"Dad, don't blame Mom. We made Mom unhappy. Please don’t fight with her because of us..."
I took a deep breath and turned away from Tatiana, refusing to look at her. Instead, I walked to the bed and sat down. Frankly, I was really done with that woman.
Seeing me ignore her, Tatiana’s expression darkened. She suddenly grabbed my wrist, shoved me onto the bed and climbed on top of me.
"What are you pretending for?" she sneered.
"Didn’t you beg Grandpa to let me come back? Why do you look so miserable now that I’m here?"
She leaned down, trying to kiss me. I struggled, but she had me pinned. I had no choice, so I bit her lip hard.
Tatiana hissed in pain and immediately sat up, wiping her mouth.
"Are you crazy? What’s fucking wrong with you?"
She glared at me, her eyes full of disdain.
"You’ve gotten good at playing games, Nate. First, you said the child was being treated at the hospital just to lure me back. When that didn’t work, you ran to the old house and whined to Grandpa so he’d pressure me. And now you’re pulling this little hard-to-get trick?"
She scoffed.
"You ignored the children just to get my attention. Where are they now, huh? They’re only five years old and you left them alone at home? How cruel can you be?"
My hands clenched into fists. My voice was cold when I interrupted her.
"The children are dead."
Tatiana froze. For a second, something flickered in her eyes. There were shock and disbelief beneath her gaze. But she then smirked.
"Nate, I really underestimated you. You’ll say anything to get sympathy."
Without another glance at me, she stood up and walked to the door. Before leaving, she paused, her voice sharp.
"You rejected me this time. Don’t go crying to Grandpa that I ignored you, or I’ll only find you even more disgusting."
The door slammed shut behind her. After that, the room fell into silence. I wiped my lips fiercely, trying to erase the scent of her.
Tatiana and I had been in love once. On her eighteenth birthday, she stood in front of me, her cheeks flushed with shyness.
"Nate, can I like you?" she had asked.
"Don’t worry, I’ll treat you well."
Her eyes held an innocence that made my heart soften. Without hesitation, I nodded.
For the next two years, I cherished her. I gave her everything and she made me feel like I was her entire world. Until I turned twenty-two. That was when my grandfather called us both into his study.
"Tatiana, Nate, both of you are already in marriageable age. I’ll pick a good day for the wedding."
That day, something changed.
Tatiana’s warmth turned cold. Her gaze, once filled with love, became sharp with impatience and disgust. I never understood what I did wrong. She never told me.
A year after our marriage, she got pregnant. I thought things would get better from then on. But after giving birth, she became even worse.
Tatiana stopped coming home at night. She even ignored our children. She walked the streets with Travis, her childhood sweetheart. She openly showed the world that I was nothing to her.
I fought. I argued. But she only gave me a cold, mocking smile.
"You got what you wanted, Nate! The title of the Humphrey Family’s son-in-law and the child. What more do you want?"
"Your whining makes me sick."
After that, I stopped searching for answers. I stopped asking why. From then on, I devoted myself to my children.
For seven years, Tatiana never loved me. She never loved our beautiful children either.
I thought that as long as I had my children, I could endure everything. That life would go on, even if it was painful. But now, I had lost even them.
So, why would I live like this then?
