Love's Ashes Depart the Harbor

“I can handle it myself. So, can you wait for me?”

Upon receiving an unhesitating affirmative reply from the other side, I lowered my head, barely touching my lips, when Vivian suddenly barged in without a sound.

“Ethan, who are you hiding in here talking to on the phone?”

I swiftly ended the call, then calmly met her gaze. “A friend.”

A friend? What kind of friend would need to hide from their wife to make a phone call?

Vivian sneered, about to speak and question me, but at that moment, a sudden, thunderous sound rang out from outside the window.

At the sound, Vivian immediately strode toward the VIP ward.

Ever since we got married, whenever she would leave me behind to comfort Jason, who was scared of the thunder, I would throw a fit and refuse to let him go.

But now, halfway down the hall, the woman suddenly realized I hadn’t chased after her. A strange, sour feeling surged in her chest, causing her to instinctively furrow her brows.

However, she didn’t think much of it and simply assumed I was being unexpectedly well-behaved.

As a reward, when I was discharged from the hospital the next day, she wasted no time in dragging me to the shopping mall, allowing me to follow behind her and Jason like a lapdog, accompanying them as they went shopping.

Even though all the sales girls in the mall knew I was Vivian’s legal husband, when they saw her clinging intimately to Jason, they still obsequiously handed the shopping bags to me, thanking me for “honoring” their store with my presence.

As I staggered from the weight of the bags and fell down the escalator, Vivian was in the baby store with Jason, picking out children’s items.

When Jason hesitated between pink or blue, she fondly pulled out her black card and bought out the entire store.

Just as I, battered and disheveled, walked into the store, I heard the shop assistant say to Jason with heartfelt admiration.

“Mr. Woods, you’re so lucky to have such a wonderful wife. The baby’s not even born yet and it already has the most loving mother in the world.”

Staring at the little star-patterned hair tie around my wrist, I suddenly recalled that day when our daughter, Yura, was rushed into the ER with acute meningitis.

I had called Vivian 199 times. Her phone was on, yet she didn’t answer even once.

Inside the emergency room, our daughter whispered to me, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s, “Daddy, I won’t sneak milk candies anymore.”

I cried as I gently stroked her face. “Why would you say that, baby?”

“Because… Mommy must be mad if I wasn’t obedient… That’s why she doesn’t want to come see me. Dad… I’m sorry… I'm such a useless child. I couldn’t help you get Mommy’s love.”

As my daughter lay dying, I knelt with no dignity at the doorstep of Jason’s apartment, begging him to let Vivian come with me to the hospital just for a moment.

What I got instead was Jason summoning bodyguards to pin me to the ground and slap me over and over.

By the time the doctor called to say my daughter had passed, Vivian had just woken up and slowly opened the door.

She looked at my swollen face, too bruised to form words and said indifferently, "I told you not to bother Jason. This is the price you pay for not behaving yourself."

Snapping out of my thoughts, I dropped all the shopping bags and turned to leave. But Vivian coldly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the luxury watch store on the top floor.

"Ethan, haven’t you always been whining about wanting a watch?"

Watching her grip my wrist and casually start picking out watches for me, Jason quietly clenched his jaw.

He squeezed in between Vivian and me, wrapped his arm around her waist and gave me a mocking smile.

"Ethan, if it weren't for your selfless kidney donation, my body might’ve already collapsed. Vivian, how about we treat Ethan to a nice dinner tonight to show our thanks?"