Chapter 6
In the days that followed, I stayed in the guest room almost all the time except when I had to go out.
Felix still needed time on his end, so all I could do was numbly listen to the laughter of that “happy family of three” outside my door.
Three days later, Valentine’s Day arrived.
Using “celebrating Amy’s recovery” as an excuse, Jackson decorated the villa like a wedding venue.
Ten thousand Ecuadorian roses bloomed in the living room, and the air was filled with the scent of expensive champagne.
Looking at it all, I sneered inwardly—
What “recovery party”?
He was clearly just using this to celebrate Valentine’s Day for Amy.
Once the dinner party began, Lucas bounced around Amy like an excited puppy.
“Aunt Amy, blow out the candles! Dad prepared a super amazing present for you!”
Jackson took out an exquisite jewelry box. Inside lay that diamond necklace I’d tried on at the jewelry store.
“Do you like it?” he asked as he carefully fastened the necklace around Amy’s neck, as gently as if he were handling something fragile.
Amy made a show of wiping at the corners of her eyes.
“Jackson, this is too precious… I’m really so moved…”
Just then, she suddenly turned to look at me sitting in the corner.
“Ella, you’re so quiet today. I heard your father left you a very special brooch. Can I have a look?”
My whole body went rigid.
The iris brooch was pinned at my collar—
the last thing my father left me.
“No.” I refused, chopping the words off.
Lucas immediately complained loudly,
“Mom! How can you be so stingy! Aunt Amy just wants to take a look!”
Jackson frowned as well.
“It’s just a brooch. Why not let Amy see it?”
“That’s the only memento my father left me!” I clutched the brooch tightly, my voice shaking.
“You burned him to death, and now you won’t even leave me the last thing he gave me?”
The air instantly froze.
Lucas suddenly rushed over to grab at it.
“Something that pretty should belong to Aunt Amy!”
I pressed the brooch down and wrestled with him.
“Let go! This is your grandpa’s—”
“What memento?” Jackson suddenly barked,
“Isn’t your father doing just fine at the nursing home? Stop saying such ominous things all the time!”
While the three of us struggled, Lucas used too much force and shoved me backward.
I staggered and crashed into a vase nearby.
Crash—
The vase shattered all over the floor, and I fell hard onto the shards.
Porcelain sliced into my arm and cheek, and blood spurted out at once.
The brooch slipped from my hand and fell into the pile of fragments.
I struggled to reach for it, only to have my fingers cut again by the shards.
Blood kept dripping, spreading into a large pool on the floor.
“Mom!” Lucas was terrified.
“If you had just given the brooch to Aunt Amy earlier, this wouldn’t have happened…”
Jackson came over in quick strides.
His face changed when he saw me covered in blood.
“How can you be so careless?”
Lucas stood to the side, sobbing quietly.
Lying among the cold shards, watching their flustered faces, I suddenly found the whole thing laughable.
They would never know that the person they believed was “resting” in that nursing home had already left me forever.
I closed my eyes and let the pain spread.
Just a few more days, I told myself. Just endure a few more days.
