"Mommy..."
I frowned slightly, crouching down to pull Daisy Abbott into my arms.
"What are you doing here?"
Before Daisy could answer, Nathan shoved her to the ground.
I whipped around. His face had gone white with rage.
"Sarah! It's only been ten years, and you've already married someone else and had a kid?"
"Whose bastard is this?!"
The veins in his neck stood out like cords.
I almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
That year, the doctors told him I didn't have much time left. In the middle of the night, he'd wept so hard he couldn't breathe. The next morning, he was lying beside my hospital bed, completely still. His face was ashen, foam trickling from the corner of his mouth.
I'd been so terrified I leapt out of bed and slammed the call button.
He slumped gently against me. He'd already stopped breathing.
By the time the doctors rushed in, there were no vital signs left.
His friends took his body away. I never saw him again.
In that hospital, I lived in darkness every single day. I even prayed for him, hoping he'd found peace in whatever came next.
Not long after, I found out I was pregnant.
In that moment, it was like a light switched on in front of my eyes. For the first time, I had something to live for. I believed she was heaven's way of comforting me.
So I made up my mind to have her.
My Daisy.
Now my daughter rushed in front of me, shielding me with her small body, her voice high and fierce.
"Nobody calls me a bastard. My mommy gave birth to me."
"And my daddy was a wonderful person."
After she was born, once she was old enough to understand, I told her everything. She was the one who ended up comforting me.
"Mommy, Daddy was a good man. Wherever he is now, he's at peace. You don't have to worry so much."
Even now, she was still protecting me.
When I saw Nathan's expression twist into something ugly, I pulled Daisy behind me on instinct.
I leveled my gaze at him. "This is my child. She has nothing to do with you."
His eyes drifted down to Daisy. The ugliness on his face softened into something almost tender. He braced his hands on his knees and leaned down to her.
"How old are you?"
"Nine..."
"Nine?" Nathan straightened abruptly, shock rippling across his features, threaded with a flash of anger.
Then he let out a cold, bitter laugh and pointed at Daisy.
"If I remember correctly, I was already dead by then. And you still had the nerve to move on to the next man?"
"Sarah, I never realized you were that desperate. That you couldn't keep yourself in check for even a second."
"Nine years old. The moment I died, you crawled into someone else's bed? Doesn't that disgust you?"
My fists clenched so hard my nails bit into my palms, breaking skin.
I raised my hand and slapped him across the face.
The tears came the same instant, streaming down my cheeks like a broken string of pearls.
"Nathan!" I screamed through the sob tearing up my throat. "So this is what you think of me."
"Since you're alive and well, let's find a time to finalize the divorce."
I had imagined this moment so many times. The moment I saw Nathan again, he would pull me into his arms and hold me tight.
Instead, he had a new life. A new woman.
The man I remembered would never have spoken to me like that. Never would have questioned me.
But everything had changed.
Maybe the only way either of us would ever find peace was to let go.
And yet, in that moment, his eyes were red.
Just as he opened his mouth to speak again, Ethel came running out from behind him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.
"Nathan, are you leaving? I'll miss you so much."
