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Chapter 3

Author: Piglet at Sunrise
He looked down at trembling Nora with impatience written all over his face.

"Don't be so selfish."

I stepped forward and pressed Nora's hand down.

Then I pulled her behind me.

I looked at Marcus's sanctimonious face, my voice without a ripple.

"Fine. Take it."

Marcus froze for a moment.

Apparently, he hadn't expected me to be so easy to talk to.

In the past, whenever something related to my grandmother was involved, I would fight him with everything I had.

But he quickly smiled with satisfaction.

"That's more like it. We're family. There's no need to separate everything so clearly."

He took the dress and turned toward the door.

Before leaving, he didn't forget to remind us, "I absolutely won't miss tomorrow's birthday party.

"Get ready early."

The door slammed shut.

The instant it closed, Nora finally broke down and sobbed.

She cried so hard she could barely breathe.

Her chest heaved violently, and her throat made a wheezing sound like a broken bellows.

Her asthma almost flared.

I immediately took out her inhaler and pressed it twice into her mouth.

Then I held her tightly.

While patting her back, I coaxed her softly, "Don't cry.

"Let the thief take away everything that doesn't belong to us.

"After your birthday tomorrow, Mommy will take you somewhere far away from robbers and that man."

Nora buried her face in the hollow of my neck.

Her tears soaked my collar.

She nodded hard through her sobs.

On the third day, Nora's seventh birthday, I woke early.

I went to the kitchen and made a red velvet cake.

It was Nora's real favorite.

No strawberries. Only rich chocolate and cream cheese.

At noon, we sat in the empty house.

The storage room had been cleared completely.

I placed the signed divorce agreement in the center of the dining table.

Beside it, I left the house keys and the wedding ring I had worn for seven years.

At two in the afternoon, only two hours remained before the ocean-view birthday dinner.

The phone on the table suddenly vibrated.

Marcus's name flashed on the screen.

I answered.

On the other end, the background was full of emergency department noise.

There was also Clara's affected sobbing.

Marcus sounded anxious and absolute. "Sophie, Jacey has a high fever and mild pneumonia.

"Clara can't handle registration by herself. She's almost panicking.

"I can't leave today.

"Cancel the birthday dinner. I'll make it up to Nora next week."

After a pause, he added in that tone of entitlement, "Tell our daughter for me.

"She's sensible. She'll understand."

In the past, words like that would have made me scream at him.

Was his biological daughter's birthday worth less than an outsider's cold?

I would have cried. I would have made a scene. I would have despaired.

But today, I looked at the divorce agreement on the table.

I only said one word.

"Okay."

Marcus, on the other end of the line, went still instead.

His breathing paused for two seconds.

He seemed unable to believe I was being so agreeable, without even one complaint.

"You're... not angry, are you?"

He tested me.

"No."

My voice was calm.

He exhaled in relief.

"That's good. I'm going to pay Clara's bill first. I'll hang up."

Then he hung up with a clear conscience.

He went to comfort his first love.

Nora came out of her room holding her picture diary.

It was her favorite sketchbook.

On the first page, she had drawn our family of three at the zoo.

On the second page, the outline of Daddy had begun to fade.

By the last page, only Mommy was left, holding her hand.
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  • No Longer His Little Girl   Chapter 9

    Marcus's face went paler. He tried to reach for the hem of my skirt.I stepped back in disgust."You came to beg me today not because you love me, and definitely not because you love your daughter."You just can't accept that the control you held over us has been broken."You can't stand that the accessories you treated like tools abandoned you first."I looked down at him."Don't use fatherly love to disgust me. Deep down, the only person you love is yourself."Just then, Ryan walked out of the building.Seeing the scene, he didn't get angry.He came over naturally and handed me a hot coffee.Then he said to Marcus gently, "Mr. Doakes, devotion that shows up this late is cheaper than dirt."Sophie's doing just fine now."She doesn't need you circling back like a late garbage truck."I took Ryan's hand smoothly.Our fingers intertwined.Facing Marcus, I gave my most genuine smile in a year."He's right."Thank you for refusing to let go back then. Otherwise, I wouldn't

  • No Longer His Little Girl   Chapter 8

    The man's name was Ryan Lawson.He was my supervisor, and also the suitor who had spent the most time with us over the past year.Marcus hid behind the shadowed trees.Jealousy drove him mad, his eyes blood-red.But he didn't dare rush forward.For the next few days, he lived like a rat in the gutter.Wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, he followed us to the supermarket and to the amusement park.He watched Ryan carefully avoid every strawberry-flavored snack in the supermarket.He watched Ryan sit on the carpet and patiently build Lego with Nora for two whole hours.Marcus's heart was sliced apart inch by inch.He had once had the chance to do all of this.But he had given it all away to someone else.The weekend park was full of sunlight.Nora was riding her scooter in the square.Ryan had gone to buy water, and I sat on a bench reading documents.Suddenly, Nora lost control of the scooter.It tilted, and she fell hard to the ground.Her knee scraped open."Waaah

  • No Longer His Little Girl   Chapter 7

    Two sharp slaps rang out.Marcus slapped himself hard across the face twice.The force was so great that blood instantly seeped from the corner of his mouth.Clara dropped to her knees, groveling on the floor and frantically begging for mercy."Marcus, I was wrong. I only did it because I love you too much. I was afraid they'd take you away from us..."Marcus didn't hesitate.He kicked her aside."Reflect on how you became a mother in prison."He handed the surveillance footage and evidence directly to the police and reported Clara for child abuse.At the same time, he withdrew every bit of financial support he had given Clara and Jacey.He also reclaimed the apartment.Revenge had been taken.But his home was gone.Marcus returned to the empty house.Holding the hand-embroidered silk princess dress he had taken back, now stained and dirty, he curled up in the corner and cried like a stray dog.Meanwhile, the scene shifted.In Melbourne, the morning sun was bright.I w

  • No Longer His Little Girl   Chapter 6

    The recording cut off.Marcus staggered back as if struck by lightning.He refused to believe it.He used every connection he had to investigate flight records and train records.Only then did he discover I had applied for an international transfer half a month earlier.I had also set the highest level of information barriers around our records.The control he had always been so proud of had become a complete joke in the face of my decisive departure.In despair, his gaze fell on the last page of Nora's diary.There was a drawing with one corner torn off.He turned it over.On the back was a sentence."Mom says Mister is a robber."One day, another robber will come and bite him back."Marcus's eyes went bloodshot.He grabbed his car keys and drove, like a raging beast, straight to Clara's home.With a loud crash, Marcus kicked open Clara's security door.Clara was still wearing a sexy silk nightgown.Thinking Marcus had come to apologize, she was about to put on airs.

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    At six-thirty that evening, Marcus drove like a madman to the ocean-view restaurant.When he pushed open the private room door, it was empty.He frantically dialed my phone.All he got was the notification that it was turned off.He spun around and rushed out of the restaurant.Then he floored the accelerator and sped back home, running two red lights on the way.At exactly seven, Marcus kicked open the front door.What greeted him was a house full of dead, dark silence.And empty closets.He switched on the lights.On the dining table, the signed divorce agreement and the cold wedding ring instantly stabbed his eyes.At that same moment, on the other side of the city, the transoceanic flight to the southern hemisphere roared into the sky.Marcus, his hands trembling, dialed the number that would never connect again.From the receiver came only that cold automated voice.He dropped to his knees in the empty living room.A desperate, tearing howl ripped from his throat.

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