Discarded by Husband and Son, I Found My Crown

Today was the first anniversary of Hestia Sharp's mother's death.

At Eternal Rest Haven, Hestia knelt in front of the headstone and carefully wiped the dust from the photo engraved there.

She had wanted to bring her husband and son with her to visit her mother, but Gilbert Harvey had felt sick early that morning, so she had no choice but to let Aaron Harvey take him to the hospital first.

She waited from morning until afternoon.

Neither of them came.

At three o'clock, she made the first call. No one answered.

At four, she called again. Still nothing.

By five, Eternal Rest Haven was getting ready to close, and even the groundskeeper kept glancing at her like he wanted to say something but couldn't.

Hestia made a third call. It rang for a long time before someone finally picked up.

She didn't even get the chance to speak before noise burst through the line.

People were laughing. A balloon popped with a dull bang. Children were squealing in excitement.

"Ms. Webb, make a wish!" Gilbert's voice came through bright and eager, impossible to mistake.

Then Hestia heard Clio Webb's familiar voice, soft and smiling. "I wish that next year, I can celebrate my birthday with Mr. Harvey and little Gilbert again."

Hestia froze with the phone in her hand, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head.

Her whole body went cold.

Her voice locked in her throat.

Her husband and her son were spending her mother's Memorial Day celebrating another woman's birthday.

Then the next words hit even harder.

"Don't worry, Ms. Webb. Daddy and I will celebrate with you every year. I don't even like Mommy anyway. I wish you were my mom."

"Gilbert, don't say that. Your mother's very good to you." Clio sounded mildly reproachful, but she couldn't hide the satisfaction underneath.

"She's not!" Gilbert huffed. "She always makes me do homework, and she's mean. Ms. Webb is never mean to me, and she makes me yummy cake."

"And Daddy never smiles when he's with her. He only smiles when he's with Ms. Webb."

Something sharp drove straight through Hestia's chest, leaving her barely able to breathe.

So that was what Gilbert really thought of her.

Her strictness had become cruelty in his eyes. The way she managed his diet for the sake of his health had become another reason to resent her.

But he had been frail since childhood. She was the one who had built his meal plans, watched every bite of sugar, and helped him grow into the lively, healthy boy he was now.

Everything she had done for him, all these years, had been erased by one careless sentence.

Hestia closed her eyes.

They burned, but no tears fell.

Maybe she had already cried them all out over the past year.

A year ago, Clio had pushed Aaron out of the way of a car and taken the hit for him. The accident left her with permanent complications, and the doctors said she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

She had tried more than once to end her life.

In the end, it was Aaron's promise that kept her going. He told her he would stay by her side for the rest of her life, that he would be her legs, and only then had she slowly begun to recover.

Aaron had told Hestia that he owed Clio his life, that he had to do everything he could to grant Clio's wishes, and that he hoped Hestia would understand.

Hestia had been grateful too. Clio had saved her husband.

So she endured.

For a year, she understood. For a year, she swallowed everything.

She had all but handed her husband over to Clio. No matter how unreasonable Clio's demands became, Hestia bore them in silence. Even when it hurt, even when she felt crushed, she only hid in her room and cried alone.

In front of everyone else, she was still the gracious, understanding Mrs. Harvey.

But today was her mother's memorial day.

Her father had died when she was young. Her mother had raised her alone. She had been Hestia's only family in this world.

Hestia could endure anything else.

Not this.

She looked at her mother's photo on the headstone not far away.

Then she suddenly remembered the same day a year ago, when her mother, on her deathbed, had clutched her hand and said, "Hestia, the thing I worry about most is you. Aaron is a good man. Live well with him."

The tears came hard and fast this time.

Mom, you were wrong.

He isn't only my husband.

He belongs to Clio too.

Aaron's low laugh drifted through the phone again. "Gilbert, come help Daddy cut the cake."

