After Rebirth, I Refused to Pick up My Neighbor's Son Again

Amanda, out for her morning walk, also held her nose and complained upon seeing the mess.

"What a mess! Why isn't this trash bag tied up tighter?

"Elodie Anderson, you should really take more care in what you do."

Mumbling to herself, she tiptoed around the mess at the door and stepped into the elevator, still muttering about me under her breath.

I ignored her words.

Something just didn't seem right.

I was worried about spills yesterday, so I deliberately tied two extra knots.

It was a hallway, not outside. There was no wind or rain.

How could it have gotten like this?

It had to be someone's doing.

Amanda and Troy hadn't left their apartment all night; it couldn't have been them at our doorstep.

We keep regular hours and are never noisy.

That rules out retaliation from downstairs.

On this floor, it was just me and Helen.

Who else could it be?

After I discussed it with Troy, he frowned.

"Is it essential? It was just a few words of reminder.

"Let it go. You take Elisa to school, and I'll clean this up."

Troy rarely deals with such messy tasks; I was in a hurry to take Elisa to school, so I didn't say much more.

When I got home, I was alone in the house.

I pulled up the footage from the front door camera.

Amanda had lost a set of keys before.

I didn't think much of it at first.

But when small items started disappearing, I suspected a thief and called the police.

There was no evidence, though, so the police couldn't do much.

Amanda and Troy told me I was just stressed from taking care of Elisa and probably misplaced things myself.

I didn't argue; I just changed the locks, but I still felt uneasy.

So, I installed another camera.

Afraid Amanda would say I was wasting money, I didn't tell them about it.

Nothing went missing after that, and I stopped checking the footage.

But what I saw next floored me.

Not only did I see Helen kicking over a trash bag.

My hand slipped, and I accidentally clicked a few days back.

In the elevator, Troy stood in a crisp suit, apparently waiting for something.

Curiously, he neither pressed the elevator button nor entered his apartment.

Then, out of nowhere, the door to Helen's apartment opened.

He opened his arms towards the door, and Kaelan actually ran into his embrace.

My mind couldn't process what was happening.

The elevator arrived, and he let go of Kaelan. Then, he gave Helen a lingering, affectionate hug before stepping into the elevator.

That scene...

It was as if they were the natural family.

My hands started trembling involuntarily.

An invisible force seemed to compel me to scroll further.

As expected, the more I scrolled, the more suffocated I felt.

These two seemed to have a tacit agreement.

Every time I brought Elisha home, they would shamelessly act like a couple, displaying their affection at the elevator entrance.

Less than a year after I gave birth to Elisha, Helen moved in with Kaelan, who was only a few months old at the time.

Could Kaelan be Troy's illegitimate child?