After giving me that threat, Dakota snatched the album from my hands and produced a lighter.
The flame caught instantly; the photos were engulfed, and within moments, the album was reduced to a charred black bundle.
I watched helplessly as the smiling face of my firstborn in the photo was devoured by fire, the paper curling and turning to blackened ash.
“Dakota! Are you fucking insane?!”
I lost whatever shred of reason I had left. I lunged forward and shoved her to the floor, my nails digging deep into her arm.
She screamed and kicked at me, but pain didn’t stop me. I wanted to strangle her to end what she had done.
All I could see was that heap of ash growing smaller and smaller—the memory I had hidden away for three years.
“Stop!”
Gifford burst into the room and pulled me away from Dakota.
I slammed against the wall; my back went numb, but I still struggled to throw myself at her.
“Gifford! Don’t you have any conscience?” I spat at him. “That woman burned our son’s photos, and you’re still protecting her?”
“It was just an old photo album! Do you have to be like this?” He put Dakota behind him, his brow knotted. “She’s pregnant. What happens if you hurt her?”
“Pregnant?” I laughed, but the laughter was drowned by the rush of tears. “What about my son? He’s been dead for three years! Who will make up for him?”
“If it weren’t for that woman, our son wouldn’t have gotten sick and died!” I snapped.
I threw myself forward, trying to shove past Gifford to drag out the one who ruined everything.
“Have you had enough of this?” He tightened his grip on my wrists and stopped me from getting any closer to Dakota. “I told you she didn’t do it on purpose. Can’t you understand that?”
“No!” I shouted back. “I swear I’m gonna kill that bitch!”
At that point, I had lost all reason; I only wanted to go down together with that woman.
What I didn’t expect was for Gifford to raise his hand and hit me once more.
The sound was crisp in the stunned silence that followed.
His arm froze in midair; for a moment, his face showed panic and something like regret.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as if he wanted to say more.
But I couldn’t hear anything anymore.
The burn on my cheek stung, but it was nothing compared to the collapse inside my chest.
I looked at him and felt the last fragments of hope in me shatter completely.
He stood there rigid, remorse and fluster flickering across his eyes.
In that instant, the air hung heavy. He seemed about to speak, but his throat closed, and he could only watch the light in my eyes dim bit by bit.
“Gifford, look at her… Isn’t she crazy?” Dakota suddenly shrank into his arms, her voice sweetly affected. “When she hit me just now, her eyes were red like she wanted to kill me. I was so afraid…”
“Now, she plays the victim? If you ask me, she needs to be taught a lesson,” that bitch suggested.
Just like that, Gifford’s brow tightened again; whatever guilt he’d felt evaporated under Dakota’s words.
He lowered his hand and turned his expression cold. “Austria, you’ve terribly disappointed me.”
