The night Lila’s intern-turned-kept-boy accused me of flunking him on purpose, she sent our son to an illegal clinic. “Give Rhys his spot on the Westbrook Research Fellowship back, or they will cut Finn open. Alive.” I knelt, slamming my forehead against the floor, begging her to tell me where they had taken him. She finally conceded. But when I raced to the location, all I found was Finn’s small, disemboweled body. His small, freezing hand clutched mine. “Dad,” he whispered, his voice a thread, “it hurts so bad.” I dissolved, a wreck of sobs, my trembling fingers fumbling with my phone to call Lila, to plead for help. Her voice was devoid of warmth, a sheet of ice. “Dying? Perfect. I’m pregnant with Rhys’s baby. We can use Finn’s things directly.” I felt the life draining out of my son, his body cooling in my arms, but I couldn’t give up. “Please… we can still get him to the hospital, he might survive!” “Stop the performance! Owen, Rhys picked Finn up hours ago! Surviving? Honestly, don’t you ever tire of this pathetic theater?” 1 I held Finn close, his body going colder, heavier in my arms. Lila's voice, poisoned ice, cut through the phone line again. “Owen Ellis, have you lost your mind? Finn was picked up ages ago. Why are you making up these sickening lies?” I looked down at the child in my arms. His chest had been crudely cut open. Blood had soaked my dress shirt, sticking the fabric to my skin. I opened my mouth, the sound that scraped out of my throat barely human. “Lila Ellis! He is your own flesh and blood! How could you abandon him to die!” “Abandon him?” She gave a cold, short laugh. “How dare you accuse me? If it hadn’t been for this child, I would never have married a poor academic like you!” “Haven’t I sacrificed enough for him over the years? Don’t you dare put on this ‘devoted father’ act now!” "Stop using these disgusting tactics to gain sympathy. Rhys was right; you only know how to weaponize the child against me." Then, Rhys’s voice, soft and coaxing, drifted over the line. “Lila, please calm down. It’s my fault. If I hadn’t pushed so hard for the grade, Professor Ellis wouldn't have…” He paused, his tone shifting into a perfect, wounded whisper. “…But even in an argument, Professor Ellis, you shouldn't joke about Finn’s life.” I was shaking violently, my grip threatening to shatter the phone. “Rhys! It was you—” BEEP— The line went dead. I stood there, Finn in my arms, as the clinic’s enforcers slowly encircled me, their eyes indifferent. I fell to my knees, my forehead striking the filthy ground again and again. “Please… let me take him home…” Blood ran from my brow, mixing with my tears as it hit the dirt. One of the men frowned, muttered a curse about bad luck, and waved a dismissive hand. “Get lost.” I scrambled up, stumbling, clutching Finn, and ran. The night air was a biting knife. The street was empty, no cars slowing down, no one willing to stop. I ran desperately, Finn’s blood marking the pavement, a sickening, winding red line behind me. The hospital lights were stark and blinding. The doctor peeled back the coat I’d wrapped around Finn and sucked in a sharp breath. “What… who did this?” I tried to smile, but it looked worse than a scream. I didn't know how to tell him that this had been the boy’s own mother. But Lila hadn’t always been this way. Finn’s first heart surgery. She hadn’t slept for three days, standing vigil outside the ICU. The day he first called her ‘Mom,’ she’d scooped him up, spinning him around, laughing like a child herself. Then Rhys. The trips, the high-profile dinners, the subtle change in her scent—and then, the insolence of bringing him home. I could only watch in silence as my wife slowly, irreversibly, became a stranger. The doctor examined him for a long, silent moment. He lowered his voice. “…The child is gone. You need to call the coroner.” I gripped Finn’s small hand, his fingers already turning blue. “Try again… please, I’m begging you…” The doctor shook his head, sighing. “The damage is too severe. Even half an hour earlier…” I knelt at the double doors of the Emergency Room, my forehead pressed against the cold tile. "Please, try something else. He's only six." The doctor removed his mask, his face etched with exhaustion. "Mr. Ellis, his liver and right kidney have been removed. Unless we can get him onto an ECMO machine right now to stabilize him, and find matching organs within the week…" "Then put him on ECMO!" I lunged towards the ICU, only to be stopped by two men in dark suits. One of them spoke, his face impassive. "Ms. Ellis’s orders. All ECMO equipment is prioritized for Mr. Rhys." The blood in my veins turned to ice. The VIP room door opened. Rhys strolled out, looking impossibly rested, adjusting the silk belt of his robe, his face flushed like he’d just had a high-end spa treatment. He