Teresa remained silent. If she and Jonathan were truly remarried, she would happily agree. But the truth was, they weren’t truly remarried, so she couldn’t let the baby have his last name.

Seeing that Teresa didn’t respond, Hayden didn’t press her. Instead, he took her hand and asked her to accompany him to enjoy the flowers.

As they walked, Hayden kept praising how beautiful the begonias looked.

Werner pulled Teresa aside and almost begged her, “Please say yes to your grandpa. This is his only hope. He has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and we have no idea when things might take a turn for the worse.”

Teresa was stunned. She wondered, ‘How come? Hayden always seems so lively and chatty. How could he have Alzheimer’s?’

Werner’s voice trembled as he said, “It’s been a while. Sometimes he talks incoherently, and he forgets things easily. The doctor said it might be connected to the stroke he had before. We’ve been hiding it from the rest of the family. I haven’t even told Jonathan or Donald yet.”

Teresa gazed at Hayden, who was still admiring the flowers. Tears blurred her vision once again. She thought, ‘Why does everyone have to suffer from getting sick, growing old, and dying?’

Werner couldn’t figure out why Teresa was being so stubborn. He said, “Teresa, you and Jonathan are remarried. The baby can reasonably take his father’s last name.”

“Werner, I don’t mean to refuse, but Jonathan and I aren’t truly remarried,” Teresa said.

Werner exclaimed, “What?” His voice was so loud that Hayden looked at him in confusion. He instantly clapped a hand over his mouth, not daring to let Hayden get suspicious.

Teresa briefly filled Werner in on why they had to fake the remarriage and begged him to keep it a secret.

Werner snapped out of his shock. “No wonder you two were acting so weird at Jonathan’s birthday. Your grandpa doesn’t know it. He thinks you got back together for real. He was so happy that he couldn’t sleep the whole night.”

“I never wanted to lie to Hayden, but back then, we had no other choice. Pretending to remarry was the only way we could survive all that public pressure,” Teresa said, bowing her head in guilt.

She felt her heart was being slashed. She knew how much Hayden wished for her and Jonathan to get back together.

Werner gritted his teeth and said, “Then keep up the act. Mike has your last name. Why not let your second baby take Jonathan’s last name? Please.”

Teresa didn’t say anything.

Werner was about to make a begging gesture in front of Teresa, and Teresa quickly stopped him.

Werner said helplessly, “I don’t mind if you laugh at me. Over the years, I’ve made your grandpa worry so much and haven’t done my duty as a son. Only in the past couple of years have I been able to accompany him. I don’t know how much longer he’ll be with us. All I want is for him to be happy, to enjoy whatever time he has left.”

Werner continued, “Even if it means deceiving him for a while, please let him have this peace of mind. After he’s gone, you can change the baby’s name back if you want.”

“Werner, let me think it over,” Teresa said. She was feeling a little tired now.

After Werner took Hayden back home, Teresa noticed that Hayden had secretly left the bracelet by the door. She felt bitter in her heart.

She didn’t tell Jonathan about Hayden’s disease. She didn’t know how to bring this up because she couldn’t even process it herself. She believed Werner would be the one to tell the Lynn family.

That evening, Jonathan came back home and said, “Have you packed everything? I’ll drive you to the airport tomorrow.”

Teresa just nodded, clearly not all there. She said, “There’s something I wanted to discuss with you. It’s about the baby’s name.”