Take This Withered Love

"It was Mom!" Charlotte cried, her voice breaking. "She knew we were allergic and still gave it to us on purpose."

Benjamin nodded hard. "She's so mean!"

Elena gripped the doorframe so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "Benjamin, Charlotte, do you understand what you're saying? You'd better tell the truth right now!"

"Enough!"

Lucas lurched to his feet and clamped his hand around her wrist with enough force to nearly shatter her bones. "Is this how a mother should behave? Not only did you hurt them, but you're also forcing them to lie for you?"

"I'm not…"

Elena's voice trembled despite herself.

Lucas scoffed. "Are you saying they're framing you? They're children. Do you really think they'd lie about something like this? How can you call yourself a mother?"

The children burst into tears all of a sudden. Lucas immediately released Elena and turned to soothe them, but they cried harder, their faces flushing scarlet.

"Dad…" Charlotte sobbed. "We feel awful…"

"What would make you feel better?" Lucas asked quietly, wiping her tears away.

Benjamin's red-rimmed eyes shifted to Elena. "She's allergic to mango too. Make her drink the mango juice. She should feel awful too!"

Elena felt her heart turn to ice. She looked at Lucas, the coldness in his eyes making her shiver.

"Alright."

He straightened and snapped his fingers. Two bodyguards entered the room.

"Hold her in place," he commanded.

Before Elena could react, she was forced into a chair. One of the bodyguards gripped her jaw and forced her mouth open.

A full liter of mango juice was poured down her throat. The syrupy liquid burned as it went down the wrong pipe. She choked violently, her throat burning like it had been set on fire.

Red hives spread across her skin almost instantly. Her face began to swell, and her breathing grew labored. She clawed at her neck in desperation, her vision blurring as she looked at Lucas.

He simply stood there, watching with indifference and showing absolutely no intention of telling the bodyguards to stop.

The children had stopped crying and were now clapping excitedly. "Serves her right! She should suffer too!"

Before darkness closed in around her, the last thing Elena saw was the chilling look in Lucas' eyes.

…

Elena had no idea how long she'd been unconscious when she finally woke up in a hospital bed. Her throat still burned, and faint rashes lingered on her skin.

A familiar voice drifted in from outside the ward.

It was Sabrina.

"Lucas, I honestly didn't know they were allergic. I just wanted to make them some juice…"

"It's not your fault," Lucas said gently. "You didn't know."

Sabrina spoke with a tinge of helplessness. "If I'd explained sooner, you wouldn't have misunderstood Ms. Jennings. Benny, Lottie, it was all my fault. How could you blame it all on your mother just to protect me?"

The children's guilty voices carried through the door.

"Ms. Miller… We're sorry," Charlotte said in between sobs. "W-we just don't like Mom…"

"Yeah," Benjamin added. "She's always telling us what we can't eat and when to go to bed. We just wanted her to leave…"

Elena's fingers tightened around the bedsheet until her knuckles turned white. These were the children she'd painstakingly carried to term.

She remembered the day Benjamin was born. The delivery room had been empty. A nurse told her Lucas was in an important meeting and couldn't make it, so she'd endured the pain of labor all by herself.

When Charlotte was born, it was even worse. It was a difficult delivery, during which Elena suffered massive bleeding. The doctors had even issued a critical condition notice.

However, Lucas had flown off to another country to handle an international acquisition deal.

And now, the two children she'd fought tooth and nail to bring into the world had become the very people who were hurting her the most.