Your Love, Under the Fading Night

“What family of three? We’re not—”

I cut Theresa off. “All I want is a small cake, a bowl of noodles and some sugar.”

Before I could even finish, Gregory’s son suddenly ran over. He grabbed the remaining cake from the table and smashed it right into my daughter’s face.

“Stupid beggar! Who do you think you are? You don’t deserve to eat Aunt Theresa’s cake!”

Anne’s weak little body got hit by the cake plate and the sharp edge cut her forehead. Blood started dripping down and after starving for three days, she finally collapsed completely.

“Anne!”

I rushed over, holding my unconscious daughter in my arms. Theresa just stood there, not moving while Gregory was smiling proudly in the corner.

The anger in my chest burst like a volcano. “You bastards! What gives you the right to eat while my daughter starves?”

I flipped over the entire dining table.

Gregory who had been staying still and watched the entire drama, suddenly screamed. His eyes soon got red with fake tears.

“Reesa, Paul is being so mean! Cedric and I never had such good food before and now he’s wasting it!”

Theresa ran over protectively to shield him, glaring at me.

“Paulo! Have you gotten too comfortable being a rich man’s husband? Greg and Cedric have been mistreated for so long by his ex-wife! I just wanted to treat them to a good meal! How dare you flip the table?”

Gregory covered his face, pretending to cry. “Don’t blame him, Reesa… maybe we just don’t deserve good food.”

The more pitiful he acted, the more Theresa defended him.

Her expression hardened as she called the restaurant manager and ordered coldly, “Take these two to the kitchen. Make them wash every single dish tonight. They can’t leave until they’re done. If you let them go early, I won’t pay today’s reservation fee!”

The reservation cost at least $75,000. So, the manager immediately became nervous and surrounded us with staff.

I looked up at her with fury. “Theresa, are you insane? Anne has low blood sugar! At least let her eat something!”

Anne was still unconscious on the floor, weak from hunger, yet Theresa pushed me away and said icily, “If you waste food like this, then when you finish washing dishes, you can eat from the trash.”

I was too shocked to speak. Holding Anne, her forehead still bleeding, I followed the manager silently to the kitchen.

Theresa called after me, “If you apologize to Greg and Cedric—”

“No need,” I interrupted.

Anyway, we would never be a family again. I said that only in my heart, then walked away without looking back.

In the kitchen, I washed dishes alone while carrying my unconscious daughter on my back.

Perhaps to get revenge, Gregory kept ordering a lot of dish that somehow requires dozens of plates to serve each.

Normally, there were only two or three hundred dishes to clean, but because of him, I washed from 6 p.m. until midnight.

Then another large basket of dirty dishes was brought in. The manager looked uneasy and whispered,

“That man just treated all the restaurant staff to a bowl of birthday noodles.”

By the time I finally finished, it was almost three in the morning.

Before I left, the restaurant owner stopped me and handed me a packed meal. “You’ve worked hard. Take this, let your little girl eat something.”

That entire day, the only person who showed kindness to me and Anne was but a complete stranger.

I held back my tears and thanked him softly.