After I Left It Was Spring Again

The entire word envied the perfect relationship that Wanda Hamilton had with her husband and son. Yet, only she was the one who knew the truth. Her husband had built another family somewhere else with her son by his side.

On the night Eric Gordon took their son to celebrate his "unforgettable first love" winning the prestigious Best Actress Awed at the Moviegoers Awards Festival, she made a fateful decision.

She chose to fake her death and left them for good. In one week, she would disappear forever. Neither father nor son would be a part of her life anymore, she didn't want them in her life.

***

"Miss Hamilton, are you certain about staging your own death as a car accident on the fourteenth of this month?"

Wanda hesitated briefly, but the image of the father and son laughing with another woman stiffened her resolution. So, she nodded resolutely.

"I have one more request," she added. "The fake version of me must die in front of Eric. Ideally, it should be him who hits me with his car."

If she couldn't have Eric's undivided love, she would ensure that he spent the rest of his life consumed by unrelenting regret.

"That request …," the voice on the other end of the phone hesitated.

"Money is not an issue," Wanda interjected. Then after she hung up the phone, she glanced at the family photo nearby. The three of them were beaming with joy. Her gaze softened with nostalgia.

She still remembered he day he proposed, how Eric had been so nervous that he could barely speak. On the day of their wedding, he had been so overcome with emotion that he wept in front of thousands of guests.

When their son was born, he had lovingly wiped the sweat from her brow. He told her that one child was enough. He had even secretly undergone a vasectomy to ensure it.

They had once been so happy, the picture-perfect family everyone envied.

No matter how busy Eric was, he would always come home with a bouquet of flowers. He always said, "Loving you is like tending a garden. I want to see you bloom every day."

Even their son, Ben Gordon, mimicked his father’s gestures. He would proudly carry her bag when they went out and insisted on being her little gentleman. His small face would flush red from the effort, but he never let her worry about a thing.

Who would have thought that the husband and son everyone saw as the epitome of devotion were secretly fawning over another woman?

Countless nights when Eric claimed to be "away on business," he was whispering sweet words to someone else. Even their son, Ben, had begun calling the woman "sister" with unreserved affection.

That father and son had built a new life outside and hit it from Wanda for three whole years.

She never imagined that after surviving the challenges of young love and the struggles of building a life together, her marriage would succumb to the infamous "seven-year itch."

When she opened her phone, Wanda saw the trending news. The rising star, Cristina Laurence had just won the Best Actress Award at the Moviegoers Award Festival. The news was accompanied with an image of stunning actress in a red gown, radiating her beauty and youthfulness.

She was followed by Eric. He was walking not far behind her, though he had old me that he was at the company. He was not alone but walking hand in hand with Ben, their five years old son.

The loving gaze Eric directed at the woman was the same look he had once reserved for Wanda.

Tonight, it was Wanda and Eric's seventh wedding anniversary and Wanda had spent the whole day preparing for it. She had personally made Eric's favorite soup, the beef stew and made Ben's favorite food, barbeque pork ribs.

Yet neither father nor their son came home.

She waited from six o’clock until ten, only to receive a single, curt text from Eric. He wrote, "Something came up at work. I won’t be home tonight. Our son is with me.”

When she remembered this, Wanda suddenly lost the will to ask for an explanation. She didn’t want them anymore. She did not want neither Eric nor the son she had risked her life to bring into the world.

She stood up, dumped the carefully prepared dishes into the trash, flipped the family portrait face-down and headed upstairs.

Over the years, the father and son had given her plenty of gifts, especially Ben.

Children expressed their love in simple, earnest ways.