Chapter 3

I paused for a second before smirking. “Well, Theo got what he deserved.”

“Smack!”

It was another slap on my face.

However, Giselle wasn’t the perpetrator this time. It was my daughter, Palmer.

Palmer stared at me with hostility, as if I were her sworn enemy. She said, “You’re the reason Theo is in the hospital. You’re a bad man! You’re not my daddy! As for this…”

While talking, Palmer pulled out the plushie from me and snipped it to bits with a pair of scissors.

“I’m done with this, too!”

I watched blankly as Palmer stomped on the shredded plushie, my heart broken to pieces.

The plushie was my gift to Palmer after the car crash.

Her words of appreciation were still fresh on my mind.

Palmer uttered, “I’m sorry, Daddy. I shouldn’t have wandered off. It’s my fault you got hurt protecting me.”

She added. “You’re the best daddy in the world! No one beats you! I’ll treasure this plushie the way I treasure you, Daddy!”

The past and present blurred together before my eyes.

I started to shake violently in distress.

“Giselle, we’ve been together for years. Are you honestly going to stand by as Palmer pushes Lucy and me to our graves because of a stranger?”

Furrowing her brows, Giselle didn’t look at all pleased.

“Push you to your graves?

“Dean, don’t start. I’ve already ordered for Lucy to be let down before I took you here.

“You’re just giving Theo a kidney. It’s not like it’ll kill you.”

Palmer applauded the idea.

“That’s right. You won’t die. Just do the transplant already!”

“Doctor! The donor is here. Start the surgery now.”

There were simply too many of them.

I stood no chance against them.

The only thing I could do was watch as they strapped me to the hospital bed and plunged the sedative into my veins.

“Giselle…”

Giselle looked at me indifferently, offering no response.

The anesthesia began to take hold.

As every inch of strength left my body, I lost consciousness in no time.

The next time I opened my eyes, Giselle and Palmer were no more.

“Lucy…”

Fighting back the pain, I got up and threw the covers off me. I stumbled out of bed and the hospital, my hand pressing against my wound.

The rotting body was the first thing I saw in the warehouse.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

A deafening buzz filled my ears and head.

The grief was so overwhelming I couldn’t even speak.

Tears soaked my face.

In a daze, I went outside, dragged back a chair into the warehouse, climbed onto it, and untied the rope that kept Lucy hanging for far too long.

The rope went slack.

Lucy’s body dropped to the ground with a thud.

I scrambled off the chair and held Lucy’s decaying corpse, my heart shattered.

“I came too late, didn’t I, Lucy?

“It’s alright. I’ll take you home now.”

Gritting my teeth against the pain in my abdomen, I hoisted Lucy onto my back.

“Wham!”

The pain was so intense that my leg gave out.

Lucy slipped from my grasp and hit the ground hard.

“I’m sorry, Lucy!” I cried.

Sinking to my heels, I tried to get her onto my back again.

As I leaned close to Lucy, maggots crawled out of her pale, lifeless ears.

The gruesome fact that Lucy was dead stared me right in the face.

The pain was too much for me to bear. Cradling her, I let out a harrowing scream.

“Arghhh!”

I didn’t even get a moment to keep my head above the weight of my grief.

A silhouette approached me.

Cocking my head back, I saw Theo.

Theo looked refreshed, nothing like someone who had just had surgery.

“Tsk. Oh, my. Your sister’s death is so tragic…

“But don’t put this on me. You killed your sister. I have nothing to do with it.”

Shaking to my core, I got up to give him a kick.

“Bam!”

Theo knocked me to the ground.

He said aggressively, “You’re a broken man. What makes you think you can beat me?”

Blood spilled from my surgical wound.

Agony rippled through me, and my entire body started to spasm.

I lay motionless on the floor.

Shaking his head, Theo grabbed a jerrycan of accelerant and poured the liquid all over Lucy’s body.

I, my eyes widened, shouted in a quivering voice, “Theo! What are you trying to do?”

With a chuckle, Theo pulled out a matchbox, struck a match, and flicked it away.

“Fwoom!”

Hungry flames licked across Lucy’s body.

Seeing red, I tackled Theo to the ground with everything I had. I scooped a metal pipe, ready to drag him to hell with me.

“Dean!”

Giselle and Palmer arrived at the scene on the double.

They held an urn in their hands.

That was my mother’s urn.