Sylvia’s influence reached far and wide. Suppressing the matter involving my mother would be as easy as snapping her fingers.
Yet, she chose not to hide it from my father. She sat at home with perfect composure, as though she was luring him into a trap.
Sure enough, my father knocked on her door the next day. His face was twisted with anguish as he sought justice for his wife of many years. However, he did not expect to be pinned to the floor the moment he stepped inside.
“Why are you alone? Where’s Charles? Is he hiding from me because he’s so afraid that I’ll seek revenge?”
Sylvia’s voice dripped with scorn, and she was oblivious to the flash of sorrow in my father’s eyes.
I begged my father to stop hiding the truth. I no longer cared about love or having any regrets.
Right then, I just wanted to trade my life for my family’s safety!
Finally, my father seemed to come to his senses. Choking back sobs, he slowly reopened my family’s wounds.
“Sylvia, you won’t get to wait for Charles anymore... He’s dead.”
The moment those words left his mouth, silence fell.
I watched as the look in Sylvia’s eyes shifted from scorn to shock before rage finally took over.
“Each one of you really is deplorable in your own ways.
“I gave you a day to figure something out, and this is the lie you came up with to fool me?!”
I had imagined countless ways Sylvia might react to my death. But I never thought she would not believe it.
To her, I was probably greedy and afraid of dying.
Why would anyone abandon a good life and choose death?
My father did not expect her reaction either. He seemed to open his mouth to defend me, but Sylvia silenced him with a slap.
“Shut up! I’ve run out of patience. I don’t want to hear another word from you.
“It looks like Charles is determined not to apologize to me. In that case, I see no reason to show him mercy either!
“You’re so fond of speaking up for your son, aren’t you? Well, I’ll use you to get back at him now. That should be okay, right?”
It sounded like a polite question, but each syllable laid out a path that led straight to my father’s doom.
Sylvia was ruthless. She raised her hand and plunged a knife into her chest. Then, she immediately flung the bloodied blade at my father’s feet.
“Attempted murder. Both witnesses and evidence are here. That should keep you locked up for the better half of your life.”
My eyes widened with fury. I could not believe this woman would stoop so low to exact her revenge on me!
My father was over fifty. How could he endure over a decade behind bars?
However, Sylvia did not care. She only wanted to do everything she could to make me miserable.
So, when the police arrived, she wept and wailed. She pulled no punches as she tarnished my father’s image.
She transformed him from an innocent victim into a vicious criminal motivated by greed.
My poor father had lived his entire life with a clean conscience. But he had to face this undeserved calamity because of me!
I was powerless and forced to watch helplessly as the police dragged him away.
His cries of “I’m innocent!” shattered my heart.
