Chapter 4

Numbly, I handled my grandmother’s funeral arrangements. For a whole week, I was in a daze. I didn’t eat, drink, cry, or make a scene. I was like a walking corpse—an empty shell stripped of its soul.

My grandmother was my only surviving family in this entire world. Now that she was gone, I was truly all alone, with no one left to lean on.

On the eighth day, Zoe finally came home. She was wearing a beautiful dress, and her face radiated a glow of someone who had just returned from a trip.

The moment she saw me, she barely managed a guilty look on her face.

“Connor, I’m sorry. I–”

Before she could finish her sentence, I lunged at her like a madman. I grabbed her by the throat, my eyes bloodshot as I directed all my rage into my grip.

“Zoe Nicholson, you absolute bitch! You killed my grandmother! She was in critical condition! I called you over a hundred times! And what were you doing? You were off on a vacation with Joshua! Tell me, do you even have a heart?”

Her face quickly turned purple under my grip. Gasping for air, she clawed frantically at my arms as she tried with all her power to break free.

Just as I was about to lose my mind and choke the life out of her, my grandmother’s kind, gentle face suddenly flashed before my eyes. It was as if she were whispering to me, “Connor, don’t be impulsive. Don’t do anything foolish.”

In an instant, clarity came back to me, and I slowly unclasped my fingers and let go.

Zoe gasped for air, her face as pale as paper. Yet, she wasn’t angry at all. She merely looked at me and offered a flat excuse.

“Your grandmother was already critically ill. Even if the surgery had succeeded, she wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway. Rather than keeping her around and making her suffer, it’s better to put her out of her misery sooner.

“Besides, Joshua has been feeling down lately. What’s wrong with me taking him out to clear his head? He was there for me when I needed help before. I couldn't just turn my back on him.”

Shaking with pure anger, I pointed a finger at her, but I couldn’t even piece together a complete sentence.

How could she say something so completely cold-blooded and heartless?

She knew my grandmother was the most precious person to me in the world.

She knew how desperately I had wished my grandmother could pull through and stay by my side for just a little longer, yet she still chose Joshua; she chose to ignore my agonizing pain and turn a blind eye to my grandmother’s life.

What broke me even further was what she said next. Like a blade, her words stabbed me in the heart, inflicting a pain so agonizing I couldn’t even breathe.

“You’ve had no parents since you were little, so you’ve never experienced what it’s like to have a family. It’s only natural that you don’t understand the bond between Joshua and me, or why I needed to keep him company.”

I stared at her in disbelief. She knew damned well that my parents died tragically in a car crash when I was only five years old and that it was my grandmother who had raised me all by herself.

Family was the only thing that kept me going. Yet, she chose to use that very thing to hurt me and to use my pain as an excuse for her callousness.

In that split second, I snapped. Like a madman, I let out a feral howl.

I tried to hurl myself at her to hit her and force her to pay a devastating price for my grandmother’s death, but she simply stepped aside and watched me coldly.

She didn’t look remorseful at all. Instead, she looked at me with contempt.

“Quit the act, Connor. You’ve been wanting to do this to me for a long time, haven’t you? You didn’t remarry me for your grandmother. You did it to get revenge on me, didn’t you?”

After she walked out, I collapsed onto the floor. Staring up at my grandmother’s portrait, the tears I had suppressed for so long finally streamed down my face.

I hated her. I hated her callousness. I hated how heartless she was. I hated that she had destroyed everything I had. I hated that she had killed my only family left.

At that moment, my phone suddenly buzzed. It was a message from Joshua.

[Connor, I heard your grandmother died? My condolences. Actually, you can’t really blame Zoe. I insisted she come on vacation with me. I told her I was feeling down, and she just couldn’t bring herself to turn me down. Then again, you were the one who insisted on remarrying Zoe anyway. If you want to blame someone, you can only blame yourself for being so stupid and humble.]