The day before my husband’s birthday, our daughter got into an accident while trying to buy him a gift. As her life hung by a thread, my husband—a brilliant and renowned surgeon—was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until after our daughter was pronounced dead that he finally answered my call. “Perry has a fever,” he said, his voice tight with annoyance. “Lila’s useless with this stuff, so I have to be here.” Overwhelmed with grief, I told him our daughter was gone. He was dismissive. “I know you’re just jealous and using our daughter to get attention, but Perry is sick. You need to stop this nonsense.” I took our daughter to the funeral home alone. Later, my husband called, accusing me, insisting that his first love’s son only got sick because my dog had scratched him. He demanded I come home and apologize, then stay to nurse the mother and son back to health. He thought my love for him would make me bend, as it always had. But this time, I just turned and walked away in silence. I’ve already prepared your birthday gift, Ethan. Happy Birthday. The divorce papers would be delivered to him on the day he was born. If he didn’t want my love, then I would give him exactly what he deserved. 1 “Dr. Monroe is out on a call,” the attending physician said with a heavy sigh. “If he’d been here… maybe the little girl would have had a chance.” My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the cold, linoleum floor. “He’s rarely off-site,” the doctor continued gently. “It must have been a real emergency. I’m so sorry for your loss.” A gurney with a small, white-sheet-covered form was wheeled out of the room. I stared at my phone, at the hundred missed calls to Ethan, and a chill seeped into my bones, deeper than any I had ever known. The great Dr. Monroe did, in fact, have an emergency he couldn’t leave. I saw it on Instagram. He had cut himself off from the world to focus entirely on his first love’s son. In the photo, his eyes were red-rimmed with worry as he carefully wiped a sick little boy’s hands with a damp cloth. My tears blurred the screen as I shakily typed a single comment: 【Hope you’re happy.】 Moments after I posted it, the number I hadn’t been able to reach all day suddenly called me back. “Vent to me all you want, Renata, but why would you comment on Lila’s post? What are people supposed to think? What is she supposed to think?” My voice was a hollow echo of itself. “Our daughter was in a car accident, and you were with someone else. Ethan, what am I supposed to think? What was Mia supposed to think?” His patience snapped. “She just happens to get into an accident the one night Perry has a raging fever? Do you really expect me to believe that? You can be jealous, Renata, but there’s a limit. This kind of drama just pushes me away.” I didn’t sleep. The next morning, as I was arranging for Mia to be taken to the funeral home, Ethan called again. “There are scratch marks on Perry’s hand. From a dog. Do you know anything about that?” I was stunned for a second, then a bitter laugh escaped my lips. “I’m not responsible for watching other people’s children.” Ethan’s voice exploded with rage. “So you admit it? You’ve been holding a grudge ever since Lila came to stay with us. I thought you were just being petty, but I never imagined you’d take it out on a child.” “Because of your jealousy, Perry suffered all night. This time, I can’t just let it go.” “You have five minutes. Get your ass home and apologize, or you’ll regret it.” He hung up. Classic Ethan. Every time before, when he got angry, I was the one who bowed my head and said I was sorry. But this time, I couldn't give him what he wanted. The arrangements at the funeral home weren’t even finished when Ethan sent me a text. My phone buzzed, and I glanced down. My world tilted, and I dropped to my knees, vomiting onto the pavement. He’d taken our dog. Our beautiful golden retriever, sunny, who we’d had for ten years. The text was cold and final. “I gave you a chance. You chose to be stubborn. That animal’s fate is on you. After ten years, I thought you had some affection for him. I guess getting back at Lila was more important than anything.” A strangled sob escaped my throat. His words were a physical blow. “I’m a fair man. You do something wrong, you face the consequences. This doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Don’t test my limits again.” I switched off my phone, cutting off his voice. My heart didn’t know which direction to break in. It had only been a few hours since Mia died. The funeral director approached me gently. “Ma’am, would you like to arrange for restorative cosmetology for your daughter? We require a five-hundred-dollar deposit to book the specialist.” The image of Mia’s broken body flashed through my mind, and I nodded frantically. But when I tried to use my card, it was declined. It had been frozen. Defeated, I had no choice but to call Ethan. His voice came through the line, cold and distant. “So you’ve thought it over? Ready to apologize? You always have to learn things the hard way, don’t you.” My voice was a raw whisper. “Ethan, can you please just give me five hundred dollars?” He scoffed, his tone dripping with ice. “What, you can’t have my love, so now you’re trying to run off with my money? Are