leaned against the doorframe, a slight smirk playing on his lips. “Professor Ellis, looking rough.” “The machine…” The taste of blood filled my throat. “Give Finn the ECMO. I’ll vanish. Forever.” “Professor Ellis,” Rhys purred, casually turning my faculty ID card between his fingers. “Every time I see your face, I get anxiety.” He let the metal chain tighten around my neck, then leaned in close. “How about you resign?” I stared at the gleaming plaque on the hallway wall: The Distinguished Ellis Research Prize. I remembered the three thousand nights I’d spent in the lab, the new target I’d identified under the microscope, the first time Finn had proudly declared, “My dad is a scientist.” My nails dug into the flesh of my palm. The metallic taste of blood rose in my mouth. “Done.” The word crushed twenty years of my academic career, but I saw the serpentine glint of triumph in his eye. The ding of the resignation confirmation was the soundtrack to the kick that landed squarely in my ribs. I crashed to the floor. Rhys’s knee pressed into my throat, his phone screen shoved against my face. “Look. Your students are all wondering why you suddenly quit.” BANG! Rhys kicked me hard in the chest. I slammed against the wall. He grabbed my hair, yanking my head up, the camera lens practically touching my eye. “Come on, smile! Let the academic world see what a top-tier journal author looks like now!” “Doctor…” I managed to gasp, gripping his sleeve. The expensive fabric was stained with Finn’s blood. He suddenly burst into laughter. “Professor, you’re the smart one, right?” His finger tapped my cheek mockingly. “Lila is pregnant with my baby, so your son, of course, had to be—” He leaned down, whispering a revolting breath into my ear. “—dismantled and sold for parts.” A surge of blind rage gave me the strength to flip him onto the floor, and I slammed my fist into his face. The security guards' fists rained down on my back, but I held onto Rhys’s throat until the familiar scent of Lila's perfume and a sharp slap hit me. “Owen Ellis!” Her diamond ring scraped a raw line across my cheek. Rhys instantly crumpled into her embrace, sobbing. “He suddenly went crazy…” Through the ringing in my ears, I watched her rose-colored lips move. “Touch Rhys again, and I pull every single investment from your research projects.” Her hair brushed my wound as she turned. “Finn was at the International Academy this morning. Who are you putting on this disgusting show for?” She left, taking the guards and Rhys with her, leaving me dumped like refuse in the hallway. I crawled, staggering to the Emergency Room doors. My fingers brushed the handle just as I heard the nurse's sigh. "Pediatric Cardiac, Room 307... Call it. Time of death." The world turned black, and I passed out. The phone ringing was a dull knife sinking into my temple. The screen lit up in the oppressive darkness. My father’s voice was a blunt blade against my eardrum. "What did you do to upset Lila? The Ellis-Qin project just pulled funding from us!" I stared at the glowing stars Finn had pasted on the ceiling. "Finn is dead." My voice sounded like it came from a great distance. A sudden, terrible silence fell on the line, broken only by static. "Poor boy… never had a chance," my father sighed, but then his tone immediately hardened. "You need to get Lila pregnant again. Now. And you upset her young man, didn’t you? Go apologize! A man has to be flexible…" My hand, clutching Finn’s death certificate, began to shake. The paper made a frail, tearing sound. I couldn't listen anymore. I threw the phone. The plastic shell exploded against the wall, the brittle sound startling a flock of pigeons outside the window. When the crematorium attendant wheeled the steel cot in, I desperately clung to Finn’s small, blue hand. This child who once held my finger and said, “Don’t be scared, Dad,” now felt like an empty shell. “Sir, we can’t delay.” The man spoke softly. Looking at my son’s tiny body, I finally made a decision. Trembling, I dialed the number I hadn’t called in three years. “I can give you Ellis-Qin’s core experimental data for the next quarter. You have to do something for me.” After arranging Finn's body for its final journey, I dragged my exhausted self home. The moment I opened the front door, I heard the sickening sounds drifting down from the second-floor master suite. I stood in the entryway, staring at the family portrait Finn had drawn last year on the shoe cabinet. The three of us stood holding hands, and he’d used a gold crayon to make Lila’s dress shine brightly. I pushed all the living room furniture aside and draped the space with the whitest linen I could find. Finn’s favorite picture, the one of him in his dinosaur pajamas, was placed in the center, surrounded by his beloved strawberry cake and Lego