Donald stared daggers at Werner, calling out his pathetic lie. He shouted, “I heard every word you said at the door. This isn’t your first time, is n? So, you have been betraying Mom all along.”
Werner protested defensively, “No, I didn’t. I’m not that kind of man.”
“Do you really want me to pull up the surveillance footage or hotel records? Dad, how could you stoop so low? You’re fifty years old. Have you no shame?
“Maybe you don’t care about your reputation anymore, but we still have our dignity to protect. Cheryl still needs to get married. What will people think?1 even convinced Mom to trust you. Why would you betray us like this?”
Donald was losing it. This was the first time Werner had seen him like this.
When Cathy’s medical test results came out, Donald had initially scolded Jennifer for being nosy.
Donald tried to console himself, thinking, ‘Dad isn’t capable of something like that. Maybe Mom just picked up the infection in public. It’s not unheard of. I really don’t want to suspect Werner!’
Had he not witnessed this scene today, he wouldn’t have dared to imagine that Werner was really about to step into that den of vice. He wasn’t stupid, and he knew exactly what kind of wild and decadent things went on in those clubs.
Werner still refused to admit anything. Desperate to save face in front of Donald, he adamantly insisted he was a man of principles and had never done anything to betray Cathy.
“Dad, don’t you realize you’ve completely shattered the image I had of you? Why are you still lying to me?”
Werner snapped, “I didn’t do anything, but if you insist on framing me, there’s nothing more to say. If you’re really that stupid, go ahead and tell your mom and just watch this family fall apart.”
Donald clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white with suppressed rage. He demanded, his voice shaking with rage, “So you’re admitting it now, aren’t you? Why? Why would you do something like this? Just tell me.”
Werner fell silent. Thinking back to the day he learned Sanford was causing a stir online, Werner was utterly shocked. He rushed to Shaville to find Liora and confirmed that Sanford was truly his son.
Seeing his own son Sanford unknowingly call him “uncle” and witnessing Liora so frail and ravaged by cancer, completely shattered him.
His emotions were in turmoil. He never imagined that Liora would bear him a son, and that son turned out to be Sanford.
The pressure was something he couldn’t share with anyone, least of all his wife, especially when it came to Sanford. Guilt gnawed at him: he was Sanford’s father, yet he couldn’t even acknowledge him as his son.
He went drinking with Liam, who suggested they get a couple of escorts and really let loose.
He knew he shouldn’t betray Cathy, but that day, all he could think about was Liora and Sanford.
That day, not once did he think of Cathy, or of Donald and Cheryl, his wife and children, waiting for him back in Nareigh. He pushed his entire family out of his mind, lost in his own turmoil.
Werner thought, ‘All I could think about was the unbearable pain of not being able to acknowledge Sanford as my son. I was consumed by crushing guilt for having let down both Sanford and Liora.‘
In this decadent city, egged on by his friend and overwhelmed by crushing pressures, he crossed a line fueled by alcohol.
Only after sobering up did the full weight of his mistake hit him. It was then that he truly realized that he had a wife and children.
Back in Nareigh, consumed by guilt toward Cathy, he thought that if he could just wipe the slate clean, he could pretend nothing had ever happened. But
to his horror, he ended up unknowingly passing an infection on her.
