Thieves of My Son's Mother's Love

I remembered that last month, Selena came home with a box of cherries. Simon wanted to eat them. Just as he reached for them, Selena slapped his hand away. "These are for Katy."She frowned as she put the cherries into an exquisite gift box. "Katy's never had such good fruit before. Let her try some. You can have cherries every day at home. Why are you fighting with her over it?"Simon froze. The back of his hand had turned red, and his eyes were filled with tears. That night, Selena didn't even have dinner at home, so that she could drop off this box of cherries to Katy Carter. And on the same night, Simon came down with a low-grade fever and kept complaining of tightness in his chest. When Selena got home, all she said was, "He's so sensitive. He'll be fine after a night's sleep. Boys aren't that fragile."Even when Simon was diagnosed with a heart condition and needed her signature for the surgery, she blew up at me over the phone. She said I was always pestering her abou

Selena didn't even look at Simon, all her attention going to comforting Katy. "Katy, don't cry. I'll buy you an ice cream later."I turned to look at Simon, who didn't even cry. He simply stared at Selena in silence, his eyes filled with a lifelessness no kid his age should have. I suddenly spotted a red mark on Simon's arm. "Simon, what happened to your arm?"Simon shrank back. "It was… Katy. She pinched me earlier."My head buzzed. Simon had delicate skin and was prone to bruising. Even the slightest pressure would leave his skin red and swollen."Katy pinched you?""She said… I'm going to die young. She said I took her mother from her."I immediately turned to glare at Katy, who was still crying crocodile tears. "Joe, is this how you raise your daughter?"Joe's eyes flickered. "Children always talk nonsense… Katy, did Simon hear that wrong?"With Selena there, Katy made a face at me. "He's going to die young, isn't he? Daddy told me Ms. Aston is going to be my mommy some

I had no idea how I made my way to Room 1208. I even lost a shoe in the process. When my feet hit the glass shards, I didn't even feel the pain. Room 1208 was in complete chaos. An old man in the next bed was coughing hard, spitting phlegm all over the floor.Simon's face was swollen badly and had turned red. He opened his mouth as he tried to breathe, but he couldn't even make a sound. "Simon!" Julie was administering epinephrine to Simon."Who gave the kid mango?" Julie roared. "It's stated in the medical record that he has a severe mango allergy!"A caregiver nearby was cowering in the corner, holding some mango peel. "I… I saw the kid crying and wanted to give him some fruit…" This was supposedly the best caregiver Selena had hired. "Get lost!" I rushed over and punched the caregiver in the face. "If anything happens to Simon, you'll pay for it!" After half an hour of resuscitation efforts, Simon's airway finally cleared. Even the swelling and redness were gradually

I officially filed for divorce in court. When Selena received the divorce papers, she was still out at the amusement park with Joe and Katy. Selena's guilt didn't even last a week. In the end, just a single call from Joe was enough to pull her away from us. Selena rushed to the hospital and threw the papers in my face."Eric, are you for real?""Of course. Did you think I did that for fun?" I stared at Selena coldly. "I'm not agreeing to a divorce!" Selena roared. "I only sent Joe that money because I was lending it to him. "So what if colleagues help each other out? Those photos… They were edited! We only took those photos for fun during the team-building activity!""Save that for the judge.""Eric, don't take it too far. Once we're divorced, you'll be stuck with a sickly son. Who would even want to marry you?"I earn 500 thousand a year. Once we're divorced, I can still find someone younger to marry me!""Then I wish you all the best." Seeing that the tough approach

Selena agreed to the divorce and walked away with nothing. The house, the car, and all the savings belonged to me. She even had to pay five thousand dollars a month in child support for Simon and return the more than one hundred thousand dollars she had previously transferred to Joe. The moment Selena stepped out of the courthouse, the divorce certificate in hand, she caught up to me and tugged at my sleeve. "Eric, could you… Could you let me have the car? I need it for work."I stopped in my tracks and looked down at the hand clutching my sleeve. In the past, I used to hold that hand as we walked down the aisle and vowed never to betray each other. Later, that same hand peeled prawns for Joe, opened bottles for Katy, and shoved me into getting my blood drawn. And now, that hand was trembling, as if pleading for mercy. "Selena, that's my car." I looked at her, my gaze calm. "Back then, you sold our family car just to buy a limited-edition watch for Joe. My parents saw how