When the Embers Turn to Ash

As she spoke, Agnes tapped open the third video on the phone. In the video, I was facing the camera, grinning from ear to ear.

“Agnes! I passed the audition! Aren’t I amazing? I’m going to buy you a gift, something that proves I can be rich and successful too! But what should I get you? You have everything… Got it! I’ll buy that puzzle you’ve loved for so long. We’ll put it together, and when we finish it, you’ll have to say yes to my proposal! Hehe… I’m so smart.”

In the video, I rested my chin in my hands, my eyes sparkling with excitement.

A few comments flashed across the livestream.

“Wow, Jacob looks so gentle here…”

“Is this really the ‘evil son’? Am I seeing wrong?”

Agnes’s hand trembled slightly, her expression complicated.

Ralph suddenly grabbed her hand. “Agnes! Jacob is your past. I’m the one marrying you now. Let’s stop watching this, okay?”

When she didn’t respond, he immediately looked upset. “There are so many people here. You’re embarrassing me…”

Mother chimed in, “Exactly. Jacob’s living abroad now, living the high life. He’s long since forgotten all about you. You’d best stop looking.”

No… My spirit hovered beside Agnes, desperate to tell her I hadn’t forgotten.

Yet, to everyone’s surprise, Agnes smiled faintly. She brushed Ralph’s hand away and continued the video.

On screen, I was still happily planning the future until Ralph pushed the door open and walked in.

“What’s got you so happy, Ralph?” Covering his mouth, he feigned surprise, asking, “Wait a minute, did you actually think Director Levinson passed your audition?”

I froze. “What do you mean?”

Ralph took out his phone and turned on the speaker. “Director Levinson, how was Jacob’s acting?”

From the other end came a disgusting, sickening chuckle. “Him? He’s just an amateur. You wouldn’t believe it. I told him to undo his belt, and he was all coy at first, but in the end, he did it anyway. He’s got no sense of shame whatsoever, yet he dreams of becoming a big star. What a joke.”

My blood turned cold, and my face burned red with humiliation.

I pointed at Ralph, my voice shaking. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Ralph crossed his arms and looked down at me. “I’m just teaching you a lesson. You’d better not touch what’s mine.”

Hearing the argument, my parents rushed in.

The moment Mother saw me, she immediately shielded Ralph. “Jacob! Are you bullying Ralph again?”

Father glared at me. “Where are your manners?”

I clenched my teeth, saying nothing this time, because I knew explaining was useless.

Ralph suddenly raised his voice and said, “Mother, Jacob said earlier that in this house, it’s either him or me. Is that true?”

“You–” Mother trembled with rage and slapped me across the face again and again. “I’m sending you away! You’re leaving immediately!”

Ralph choked up, “Why not send him to Exile Island? That’ll teach him how to behave.”

Exile Island… I had heard of that place. It was an island where the wealthy traded power and people.

“No!” I dropped to my knees, clutching Mother’s pant leg. “I don’t want to go there! Please, I don’t want to go!”

She kicked me away, her face full of disgust. “Don’t want to? You’re leaving tomorrow morning!”

Suddenly, I thought of Agnes and shouted, “I’m Agnes’s fiancé! You can’t send me to Exile Island!”

The only response I got was another sharp slap.

Father sneered. “Once you’re on that island and reduced to nothing more than a plaything, do you think the Wrights would want you? When that happens, the only one who can marry Ms. Wright… will be Ralph.”

Even now, as a ghost, I could still feel the burning pain on my face. It felt like my parents, whom I had lived with for over twenty years, had never loved me, not even for a second.

When the video ended, someone in the audience immediately asked, “Wasn’t Jacob supposed to have gone abroad? How did he end up on Exile Island?”

“If he went there, could he come back in one piece?”

Ralph panicked. He rushed forward, trying to snatch the phone. “The videos are fake! Jacob fabricated all of it! He went there of his own free will! It’s because he had no self-respect!”

However, before he could even touch the phone, the Wright family's bodyguards slammed him to the ground. My parents tried to step forward, but one look from the Wrights froze them in place.

Agnes’s eyes turned red as her voice trembled. “What exactly did Jacob go through on that island? We’ll watch it.”