After eight years as a stand-in, I let go first

The waitress approached the table to serve the dishes just as Samantha finished speaking. However, she tripped over her feet right in front of the table, causing the pot of hot soup on the tray to spill in their direction.

Samantha watched with wide eyes as Harry turned around in that split second to protect Lydia in his arms. No one protected her. The scalding soup splashed all over her arms and chest, making her skin burn like it had been set aflame.

She cried out in pain, but before she could regain her senses, Joseph shoved her to the ground with a loud wail.

"Out of the way! Don't block my path!"

Samantha crashed to the ground. Her elbow collided harshly against the tiles while the blisters on her skin ruptured and started bleeding profusely. Still, Joseph didn't spare her a single glance as he rushed to Lydia's side.

"Ms. Yeager, are you alright? Does it hurt?" Joseph asked while sobbing.

His small hands were trembling. He wanted to touch her but was afraid he would hurt her further.

Harry held Lydia close to him. His voice was impossibly soft when he asked, "Did you get burned? Let me see."

They surrounded her, checking her condition in a panic. They used a tissue to wipe the soup off her, treating her like she was a precious jewel that could shatter at any second.

Meanwhile, Samantha was sprawled on the ground. The skin on her arms and chest was swollen and inflamed, but no one spared a single glance at her.

"It's all your fault!" Joseph suddenly turned his head to glare at her. His little face was twisted with hatred. "You're nothing more than an unlucky star. If you didn't follow us, Ms. Yeager wouldn't have asked you to sit with us. If you weren't sitting with us, she wouldn't have gotten hurt!"

Harry looked at her coldly as if she were a criminal. "Are you satisfied now?"

They supported Lydia as they took her away. Before they left, Joseph turned toward her and shouted, "You should disappear forever!"

The patrons in the restaurant pointed and whispered among themselves. Some handed tissues to Samantha, while some muttered, "What a pitiful woman."

Supporting herself with the table, Samantha staggered to her feet. The boils on her arms had turned red and shiny, but she didn't feel any pain. She hailed a cab that took her to the hospital.

The doctor frowned after he was done checking her condition. "The wounds are a little infected. You need to stay in the hospital for a few days for us to observe you."

Samantha simply nodded and calmly filled in the hospital admission form. Harry and Joseph seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth during the few days she was admitted to the hospital. They didn't call her or send her any text messages. They didn't even bother asking her how she was doing.

The nurses tended to gather at the nurse station to gossip among themselves. "The father and son duo in the VIP hospital room sure know how to spoil their mother. She only burned a small patch of her skin, but they were so anxious over such a small injury."

"You're right. They even insist on personally feeding her water. They even bought the best ointment for burns from abroad just because they were worried her injury would leave a scar."

At first, Samantha wasn't bothered. But that changed when she walked past the VIP hospital room on her way to her checkup. She could see what was happening inside since the door had been left ajar.

Harry was sitting next to the bed and carefully applying the ointment for Lydia with his fingers. Joseph was balancing a glass of warm water in his hands as he gently fed her the water.

Lydia said coquettishly, "I'm almost fully recovered. You should visit Ms. Knott. She's still insisting on getting a divorce, isn't she?"

Harry didn't even bother raising his head when he answered coldly, "She's just using the divorce as a threat. The truth is, she'll never willingly divorce me."

Joseph giggled. "She loves Daddy and me too much. Her life orbits around us. She probably won't survive if she leaves us."

"Maybe she's truly upset this time. Don't you need to coax her?" Lydia asked with a sigh.

"There's no need to do such a thing." Harry's voice was so icy that it sent a chill down Samantha's spine. "We just have to leave her alone for a few days. Things will play out the same way as always. In the end, she'll be the one who apologizes to us first."

Samantha stood outside the door, clenching her fists so hard that her nails were digging crescents into her palms. She knew now that in their eyes, every time she compromised, tolerated, and humbled herself to make peace with them, they saw her as nothing more than a laughingstock.

However, she refused to do the same this time. She would never concede to them ever again!