Chapter 4

“Dad! Dad!”

I tried to go after him, but his men forcibly held me back.

All I could do was watch him disappear into the distance, heading toward the abyss he was destined never to escape.

“Dad! How dare you leave!”

I snatched a knife from one of his men.

Shane turned around.

What he saw was me holding the blade against my throat.

“Stop!”

He cried out.

I hadn’t been bluffing.

The blade cut into my neck.

He rushed over and tried to force it down, but he couldn’t overpower me.

“I won’t leave! Is that what you want to hear? I won’t leave!”

Only then did I stop.

“Honey!”

Nancy’s eyes reddened.

Shane glanced back at her, then at the knife I was gripping tightly.

He turned around and hugged Nancy.

Then he sat down in the chair where I had tied him up earlier.

“I’ll stay a little longer and try to talk some sense into him.”

“But, honey…”

“You wait outside.”

At that moment, Mom was still a young, devoted wife who obeyed Dad’s every word.

So, she could only glare at me, stomp her foot, and leave.

Dad turned to me.

“Buddy, I can only stay with you for a little while.

“If you insist on going down this path, even I won’t be able to save you.”

I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Even a little while was enough.

Suzy would definitely come soon.

Once she arrived, Dad would be saved.

And it was time for me to leave his life.

I crouched in front of him and rested a hand on his knee.

“It’s okay. Getting to see you one more time is enough for me.”

He froze.

After a brief silence, he spoke.

“If what you said is true, and you stopped her and me from getting married, wouldn’t you disappear too?”

I smiled.

“I won’t.”

My soul would become the happiness Dad carried with him for the rest of his life.

The cursed fate awaiting Nancy would become a blessing for Dad and Suzy’s destined love.

“Dad…”

I clasped his hand.

“Will you pat my head one last time?”

Just like he had when I was little.

Shane froze.

After a moment’s hesitation, he raised his hand.

Then he gently stroked my hair.

I curved my lips into a smile.

That was enough.

This was enough.

I closed my eyes.

But the next second, a sharp chemical smell suddenly filled my nose.

My breath caught.

It was the same sedative I had used to knock Dad unconscious earlier.

I opened my eyes wide.

Dad had pressed a handkerchief over my nose and mouth. I struggled weakly, but after inhaling too much of the sedative, my body gradually went limp.

Just before I lost consciousness, I heard the door open.

Nancy’s hurried footsteps approached.

“Honey!”

Dad stood up.

He took her hand.

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Dad… Dad…”

When I woke again, I was alone in the warehouse.

I stumbled outside.

The harbor had long since been deserted.

A cruise ship was pulling into the dock.

A woman’s frantic voice rang out.

“Don’t hold me back! I can’t let Shane marry her! Let me go!”

“Miss York, please calm down. The ship hasn’t docked yet—you could fall overboard!”

I watched the familiar figure struggle desperately to get ashore, only to be held back by her men.

A metallic sweetness rose in my throat.

Suzy’s ship arrived too late.

Before Dad decided to stay, he quietly took the sedative from Mom while hugging her.

He never changed his mind.

He only knocked me unconscious to stop me from killing myself.

“Dad, you traitor!”