A Mother's Agony

Alexander's face, initially tinged with guilt, shifted instantly. He positioned Cassandra protectively behind him and eyed me warily. "Natalie, what are you doing? She's your sister!"

I glared at Cassandra. "You'd better watch your mouth."

However, Cassandra, looking hurt, pleaded, "Alexander, don't let me come between you two. If my sister won't admit that Lucas is faking his illness, I'll just drop it."

Upon hearing that, my brow furrowed as I turned to Alexander. "You think Lucas is faking it too?"

But, he just remained silent. Looking around, he noticed Lucas was nowhere to be seen. With a calm tone, Alexander asked, "Where did you take him this time?"

Of course! Of course, he clearly didn't believe me. If only he would come home, he'd see the table covered in medications and medical records. Yet, he never did.

I remember when Lucas knew he didn't have much time left. He wanted one last family trip to Disneyland. Just to make my son happy, I had begged Alexander, even going so far as to kneel before him. In the end, I clung to his pants, promising that this would be the last time I would ever bother him. I was willing to set him free.

At that moment, he looked down at me, slightly stunned. His eyes filled with both joy and complexity. "You mean that?"

"Yes," I murmured, closing my eyes as tears streamed down. God knew how much I loathed him since then. If only I could undo what I did in the past, our families would never have arranged a marriage between us.

Years ago, I found him in the streets near my ballet class. Little did I know, he was being chased by his kidnappers. Since then, the Edwards family owed us because I saved the life of their heir. My family, the Collins family, and the Edwards family became friends. We always had shared dinners and celebrations. We even merged our subsidiary companies. It came to the point where we always saw each other.

Yet it seemed like Alexander didn't clearly remember the day he was kidnapped because he was just a kid and probably traumatized. Until now, he believed that Cassandra was his savior. I was hurt because no matter how hard I tried to tell him that was not the case, he would never believe me.

"Stop it. Cassy saved me! You're so damn annoying," I can still remember his words to this day.

I loved him, even though we were teenagers back then. That was why I tried to gain even a little bit of his attention, but even before, his eyes were always set on Cassandra. From being his savior, he had grown to like my sister too. And that was probably why, when our parents set us up in a marriage, he was so angry.

"This is bullshit! They won't give us our inheritance? The company is supposed to be mine!" He was so angry that he pushed everything off his desk.

His eyes drifted to me. "And you, you didn't even bother to say no!"

"You know I didn't have a say in this either, right?" I tried to defend myself.

But since then, he hated me even more. I thought he would like me somehow because we were always together, but that was just wishful thinking.

Until one day, he told me his plan to fool our parents. "Fine. Let's attend that damn wedding ceremony. We'll fool them that we're married but we will never register our marriage. I'll just present them fake documents."

We would marry each other but never register it. It was as if I was just his wife before the eyes of our parents and the company, but I would never have his heart.

Why didn't I think further ahead in the past? Why didn't I tell my parents I would rather die than marry him? Why did I even love this man?

Now, even though he was my husband and we had a child, he only ever cared about Cassandra.

Damn it. Why wouldn't he spend one last moment with Lucas? It was one thing for him not to love me, but Lucas was his son too. How could he be so heartless towards his own child?