Chapter 3 The Day I Walked Away

I stared blankly at my mother.

I had always known she had never loved me as much as I had wanted her to. But this was the first time she had ever struck me with such force. All to protect the man who had come between my marriage.

"Jensen, how could you insult Ian like that?" my sister snapped. "Just because you cheated doesn't mean everyone else is as morally impaired as you are."

I looked at my younger sister, standing so self-righteously beside my wife, helping her spread lies about me, and found myself unable to describe what I felt.

Just three years earlier, at my wedding to Natalie, she had cried harder than anyone. She had clung to me, saying she could not bear to see her brother leave home.

Perhaps she could not stand the way I was looking at her now. Slowly, she turned her face away, avoiding my eyes.

Everything had changed.

Silently, I slipped the wedding ring off my finger for the first time in three years.

The years under the mountain sun had left my skin deeply tanned, except for the pale band hidden beneath the ring. It stood out starkly against the rest of my hand.

I tossed the ring onto the floor at Natalie's feet.

"Fine. I'll make this easy for all of you. I'll leave this marriage with nothing. Mom, since you like Ian so much, let him be your son from now on. Tanya, if you like him that much, then let him be your brother too."

Natalie froze, as though she wanted to say something, but I did not give her the chance. I simply turned and walked away.

…

Back at my dormitory, I quietly packed my belongings.

Over the past three years, I had rarely gone home. Every visit had been rushed. I arrived in a hurry and left just as quickly.

Compared to that house, this cramped dorm room had felt far more like home. As for the house… It had seemed as though Ian had been its true owner all along.

I pulled my suitcase shut and zipped it closed, forcing myself to stop dwelling on everything that had happened.

The next second, the dormitory door burst open with a deafening crash, slamming hard against the wall.

Natalie stormed inside, eyes blazing with panic, and slapped me across the face. "Jensen Slater! Where did you hide Ian? He said he was coming back to school to apologize to you, and now, no one can reach him!"

Pain exploded across my cheek as her manicured nails raked two long cuts into my skin.

My mother yanked me off the floor by my collar and demanded to know where Ian was. But I knew nothing, so I had nothing useful to tell them.

Mistaking my silence for stubborn refusal, Natalie grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the old pit latrine beside the school.

"So, that's how it's going to be, is that it? You brought this on yourself, Jensen. You probably don't know this, but Ian has a heart condition. He's in danger every minute he stays missing."

As she spoke, she dragged over a large burlap sack with something inside squirming.

She untied the opening and flipped the sack upside down. Several enormous pythons covered in mottled patterns spilled onto the ground. Their tongues flickered as they began slithering toward my feet.

"No! I don't know where he is!" I screamed. "Take them away! Please! Get them away from me!"

She knew I was terrified of snakes.

Three years earlier, shortly after I arrived in the mountains to teach, I had been bitten by a venomous snake. The county hospital had nearly lost me because they did not have the antivenom in time.

Back then, Natalie had kneeled beside my hospital bed, crying as she begged heaven to spare my life, saying she would gladly trade hers for mine. Now, just to force me to reveal Ian's whereabouts, she had chosen the cruelest possible way to torment me.

"Who else could've done it other than you?" she shouted. "Riverton's public security is excellent. How could he just disappear for no reason?"

Cold, slick scales slid across my body, and the suffocating stench unique to a pit latrine in the middle of summer filled the air, making me gag.

My cheek still throbbed where she had slapped me, but the pain in my heart was far worse. The suffering of the past three years had already driven me into depression. Natalie's accusations became the final blow.

Only a few days earlier, the hospital had diagnosed me with severe depression. Now, I had an episode. My entire body convulsed uncontrollably, foam gathered at the corners of my mouth, and my breathing became increasingly difficult.

The last thing I heard before losing consciousness was Natalie answering a phone call. "What? He's at the hospital? Okay, we're coming right now!"

The moment she hung up, everyone left.

No one cared whether I lived or died. It was not until a student came to use the restroom and found me unconscious on the ground that I was rushed to the hospital.

The doctor later told me that if I had arrived any later, I probably would have suffocated to death. He advised me to call my family to come stay with me. But when I unlocked my phone, the first thing I saw on social media was a photo Ian had just posted.

He was lying comfortably in a hospital bed, looking healthy and rosy. My mother sat beside him, peeling an apple; my sister made funny faces to cheer him up; and my wife… She stood there holding a bouquet, just about to present it to him.

At that moment, I lost all desire to tell them anything.

After finishing my IV drip, I dragged my exhausted body home, picked up my suitcase, and headed straight for the high-speed rail station. I did not want to remain in that city for even one more second.

My wife and my family were all at the hospital, keeping company with the thief who had stolen everything from me. No one knew I had left, and no one knew that I would never come back.