All Chapters of Parting of the Ways: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

My heart seized in my chest.Howard York had been sent on a work assignment three months ago, and ever since, this was the kind of reply I had received every single day.When I was injured by a piece of falling debris from a high-rise building, I clutched my bleeding leg and sent him a message. He replied instantly. [Rest up. Stay hydrated.]When my manager cornered me in the parking garage and verbally harassed me, I broke down in tears and messaged him, pleading for help. He replied instantly. [Don’t be scared. Everything will be okay.]Even on the night our daughter suffered an anaphylactic shock, I stood outside the ICU, my hands trembling as I begged him to hurry home. Still, he replied instantly. [Trust the doctors. She will pull through.]Right now, my phone vibrated again, displaying that same cold, distant reply.I stared at those words on the screen and suddenly burst out laughing. However, as I laughed, a bitter, metallic taste filled my mouth. Outside the emerge

The next day, I picked out a burial plot at the cemetery and pulled out my bank card. The card reader beeped with an error prompt that read “Transaction Failed.”Insufficient balance?I froze, my fingers trembling as I swiped the card a second time.“I’m sorry. Your account has been frozen.”My heart sank, and I instinctively dialed Howard’s number.“I’m sorry. The number you have dialed is busy…“I’m sorry. The number you have dialed cannot be reached at the moment…”I redialed his number over and over until all that remained from the receiver was the busy beeping tone. In total despair, I sent him a message. [Howard, has the card been frozen? I need that money to cover Lily’s funeral arrangements. I’m begging you, please unfreeze it.]A few seconds later, my phone vibrated. Full of hope, I tapped it open, only to see that familiar automated reply. [Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.]I was fuming.Looking at Lily’s innocent smile in the black-and-white photo not far away, I b

Suddenly, I burst out laughing, which eventually turned into a heart-wrenching, racking cough. Tears streamed down my face. My heart felt as though it was being crushed, and the pain was so intense that I couldn’t even stand up straight.So, it was never that he didn’t have money. He had simply poured every last cent into taking care of that “financially struggling” Jolene.I held my phone and stared at the text notification confirming the twenty thousand dollar deposit, my heart breaking. If Howard had given me even a tenth of that amount, Lily could’ve been transferred to the best private hospital and had a fighting chance at survival.I wiped away my tears, stood up, and thanked the HR manager. “Thank you.”As I walked out of the office, I heard the employees whispering around me.“Hey, look. That’s Howard York’s wife.”“I heard that because of Jolene, Howard couldn’t care less whether his daughter was dead or alive.”“I knew it! I was wondering how Jolene could afford to wan

Howard’s triumphant expression froze, as if he had just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. He shook his head violently. “Impossible! That’s absolutely impossible! You made a mistake. Lily… She was literally in school just two days ago!”“The death certificate was issued by City Hospital. The cause of death was a car accident, followed by a hemorrhage.”The officer sighed as he looked at the man who was still deluding himself and continued, “Furthermore, we do have a record here stating that, at that time, due to an urgent need for a rare blood type, you personally went to the hospital for a blood donation, though… you arrived too late.”The car keys slipped from Howard’s trembling hand and clattered to the floor. As if the wind had been knocked out of him, he staggered backward and crashed into the wall.Three days ago, he had gone for a blood donation, except he had used it to save Jolene. So, that meant every word I spoke was true, and he, with his own hands, had kil

That year, Howard went mad. He wandered the streets, scouring every corner of the city trying to catch a trace of me.First, he went to my parents’ house, but they had moved away half a year ago. When the neighbors saw him hammering on the door while reeking of alcohol, they assumed he was just a lunatic and refused to tell him where my family had gone.Next, he went to my old workplace. My former colleagues, who used to bow and scrape before him, now treated him like the plague.The receptionist stopped him and stated, “Riley? She quit long ago, and nobody knows where she went.”Refusing to give up, he begged my former manager for help.That manager had once accepted a two thousand-dollar gift card from him, but now he slammed his mug onto the desk and pointed right at Howard’s nose, cursing, “Howard York, how dare you show up here? You drove your own daughter to her death for your mistress, and now you’re trying to track Riley down? Let me tell you something. Even if I knew, I w