Chapter 2

"Oh, it's you," Phil said with an indescribable hint of smugness in his voice. "Why are you looking for Isabella? She's too busy helping me pick out a luxury car to spare time for you right now."

In that instant, my heart sank like a stone.

I'd actually noticed that Isabella and Phil were having an affair for a while now. Back then, I'd had a huge fight with her, and divorce was in the cards, but then Dad had fallen severely ill.

I spent every day at Dad's bedside in the hospital, so I hadn't really been in touch with her during that time. Naturally, I hadn't noticed that her relationship with Phil had progressed to such an extent that they stopped bothering to hide it.

"Get Isabella on the phone! That money was an emergency fund for Dad! What right does she have to take it?"

Phil scoffed. "What emergency fund? Isabella said that the money was just sitting there, so we might as well use it to buy something substantial. It just so happens that I had my eye on a Rolls-Royce Cullinan that costs exactly 300,000 dollars.

"This is simply the will of heaven. It'd be a waste of money to treat your father's illness anyway, so you might as well consider the money your blessing toward our relationship.

"I was the one who was supposed to marry her anyway, and she promised to buy me a luxury car ages ago. I really must thank you for the 300,000 dollars."

I heard Isabella's impatient voice from the other end of the line. "Why are you still wasting words with him? I've already paid for the car, so let's drive it back to the hotel."

Phil immediately burst into laughter and even chided her jokingly, "You little imp. Are you really that impatient to get into my pants?"

He then hung up.

No matter how many times I called again, nobody picked up the phone.

I spent hours wildly making phone calls and asking every friend I knew about Isabella's whereabouts, only to learn that she'd taken Phil on a trip to the northern states a few days earlier.

It would take at least six hours to get there from my current location. Dad didn't have that much time left.

I couldn't remember how I returned to the hospital room. All I remembered was Mom's hopeful expression as she looked at me and asked, "Didn't you say you managed to borrow the money, Adrian? The doctor said that if we don't pay the fees now, it'll be too late to save Cedric!"

I met Mom's earnest gaze, then looked at Dad, who was breathing weakly on the hospital bed. I opened my mouth but could not make a sound.

I collapsed right there in the hospital from the combined shock of losing a kidney and then suffering such a traumatic experience.

When I next woke up, Mom was sitting by my bedside with bloodshot eyes, looking as if she'd aged ten years in a single night.

"Adrian, your father's gone."

Half an hour after I lost consciousness, Dad closed his eyes for the last time, having missed the optimal timing for surgery.

Mom had watched in despair as Dad slowly breathed his last while still having to care for me at my bedside.

I didn't know exactly what she felt that night. All I recalled was her graying hair.

Mom asked me tearfully, "Didn't you manage to borrow the money? Why… Why did things turn out like this?"

I sobbed as I told Mom what had happened, though I withheld the fact that I'd sold my kidney for money. I only mentioned that Isabella had spent everything.

Mom, already pale as a sheet, looked even frailer.

After explaining things to her, I struggled to get out of bed. I stumbled along with the IV drip still attached to my arm, wanting to see Dad for the last time.

As I wept over Dad's body, I saw the two people I least expected to see.

Isabella and Phil actually turned up at the hospital.

They weren't here to repent, nor were they here to visit Dad.

The two of them stood arm-in-arm, looking condescendingly down at me. In Phil's hand, the brand new key to the luxury car glinted under the lights of the hospital corridor, cold and glaring.

I stared blankly at the key, dazed.

Isabella walked over to me, glanced at Dad's face, and cursed him for being bad luck. Then, she said disdainfully to me, "Your Dad's dead anyway, so you can save yourself the hassle. This is perfect timing—let's get a divorce. I want to marry Phil."

Mom trembled with anger at her words. She jabbed a finger in Isabella's direction and yelled, "You damn bitch! Where do you get the nerve to say such a thing? You were the one who—"

Mom was too agitated to breathe properly. Her face turned blue, and she fell backward with a hand to her chest.

I rushed over to her in panic. "Mom!"

Nearby medical personnel rushed over to provide emergency aid. It was complete chaos.

A nurse who knew of our situation recognized Isabella and Phil. She was so furious that she yelled at them on the spot, "Do you even have any decency in you? You used their emergency funds to buy yourself a luxury car, then came to the hospital to rub things in! You're the lowest of the low!"

Amid the shouting and the chaos, I gazed at Mom, who was unconscious. I then looked at cold, heartless Isabella and smug Phil with dead calm.

I took a deep breath, exhausted all my strength to stand, and said calmly to Isabella, "Okay. I agree to the divorce."

Isabella was momentarily caught off guard, but then she smiled with delight. "A smart move! I've already spent all 300,000 dollars, so don't even think about getting it back!"

I nodded expressionlessly. "Sure. I'm willing to walk away from this marriage with nothing."

"Adrian! Have you gone mad?"

Mom, whom the paramedics had just barely resuscitated, cried out at me in anguish, "Your father only just died! You… You ingrate! Are you going to give up on avenging him—or even me—for the sake of that bitch?

"Get lost! You're no son of mine!"

The surrounding relatives and medical personnel were also looking at me with disbelief—even contempt, for some—in their eyes.

I heard them calling me a spineless coward and a wretched ingrate. I heard them insulting me for disregarding my own father's death for the sake of one woman.

Phil had his arm around Isabella and a smug grin on his face.

I didn't attempt to explain myself. I simply signed the divorce agreement.

Mom severed all ties with me right then and there.

Isabella swaggered off in Phil's embrace. Mom kicked me out as well, yelling that I didn't deserve to be in Dad's presence ever again.

I shuffled out of the city like a zombie, rented myself a cheap but dilapidated house to stay in, and started living elsewhere.

I didn't return for the next 15 years.