Chapter 2618: Hollywood Rhapsody (41)

Thors stretched out his hand to touch Stark's forehead, but quickly retracted his hand, as Stark was now burning up. Thors immediately picked up the phone to contact the family doctor.

Half an hour later, Howard hurried back home. Thors was waiting for him at the door. Howard now had a ruddy complexion, clearly enjoying his days. He took off his fishing hat, looked at Thors, and asked, "What happened, why did Tony suddenly come back? Why did Dr. Potts come?"

As the two walked inside, Thors explained to Howard, but he didn't really have much to explain—just mentioned how Tony had suddenly rushed into the manor, and then recounted the nonsense Tony had spouted while lying in bed.

Hearing that Tony had been ranting in bed about not giving the technology to Congress, Howard stiffened suddenly, a reminiscent look crossing his face, and then his fists slowly clenched.

In fact, since Howard's return, those scenes of joyful reunion, of paternal love and filial piety, had never been acted out. He and Tony were more like two familiar strangers: they had never directly discussed their relationship, not even a mention of it.

It seemed as if they had tacitly agreed to let things be, convincing themselves that the past was the past and that one should look forward to numb themselves, thus letting their relationship maintain a barely acceptable baseline.

But it shouldn't have been like this. Anyone would know they were father and son, with too many regrets to make up for, too many explanations to give. Their current relationship was in fact a numb escape.

Standing at the doorway to Stark's room, Howard felt as though he had mustered all the courage of his lifetime, and he stepped inside nonetheless.

Yet the state of Stark in bed took him aback; he had never seen Tony Stark so disheveled.

His face was pale, his arms quivering uncontrollably, his lips constantly moving as if muttering something. More importantly, the sparkle that was always in his eyes had disappeared, leaving them dull and lifeless.

"Dr. Potts, what on earth happened?"

"His psyche must have received serious shock in the past dozen hours." The female family doctor standing by said, "This is a very typical manifestation of traumatic stress disorder. Perhaps what he needs now is a psychologist."

"And the psychologist?"

"He said he has seen a psychologist already, and he doesn't allow any of us to call." Thors said, shaking his head at the door.

Howard sat down by the bed. Seeing Howard, Stark's spirit instantly picked up; he even propped himself up to sit, his eyes fiercely fixed on Howard's.

The father and son hadn't looked at each other this way in a very long time—the last time might have been when Stark was eight years old.

"Are you alright?" Howard struggled with his words and finally managed to say just that. Feeling it was inadequate, he added, "I heard you were sick? I rushed back immediately."

"You rushed back because you couldn't catch any fish." Stark ruthlessly exposed him, "You've never been able to catch fish."

An embarrassed expression crossed Howard's face, but he still said softly, "I did catch some today, the fish were biting well today... I mean, what on earth is wrong with you? The doctor said you were shocked."

"More than that, I'm more concerned about what exactly happened back then." The mental shock and the current fever had Stark somewhat unable to distinguish who he was; he was acting purely on instinct, and it was instinct that drove him to ask the question.

"You never gave me any explanation." Stark said bluntly, shockingly so, "Of course, I never asked you either. But considering that you're the older one, the responsibility is still on you."

Stark's words were a bit disjointed, but Howard understood his meaning. He rubbed his hands together, then looked down and said, "It's not that I didn't want to tell you, but that matter was indeed... I'm really sorry..."

Stark hummed twice, his every move exuding a childish air, very much like a child. Howard scratched his head vigorously, then said, "Ah, you have to understand, I did it back then to save my life. More importantly, I had to save your life and your mother's..."

Stark instinctively felt something was wrong; it seemed different from what he remembered. He stared blankly at Howard and said, "Save my life and my mother's life? I want to ask you, if you wanted to seek death on your own back then, why did you involve Maria? She didn't understand technology; even if she survived, nobody would..."

"Wait a minute, what are you talking about?" Howard said, looking surprised. "What does it mean that Maria would have survived? Hasn't she always been alive?"

Then Howard showed a look of sudden realization. "I know I owe you both for that staged death accident—it was to trick Hydra and Congress. I did intend to take Maria with me, but I knew I couldn't just leave you here alone, so I went by myself."

"Fortunately, Obadiah took care of you, and he has managed the Stark Group very well over the years. However, it's a pity about Anton... never mind, he died on the path of pursuing his faith, with no regrets."

