At Josephine's words, two expressionless bodyguards stepped forward and approached Garrick.
Garrick fought with everything he had, but his resistance made no difference. The guards hauled him out of the room.
The punishment room was in the basement, a small, windowless space lit by a single dim bulb.
He had been afraid of the dark and enclosed spaces since childhood, and Josephine knew that. Yet she had ordered him locked in there anyway.
…
Garrick had no idea how much time had passed. He had sunk into a daze, nearly driven out of his mind by the darkness and silence, when the door to the punishment room finally cracked open.
Two small figures slipped inside. It was Caleb and Ruby. They carried a black cloth sack, their faces alight with a mixture of fear and mischievous excitement.
"Dad, Mom locked you in here so you could think about what you did. But I don't think that's enough."
"Silas said you're scared of the dark and these little things too. So we brought you some friends."
With that, they hurled the sack straight at him.
The sack came open, and a dozen small, cold, slick snakes spilled out alongside squealing rats. The creatures writhed and scurried straight toward Garrick.
"Ahhh!" A raw, broken scream tore from his throat.
He leapt up in terror and thrashed about in an attempt to escape, but the room was too small. The cold, wriggling creatures kept brushing against his ankles and crawling up his arms.
The darkness and confined space were already unbearable, but the presence of these revolting creatures only intensified his torment.
He curled up in the corner, shaking like a leaf, tears streaming down his face. Yet he could no longer make a sound. Pure terror had seized his throat.
At the door, Caleb and Ruby watched their father in a state of utter panic. They exchanged a glance, and something like grim satisfaction flickered across their faces, as though they had finally avenged a wrong.
Then they quietly shut the door, leaving him locked inside with the snakes and rats, alone in the darkness and his endless fear.
…
By the time the punishment room door opened again, Garrick's face had turned deathly pale, his eyes were unfocused, and he could barely hold himself together.
Once the bodyguards brought him out, he locked himself in his bedroom and refused to see anyone. Even Nancy had to slide his meals under the door, her hands trembling the entire time.
Then, one day, Caleb and Ruby suddenly knocked on his door. They stood outside with their heads bowed, a crudely drawn apology card in their hands.
"Dad... we were wrong," Caleb said quietly. "Will you forgive us?"
Ruby's eyes were red. "We'll behave from now on."
"Will you do puzzles with us? We just got a new one, and it's really hard..."
Their sudden change in attitude stirred no warmth in Garrick, only a cold, wary stillness.
He did not open the door. Instead, he returned to his bed, picked up his phone, and opened Instagram.
Just as he had expected, Silas had posted a new update ten minutes earlier. It was a carefully edited short video, filmed at a romantic restaurant with flickering candlelight and a violinist who played somewhere nearby.
In the video, Josephine sat across from Silas and gently cut his steak for him. Silas gazed at her with a sweet, affectionate smile.
The caption read: [Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you for being here, for making today feel special.]
There was even a heart emoji at the end.
So that was it.
Garrick's lips curved into the coldest smile he had ever worn.
The children's sudden kindness and apology had all been a ploy to keep him occupied and distracted. They wanted to ensure he had neither the time nor the presence of mind to ruin their mother's Valentine's Day date with Silas.
These were the children he had devoted everything to raising. This was the wife he had loved for over a decade, the woman he had once believed he would spend the rest of his life with.
He opened his chat with Josephine and forwarded Silas' video to her.
[Wishing you two a long and happy life together.]
Her call came almost the instant he hit send.
Garrick did not answer.
A message quickly followed.
Josephine: [Garrick, what nonsense are you spouting now? A long and happy life together? You hit Silas last time, so I apologized to him on your behalf and took him out for a meal. It just happened to fall on Valentine's Day, that's all. Stop making a scene over nothing. I'll bring you something back tonight.]
Apologized on his behalf? Took him out for a meal? It just happened to fall on Valentine's Day?
Garrick let out a mocking laugh, switched off his phone, and shut his bedroom door. He completely ignored the twins' anxious cries and frantic pounding on the other side.
It was not until evening that his bedroom door slammed open after a vicious kick.
Josephine stormed in, her face dark with fury and her eyes ablaze. "Garrick! I already explained this to you! I felt bad about what you did to Silas last time, so I wanted to make it up to him with a meal, that's all! It just happened to fall on Valentine's Day!
"Why would you do something so vicious? Why would you sell that video to the tabloids? The whole internet is flooded with stories calling Silas a homewrecker right now!
"Do you even know that he saw those headlines, couldn't take it, broke down, and tried to kill himself?"
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