“I accepted the institute’s invitation to join the Super Gene Modification Project. I’ll leave in one week.”
“That’s wonderful! Your research is groundbreaking. With you on board, the project is destined for success! But… this is a closed-off study. Do your husband and son agree?”
Clara let out a self-mocking smile — what son? Her son had already been killed by his biological father.
Three days ago, at the award ceremony, the female student Clara sponsored said she hoped Clara could take the credit for the research results.
After Clara refused, she ran away in tears.
Right after receiving the award, Clara learned that Liam had tied their son to a rapidly spinning Ferris wheel.
“You’ve achieved so many results. What’s wrong with giving one to Vanessa? You’re the one who drove her away.”
“I gave you a chance to fix this. If you can’t find her within one minute, the kid stays on for one minute. If you can’t find her within an hour, then he stays on for an hour.”
“Stop!”
Clara grabbed Liam’s pant leg and begged bitterly, “Our son has congenital heart disease. If this continues, he’ll die!”
“He’s only four! I’m begging you, let him go!”
But Liam frowned and shook her hand off.
“Increase the speed by twenty percent.”
Clara screamed and cried, pinned firmly to the ground by bodyguards, forced to watch her son turn around and around again.
Fireworks filled the sky the entire night — each one a love confession from Liam, begging Vanessa to come back.
Three days later, Liam returned with Vanessa holding a pregnancy report in hand, while Clara’s son had already stopped breathing from a heart attack.
“Liam, Noah is dead.”
Liam sneered, “Clara, are you done causing drama?”
He glanced at his watch, impatience in his tone. “I still have to accompany Vanessa for her prenatal check. I don’t have time for your tragic-act nonsense.”
Clara stared blankly ahead, saying nothing.
Liam continued, “He just went a few extra rounds on a Ferris wheel. Kids don’t die from that. You coddled him too much, that’s your problem.”
He pulled a small box from his pocket and tossed it— its contents falling onto Clara.
“There. Noah loved sweets. Use that to shut him up. Stop losing your mind.”
Clara glanced at the chocolate wrappers on her lap and tugged the corner of her lips.
Almond flavor — Noah was allergic to nuts. One bite and he’d break out in rashes, unable to breathe.
Before leaving, Liam handed Clara a document. “Sign it — transfer the research results to Vanessa.”
Clara took the document, staring numbly at the man before her.
When she knelt in the morgue, holding Noah’s already stiff body for three days and nights, she listened to the nonstop celebration across the city — fireworks and cheers in honor of the new life growing in Vanessa’s belly.
She had cried herself dry, just wanting to send her son on his final journey.
——
But the cremation process required the signatures of both parents, and without Liam’s consent, their son could only lie in that freezing morgue, unable to rest.
Clara suddenly smiled. “Fine — but not for free.”
She pulled out the divorce agreement and cremation consent she had already prepared, flipping directly to the last page. “Give me the villas in the eastern suburbs as compensation.”
Liam took the papers from her hand and signed without even looking. “If you’d acted like this earlier, Noah wouldn’t have had to suffer!”
He tossed the documents onto the coffee table, grabbed the signed research transfer, and rushed out.
“I’m busy these days — I won’t be home.”
The door slammed shut, leaving the house in silence.
Clara felt a moment of disorientation — how did a perfectly good family become so broken?
She and Liam had once loved each other — they were the couple everyone envied.
To marry Clara, Liam had kneeled outside the church for three whole months, praying earnestly for the two of them to stay together for life.
He despised every other woman around him, and only his love for Clara had been unwavering and fierce.
Clara once thought life would continue in happiness — until that accident…
The time Vanessa demanded money from Clara and was refused, Vanessa, enraged, drove Clara’s car and crashed into Liam’s mother.
After rushing her to the hospital and learning of the ruptured spleen and critical condition, Clara didn’t hesitate — she donated her spleen to save her.
The moment Clara got off the operating table, Liam stormed in with bloodshot eyes, gripping her neck. “You tried to kill my mother?!”
For reasons unknown, Liam firmly believed Vanessa was the one who donated her spleen and saved his mother.
And no matter how Clara explained, he never believed her.
From that moment on, their relationship completely shattered — they became enemies.
Once, Clara still held expectations for Liam — but now that her son was gone, her heart was dead too.
…
The research institute called again, asking Clara to confirm the news.
Clara answered calmly, “Confirmed. But… I have a condition.”
“Erase all my identity information. From now on, the name Clara disappears from this world.”
The institute accepted immediately. “No problem, Clara. The helicopter will pick you up in seven days.”
The moment she hung up, breaking news flashed across her phone screen—
“Genius Girl Vanessa to Announce Major Breakthrough in Gene Research — Seven Days From Now!”
Clara remained expressionless.
The results she transferred were incomplete — the data still had issues, problems obvious to anyone with expertise. She never planned to publish the report, but since Liam and Vanessa couldn’t wait—
She’d like to see how this so-called “genius girl” would explain research results riddled with flaws.
