Chapter 1 Chapter 1

"Don't be scared, Benji. I've already called an ambulance. Someone will be here to save you soon. Just hold on for a little longer, okay?" There was a trail of blood leading all the way to a cubicle inside the toilet. Just the sight was enough to sting my eyes. Benji had left the blood trail when he fled into the toilet earlier. I couldn't imagine just how scared he was, nor how much pain he had been suffering from… My body trembled as I clutched at Benji's forehead wound. But blood kept seeping through the gaps of my fingers. I couldn't stem the blood flow at all. I could hear an ambulance's sirens blaring from outside the window. "Benji, the ambulance is here! Help's coming for you!" But at that moment, Joshua Tucker ran past the window while cradling a boy in his arms. He headed for the ambulance right away. "Kenny, don't be scared! I won't let anything happen to you!" The ambulance left just as quickly as it had come. I could barely believe what I just witnessed. I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Don't go! I was the one who called the ambulance! Joshua, Benji is dying! Come back! "Joshua, please…" No one noticed that the actual victim was already on the brink of death. I called Joshua's number hurriedly. Heck, I even called him twice, yet he never picked up my calls. When I called him for the third time, Benji grasped my wrist with a bloodied hand. "Mom, stop calling him… Dad will never come back to us…" Tears rolled down my cheeks at that moment. "I'm not calling him. I'll call 911 again. Another ambulance will be here soon…" "Mom, I… I can't breathe…" Benji's hand felt so cold. It was even colder than the tiled floor beneath us. "I'm sorry, Mom… I can't protect you anymore in the future… Will you still choose to become my mother in my next life? But I don't want Dad anymore…" Before Benji could finish his sentence, his hand hung limply. My heart stopped beating for a moment. Intense pain finally flared from my chest a few seconds later. I couldn't care less about the blood that flowed out of Benji's wound continuously. Soon, I carried him on my back and stumbled out of the bathroom alongside the crimson trail. Benji's blood flowed down my neck. It felt warm, yet it continued trickling down silently. "Don't worry, Benji. Since the ambulance refuses to stop for you, I'll take you to the hospital myself." Thank goodness I ran into a good Samaritan, who drove us to the hospital immediately. I sank down on my knees in front of the doctor while begging him to save Benji's life. All he could do was shake his head as he sighed heavily. "Your son has already been dead for quite some time… My condolences to you, madam." "Nonsense! How could he be dead? He was still talking to me earlier! Please, doctor! Save him!" My vision was blurry with tears. My heart was in so much pain that I thought it was going to burst. Bright sunlight poured through the window, yet all I could see was darkness before my eyes. … I called Joshua during Benji's funeral. I had tried to reach out to him for the past three days. The call finally went through this time. "Joshua, Benji's—" "Don't you dare bring that name up in front of me! That bastard almost broke Kenny's arm! How can he continue playing the piano from now on? Rosalind cried so much that she almost fainted several times! This is all your fault for being such a failure of a mother…" I couldn't hear the rest of Joshua's indignant words, for I had already ended the call. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I vowed to make those who had bullied Benji pay ten times the price for making him suffer. As for Joshua… It was time for our ridiculous and pathetic marriage to come to an end.

Chapter 2 Chapter 2

When Benji's funeral was over, I headed to the hospital right away. Rosalind Lane's son, Kenneth Young, resided in a VIP ward. His arm was bandaged, and he could be seen chatting with Rosalind and Joshua animatedly. Joshua's expression crashed instantly the moment he saw me. He hurried out of the ward afterward. "Who told you to come here? Kenny's condition has just stabilized! Don't cause trouble for us, now!""Joshua Tucker, your son is dead, and yet all you care about is another woman's son!" I roared at Joshua hysterically, earning shocked looks from Rosalind and Kenneth. Joshua's expression darkened even more. He pushed me further away from the ward before warning me, "Watch your mouth, Eleanor Miller! It's difficult for Rosalind to raise her son on her own! What's wrong with me lending her a helping hand as the principal? "Besides, Benji was the one who had been bullying Kenny all these years! He had slashed Kenny's arm, you know! What makes you think you have the right to cause a ruckus at the hospital, huh?" I could memorize every single word that made up Joshua's hate speech toward Benji. Rosalind and her husband had already gotten a divorce. That was why Joshua took care of her all year round. To think that my own husband took care of another man's ex-wife so diligently despite the fact that we never got a divorce. Kenny's father had abandoned him. In return, Joshua took the father's place and showered him with paternal love. Benji's father might still be alive, yet his prolonged absence from his life made him no different from being dead. There was a time when a window in my house was broken during a winter month. The cold wind kept blowing into the house the whole time. But at that time, Joshua was busy learning new recipes for Rosalind and Kenny. He told me to find a builder to repair the window and that he didn't know how to repair it. I was also told not to rely on him to deal with everything in life. When I fell sick, I insisted on showing up at work. At that time, Joshua had taken Rosalind to another region just to attend a conference. In a way, the business trip became a leisure trip for them as well. He had told me not to be jealous of Rosalind. Even when it came to the teachers' rankings, my rank would be below Rosalind's. Joshua's excuse was that he needed to be fair as the high school principal. Therefore, he mustn't be biased toward me. Whenever he returned from business trips, he'd buy Kenny toys and gifts. Because of that, Kenny often showed off everything in front of Benji. Benji was so angry that he destroyed the only gift Joshua had given to him. However, he got punished by Joshua instead. Rosalind's son was a two-faced devil. He put up an obedient façade on the outside, but he was secretly twisted on the inside. In fact, he was always one of the people who constantly bullied Benji. But Joshua refused to listen to my side of the story, nor did he believe my words. On the contrary, he was brainwashed by Rosalind and Kenny into thinking that Benji was the bully instead. Every time they accused Benji of bullying them, poor Benji would end up with scars from Joshua's harsh disciplinary punishments. Such cases had happened so many times that it became a norm. As I gazed at Joshua's enraged expression, I felt like chortling all of a sudden. "Fine. If you don't want me to show my face at the hospital, you should sign the divorce papers, then." I passed the divorce papers to Joshua. They had already been signed before I came to the hospital. Instead of accepting the papers, Joshua slapped them away before glaring at me angrily. "Eleanor, are you done? You can forget about threatening me with a divorce!" He thought I was forcing him to return to my side. But the thing was, I didn't want to spend another second around him. "If you refuse to sign the papers, I'll get a lawyer to start the divorce proceedings—" Suddenly, Kenny's shriek of pain drifted from the VIP ward. "Josh, my arm hurts!" Joshua rushed back to the ward instantly. A moment later, his gentle and loving voice filled the room. "Be a good boy now, Kenny. I'm here. There's no need to be scared." As I stared at the trio in the VIP ward who resembled more like an actual family, I felt the urge to laugh hysterically on the spot. Had Joshua used such a tone to speak with Benji, Benji wouldn't have felt so disappointed and helpless before breathing his last. To think that I had chosen such a man to become my husband… To think that Joshua was actually Benji's father… Benji, this was all my fault. A man like Joshua shouldn't have become your father… I picked up the divorce papers and chucked them into the ward. After that, I left the hospital without even sparing Joshua a glance.