He helped the frail Anais away.
I watched the uneven figures retreat, my nose burning, my vision blurring into mist.
He said Anais had already paid the price.
But the one who paid the most was me.
What I lost was my child.
Jasper’s body was sent for cremation.
And only after settling Anais and making sure she was safely resting did Xander finally remember that I was still sitting alone in the police station, helpless and abandoned.
On the way home, neither of us mentioned the fact that I had stood up.
It became the last unspoken agreement between us.
Xander looked exhausted, his voice hoarse, sounding like a plea and a warning at the same time.
“Isadora, if Anais’s parents had not sponsored me back then, I would never have made it through the police academy. I might have been forced by my family into a different life altogether.”
“They gave me a new future. Now they sacrificed themselves and became martyrs. I cannot let their only child come to harm.”
His voice caught in his throat, as if he were begging forgiveness for himself.
I turned my head to look out the window and calmly finished the words he could not bring himself to say.
“So you deliberately leaked my undercover identity and staged a so called revenge car crash.”
“So you could send Jasper to the hospital and make him Anais’s backup heart.”
The car fell into dead silence.
A very long time passed before his voice finally drifted out, broken and barely audible.
“I truly had no choice. I begged every doctor and specialist. Her life could not hold on until a suitable donor appeared.”
“Isadora, we can still have children in the future. I am willing to spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
His apology was like a blade, carving into my heart again and again.
I thought of the photograph my parents entrusted to me as they lay dying.
The boy in the photo looked clear eyed and stubborn, his gaze clean and resolute.
It was him.
My parents praised him endlessly, saying he was responsible and principled, and asked me to continue supporting him.
From the first moment I saw him, I fell deeply in love with him.
Afraid of hurting his pride, I never told him I was his sponsor.
I believed in love, and I believed in him.
But I never imagined this.
Someone had stolen my kindness and claimed my grace.
And he, without hesitation, repaid the wrong person.
In the end, the one who died was our child.
To keep me from disturbing Anais while she recovered, Xander locked me in the house for seven full days.
He came back every day, cooked as usual, told me little stories about his day, pretending this family had not been shattered.
And I did not say a single word for seven days.
Until the seventh day after Jasper’s death, when I saw Anais again.
Her complexion was rosy, her health astonishingly good.
She stepped over my son’s remains and lived more vibrantly than ever.
Anais did not bother to hide her contempt, the corner of her mouth lifting into a cruel curve.
“Isadora, I never thought that the pride of the police academy back then would end up like this.”
Her gaze fell on my slightly trembling legs, her mockery deepening.
“My fault. I forgot you are disabled now. Of course you cannot do anything.”
She lowered her head, as if savoring a pleasant memory.
“Do you know? When I cut him open, I did not use any anesthesia on your son. Before the pain knocked him unconscious, he kept calling your name.”
She spread her hands, as if showing off a trophy.
“No choice. The more pain he felt, the more active his heart stayed.”
I felt my reason.
Cracking apart, inch by inch.
