Chapter 3

"Your father is more seriously injured. There may be bleeding inside his skull. He needs emergency treatment right away!"

"I don't care! Save Silas first!" Ruby screeched as well. "Save Silas first!"

The paramedic seemed caught in an impossible position.

Then Josephine's voice rang out, low and hoarse, with a decisiveness that left no room for argument. "Take Mr. Morrison first."

"But Ms. Hawthrone, your husband is..."

Josephine's voice rose sharply, full of impatience and authority. "Do as I say. The next ambulance will be here any minute."

Hurried footsteps followed, and they carried the stretcher away.

Garrick used the last of his strength to force his blood-crusted eyes half open. Through his blurred vision, he saw Josephine supporting Silas, with the two children huddled close around them as they followed the stretcher into the ambulance.

They left him alone at the crash site.

Just before he lost consciousness, a memory from long ago surfaced.

Once, while cutting fruit, he had nicked his finger. It had been nothing more than a small cut.

Josephine had abandoned a multimillion-dollar contract she was handling without a second thought and driven him straight to the hospital to have the wound disinfected and dressed. Her brow had remained furrowed the entire way as she repeatedly asked if it hurt.

Another memory surfaced from when the children were still small. Josephine had held them both and pointed at him. "Caleb, Ruby, remember this. This is Daddy. You two are going to look after him together when you grow up, understand?"

The two children had nodded without fully understanding and burrowed into his arms, chirping in their babyish voices, "Look after Daddy!"

And now? Now they had blocked the ambulance and demanded that it save Silas first.

And their mother, the woman who had once sworn to love him for life, had personally chosen to save another man first.

She had left him there to bleed out.

So it was true, after all. People really could change. Love really could vanish.

…

When Garrick woke again, he was in the hospital. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Josephine and the two children at his bedside.

When Josephine saw that he was awake, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Gary, you're awake! How are you feeling?"

Her concern now struck him as nothing but bitter and sickening.

"You chose not to save me back there. Why bother pretending to care now?"

Josephine's expression froze. "Silas is frail. He had passed out, and the situation was urgent. I just... weighed the options and made the safest choice I could. Gary, I hope you can understand."

Understand? Understand what? That she had left him at the crash site to die so she could save a man who had only been "lightly hurt" and had merely "passed out"?

Just then, a nurse knocked and stepped inside. "Ms. Hawthrone, Mr. Morrison is awake. He's a little unsteady, and he keeps asking for you..."

Josephine immediately rose to her feet. "Gary, get some rest. I... I'll go check on him first. Caleb, Ruby, stay here and keep your father company."

With that, she hurried out of the room.

The two children stayed behind, but their minds were clearly elsewhere.

Caleb kept glancing toward the door, while Ruby fiddled with her smartwatch and muttered under her breath, "I wonder how he's doing..."

As Garrick watched them, something in his chest clenched, and he could no longer hold back the words. "If... If your mother and I got divorced, who would you choose to live with?"

Both children looked up at once, caught off guard.

Caleb's eyes lit up first. "Divorce? That means you and Mom would split up and not live together anymore, right?"

Ruby chimed in just as eagerly, "Then can Mom be with Silas?"

Before Garrick could answer, Caleb spoke again. "Of course we'd pick Mom! If we go with Mom, we get to see Silas every single day!"

Ruby nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I want to be with Mom and Silas!"

Every word struck his already shattered heart like a hammer blow.

He stared at the two children before him in disbelief, his voice trembling. "So... you like Silas more than you like me. Is that it?"

"Obviously!" Caleb answered without hesitation. "Silas builds Legos with us and takes us to the amusement park. What about you? You always say to wait until Daddy finishes work, but you never finish!"

Ruby added quietly, "Silas lets me wear my pretty little dresses, gives me snacks, and lets me watch TV. You always make me wear more clothes, and you never let me eat junk food..."

They continued to list everything good about Silas and everything bad about Garrick, their own father. As he listened, he felt his heart sink deeper into an icy pit, piece by piece.

So this was it.

He had exhausted himself for the sake of his family, struggling to maintain some semblance of balance between his career and home life, only for another man to win over his children with carefully calculated acts of kindness.

Just then, Ruby tugged at her brother's sleeve and whispered, "Caleb, Mom's over there all alone. I don't know if she can take care of Silas by herself. I'm kind of worried. Should we go check on him? Dad's fine now anyway."

Caleb nodded at once. "I'm worried about him too. Come on, let's go!"

The two children turned to run out of the room.

As Caleb spun around, he accidentally knocked into the hot water flask on the bedside table.

The flask tipped over, and the scalding water spilled out all at once, pouring straight onto the thin blanket covering Garrick's legs.

"Ahhh!" The searing pain tore a scream from his throat, and his face went pale in an instant.

Startled by the sudden commotion, the two children flinched and turned back to see him writhing in pain.

Ruby asked quietly, "Caleb... what do we do? Dad got burned..."

Caleb glanced at him, then grabbed his sister's hand. "It's just a little burn. He'll be fine. Let's hurry. Silas needs us more."

With that, he pulled his sister toward the door.

Ruby kept glancing back, but Caleb never looked back once as they ran out of the room.

Garrick's entire body shook with pain, and cold sweat instantly broke out across his forehead. All he could do was force himself to raise a hand and press the call button beside his bed.

A nurse hurried in soon afterward. The moment she saw his condition, she drew a sharp breath and rushed to summon a doctor.

They cleaned the blisters, applied medication, and dressed the burn.

Throughout the entire process, Garrick clenched his teeth and made no sound. Only his tears continued to flow in silence.

As the nurse worked, she couldn't help but sigh. "Mr. Langdon, why isn't anyone here looking after you? A scalding burn like this is nothing to take lightly. If it gets infected, you could be in real trouble."

Garrick kept his eyes shut and said nothing.

The nurse continued, half to herself, "Honestly, that Mr. Morrison in the VIP room next door came in after the same crash, and his injuries were minor.

"But his wife and kids have been glued to his side this whole time. They haven't left him for a moment because they're so worried about him. Same accident, such different treatment..."

Garrick said nothing. He merely let out a low, hoarse, broken laugh, even as his tears flowed harder than before.

After the nurse left, the room fell silent once more.

Garrick lay in his hospital bed and stared at the stark white ceiling. His gaze gradually grew cold and resolute.

He took out his phone and called his supervisor.

"Mr. Chapman, it's me, Garrick."

"Gary? Feeling any better? I heard you were in a car accident. Take your time recovering. Work can wait..."

"Mr. Chapman," Garrick interrupted, his voice flat and calm. "I'd like to request a transfer. I want to become a war correspondent."