No Room for Forgiveness

When Eliott stormed off, I wished he would have the guts to never come back.

Alas, whether he cheated on me or not was the last thing on my mind now. I did not care about Zelda and her son insulting me either. If he wanted to cremate me and toss my ashes to the floor, I would not mind either.

So long as he came home as soon as possible.

Our daughter was only five years old and could not possibly take care of herself. It was dangerous to leave her all alone.

My spirit stayed with her from morning until dusk, but Eliott was still nowhere to be seen.

At one point, her stomach started to growl with hunger, which made her crawl up to me again.

“Mommy, are you still sleeping? I’m hungry, I want to eat the sausage rolls you make.”

I was trying to get her to stay away from junk food, which was why there was nothing ready-made at home. The fridge was filled with raw ingredients which I started to regret.

If only I knew that my time with her was limited, I would have spoiled her. I should not have asked so much of her since she was just a child.

As time went on, I could not bear to see her suffering any longer. I left her and went out of the house. I wanted to find Eliott. I had to find some way to bring him back home to save Ava at all costs. Unfortunately, I did not know what hotel he went to spend the night with Zelda.

However, I knew where Zelda's house was. I had seen that same address more times than I could count on Eliott's navigation application in his car.

At last, I found him. The man, who would always tell me about how much he had to work overtime, was now curled up on the couch in Zelda's house. He was playing a video game with her son. He made a point of going easy on Max so that the boy would win.

When Max won the round, he leapt up happily from the couch and hugged Eliott enthusiastically. “Yay! I wish you were my dad, Uncle Eliott!”

Meanwhile, Zelda scooped a spoonful of watermelon and fed it to Eliott. She remarked faintly, “Max, what are you talking about? You have a dad. He just didn’t want us anymore because times are too hard.”

Eliott’s heart ached for Zelda when he observed the pain welling up in her eyes. He picked Max up and propped him on his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You can call me your dad if you want, Max. A father’s love is very important for a child, and I have always treated you as my own son anyway.”

After Ava was born, Eliott claimed that he trusted me and gave me complete authority over how I wanted to raise her. He hardly if ever participated in the parent-teacher meetings at the kindergarten.

I was kind to him and took his side. I even remember having to explain to Ava before, “Daddy doesn’t hate you. He’s just busy with work. Don’t hold it against him.”

Eliott did not know this, but I did everything I could to bridge a relationship between him and Ava. To my surprise, while he had been neglecting our daughter, he had been opting to father another boy instead.

Zelda seemed troubled by this and asked skittishly, “Do you think Anne will be upset about this?”

When Eliott was reminded of me, his face suddenly darkened. He stated icily, “Don't worry about her. We just had an argument before I left the house. She was good to me in the past, but these days she has been nagging at me.”

Zelda smiled radiantly upon hearing this. Then, she snuggled into his and spoke in a voice so affectionate that Eliott felt he would melt right then and there, “Well, why don't you sleep here tonight? You can clear your mind here.”

The entire time, I was levitating over them and fuming. I shouted at the top of my voice, “Eliott, could you just go home already? You need to look after your daughter! How about you stop worrying about someone else’s child? Don’t forget Ava is your daughter!”

It was no use as they could not hear my frantic cries.

Eliott thought for a moment before slumping into the couch and smiling, “Sure.”

With that, he turned on the TV. The noise of the program drowned out the living room while Max snuggled into his arms. Zelda also leaned against his shoulder and would feed him fresh fruits from time to time.

They looked like the picture-perfect family.