I Thought Love Meant Staying, Until She Taught Me Otherwise

Terence's POV

In five years of marriage, Queenie Hawkins, who once claimed I was her whole world, betrayed me three times.

The first time, she was drugged and ended up sleeping with a “pure” college boy someone had gifted her. When she sobered up, eyes red with guilt, she told me she had to take responsibility for him.

The second time, she wanted to cheer that same boy up. So, right after I’d had a vasectomy, she made me sit submerged in a giant aquarium as a live exhibit for three full days and nights. When they finally pulled me out, my wounds had already started to rot.

The third time, that boy got sick. To force me into donating a kidney for him, Queenie hung my mother, who was hooked up to a ventilator, on an excavator like a swing. She looked me in the eyes and said, “Terence, don’t push me. You know he means everything to me.”

I dropped to my knees. My tears wouldn’t even fall. They were stuck somewhere deep inside me.

Only then did I truly realize that he was her everything. The woman who once loved me with all she had was gone.

Numb, I nodded. “Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll donate. Just please, let my mom go. I’ll do anything.”

Queenie smiled with satisfaction. But her hand was already on the control panel.

And then, the rope broke. I watched, frozen, as my mother fell from the sky, her body crashing to the ground.

“Mom!” My scream tore through the air, wild and raw.

But all I got in return was Queenie’s cold voice, “Remember, this is what happens when you let Jeremy suffer one more day. If you just listen and behave, everything can go back to the way it was.”

Ignoring her, I shoved her aside and ran out, crazed and shaking.

But deep down, I knew the truth. There was no “back to before.” Not anymore. Not with her.

——

I ran just a few meters, but I tripped over and over again. Stones scraped my feet open, yet I felt nothing, no pain, no fear. There was only one thought pulsing in my mind—get to Mom.

When I finally reached her, her small body was crumpled on the ground, blood pooling beneath her like a nightmare I couldn’t wake from.

Seeing her awful state, the pain in my chest exploded. I collapsed next to her, screaming from the very depths of my soul. “Mom!”

As if she heard me, her eyes fluttered open. She struggled to speak, her voice barely whispered, “Terence… I don’t think… I can stay with you. You have to… live well. Promise me… you’ll be happy.”

“No… no!” I cried, shaking my head violently, clinging to her weakening body. “Mom, please… please don’t leave me. You’re all I have now. We’ll go to the hospital right now. We'll see the best doctors. We’ll make it in time!”

At that moment, I lost all grip on reality. The only thing that mattered to me was to save her.

I lifted her in my arms and stumbled onto the road, blocking a car with my body. The driver slammed the brakes, furious, but I dropped to my knees and bowed until my forehead hit the pavement.

“Please! Please take us to the hospital! My mother—she’s dying!”

The driver looked annoyed at first. But then, when he saw her pale and bleeding, his expression softened.

“Get in,” he finally said.

I broke down, crying hard as I carefully placed Mom in the backseat.

I slid off my engagement ring, a giant diamond the size of a bird egg, and handed it to him.

“Thank you. I don’t have my phone or wallet on me, but please take this as payment for the ride.”

The driver looked startled. “That’s not necessary. It’s no trouble. And besides, how could I take your ring? It’s huge. You and your wife must be deeply in love.”

I looked down at that ring. Then laughed bitterly.

Love?

Maybe once, a long time ago.

But now?

For the sake of another man, Queenie had actually let my mother fall to her death without a second thought.