Chapter 3

I ended up stumbling across Rosie's social media post, where she had uploaded an old photo from a yacht party five years ago.

In it, she was in a bikini, snuggled against Armie's chest with a radiant smile. Ben sat between them, glued to a handheld game console with a matching grin.

And off to the side, my blurred figure was caught bending over to clean up empty wine glasses.

Her caption was insufferably melodramatic:

[Some love transcends life and death. Treasure the people right in front of you. Don't wait until you've lost them to regret it.]

The comment section was filled with envy and warm wishes, along with a few people guessing whether that blurry figure in the background was the family nanny.

I looked at the photo, almost wanting to laugh.

It was clear she went out of her way to post something like this for no other reason than to trigger me or flex her position.

Unfortunately for her, she miscalculated.

That past was nothing more than dead flesh to me. Cutting it away was a relief, not a loss.

Right then, a knock sounded from the door downstairs.

I peeked through the peephole, only to see Ben standing outside.

He was in his school uniform, carrying his backpack and holding a photo album in his hands.

I had zero interest in opening the door, but he kept knocking continuously, drawing complaints from the neighbors. So I had no choice.

"Mom!" Ben’s eyes lit up the moment he saw me at the door.

I blocked the doorway, making no move to let him in. "What do you want?"

Ben bit his lip, holding out the photo album toward me. "I found this at home..."

He flipped open the album, pointing at a few of the photos inside.

"I realized that in all our old photos, you were always standing off to the side, just watching me and Dad.

"I… was so busy playing with the game console Rosie gave me that I didn't even look at you." His voice choked up, his eyes filled with a sliver of desperation.

"I've been having nightmares constantly lately. I keep dreaming about you falling into the ocean, calling out my name, but I can't ever reach you."

Tears began spilling down his face as he spoke.

"Mom, I really know I was wrong now. Can you please forgive me?

"Come home with me. I promise I'll listen to you from now on and never make you mad again."

Seeing him stand there as a crying mess, my heart didn't stir in the slightest.

If this had been five years ago, seeing him shed a single tear would have broken my heart into pieces. But now? I truly felt nothing for him.

"Ben, did you fail to catch me, or did you just not care to try?"

Ben's crying stopped abruptly as he tried frantically to explain.

"It was so chaotic back then! I didn't know you were in the water! Rosie told me you were a mermaid and that you could swim. She said you’d swim back home and wait for us!"

Looking at my son, a laugh escaped my lips instead.

"Ben, you were already six years old then. The yacht hit a reef, and the waves were massive. When someone falls into water like that, would you really believe they wouldn't drown?"

Ben's face turned pale, but he still tried to defend himself.

"Of course you believed it." I raised my hand to cut him off.

"Because at that exact moment, you were hugging Rosie and calling her 'Mom'. As for whether your actual mother drowned, you didn't care at all."

"No! That's not true!" Ben covered his ears, tears pouring out. "I really thought you could swim! I honestly didn't know..."

"I don't know how to swim." I shattered his self-serving delusion once and for all.

"After living in that house for six years, did you seriously not know your own mother was terrified of water? Every time I took you to the water park, I could only watch from the shore. Have you completely forgotten?"

Ben froze. The memories in his head began to crystallize.

Every single time they went to the beach, Mom would just sit quietly under the sunshade, watching over their belongings.

"Rosie was lying..."

Ben muttered to himself, his face drained of all color.

"She said you could swim... She said you'd be fine..."

I stared at my son, feeling nothing but total exhaustion from the sheer absurdity of it all.

"If she didn't lie, how else could she claim the spot that belonged to me with a clear conscience? Ben, those tears you're crying right now don't mean a damn thing to me."

…

After Ben left, I had a nightmare.

In the dream, I was back in that pitch-black sea. The yacht struck the reef, and the hull tilted violently into the water.