جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

My voice was ruined ten years ago.That was supposed to be the most fulfilling year of my life. My family was whole, and my career was thriving. Industry interviews poured in nonstop.Aileen had even planned a unique underwater proposal for me back then.Beside the brilliant coral reefs, she gently slid a butterflyfish ring—a symbol of eternal loyalty—onto my finger.On dozens of submersibles surrounding us, the same message flashed across the lights. "Hendrick, I will love you faithfully until the day I die."Sadly, that grand proposal didn't quite end on a sweet note.Mateo was still just a salt worker back then when he happened to fall into the water.After he was pulled out, I brought him to the changing room to dry off.Back then, Mateo was dark, frail, and always carried a trace of self-doubt whenever he met anyone.I felt bad for him and began to care for him like a real brother, helping him out wherever I could.I gave him a job and invited him into my academic resear

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

Silence fell for a brief moment before the phone suddenly slipped from Aileen's hand and clattered to the floor.Only then did she snap back to reality.Her gaze burned into me. "Hendrick, this is utterly absurd! Fine if you want to throw a fit, but how dare you make a joke out of Hailey! Do you have a single shred of parental responsibility left in you?"The next instant, as if a thought had crossed her mind, she let out a cold sneer. "Did you really think I wouldn't be able to find Hailey just because you hid her away? If you don't get up right now, I swear I will never let her recognize you as her father ever again."Aileen assumed that the moment I heard about Hailey, I would struggle to my feet.She thought I would drop my dignity, tug on the hem of her skirt, and beg her, just like I did ten years ago when she was shipping us off to that isolated island.Or perhaps she expected me to sneer at her with the same sharp defiance Hendrick had always shown back then.Yet right n

Aileen stood frozen.After a long silence, a dry laugh escaped her lips. "How is that possible? Hendrick can't be dead. According to the phone call's prophecy, he was supposed to haunt Mateo and me like an inescapable curse."Her certainty vanished into thin air the moment she set eyes on my body.Sean stared at her with a cold, detached gaze. "I shouldn't have brought you here to disturb his peace again, but I won't stand by and let you slander him even in death."Aileen's eyes locked onto the arm peeking out from under the white sheet.On it was a scar I had gotten years ago while shielding her from scalding soup.Back then, she had kissed that scar countless times. There was no way she could ever mistake it.Her body suddenly swayed, and her face drained of color in an instant.I watched in silence as she staggered forward and grasped my already cold hand."Hendrick?" she called out softly, her smile waning. "Get up already. I'm here to take you home."Those few simple wor

After settling everything, Aileen took Hailey's ashes and went to the tiny shack where I had lived for ten years.A bed made from two wooden planks and an uneven table were pretty much all the shack contained.I didn't know if she thought back to the year we got married like I did.Aileen had decorated our entire home according to my preferences back then.She used to say that whenever I grew tired of drifting at sea, home would always be my permanent safe harbor.Yet now, as her fingers brushed across the rough, uneven walls, her eyes turned red bit by bit.She collapsed onto the bed, her fingers digging deep into her hair.Suddenly, a yellowed notebook slipped out from beneath the rag pillow.Looking at the notebook, I froze for a second.Aileen had already picked it up and was flipping through its pages one by one."I dreamed of Hailey again today. She told me it doesn't hurt anymore and asked me not to cry."The wind and waves at sea were too rough today to head out. I n