Chapter 2

An hour later, I pushed open the front door. Vivian was serving food to Elliot and Eleanor. The harmonious, joyful atmosphere made it feel as though Victor and I had mistakenly barged into someone else's home.

"Vincent…" Vivian sprang to her feet, hurried to the door, and took my coat from me. "Elliot's landlord suddenly sold the house and kicked them out. They couldn't find a place to stay on short notice. Do you think they could stay here for a while…"

I remained silent as I watched the housekeepers move Victor's and my belongings into the storage room, one item at a time.

Elliot chimed in pitifully, though the triumphant look on his face was impossible to hide. "I'm so sorry, Vincent. I'm not in great health, so I can only stay in a room with good natural light and proper ventilation. So, Vivian cleared out the master bedroom for me."

Victor's room had also been taken over by Eleanor. She had thrown out his favorite figurine. Its arms and legs were broken from the fall.

Vivian looked guilty all of a sudden. "Vincent, if you don't agree to this arrangement, I can also find them another—"

"I agree." I held my hand out to her. "The rent is the same as before, but the fee for staying in my house and the fee for your services must be calculated separately."

With a loud smack, Vivian threw my coat onto the floor. Her face was as dark as ink as she snarled, "Have you lost your mind, Vincent? What kind of nonsense are you spouting before the children? Do you have no sense of decency or shame left in you?"

I wanted to sneer. She was the one who brought another man and his child into our home, yet she accused me of having no sense of decency just because I had called her out on it.

Vivian dragged Elliot and Eleanor toward the door. When she walked past me, she hurled a credit card at my face. "Here's 35 grand. Is that enough? Since you don't know what's good for you, you might as well just live with money for the rest of your life!"

After the house fell completely silent, Victor wept as he wiped my face with a tissue. That was when I realized that the corner of my eye was bleeding. The credit card had cut me.

"It's all my fault for being sick, Daddy. I'm the reason Mommy gives you a hard time every day," he sobbed.

I wrapped my arms tightly around Victor. "I'm not angry. Everything will be fine once your surgery is done, Vic. If anything, I'm so happy right now…"

Victor, who had always needed his mother to read him a bedtime story ever since he was little, fell asleep in my arms with a tear-streaked face. Looking at his tightly knitted brows, my heart ached as if it had been run over by a car. When did our once-happy and beautiful family of three become like this?

Was it after Elliot's wife died? Vivian was afraid he might do something reckless, so she went over every night to keep him company and comfort him. She did that so frequently that when she actually returned to her own home, the paparazzi mistakenly thought she was having an affair.

Or was it when Vivian became worried that Eleanor would be bullied by her classmates for not having a mother, so she attended every single one of her parent-teacher conferences without fail?

She never missed a Children's Day or a birthday party either. Consequently, Victor was treated as the child of a homewrecker and suffered endless bullying at school.

Or was it when Victor passed out from his first myocardial infarction, and every call I made to Vivian was busy? After rushing to the hospital, I was informed that all the doctors had been reassigned to treat Eleanor for a minor scrape.

Victor went into cardiac arrest three times. I had knelt and begged until my forehead was bleeding before I finally stopped a single doctor and barely managed to save Victor's life.

I took a deep breath and packed our luggage. After picking up the soundly sleeping Victor, I left this unrecognizable home behind without a single shred of regret.

…

It had been a week since we settled down in our new place. However, Vivian hadn't sent us a single message. Elliot, on the other hand, kept messaging me nonstop. They were all forwarded articles from the media about his trips with Vivian, as if he were terrified I might not see them.

With a poker face, I tapped them open. The places they visited were all the locations Victor and I had once wanted to visit. Even the media outlet reporting it was the exact same one that had publicized Vivian's and my wedding of the century.

"I'm so sorry, Elliot. I've tried to persuade Vivian to pay the paparazzi to take the news down, but she insists that you have plenty of money anyway. Since this started because of me, why don't I sell the watch Vivian bought me and help you get the articles removed?"

Elliot had sneakily taken photos of the gifts Vivian had given him, hoping to provoke me. After all, the old me would have rushed over to Elliot's place the moment I saw them and smashed everything to pieces.

However, right now, I merely replied nonchalantly, "In that case, I'll leave it to you." Elliot's status showed he was typing for a long time, but in the end, he didn't send any more messages.

Just when I thought they would finally leave me in peace for a while, a notification popped up showing that 100 thousand dollars had suddenly hit my bank account. The moment I clearly read the transfer note, all the blood in my body instantly ran cold.