you really that pathetic?” “You want the money? Fine. You have ten minutes to get here and apologize to Lila in person. And you’d better have a good, long list of everything you did wrong. Don’t make me remind you.” “Five hundred isn’t much. If your apology is sincere enough, I might consider it.” He didn’t hang up, leaving the line open. I stumbled, my world spinning. “The deposit…” I croaked to the director. “Can I come back in an hour to pay it?” He agreed. I couldn’t waste a second. I rushed home. Ethan was already waiting, his face a mask of stern disapproval. “That was twelve minutes, Renata. When did you become so unreliable?” Without hesitation, I looked directly at Lila, who was sitting beside him looking pitiful, and began my recitation. “I shouldn’t have called you. I shouldn’t have commented on your post. I shouldn’t have refused to apologize. I was wrong. I’m sorry.” Then I turned to Ethan, swallowing the bile rising in my throat. “I’ve apologized. Can I have the money now?” My gaze met his, and tears immediately welled in my eyes. My daughter, Mia, had inherited his eyes. The exact same shade of deep, thoughtful brown. Right after the accident, Mia had looked at me with those same eyes, filled with confusion and terror. “Mommy, am I going to die? Mommy, I don’t want to leave you.” I did everything I could to soothe her, my voice shaking as I lied. “It’s going to be okay, sweetie. Your daddy is the best doctor in the world. As long as he’s here, nothing bad can happen to you.” She believed me. She nodded, a small sense of peace settling over her frightened features. “Daddy will come save me. I’m not scared of anything.” But by the time she bled out and her heart stopped, her father’s phone had just started ringing on his end. His voice, when he finally answered, was furious. “Perry has a 104-degree fever, and you’re calling me with this crap? If something happens to him, can you live with that responsibility?” I sobbed into the phone, telling him our daughter had been in an accident. He just laughed coldly. “Renata, that little trick was cute when you were younger. A bit of romantic drama. But at your age, it’s just pathetic and disgusting.” He hung up. A moment later, the doctor walked out and told me to prepare for the worst. I cried for a long, long time, holding Mia’s hand as her body grew colder, stiffer. She died without seeing her father one last time. “Renata, for an adult, crying isn’t a way to solve problems.” Ethan’s voice pulled me back to the present. He was sitting next to Lila now, gently patting her back as she dabbed at her red-rimmed eyes. “Feel better now?” he asked her softly. “I’m here. She won’t dare to pull anything like this again.” Lila leaned against him pathetically. “Even if she hadn’t apologized, I wouldn’t have blamed her. I was just so worried about Perry. Ever since we moved in, Renata and Mia have never liked us. I’ve tried so hard to be patient, but I never thought…” She looked up at me, her eyes brimming with manufactured tears. “She can yell at me, hit me, I can take anything. But Perry is just a little boy. He doesn’t understand. Not only does he have to deal with the dirty looks, but he gets called a fatherless child. Renata, if you have a problem with me, just take it out on me. Please, just don’t hurt my son.” With a flourish, she raised her hand and gave her own cheek a dramatic, but feather-light, slap. Instantly, Perry came running out of the bedroom, sobbing. “Don’t bully my mommy!” He charged at me and sank his teeth into my arm. Pain shot through me, and I instinctively tried to shake him off, but he clung on with all his might. The pain was sharp and deep. I couldn't help but push him away. Lila, who had been watching passively, suddenly shrieked. “Don’t hit him! He’s just a sweet boy trying to protect his mother!” Ethan’s face hardened. He rushed forward and, with all his strength, slapped me across the face. The force was so great it sent me stumbling backward, and even knocked Perry off my arm. I fell, my head cracking hard against the edge of a table. “You dare lay a hand on a child, Renata? What is wrong with you?” The room spun. Ethan’s furious face blurred into two, then three. Lila’s wailing filled the air, and a wave of absurd, hysterical laughter threatened to bubble up inside me. Looking back, I’d loved Ethan for longer than he’d even known I existed. We went to the same high school. He was the star—handsome, brilliant, the dream guy of countless underclassmen, including me. I studied like my life depended on it, chasing his shadow until we both got into the same university. But on the first day of orientation, I saw him in the cafeteria, feeding his girlfriend, Lila. A senior told me they were the campus power couple, both top students in the medical program. A perfect match. It was a story everyone loved. Everyone but me. All I wanted to do was cry. Then, Lila cheated on him and left the country, leaving Ethan devastated. He fell apart, even attempted suicide a few times. I was the one who stubbornly stayed by his side, comforting him, pulling him back from the edge. I was secretly glad back then. Glad that she had thrown him away, glad that I finally had a chance to be close to him. When he told me she had taken all his money, I didn’t hesitate to give him my entire life savings. He cried then, holding me, promising he would be devoted to me for the rest of his life. He called me his angel. And I believed him. I told him, “When you become the best doctor in the world, I won’t have to be afraid of anything. You’ll protect me, and I’ll live to be a hundred.” He held me tighter, and his tears were hot on my shoulder. But on the day my daughter died, I saw Lila’s new Instagram post. In the picture, Ethan was watching over her son, the raw anxiety in his eyes impossible to hide. Lila’s caption cut me to the core: 【My angel is here.】 