Chapter 4

Crushed under the weight of immense shock and agony, I developed self-destructive tendencies.

It took Mom's life to finally buy a shred of Aileen's remorse.

She stayed by my bedside day and night, keeping watch so I wouldn't do anything reckless.

She promised to spend the rest of her days carving out time to make it up to me.

Even Mateo apologized in a hoarse voice. "I didn't mean for your mother to find out. I had no idea someone would reach out to her…"

Yet in his eyes, there was no regret, only provocation and satisfaction.

He had lured Mom to the wedding on purpose.

At that moment, pure hatred burned away whatever sanity I had left.

Like a lunatic, I dragged him up to the rooftop, screaming for him to pay with his life.

Aileen rushed over, putting her heavily pregnant body on the line to shield him.

The strain triggered premature labor, forcing her into an emergency delivery.

I waited outside her hospital room for a day and a night, wracked with guilt.

Yet when she woke up, she pushed me away with utter disgust, refusing even to look at the child she had nearly died giving birth to.

"Hendrick, are you satisfied now? Your child almost killed me! If you keep acting like a lunatic, your mother's death will only be the beginning of the punishment you deserve."

My mind went completely blank. I stared at her in a daze.

In that single instant, every trace of love and hate seemed to burn into ash.

All energy drained from my body, leaving only a bitter smile on my face.

"Forget it, Aileen. I'm letting you go. We're done."

Aileen froze, her grip unconsciously slackening.

Mateo, however, chimed in indignantly, as though he were in the right. "Aileen, the phone call's prophecy has already come true. He almost got you killed, and now he's driving me to my death. Are you really going to let him leave?

"I refuse to let his child call me a useless coward every day like in the prophecy, nor do I want to be dragged off to the black market and humiliated. If you're going to protect him, I might as well die right now."

Aileen's expression turned cold at those words. The last trace of hesitation vanished from her eyes.

She personally had me and our baby, Hailey Watson, sent to a psychiatric hospital on a remote island.

"Hendrick, as long as you stay here, no one will ever find peace. I'll come back for you someday."

A single lock and the vast ocean cut off every possible way for me to call for help.

Hailey was less than a month old. Soon after the abrupt change of environment, she developed a high fever.

I banged on the doors until the bones in my wrists shattered and screamed until my vocal cords tore, but no one came to help us.

In the end, Hailey's tiny body grew cold and stiff in my arms.

In absolute despair, I threw myself into the deep sea.

Yet I didn't die.

Instead, the currents washed me ashore at a fishing village far, far away from the island. Far enough that even buying a boat ride back to retrieve Hailey's body required a small fortune.

Ten years passed, and the high-spirited Hendrick of the past was long gone.

All that remained was a mute fisherman risking his life every day just for a few coins.

So when Aileen said she wanted to take me back and help me get my voice back, I pushed her away with all my strength.

"There's no point, Aileen. I'm dying," I signed. "If you really want to do something for me, then take me back to bring Hailey home."