Because there were no family members left at home, there was no funeral that needed to be arranged.
I stayed by my father’s hospital bed for a while, told him about Mom, and told him about myself.
I spoke intermittently until dawn. Before leaving, I looked at my unconscious father and, with a choked voice, said:
“Dad… I’m tired.”
Early the next morning, my mother’s body was cremated.
I placed the urn into a box and carried it home.
Along with it, I brought back the divorce agreement I had someone draft for me.
The moment I walked in, I ran right into Liam and Vanessa laughing together at the dining table.
“Sign it.”
My voice was cold as I slammed the divorce papers onto the table.
“So you escaped in the middle of the night just to get this divorce agreement?”
“Clara, you’ve really lost your mind!”
I clutched the urn tightly against my chest, my head lowered.
“Liam, let’s let each other go.”
“I don’t love you anymore.”
Before, I would still argue with Liam, and when things got heated, we even resorted to physical fights.
I would point at his nose and ask if the love he swore he had for me back then had been nothing but a joke.
Most of the time, I still held onto a sliver of hope—hoping he would forgive me, hoping we could fix our marriage.
So when he said he liked boldness, I tried to please him during dates.
When he said he liked innocence, I put on the clothes he loved to make him happy.
But after Vanessa moved in, my heart grew quieter and quieter.
Those tricks meant to please him became my shame—and became the outlet for his humiliation.
“What’s this that fell out, sis…?”
“Gregory Nicholson?”
Vanessa picked up the business card I had dropped and read the name on it.
So it was Gregory.
Liam’s lifelong rival, the nemesis he’d had since childhood—the one I’d never met, who lived across the ocean.
The next second, Liam’s face darkened, and he slapped me hard.
“You say you don’t love me anymore because you found someone else outside?!”
“Do you even know what kind of person Gregory is?!”
A roaring sound filled my ears, my body swayed, and I couldn’t stand steady.
The urn in my hands shattered on impact.
Watching the ashes scatter through the air, I stood there unable to react.
Instinctively, I knelt on the ground, wanting to gather them back.
But no matter how I tried, it was useless.
Vanessa even grabbed a carton of milk from the side and poured it onto the floor.
The ashes immediately turned into sticky clumps.
“Ah!”
Something snapped in my mind.
I lost control entirely and swung a stool straight at Vanessa.
Liam had no time to react—Vanessa was already on the floor, clutching her head.
“Liam… it hurts…”
“Liam, it hurts so much…”
Someone called an ambulance.
Liam gripped my wrist tightly and forced me to stay at the hospital.
“If anything happens to her, you’ll die with her!”
That day, I was forced to give Vanessa blood transfusions—again and again—until even the doctors said I couldn’t give any more.
Only then did Liam let me go, saying I had brought it all on myself.
For the next few days, I hid inside my father’s hospital room and didn’t leave.
“So this is where sis is hiding! Thanks to that hit you gave me, Liam is treating me so well now.”
“And this is sis’s dad? Why isn’t he moving?”
Pampered and favored, Vanessa spoke with arrogance in every step she took, every word she said.
She poked at my father’s oxygen tube repeatedly, curious about what it was.
“Don’t touch that!”
I shoved her away, and she stumbled back, holding her head.
The next second, she lunged forward, yanked out my father’s oxygen tube, and smiled as she toyed with it in her hands.
