Elissa looked coldly at the boy and said, "If you come to live with me, you won't have a fancy house like this. You'll live in a small apartment with us, and your life won't be as good as it used to be. It's up to you whether you want to come with us or not."

She thought he would make a wise choice and leave them alone for good.

But as she turned to leave, a small hand grabbed her dress.

Elissa was stunned.

Turning around, she saw the little boy staring at her with his bright and timid eyes. He didn't say anything. He just held the hem of her dress tightly.

His eyes looked so much like Yousef's.

Elissa had to admit that the boy resembled their father even more than she did.

In his younger days, Yousef was a handsome man and there were a lot of women who admired and pursued him back then. Marcia was one of them. Perhaps this was why their marriage didn't last long.

While they were married, one of them got accustomed to manipulating others, while the other cared was blindly in love.

Looking at the little boy's face, Elissa couldn't help but have mixed feelings. She had met his mother before, who was one of Yousef's best students and seemed to be a very proud woman. As a result, Elissa never expected her to have an affair with her teacher, a married man, and even give birth to Brantley.

Elissa made up her mind to get rid of him, so she tried to shake off his hand.

But the child refused to let go of her dress. He even called her his sister and promised that he would be a good boy.

When Elissa heard this, she tried but failed to suppress the disgust in her heart. Eventually, she told him, “If you want to live a good life here, then stop following me around! I don't want to have anything to do with you at all. Do you understand?"

The boy stared at her with a pitiful look on his little face.

Then he loosened his grip on her dress and sat down on the sofa.

He sat quietly for a moment, and then he said in a low voice, “I just want to see my mommy. I don't want anything else."

In fact, the word "father" was a strange word to him because Yousef seldom came to see him for fear that others might find out that he had an love child. As a result, the little boy had only met Yousef a few times, and each of those times, Yousef seemed to be in a hurry.

Sometimes, he even scolded the little boy's mother and blamed her for being an incompetent parent.

Elissa clenched her fists and tried to will herself to not be softhearted.

In fact, she felt she should have just turned around and left the place.

But yet, she remained in the living room, unable to bring herself to leave the little boy behind.

Raphael didn't say anything in support of the boy. Instead, he patted her on the shoulder and said in a gentle tone, "I'll wait for you outside. It's still early, so we can probably stop by the supermarket on our way back, get some groceries for the next few days, and then have a pleasant dinner."

But Elissa looked at him and asked with her lips trembling, "You also think that I'm cruel and heartless, don't you?"

She paused for a brief moment and continued in a trembling voice, "There were a lot of negative thoughts coming up in my mind... but how could I be so cruel to a little child?!"