"During those years away, I missed you both dearly and secretly sent Thors to check on you a few times, even taking photos for you. I was planning to come back as soon as it was all over, but I couldn't just leave little Xier alone; I had to wait till he was old enough..."

Stark instinctively felt that something was wrong, but his brain was so chaotic now that attempting to sift through his memories gave him a splitting headache.

No, that's not right, something's off! Stark was on the verge of going mad. What was this death hoax? How could Maria have stayed? Where did Howard go? And what was the deal with Xier?

In this moment, Stark's willpower erupted astonishingly as he fought through the interference of the illusions, scouring his fragmented memories for clues.

Then he discovered that he had many memories that shouldn't exist.

One day, he still heard the tragic news of a car accident involving his close relatives, but the news did not report the deaths of the Starks. Instead, it was Howard Stark, and the person weeping beside him wasn't Obadiah but Maria Stark, his biological mother.

The funeral was not led by Obadiah but by Maria. Afterward, Maria handed the management of Stark Group to Obadiah and stayed by Tony Stark's side.

Once Tony Stark got back on his feet, he returned to Stark Group. From then on, Obadiah was responsible for the business operations, while Tony Stark took charge of technological research. The two worked well together.

Later on, Shiller managed to communicate with Death, and Stark inquired both overtly and covertly whether it was possible to resurrect Howard. Shiller, however, said nothing.

It was when Stark himself went to see Death that he found out that Death had not received Howard at all—which meant Howard hadn't died.

Howard returned, but he refused to speak about the accident. That was why their relationship became increasingly strained until they were virtually strangers to each other.

Stark had thought that Maria would stand with him, condemning Howard's irresponsible actions, but to his surprise, Maria had reconciled with Howard as if nothing had happened.

Xier also kept silent about what had happened that year. Stark felt that everyone was keeping secrets from him. That's why, when Pepper was pregnant and he felt anxious, he had no one to confide in.

It shouldn't be like this. Stark shook his head vigorously. Then it struck him—the memory wasn't real, it had just appeared because the stories he had seen in other universes after becoming the Iron Demon God were not like this.

He had another way to confirm. Stark picked up his phone and sent a message to Peter, asking him to inquire with other Spider Men, and then have those Spider Men ask the Iron Men of their universes.

The answer he got was as he expected: it was the Starks who had died that year, not just Howard by himself. There was no fake death incident, and all these years he had been on his own.

What was the deal with this sudden influx of new memories?

Stark's hand, gripping the phone, suddenly paused— the timeline! Someone had altered the timeline!

He turned his head to Howard and demanded, "What exactly is going on? Tell me everything you know!"

Howard knew he had to speak. He sighed and lowered his head, saying, "Back then, Hydra and Congress were putting too much pressure on me. Even without the Ark Reactor blueprint, they believed my genius brain could produce more weapons for them…"

"Not that!" Stark interrupted. "I've already heard that story. I'm talking about the staged death. Why would you…"

"I'm not one to sit and wait for death," Howard's expression turned fierce, and his voice grew ice-cold, "I gave them some leeway, since I needed to make money here anyway. They thought to use you to threaten me; they can't blame me for not being polite in return."

"I don't know if you remember the kidnapping case, but you were terrified, in a state almost identical to now, babbling about some red fish. Maria and I guessed you might have been traumatized by the other Hydra agents who burst in and began a carnage among their comrades."

"Though I wasn't at the scene, the descriptions from the police who did go in made it clear—it was a scene of carnage. Those Hydra agents didn't look like members of a terrorist organization but more like a horrifying serial killer, who did something to the bodies…"

"Alright, enough, I won't talk about it. But you should know how furious I was then. If they had issues, they could have come at me, but if they intended harm towards Maria and you, I had to teach them a lesson."

Stark looked dazedly at Howard, who had anger seething across his features. As far as he remembered, Howard had never shown such ruthless expressions; after all, he was a businessman, always wearing a mask of smiling compliance without fail.

Moreover, Stark was Howard's biological son; he knew his father's character—though Howard also dealt in morally dubious arms trading, he was far from a mastermind and could even be considered somewhat cowardly, unable to maintain his bottom line, without any means of turning situations around drastically. Otherwise, the Howards of so many universes wouldn't all end up being outsmarted and meeting their deaths.

But the Howard Stark before him now had the aura of a tough and ruthless person. Where did the problem lie?

Stark was suddenly alarmed, and he looked at Howard and asked, "What about Xier... I mean, what's going on with Shiller?"