Where Is My Child?!

"Three votes are still undecided, but the outcome is already set."

After confirming the voting intentions of nearly all the senators over the phone, Madelyn turned and winked at Homelander, her face blooming with a smile.

Vought would successfully enter the defense system, and she, who had single-handedly made it happen, might have a chance to earn a promotion and rise even further.

"You don't look very happy. What's troubling our Homelander?"

She sat beside Homelander, who was frowning deeply on the sofa, and placed a hand familiarly on his shoulder. Her whole body nearly pressed against his as she smiled, comforting him in the tone of a female elder soothing an unhappy child.

"Do you remember that woman from the marketing department?"

Homelander remained unmoved. Wearing a rare serious expression toward Madelyn, he suddenly brought her up.

"Who, Ashley? Why bring her up?"

Madelyn's expression did not change. She feigned confusion and smiled.

"Shouldn't this be the time for us to celebrate together?

"You and I have achieved something great. We successfully got Vought into the Department of Defense."

She raised her hands, moving gently as if to draw Homelander into her embrace.

In the past, Homelander would already have been eager, his heart itching as he went along with it and lay down.

"No."

But today, he was acting completely out of character and did not move at all.

"It's Becca from eight years ago."

Ashley now handled his marketing and public relations, but eight years ago, it had been a woman named Becca.

"Becca? Becca Butcher?"

Madelyn acted as if her memory were hazy. After thinking for over ten seconds, she asked in confusion.

"What happened to her?"

"She disappeared. She has been missing for eight years, coincidentally disappearing after that incident."

As Homelander spoke, his tone abruptly shifted.

"What's even more interesting is that the moment I mentioned her, your heart rate suddenly sped up. It went over one hundred."

He stared directly into her eyes, his tone hostile.

"You're nervous. Your heart is so nervous it's about to jump out of your throat!

"Why? Because of a woman whose name takes you forever to remember?!"

"I..."

Faced with his sharp questioning, Madelyn did not know how to defend herself. Her acting was excellent and flawless, but unfortunately, Homelander was a human lie detector.

When he was with Madelyn before, he would relax completely. He would think of nothing and do nothing, like a child who only needed to immerse himself in his mother's warm embrace. But today, he was not in that mood.

"Tell me—is there something here that I don't know about?!"

His fierce stare and faintly angry voice made it clear: concealment was betrayal. Homelander hated betrayal by those he loved most, especially when he was already in an utterly terrible mood.

"Fine, calm down."

Madelyn raised her hands somewhat fearfully. Her lips trembled as she said,

"You carry too much on your shoulders every day. I did it for your own good.

"That Becca became pregnant with your child afterward."

"A child?"

Homelander froze and pointed at himself.

"Whose child, mine?!"

He shot to his feet, no longer calm, and shouted in shock.

"You told me I couldn't have children!"

Vought had always told him that his "tadpoles" were too powerful, that women's eggs could not withstand them and no life could be conceived.

"You did have a child once, but the child miscarried. I was afraid you wouldn't be able to bear the blow, so I hid it from you."

She hurriedly continued.

"The... the child died?"

The joy that had just been born was extinguished like a bucket of cold water had been poured over it. Homelander looked dazed, unable to accept it.

"Why did my child miscarry?!"

"Because the mother's body could not provide sufficiently powerful nourishment. The fetus could not continue once it had just formed."

Madelyn revealed a trace of regret at just the right moment.

"I actually had a child?"

His eyes reddened. Lost and heartbroken, he casually asked, "Where is the body after he died?"

Homelander's feelings for Madelyn were extraordinary. He was already starting to believe her.

"The body?"

Madelyn gripped his hand, but the comforting gesture froze. She had never imagined Homelander would ask that question.

This had happened eight years ago. Why would he ask about the body of a stillborn child?

"Why aren't you speaking?"

Sensing that something was wrong, Homelander frowned. As if recalling something, he became like an enraged dragon, his voice gradually turning cold.

"What did you do with his body? Did you dissect and study him like a lab rat?!"

"Of course not."

Ignoring Madelyn's denial, the frustration and fury he had accumulated over Ron these past days erupted. He coldly demanded,

"Dr. Vogbaum once said that my power far surpassed that of other superhumans, that I was a miracle that was nearly impossible to appear. So why—why has another Ron suddenly appeared!"

Dr. Vogbaum, Vought's former chief strategist who had created him in a test tube, had proudly told him those words many times.

Now another Ron had appeared, one nearly as powerful as he was. How was that supposed to be explained?

"Ron?"

While talking about Homelander's child, Madelyn was startled to suddenly hear Ron's name. She thought Homelander had discovered the truth.

"That's right. Did you conduct research based on my child's corpse, then create Ron at Vought?"

His voice was icy, as if he wanted to devour someone alive.

"No, of course not."

Knowing he had not uncovered the truth, Madelyn still did not dare to go along with what he was saying.

Homelander had lived in a laboratory since childhood, where people had studied him. That nightmarish childhood had left him with massive psychological scars. This was the dragon's reverse scale.

Seeing Madelyn, whom he had once relied upon and regarded as family, become increasingly suspicious, he could not allow anyone to betray him.

Homelander flew into a rage and did something to Madelyn he had never done before.

He grabbed Madelyn by the throat with one hand while she sat on the sofa, roughly lifting her and pulling her before him.

"Then tell me, where is my child's body? Where are his bones or ashes?!"

A terrifying laser glow lit up in his eyes, and he looked like a powder keg on the verge of exploding.

A familiar scene.

The same place, the same sofa, the same terrifying, blinding eyes.

"He... he..."

Fear surged over her like a tide and nearly drowned her. Madelyn could not breathe and could no longer fabricate a lie.

Could she tell the enraged Homelander that she had thrown away his child's body like garbage? And if she had not thrown it away, where were the bones?

How could she produce them immediately?

"Your child is still alive!"

With no other choice, she shouted the words with difficulty.

"Still alive?"

Homelander, who had never expected those words, released her in shock.

"Y-yes, he's alive. Becca is alive too. Vought imprisoned them as a contingency to control you."

Madelyn clutched her throat and coughed violently as she repeated herself.

She wanted to keep Homelander firmly in her grasp, but just now he had looked as though he might pierce her head with his lasers at any moment. She could not help being afraid.

"I can only push this onto the company's board of directors..."

On the lush green lawn, Becca sat before the house with her son Ryan, a maternal smile filling her face as she played with toys alongside him.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the sound of something descending at incredible speed tore through the air.

Bricks and stones exploded as a figure landed on the path before the house.

Becca looked up as though she had seen her most terrifying nightmare, and her smile froze.

"Is... is that you?"