Chapter 1

My wife, Vanessa, believed her lover when he said I had hidden his daughter.

So she dragged my parents into a basement, tied them to a support column, and pointed a fake bomb at them over video call.

She wanted me to confess.

But I had nothing to confess.

When the explosion tore through the building, she still thought I was the one who had ruined everything. She came home the next day, blamed me for my mother’s death, then forced me to give blood to the child she thought I had hurt.

By the time Vanessa learned who had truly taken the girl, who had switched the device, and who had destroyed our family, I had already signed the divorce papers.

Some apologies arrive too late to open a closed door.

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I held my mother's urn in both hands. My father's ashes had already been sealed beside hers, and my tears had run dry.

I dug my nails into my palm until the skin broke, regretting with every breath that I had not left Vanessa years ago.

All of this could have been avoided.

My mother had treated Vanessa like a daughter ever since I married her.

I did nothing wrong. Yet Vanessa refused to listen to a single word of explanation from me. In the end, she had caused both my parents' deaths.

The last clear image I had of them was not in the morgue. It was on the screen of my phone, a shaky video call from the old community center on Baxter Street.

My father had gone there with my mother that afternoon because she insisted on helping me sort through boxes from the free clinic. She had retired only three months earlier, but she still treated every shelf and file cabinet like it belonged to a patient who might need it someday. Dad complained about the dust the entire time, then carried every heavy box himself so she would not strain her back.

I was at Westbridge General then. Lily had been brought in with a cut on her arm and a fever from shock. Caleb was nowhere to be found. Vanessa was in a board meeting across town, and her assistant had not been able to reach her. Lily clung to my sleeve and cried for Vanessa until she lost her voice. I was the doctor on duty. I kept her for observation because no responsible physician would release a frightened child with no parent present.

That was the beginning of the accusation.

By evening, Lily disappeared from the pediatric wing. Security footage later showed a nurse's cart stopping near the service elevator, a blanket thrown over something small, and a man in a delivery cap walking out with his head lowered. I told the police everything I knew. I called Vanessa eleven times. When she finally answered, Caleb was already beside her, screaming that I had hidden Lily because I was jealous of him.

I still remembered Vanessa's voice through the phone.

"Where is she, Ethan?"

"I don't know," I said. "I kept her here because Caleb wasn't around. I called you. Check the hospital cameras. Call security. Call the police."

"Don't lie to me."

Those four words cut deeper than her shouting. She did not ask what I had seen. She did not ask where I had been. She did not even ask whether I was hurt.

Caleb must have told her I had sent Lily away to force Vanessa home. He must have told her my parents knew where the child was, because Vanessa went to Baxter Street before she went to the police. She had the Hart family security team with her. They brought a black case, plastic ties, and what Vanessa later called a training device, a fake bomb used in executive threat drills.

Fake. That was the word she kept using afterward, as if the word could make my parents breathe again.

She tied my parents to the support column in the basement storage room and fixed the device to the pipes above them. She put me on a video call and turned the camera toward my mother's pale face and my father's bleeding wrist.

"Tell me where Lily is," Vanessa said. "If you keep lying, I'll make them suffer the way my daughter is suffering."

My mother shook her head at me through the screen. She was scared, but she still mouthed, Don't say what you don't know.

Dad tried to keep his voice steady. "Vanessa, listen to him. Ethan wouldn't hurt a child. You know him."

"I used to think I did," she answered.

The timer on the device was supposed to scare me. It was supposed to make me confess to a crime I had not committed. What Vanessa did not know was that Caleb had replaced one of the training charges with an actual industrial detonator taken from a demolition subcontractor Hartwell Group had hired that month. I did not know that either. Nobody knew until the fire investigator found the serial number in the rubble.

On the call, I begged her to stop. I begged her to move my parents away first and question me afterward. Vanessa only heard Caleb crying in the background, only saw Lily's empty hospital bed in her mind, only believed the man who had already stolen every bit of trust she once gave me.

The line cut out at the sound of the blast.

My father died before the ambulance arrived. My mother survived long enough to be taken to the emergency room, long enough for me to hold her hand while she tried to apologize to me for leaving me alone. That was why I held only her urn now. Dad had already been cremated by the time I could stand upright again. Mom followed two days later.

Vanessa never came to identify either body. She sent flowers through an assistant and then told me over the phone that if I had told the truth sooner, none of this would have happened.

After making proper arrangements for my mother, I dragged my weary body home.

Seven days later, I would take my parents' ashes back to my hometown. After that, I would have nothing more to do with Vanessa.

She did not come home until the next day.

Ignoring my pale face, she said coldly, "Ethan, I seriously didn't expect you to watch your mother get caught in the explosion rather than tell me where my daughter was. Do you know Lily is still in the hospital because of you?"

My heart ached so badly I could not speak. Her daughter was still alive and being treated in the hospital. My parents would never have that chance again.

When Vanessa saw how emotional I was, a glint of pity flashed in her eyes.

"Forget it. You must be tired from taking care of Mom these past few days. I'll take you out for a walk in a couple of days," she comforted, wanting to hug me like before. 

However, I pushed her away hard.

Seeing this, Vanessa frowned and questioned, "What's with the tantrum again? This whole thing is your fault."

After saying that, she prepared to leave. Just then, she received a phone call.

Tears welled up in her eyes the next second, and she gripped my hand tightly. "Come to the hospital with me!"

Vanessa was completely unconcerned about my current weak state and just dragged me to the hospital.

Before I could even steady myself, Caleb abruptly lunged at me and slapped me hard across the face.

That still was not enough for him. He began hitting me again and again.

Thinking of my late mother, anger surged through me as well. I tried to fight back with all my strength.

To my surprise, Vanessa suddenly pushed me to the ground and let Caleb punch me in the face again and again.

By the time she pretended to stop Caleb, I was already beaten to the point of near death.

"Lily's condition is not good. Just let Caleb vent his anger," she explained as she looked at me, her expression a mix of emotions.

I forced a smile, but tears streamed down my face.

Shortly after, the doctor came out.

"The child is bleeding heavily from the wound. Are there any family members who would like to donate blood?"

Before the sound of his voice faded, Vanessa immediately dragged me inside and said, "Doctor, his blood type is compatible. Start the transfusion now."

I desperately struggled to break free, but she held me down. All I could do was watch helplessly as they prepared me for the transfusion.

Vanessa coaxed me gently, "It'll be over soon, Ethan. Just think of it as making amends to Lily."

I squeezed my eyes shut. Whatever was left of my feelings for Vanessa began to drain out of me.

By the time three tubes of blood had been drawn from me, I was already lightheaded. Still, Vanessa clutched my arm and asked anxiously, "Doctor, if Lily is losing that much blood, shouldn't you take more?"

The doctor quickly shook his head and replied, "Ma'am, we can't do that. Mr. Reed will die if we continue to draw his blood."

Even so, Vanessa extended my arm upward without hesitation.

Ultimately, I was forced to have two more tubes of blood drawn. As a result, I collapsed to the ground due to excessive blood loss.

A look of distress flickered across Vanessa's eyes as she reached out, trying to help me up.

But the next second, Caleb called her name frantically from inside the ward. Without hesitation, she turned and left.