Chapter 3

The room fell silent.

Everyone who had been cooing over the baby went quiet when they saw the tiny urn in my arms.

Megan's eyes widened.

She forced a smile. "Henry, it's not what you think."

She quickly handed the baby to Alan and rushed toward me. "Honey, that is Alan's baby he had with another woman while he was overseas. The mother didn't want anything to do with the baby, so I'm just helping out."

Just as she finished speaking, the baby in Alan's arms started wailing at the top of his lungs until his face turned purple.

Megan immediately called for the family doctor, her hands trembling with panic.

The doctor examined the baby thoroughly, but he found nothing wrong.

With tears welling in his eyes, Alan pointed at the urn in my arms. "Megan, could it be because of that thing?" he shouted.

"Hurry, get rid of it! If Bruce keeps crying like this, he could die!"

Megan's face darkened. She walked toward me. "Henry, give me the urn."

I held the urn protectively against my chest and stared at her in disbelief.

"Megan, this is your child, too! This is the only thing he left behind in this world!"

Megan was stunned for a moment.

As she was about to speak, the baby started crying again.

"Megan, Bruce is struggling to breathe!

"Henry, I know you hate me, but my child is innocent!"

Alan dropped to his knees, clung to my leg, and begged. However, under the guise of begging, he dug his fingernails into my flesh.

The pain threw me off guard.

While I was distracted, Pauline snatched the urn from me and threw it out the window.

The urn shattered into pieces.

I ran outside like a madman.

It was pouring outside. A handful of what remained of my child's ashes was washed into the mud.

Seeing me completely break down, Megan seemed to finally realize what she had done and rushed over to hug me. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Henry, I'm sorry! I was just panicking!"

Alan's eyes were red-rimmed. "Henry, I was afraid something would happen to Bruce. I didn't know that those were the ashes of your child with Megan."

Pauline, the woman I'd always considered family, stood beside Alan and turned on me.

"Henry, how long are you going to pull these crazy stunts just to make Megan come back to you?

"Four years ago, you threatened to kill yourself. And now, you showed up at Bruce's birthday party with an urn and caused a scene. We're all so sick of all your stunts!"

So, to them, each time I called for help while on the verge of breaking down was nothing more than another scheme.

They were the people who mattered the most to me, yet they turned a blind eye to my suffering and helped Megan keep me in the dark for ten years.

In that instant, the depression I spent four years treating had been undone.

I grabbed the fruit knife from the table and drove it toward myself.

"Henry, what are you doing?"

Megan cared so much about Alan that she didn't even see where my knife was pointed. She kicked me so hard, sending me flying.

The pain made me instinctively call out to them for help.

However, Pauline looked at me with disgust and shouted, "Hold him down! Don't let him hurt Alan!"

The people around immediately pinned me to the muddy ground.

As I slipped into unconsciousness, I caught a glimpse of the wariness in everyone's eyes.

Back then, Pauline held a knife to Megan and made her come back to me when I found out she had cheated on me.

Yet, today, still shaken by what had just happened, she said, "Megan, if I'd known Henry would go this far and try to kill someone, we should've let him die with the baby in that house four years ago."

This time, Megan didn't say a word. Neither did anyone else.

Their silence made me realize that not a single person I loved wanted me to live.