Our Daughter Died, My Husband Was Devastated

I never imagined sending that kind of text to Robert.

He was the one I finally got together with after so much effort.

When I first met him, I was a fresh-faced orphan who had just left the hills.

I had been on a reality TV show about rural life, and because of my tragic backstory, I ended up being sponsored.

I was standing there in my mud-soaked, yellowed linen shirt and brown cotton pants, in front of him.

Unlike others who sneered or mocked me, as class president, he took me on a tour around the school, always checking in to make sure I understood everything and ending with a radiant smile.

He was nothing like the kids back home.

No trace of dirt on him.

No ingrained yellow stains or thick calluses, no timid look in his eyes.

Looking at his smiling face, he seemed even brighter than the sun that day.

That's when I began to dream an impossible dream.

I had always been a top student in my village.

But in the city, that barely counted for anything.

I was in high school and still couldn't differentiate the alphabet.

Everyone treated me like an exhibit in a zoo—curious but dismissive.

They couldn't imagine there were no qualified teachers where I came from.

People often asked me what I lived on after my dad died and my mom left with another man.

I'd just stare at the calluses on my hands and stay silent, becoming more reclusive.

I buried myself in my studies.

Robert never laughed at me.

He'd tutor me, walk me through problems, and then with his brightest smile, tell me, "Ignore them. Just focus on your studies."

And when others laughed, he'd use his position as class president to shut them down.

I fell for him, but I knew he was out of my league, preferring someone like Sienna Edith, who was like a princess bathed in moonlight.

So I quietly stayed in the background, working hard to repay his kindness with my grades.

Eventually, we both got into the same college.

Meanwhile, Sienna had been sent abroad by her family.

Their would-be graduation romance fizzled out.

I was thrilled.

Through college, I won a full scholarship.

Kept busy tutoring and doing part-time jobs.

College was even busier than high school.

With the money I earned, I would buy him breakfast daily and get him birthday gifts.

We even majored in the same subject.

I focused on my skincare, lost weight, and studied harder.

Hoping that one day he'd look back and see that the meek girl he knew had blossomed beautifully just for him.

Four whole years had passed.

Everyone knew Jane Morrison, the geeky beauty queen of the school, was head over heels for Robert.

It didn't matter to me that he wasted away pining for Sienna, turned into a player, or gave up on his studies and himself.

I always saw him as the light, following him loyally.

Until graduation night, when we were both a little tipsy and our friends teased us together.

He walked me home, and standing there under the dim streetlight, he asked me, slurring slightly, "Jane, do you like me?"

His question made me feel defeated—was I that transparent?

I looked him straight in the eye and confessed, "Yes, Robert, I've liked you for a very long time."

We never brought up Sienna, who had disappeared from our lives four years earlier.

Watching him gradually shake off his gloom and become more carefree, I believed he had moved on.

After all, they say every cell in your body is replaced over seven years.

We had more than a decade of history, and our daughter was already so grown.

Even though he always chose Sienna over me, I believed our daughter meant something different to him, that she was a bond that could not be broken.

Looking back, I see how foolish I was.

Despite warnings from teachers and police about a murderer drifting into our area from another city, who had already claimed three girls in half a month.

He knew about it, yet he still chose to leave our daughter for Sienna.

Just this once...

I always made it a point to pick up and drop off our daughter, no matter how tired or busy I was.

But this time, it led to the ultimate separation...

What was he doing while our daughter was being tortured by a killer?

He was out walking under the moonlight with Sienna.

The pain felt like my heart was splitting in two.

My cheeks were wet again.

I thought they were tears, but then everything turned a shade of red—blood.

A panicked voice of a young officer echoed in my ears, "Hurry, the victim's mother is bleeding! Get her to the hospital, now!"