Hatred Born, Parted Forever

Felix threw his phone at my head.

“Liana, are you crazy?! Why are you bothering us while I’m making a mannequin in Ruby’s likeness? You should really look at just how many times you’ve called me!”

Blood flowed from my temple. Even so, I could still see the lipstick stain on his collar. It was a light pink, the favorite color of Ruby Jones, the influencer.

The third time my artificial heart sounded its alarm, the doctor told me to contact my family immediately. I needed them to accompany me while I received a thorough check.

Yet, when I called my husband, he hung up on me.

That night, he returned late, and the moment he stepped through the door, he started yelling at me.

It was as if I had interrupted his time with Ruby and that I had committed a heinous crime in doing so.

I swallowed the bitterness in my heart and said, “I’ve been feeling some discomfort in my heart lately, and the doctor said—”

Before I could finish speaking, Felix scowled and interrupted me impatiently. “Stop pretending. You just want me to keep you company, don’t you?

“The only thing you know how to do is pull cheap tricks, but you only disgust me when you do this!”

I cradled my aching temple and watched as he stormed up the staircase callously.

Suddenly, I could not recall how he looked when he cried and said that he would protect me forever after I suffered from postpartum hemorrhage.

When my artificial heart first sent off its alarm, I was forced to queue up to buy a birthday cake for Ruby.

I stood for two hours under the scorching sun, until the monitor on my wrist rang out.

In my weakened state, I asked Felix to send me to the hospital, but he only scoffed. “You don’t have any heart condition. Stop kicking up a fuss and pretending to be pitiful.

“You know that it’s Ruby’s birthday. I won’t say anything about you not wishing her a happy birthday, so you shouldn’t be annoying me too! Oh, I’m so unlucky to be with you.”

In the end, I passed out at the roadside, and a cleaner sent me to the hospital.

The second time the alarm for my artificial heart went off, Ruby lied about me. She claimed that I ruined a portrait she had sketched for Mandy, my daughter.

She pointed at a wine stain by the edge of the portrait and cried as she grumbled, “Felix, does Liana not like me getting close to Mandy? But I put all of my heart and soul into my portraits. She can hit me and insult me all she wants, but she can’t desecrate my paintings!”

Felix shut me in the cold wine cellar and ordered me to kneel on dry ice.

The cold hurt my knees so badly that my skin tore. Pus and blood even flowed out of my wounds.

I wobbled as I begged him to let me out, but he only sneered and locked the door.

Two days later, the butler let me out when he came to retrieve some wine.

…

Once I cleaned the wound on my temple, I opened the door to my daughter’s room.

I was holding some dessert that I had bought for her on my way back from the hospital.

“Honey, are you drawing? Do you want me to keep you company?”

Mandy just gave me a disdainful look and wrinkled her nose. “Stay away from me and don’t dirty the painting I’m going to give to Ruby.”

With an expression of great seriousness, she started coloring the paper under her hands.

After I donated the cornea in my right eye, I suffered from post-surgery complications. As such, the vision in my left eye was no longer as good as before.

Seeing me stare at her drawing, Mandy pouted and shoved me away. “You’re blind. You wouldn’t understand it.

“I’m drawing Dad cooking for me and Ruby yesterday!

“Dad said that you’re a horrible plagiarist and you stole Ruby’s painting! I don’t want your company!”

So, I gently shut the door as Mandy gazed at me with disgust.

My heart had been beating steadily before, but it clenched in pain at the moment. It was as if it had been struck hard.

I knew that they resented me, simply because I did not show up during Mandy’s heart surgery and Felix’s cornea transplant. But Ruby, my underclassman, stayed by their side and took great care of them.

At that time, I was resting after surgery, but they thought that I was sleeping with another man.

After I lost one of my eyes and had an artificial heart installed in my body, I went home. But Felix yelled at me the moment he saw the bruises on my skin, which were caused by a coagulation disorder.

“You witch! Are you really that desperate for men?!

“You cheated on me thinking that I was going blind! Now, after losing sight in one of your eyes, you come running back to me?! You’re staying by my side forever to pay for what you did!”

I could not tell them that I was their donor. It was simply because I did not want my husband and daughter to feel guilt for their entire lives.

However, I did not expect that keeping this a secret would make them hate me and hurt me so wantonly.