It was Erin’s son—Dewey.
His hand was still on my daughter’s mouth, his face twisted into a grotesque grin.
“Don’t touch her!”
I lunged forward and shoved him off the bed, grabbing his collar with both hands.
“You’re crazy!” he shouted, thrashing in my grip. “You bitch! How dare you hit me?!”
“Stay away from my daughter!”
I snatched the flower vase from the bedside table and hurled it to the floor. The glass shattered, scattering shards across the tiles.
My pulse was pounding so violently I could barely breathe. If I had come even a minute later, I didn’t dare imagine what he might have done.
He went pale but forced a smirk, still pretending to be fearless.
Soon after, the sound of hurried footsteps filled the hallway.
“What’s going on here?”
Winslow and Erin appeared at the door.
The moment Dewey saw them, he suddenly transformed into a different boy completely. Tears welled up in his eyes, his expression turning pitiful and frightened.
“Dad! This old woman tried to sleep with me!”
Winslow froze.
For a moment, I couldn’t move. My mind went blank. What did he just say?
“She wanted to take revenge on you!” Dewey cried, hiding behind his mother. “She said she was going to ruin me and Mom!”
Erin’s eyes filled with tears. She clutched her chest, looking weak and heartbroken. “Merry, when your daughter seduced my son before, we let it go out of respect for you. And now, you’re trying to hurt him again?”
“It was him!” My voice trembled uncontrollably. “He was taking off Elora’s clothes—”
“Enough!”
Winslow’s hand struck my face before I even saw it coming, the sound punctuating the air.
The force of it snapped my head to the side. I felt my cheek throb, and a high-pitched ringing filled my ears.
“Merry!” he roared, his eyes bloodshot. “When will you stop? What were you trying to do to this boy, huh? You and your daughter are really disgusting!”
I stood frozen, one side of my face still burning.
Erin covered her mouth and began to cry. “Winslow, let her go. She’s pitiful enough. Merry, I don’t blame you. You’re just too hurt to think straight, aren’t you?”
Her false sympathy pierced through me, making it hard to breathe.
Winslow’s expression had hardened completely. The tenderness and patience he pretended to have were gone.
“Merry.” His voice came out low and strained, each word forced through his throat. “You’ve disappointed me beyond words.”
A chill ran through me. Instinctively, I moved to shield my daughter, pulling the hospital bed a little closer to me. The monitor beside her flashed with a weak green light, her chest rising and falling faintly, as if she were fighting just to keep breathing.
Winslow’s gaze shifted toward the machine. His eyes were void of warmth as if he were no longer human. Step by step, he walked closer until he stood beside the bed, staring at the oxygen tube that kept my child breathing.
My heart clenched. “W-What are you gonna do?” I asked, my voice shaking.
He didn’t answer. He simply reached out and took hold of the clear tubing.
“Winslow—” The words tore out of me, half-choked.
When he finally spoke, his tone was eerily calm. “If you don’t want your daughter to suffer, then apologize to Erin and Dewey.”
For a second, I couldn’t even understand what I was hearing. “You want me to apologize to them?” I could barely utter the words. “They destroyed my daughter’s life, and you want me to apologize to them?!”
His expression turned darker still, the veins in his eyes bright red.
He looked at me like I was something filthy. His voice was cold, almost detached.
“You still don’t see it, Merry, do you? You’re the one who destroyed this family. You ruined Erin. You killed her child. You don’t deserve to speak as if you’re the victim!”
I felt my body tremble all over.
Shattered glass glittered on the floor under the fluorescent light, tiny fragments catching and reflecting every breath of movement.
The air felt too quiet, too heavy.
I bit my lip until I tasted blood. “I won’t apologize.”
I couldn’t. Not to them. Not after they destroyed us.
And I couldn’t believe that the man standing in front of me was about to harm his own flesh and blood.
Winslow didn’t pause for even a second. With a sharp twist of his wrist, the oxygen mask tore free!
Elora’s body convulsed. Her chest heaved in short, frantic gasps, the monitor’s lights flaring wildly as the steady rhythm of her heartbeat crashed in wild disorder.
The alarm from the machine pierced through the silence, cold and merciless, shrieking through my daughter’s room.
