, but no sound emerged. His pulse thundered violently inside his ears.

Because suddenly—

Everything aligned.

When Evelyn invited him to Oliver’s birthday party, Joseph had been genuinely shocked. The boy was already four years old. The math had haunted him. The doubt had grown silently inside him like poison.

Could Oliver be his?

That single question had consumed him.

Driven by suspicion, he had secretly collected strands of Oliver’s hair. The DNA test had been conducted in absolute secrecy. He had waited anxiously for the results.

Negative.

Oliver was not his.

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