sets. “Owen Ellis!” Lila rushed down the stairs in her silk robe, her face still flushed. “Are you insane? Setting up a wake in the living room?! Are you trying to curse me into a miscarriage?” She backed away, clutching her abdomen. Rhys sauntered down, covering his mouth in exaggerated horror when he saw the shrine. “Oh my God, this is just so morbid…” Lila’s furious shout was a sharp knife in my ear. “Owen, who is this pathetic performance for?” Her nails, painted a virulent red, were inches from my face. “Don’t think for a second that these disgusting tactics will—” A hot, metallic taste surged into my throat. I coughed violently, splattering dark red blood onto her silk robe. Rhys shrieked instantly. “Lila, look! He must have used a blood packet!” Lila froze for a second, then seized Finn’s photograph and hurled it at the marble floor. The sound of shattering glass filled the air. I lunged to save it, but she shoved me, sending me tumbling onto the shards. Sharp glass pierced my palm. I trembled as I wiped the blood from Finn’s smiling face. His image blurred in the crimson smear, just like the final moment he called for me, lying in the gore. Seeing the raw violence of my reaction, Lila involuntarily took two steps back. “Disgusting!” She kicked aside a white chrysanthemum, her face turning green, and spun away. I sat there all night, holding my son’s broken portrait in the cold, silent living room. Before dawn, the funeral home called. “Mr. Ellis, your son’s body… it’s gone.” “Gone? What do you mean, gone!” I shot up from the sofa. "He was there when you signed the papers last night… The security footage! Check the footage!" My phone vibrated. A message from Rhys: Want to see your son one last time? It was followed by a remote geo-tag. I bolted, not even grabbing a jacket. I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles were white. The scenery outside the window grew increasingly desolate until my tires crunched onto gravel and stopped in a barren, sandy clearing. Lila stood there in a couture trench coat, her heels sinking into the sand. She was holding a canister of gasoline and pouring it onto a black body bag lying on the ground. The fluid soaked sickeningly into the fabric. Rhys stood beside her, clapping and smiling. “Lila, stomp it a few times. Make sure it burns clean.” “STOP—!” My voice tore through the morning quiet. Lila spun around, the gas canister clattering to the sand. She frowned. “How did you find this place?” Rhys stepped in front of me, sighing dramatically. “Professor Ellis, it’s just the stand-in corpse you arranged. No need to get hysterical.” “Lila Ellis! That is your flesh and blood! You will be damned for this!” A flicker of uncertainty crossed Lila’s face, but it was quickly replaced by cold indifference. “What fresh delusion is this?” Rhys suddenly stepped aside. I stumbled forward, throwing myself onto the burning corpse, beating the flames with my bare hands. The stench of burning skin and oil was a physical blow to my lungs. My palms screamed in agony, but I didn't care. “Don’t bother.” Rhys crouched down, his voice low and close to my ear. “Guess who gave us the body?” He gestured to the shadows. “Your good father. He delivered it to me at the funeral home himself.” I turned stiffly. My father emerged from behind the scrub brush, a look of ingratiating eagerness on his face. “Owen, why are you being so difficult? Mr. Rhys accepting this ‘gift’ is a huge favor to the Ellis family!” The world went silent. The crackle of the fire, Lila’s sharp voice, Rhys’s snicker—it all vanished. I only heard the rushing, roaring sound of blood in my ears. My father, seeing my silence, rushed forward and slapped me hard across the cheek. “Are you dumb? Say thank you to Mr. Rhys!” My cheek stung, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the desolation in my chest. Lila looked at my rapidly swelling face, frowned, and stopped him. “That’s enough. The project will include your family.” My father’s face broke into a delighted, fawning smile. He bobbed his head, looking like a desperate dog begging for a treat. I looked down at the charred, unrecognizable small body in my arms, and I started to laugh. The laughter grew, becoming a raw, strangled scream. Lila stepped back, startled. “You—” I cut her off, scooping up Finn’s remains, and ran for the cliff edge. “Owen Ellis!” She pursued me, grabbing a corner of the body bag at the precipice. As the cloth tore, Finn’s small arm, with the birthmark on his wrist, slipped out and landed directly in her hand. Lila’s eyes widened in a silent scream. Her lips trembled, but no sound came out. I leaned back, letting gravity take me. Just before the abyss swallowed me, I saw it—a tear. A single, desperate tear falling from Lila’s eye.
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