Inside the villa, I gathered up everything that belonged to me, which was only a small bundle.
Ezekiel had never given me many items, only a few, and I tossed every one of them into the trash.
Right as I prepared to leave, my son’s girlfriend, Eulalie Collins suddenly messaged me.
[Aunt, remember to come to my wedding with Jaxon tomorrow. I heard from Jaxon that your family is very rich, so I believe the gift you bring me tomorrow won’t let me down.]
After seeing this message, I froze completely.
Jaxon’s getting married tomorrow?
My son was getting married tomorrow, and I only learned it today.
Thinking about it, I opened Gwynne’s Instagram story, and there I saw an invitation in my son’s handwriting, just as I expected.*
So he had no intention of telling me from the beginning!
As I thought of this, my eyes grew hot, and it felt like part of my heart had been roughly torn away.
Unable to help myself, I searched the closet and took out a wedding dress, quietly looking at it for a long time.
This wedding dress wasn’t very beautiful, slightly yellow in color, with outdated sewing and patterns.
But it was the most treasured gift I had ever gotten.
This was the wedding dress my mother sewed for me herself. She thought I would wear it at the wedding thirty years ago and then enjoy a lifetime of happiness.
Unfortunately, that wedding never came true.
My hands shook uncontrollably. Everything I discovered today had already gone far past what I could bear.
The betrayal from my closest family, the coldness from my own child, my husband’s disgust, everything pressed on me with unbearable pain.
Right when I was about to put the wedding dress back, a hand suddenly appeared next to me.
She grabbed the dress in an instant, staring at me with a mocking expression.
“Heather,” she dragged out her tone, “this wedding dress is outdated. Want me to help you change it? Even though you probably won’t ever get to wear it, hahahaha.”
She burst into a sharp laugh.
“Give it back to me!”
My anger rose, and I grabbed the bottom of the wedding dress, trying hard to pull it back.
But Gwynne refused to release it.
During the struggle, she somehow pulled out a pair of scissors and, with just a few quick moves, completely chopped my wedding dress apart.
“No!”
Looking at the broken pieces scattered on the floor, tears streamed down my cheeks like rain. I knelt down, trying to gather and fit them back together.
But Gwynne smiled proudly beside me. “Heather, you should be thankful to me. You wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. This wedding dress is nothing but trash to you. I helped you throw out the garbage. I did you a big favor.”
Seeing me worryingly gathering the torn pieces on the floor, she cruelly stepped on my hand, the sharp heel of her high heels stabbing straight into the back of my hand.
I screamed from the pain and struggled, causing Gwynne to lose her footing and fall backward.
“Heather! What are you doing?!”
Ezekiel showed up at the doorway, shouting in worry.
He kicked me aside and gently helped Gwynne stand up.
“Ezekiel, don’t blame Heather. I just didn’t stand steady. I only wanted to help my sister pick up the wedding dress. I didn’t mean to ruin it,” Gwynne cried to Ezekiel at once.
With only a few words, she placed all the blame on me.
Ezekiel’s gaze turned cold as ice.
“Heather, you really are heartless!” he shouted. “Gwynne was only being nice, and you knocked her over. No wonder you ended up with cancer!”
I was kicked straight into the corner of the wall, and the old wound I got from saving Ezekiel years ago suddenly hurt again, making cold sweat break out from the pain.
Seeing that I didn’t answer, Ezekiel stepped forward once more and kicked the old wound again.
He even dug his heel into it harshly. “What are you pretending about? Still trying to use that old help from years ago to make me soft toward you?”
“I’ve endured you for all these years. If you hadn’t gone after Gwynne, maybe I would’ve allowed you to stay. But now, someone as harsh as you should get out of my home sooner!”
After speaking, he took the divorce certificate from his pocket and threw it onto my face, as though expecting me to kneel and ask for forgiveness.
I gripped the divorce certificate firmly, not saying a single word.
Seeing this, Ezekiel said coldly, “You have no right to stay here anymore. Leave tomorrow!”
After he finished talking, he lifted Gwynne up and turned around to leave.
I sat on the floor, the old injury from saving Ezekiel still aching deeply.
Thirty years had passed, long enough for Ezekiel to forget that this villa did not belong to him. It belonged to me.
But very soon, he would realize that I was the only person who had the right to send them away, not them pushing me out.