"Coming!" Gilbert shouted happily, his voice fading as he ran off. "Daddy! I want the biggest piece! Ms. Webb, hurry up!"

The noise gradually moved away.

Hestia hung up in silence, her gaze turning still and firm.

This time, she would not endure it.

At three in the morning, at the Harvey Estate, the sound of a car engine came from outside.

Hestia walked to the window and watched the familiar car pull into the driveway.

Aaron got out, carrying a sleeping Gilbert. Clio remained in the car, smiling as she said something to him.

Aaron leaned down and spoke to her gently, his voice low and tender. He watched her car leave before carrying Gilbert toward the front door.

The door opened. Aaron stepped inside and saw Hestia standing by the window. He paused. "Why are you still up?"

Hestia looked at him with dark, steady eyes and asked, word by word, "Aaron, do you remember what day it is?"

In his arms, Gilbert stirred awake and mumbled drowsily, "Daddy, Ms. Webb's cake was so good. I want her to be my mommy..."

The words landed in Hestia's ears like a dull blade, sawing back and forth.

Her eyes stung so badly it felt like something might spill out, but she forced it back.

She looked at the boy in her husband's arms.

She had carried him for ten months. She had labored for a full day and night to bring him into the world.

Last winter, when he had run a high fever, she had stayed awake for three straight days and nights.

She fed him medicine, cooled him down with damp towels, and carried him around the living room for hours at a time.

During those same days, Aaron had been abroad with Clio, watching the snow.

By the time he came back, Gilbert's fever had already broken.

Gilbert had happily curled up in Clio's arms and said, "It's thanks to Ms. Webb visiting me that I got better."

Hestia had stood there like an outsider, watching the three of them look like one warm, happy family.

No one looked at her.

No one thanked her.

"If there's something you want to say, say it tomorrow," Aaron said, pulling her back from the memory. "I'm taking Gilbert upstairs to sleep. You should get some rest too."

Hestia let out a quiet, bitter laugh, her eyes rimmed red.

"Aaron, let's get divorced."

Her voice was light, but final, as though she had rehearsed the words in her heart so many times that now they came out without hesitation.

Aaron stopped moving.

He turned to look at her. Surprise flashed across his face for a second, then disappeared into cold stillness.

"What are you making a scene about now? Just because Gilbert and I didn't go to Eternal Rest Haven, you want a divorce?"

"You should know better than anyone that Clio's emotional state is still unstable. Nothing is more important than her."

Hestia laughed again.

So in his eyes, no matter what she said or did, she was just being unreasonable.

"I'm not making a scene. I've never been clearer. Since no one and nothing matters more to you than Clio, then I'm stepping aside. I'm giving you to her."

"That way, whether you spend her birthdays with her, or do everything else a husband and wife are supposed to do, or even take anything from me and give it to her, I won't care anymore."

Hestia drew in a breath and forced down the dull ache spreading through her chest. Then she took the divorce papers she had already signed from her bag and set them on the coffee table.

"I've signed them. I think what Clio wants most right now is to become Mrs. Harvey. You should give her that."

Aaron's expression turned completely cold, as if a layer of frost had settled over it. "Hestia, are you really doing this? You think if you threaten me with divorce, I'll give in?"

Hestia found that almost laughable.

Even now, he still thought this was some kind of tactic.

She lowered her head and looked at her mother's memorial portrait on the table, feeling nothing but exhaustion and defeat.

'Mom, I'm sorry.'

'I really can't do this anymore.'

"Believe whatever you want. I'm divorcing you."

Aaron's face darkened. His voice turned sharp. "What about Gilbert? Are you giving up your son too?"

Hestia glanced at the half-asleep Gilbert and answered softly, "He stays with you. He stopped needing me a long time ago."

In his heart, he already had a better mother.

Aaron frowned, about to say something, when his phone suddenly rang.

He looked down, and his expression tightened at once. He answered immediately.

Clio's tearful voice came through the line.

"Aaron... I feel awful..."