Chapter 513 Nicholas' Atonement
Sarah was puzzled. "Mr. Moore?"
Calliope looked at Sarah and said, "Then it must be Nicholas."
She held the child close, her expression filled with sorrow.
Sarah considered for a moment before offering, "If you'd rather not see him, I could speak with him for you."
But Calliope replied, "There's no avoiding it. Since he already knows the child is with me, if I refuse to see him now, he'll just keep coming back. Better to get it over with today."
Calliope summoned a servant and instructed them to bring Nicholas to the small parlor for their meeting.
After the servant left to carry out her orders, Calliope changed into fresh clothes, and Elspeth was also dressed in new attire—this would be Elspeth's first meeting with her worthless father.
Calliope turned to Sarah. "You should make yourself scarce. I know you don't want to see him."
Sarah smiled faintly.
In the courtyard below, Nicholas sat in his car when a servant approached. "Mr. Nicholas Moore, our mistress requests that you meet her in the small parlor on the second floor. Please, this way."
As Nicholas stepped out of his car, his gaze fell upon a black Rolls-Royce parked nearby. He recognized the license plate—it was Oliver's car.
So Sarah was here.
Nicholas felt a flicker of complicated emotions, but he quickly composed himself and followed the servant up the steps.
Everything he passed was exquisitely appointed, clearly arranged with great care. The second floor was even more impressive, with thick English carpets spread throughout to cushion any falls from the baby. When Nicholas entered the small parlor, he was greeted by a delicate fragrance—Calliope's powder.
Nicholas fixed his gaze on Calliope, who held a small infant in her arms. The baby was delicate, with large eyes and a pointed little chin—quite beautiful. She bore some resemblance to him, but looked even more like her birth mother, Azalea.
Nicholas walked straight over, stopping just a step away. After a moment's hesitation, he gently touched the baby's soft face. When he felt that warm skin, his eyes welled with tears.
He thought of Azalea's cold little urn.
She was gone, but she had left behind this very real child—their flesh and blood.
Tears rolled down Nicholas's cheeks.
Elspeth gazed up with wide eyes, waving her little arms at the figure before her. At just a few months old, she had no idea this was her biological father, nor did she understand any of the dark history between them. She simply looked on with curiosity.
Nicholas asked softly, "May I hold her?"
Calliope placed the child in his arms.
Nicholas cradled the baby, burying his face against her neck and breathing in her faint scent of milk. He seemed to catch the last lingering trace of Azalea—the final echo of her presence in this world.
"Is she well-behaved? Does she eat enough?" Nicholas's voice was low and thick with emotion.
Calliope sighed softly beside him. "She's a good baby, but she cries at night—I think she misses her mother. No matter how well I care for her, I can never replace her birth mother."
At these words, Nicholas's expression darkened.
He had caused Azalea's death and had no right to live, yet death required a courage he lacked. Besides, he needed to atone.
Fearing he might try to take the child, Calliope quickly reassured him of her commitment: "Since I've taken her in, I'll care for her with all my heart. She won't suffer a moment's hardship and will grow up surrounded by love and comfort."
Nicholas understood her concerns perfectly.
With his face still pressed against Elspeth, he said quietly, "I entrust her to your care."
Something in his tone troubled Calliope—it sounded almost like a final farewell, as if he were making arrangements for after his death.
Nicholas recognized Calliope as Octavius's former wife. If Sarah had entrusted Elspeth to her, she must be trustworthy. He had no concerns about that. Besides, with his heart now dead to the world, how could he properly care for an infant? And how would he ever explain her mother's death when she grew older?
In that moment, Nicholas made his decision.
But he showed no outward sign of it.
He simply held the child tenderly, gently stroking her face and searching for traces of Azalea in her innocent features.
After five or six minutes, Nicholas returned the baby to Calliope.
He pulled out a jeweled pendant and carefully hung it around Elspeth's tiny neck, his voice catching slightly as he spoke, "This belonged to her mother."
Then he handed Calliope the keys to the small mansion in Oceancrest City.
Calliope accepted them silently.
She was about to speak when Nicholas had already turned and walked out of the parlor, his deep gray coat hanging loose on his increasingly thin frame.
As he descended the stairs, light and shadow from the midway window played across his figure, briefly revealing the ghost of the young man he had once been.
Nicholas got into his car and looked up to see Sarah on the second-floor balcony. She watched him quietly, her eyes neither joyful nor sorrowful.
Their gazes met and held until his eyes ached, then he offered the faintest of smiles and gently pressed the accelerator.
He did not return to the Moore Mansion.
Instead, he drove to the foot of the mountain, where he sat in his car and called his secretary. He instructed her to handle several matters on his behalf, directing her to divide his personal assets into three equal parts for Verity, Isaac, and Elspeth.
His secretary didn't dare ask who Elspeth was.
Nicholas simply told her to deliver the inheritance documents to Sarah.
"Mr. Nicholas Moore—" his secretary began, alarmed, but Nicholas had already hung up.
Dusk was falling over the mountains. Nicholas removed his expensive watch and designer coat, abandoned his car, and began walking up the mountain in nothing but a light gray sweater and shirt.
At the summit stood a monastery where he would spend the rest of his life in penance.
It took him three hours to reach the top, where he knelt in confession before the altar.
At dawn, the monastery bells rang out, their sound echoing long and clear through the valley.
At the monastery entrance, Isabella clutched a pillar and cried out in shock, "Nicholas!"
Nicholas looked up, his face perfectly serene. "I am at peace," he told her.
Isabella's lips trembled uncontrollably.
She started forward, but under Nicholas's calm gaze, she finally sank to her knees in defeat.
Through her tears, she smiled.
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