I stared at that post for a long, long time, until my vision blurred and I couldn’t see anything at all. My thoughts snapped back to the present. Seeing Ethan and Lila standing together, a united front against me, I felt a dizzying sense of déja vu. It was as if I had never broken into his world at all. Ethan scooped Perry into his arms and carried him toward our daughter’s bedroom. My senses returned with a jolt, and I lunged after them. “Ethan, you can’t let him stay in Mia’s room!” He didn’t even look at me. I followed them in, and a single glance was enough to shatter my heart into a million pieces. Mia’s easel was covered in chaotic scribbles. The locked diary on her desk had been pried open and torn. Even her most precious doll, a fluffy white rabbit, had been dismembered, its parts scattered across the floor. Her sweet, cozy little sanctuary was gone. Those were the things she treasured most in her short life. A spasm of pain made my vision go black. I confronted him, my voice breaking, but Ethan just snapped at me impatiently. “The guest room is tiny. Perry’s sick. I wanted him to be comfortable. What’s the big deal?” “They’ve been putting up with that cramped room ever since they got here. Lila has been patient enough. What more do you want?” I had no strength to argue, no will to answer his endless accusations. I just knelt and carefully began to gather the ruined pieces of my daughter’s life. The pain was so intense it became a strange, hollow calm. Lila, still sobbing, hugged Perry and instinctively grabbed the stuffed animal from the bed, shoving it into his hands. “If you’re upset, just hold this.” Perry immediately started trying to rip the doll’s head off. I threw myself forward and snatched it back. Lila stared, then her brow furrowed, and her voice rose in a tearful whine. “It’s just a toy! I’ll buy you a new one! Perry is hurting, he needs an outlet! I’m begging you, can you please stop targeting a child?” Ethan’s gaze fell on the doll. Without a word, he strode over and ripped it from my hands. I remembered that little white rabbit. It was a Children’s Day gift from Ethan to Mia. It wasn't cheap—a simple stuffed animal that cost over a hundred dollars. I’d even teased Ethan at the time for spoiling her. I told Mia it was expensive and that she had to take special care of it. In all the time she’d had it, Mia only ever held it when she slept. She never even took it out to play with, for fear of getting it dirty. Now, in Perry’s hands, it had been destroyed in seconds. I stood there for a long time, just watching. A strange smile touched my lips. It seemed I couldn’t protect anything I loved. While they were busy comforting the screaming Perry, I picked up Ethan’s phone and transferred a thousand dollars to my account. I took a taxi back to the funeral home and paid the deposit. The waiting room was cold, my heart slowly freezing over with it. I don’t know how much time passed before Ethan’s call came through. “So now you’re a thief, too? Well done, Renata. A great role model for your daughter.” “I ask you to come home and apologize, and what do you do? You cause a scene. I gave you a chance. You’re the one who didn’t take it. So don’t blame me for what happens next.” My hand was shaking so badly I could barely hold the phone. “What are you going to do?” A cold laugh. “Scared now? Where was this fear when you and Mia were bullying Lila and her son? If Lila hadn’t told me, I would have never known that Mia—at her age—would attack someone’s deepest wound. Calling Perry a boy with no father! Is that how you raise a child?” “She did something wrong. As her father, it’s my right and my responsibility to discipline her. And I suggest you don’t even think about protecting her, or I can stop your mother’s treatment at any time.” “No!” The word was torn from me before I could think. A knowing, cruel chuckle on the other end. “So you are scared. Then be a good girl and admit your mistake. Stealing money and running away only makes you look more guilty. Renata, my patience has a limit. Don’t think being my wife gives you a free pass to do whatever you want. I won’t let my feelings for you cloud my judgment.” “Bring Mia and get home, now. Don’t make me wait.” My gaze drifted to the mortuary doors. I swallowed hard, my throat tight. “But Ethan… Mia is already dead.” How is a dead person supposed to apologize? I didn’t understand. “Did I not tell you to stop this? Once, twice, but not a third time, Renata. I’m really out of patience.” I was numb, unable to summon any emotion at all. “If you don’t believe me, you can come to the city morgue yourself. Mia… she’s lying in there.”
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