Chapter 6

Early the next morning, I received two emails.

One was an offer letter from the overseas project department. It was a position I had once begged for and given up three times for the sake of my family, but now its doors were finally open to me. This time, I had finally learned to put myself first.

The other was a threatening text message from Howard, followed immediately by my phone ringing.

“Riley Stone, have you lost your mind?”

The moment the call connected, his furious roaring blared through the speaker.

“You ran to my company wailing that our daughter is dead? Now the whole company is bad-mouthing me, calling me a cheating scumbag and calling Jolene a homewrecker! Do you have any idea how much hurt you’ve caused Jolene by doing this?”

My fingers trembled, and my stomach churned. I felt a genuine, physical disgust toward Howard.

“Howard,” I interrupted him softly, “Lily really is dead. She passed away that night when you took her blood supply.”

“Shut up!” he bellowed. “I knew you were just putting up an act! Riley, weren’t you just like this back in college, faking illness and playing pity cards just to get my attention? And now you’re pulling this trick about our daughter being dead? Do you think doing this will make me give in and come running back to appease you? Let me tell you, that is never going to happen!”

For a moment, my mind went blank, and my memories came flooding back.

Yes, I used to be like that. Back on campus, I used to follow him everywhere like a stalker.

If he mentioned in passing that his stomach hurt, I would run across the entire city in the pouring rain just to buy him soup from that hard-to-reach diner. If he failed an exam, I would stay up all night organizing revision materials for him, only to tell him afterward that his success was all thanks to his own hard work.

Back then, I thought that was love. Only now did I realize that in his eyes, I was nothing more than an embarrassing, clingy nuisance. That unequal dynamic had sealed our fate right from the very beginning.

“You don’t have to give in,” I said calmly. “And I won’t back down either. Howard, I’m serious this time.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Howard clearly hadn’t expected me to be so firm with my decision.

Promptly, he let out an even harsher sneer. “Fine! A divorce, right? I’ll sign the papers right now. I’d love to see which one of us will regret this!

“Also, you’d best head to my company immediately and clear things up, or I’ll head straight to the police station to sue you for defamation! You claim Lily is dead? Ha, I have proof that she’s perfectly fine! You’re just a lunatic fabricating stories to gain sympathy!”

At the mention that he was going to the police station to prove Lily was fine, my heart lurched.

How I wished this was all just a nightmare. How I wished that in the next second, Lily would come bouncing in front of me, safe and sound. Unfortunately, miracles like that weren’t real.

“Do whatever you want,” I replied.

With that, I hung up the phone and tossed it aside.

…

Fuming with rage, Howard rushed back from the beach holiday and stormed straight into his company.

He tried to defend himself to his colleagues. “Don’t listen to Riley’s nonsense! She’s mentally unstable! She’ll make up any lie just to force me to come home! Jolene and I are innocent. She was just facing some difficulties at work. What’s wrong with me looking out for her as her boss?”

However, the whispers around him didn’t stop. If anything, the disgust in their eyes grew.

Flustered and infuriated by their stares, Howard pulled out his phone and dialed 911.

“Hello, 911? I’d like to file a report. My wife, Riley Stone, is maliciously fabricating facts, defaming me for having an inappropriate relationship, and even cursing our daughter by claiming she’s dead… Yes, I want to press charges against her for defamation.”

Soon, two police officers arrived at the scene.

Howard rushed up to them, speaking hurriedly as he pointed at the surrounding crowd. “Officers, you arrived just in time! My colleagues were incited by my wife, and now they’re all spreading rumors about me!

“My daughter is perfectly fine. She’s not dead at all! My wife is just a lunatic who would say something so utterly wicked just for a bit of money! You can check the hospital records right now! My daughter, Lily York, is alive and well!”

Frowning, the police officer pulled out his handheld terminal and entered Lily’s name.

Howard crossed his arms, staring at the crowd with a triumphant expression. A cold smirk played at the corner of his lips, as if saying, ‘Just you wait. Riley will be going to jail.’

However, a few seconds later, the young officer’s expression changed. He glanced down at the screen, then looked back up at Howard oddly.

The officer said in a grave tone, “According to the system, Lily York, female, four years old, passed away three days ago.”

In that instant, time stood still.