After Drowning Our Son, My Husband Was Consumed by Regret

During a swim, my five-year-old son accidentally splashed water onto a woman nearby.

The woman shrieked and jumped away. My husband rushed over, and without a word of explanation, he shoved our son under the water to "punish" him.

Panicked, I grabbed onto him and screamed, "Gerald, are you insane? It's just a splash of water! How can you treat a child like this?"

But he acted as if he hadn't heard me. His hand locked around our son's throat, pressing him down.

Only when Miles' struggles grew weaker and weaker, until he stopped moving altogether, did Gerald finally let go.

I frantically lunged forward, hauling my son's limp body out of the water—but I was too late.

His small body lay motionless on the ground, soft, lifeless, without a single breath left.

And my husband? He didn't even glance at him. Instead, he was busy comforting the frightened woman, his eyes full of concern.

"It's all right now. The child was being naughty, but I've already taught him a lesson."

The woman leaned into his arms with a coy whimper.

"He scared me to death, Gerald... Thank goodness you were here to protect me."

Watching their intimacy, something in me snapped. I suddenly recalled the file the assistant had delivered this morning—

So this was it.

The woman he had hidden in his heart for the past ten years. His so-called unforgettable first love.

...

Wiping my tears, I typed out a single message with trembling hands.

[Activate Level One contingency. Freeze all Hamilton Corporation assets immediately.]

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turned back to my son.

He lay there so quietly, so softly, as if merely asleep.

But he would never wake up again.

Never run into my arms, laughing and calling me Mommy.

"Baby..." My hands shook as I cupped his cold little face, my voice breaking.

"Baby, wake up... Please, look at Mommy..."

There was only silence.

Those bright, sparkling eyes of his were closed forever.

"Gerald!" I raised my head and roared, my throat tearing, "You killed our son! You killed Miles!"

But Gerald only tightened his hold around Tiffany, murmuring softly to comfort her.

Hearing my words, he frowned impatiently.

"Lorraine, what nonsense are you screaming? I was just disciplining him. He was too weak—that's not my fault."

His words carved through my heart like a thousand blades.

This was the man I had loved for ten years. The man for whom I had severed ties with my own family.

"He was only five years old!" I sobbed hysterically, my tears falling without end.

"He just kicked up some water! And you held him down until he couldn't breathe! He was your son—your own flesh and blood!"

Tiffany whimpered, shrinking further into Gerald's arms.

"Gerald, I'm so scared... Lorraine looks so terrifying..."

At once, Gerald shielded her tightly, glaring at me with nothing but disgust.

"Lorraine, look at yourself. You're acting like a shrew! You're scaring Tiffany!"

A shrew?

I looked at him protecting another woman so tenderly, and all I could do was laugh.

Ten years ago, I was the Olson family's cherished daughter.

My father, Luciano, was a man whose very name made both the underworld and the business world tremble.

I was his only daughter. He adored me, raised me like a treasure in his palm.

Back then, I had everything I wanted.

Until I met Gerald.

He was poor, unable to even pay his tuition.

What did I see in him? Perhaps his fake pride, his forced arrogance.

My father had warned me. He said this man had ambition in his eyes, not love.

I didn't listen. I thought defying my family for love was noble.

So I stole the household registry and married him. My father was so furious he severed ties with me on the spot.

Gerald used the millions I gave him as startup capital to open his company.

I pulled every string I could, begging my father's old friends for projects, paving his way.

What he never knew was that his company’s very first big order had been arranged in secret by my father, who only did so out of respect for my late mother.

The company flourished, and he became the president of his own company. Driving luxury cars, living in a villa.

At first, he treated me decently enough, at least in appearance.

But three months ago, Tiffany returned from abroad—and everything changed.

She was his high school classmate, the woman he had worshipped for ten years.

He married me only because I resembled her. Because I was naïve enough to help him climb the ladder.

Now that the real one had returned, the substitute could be discarded.

In these three months, he barely came home. And when he did, it was only to mock me—calling me a washed-up housewife, saying I had no charm, that I was worthless without my father.

He forgot. Without me, without my father's name, he would never have had any of this.

"You call me a shrew?"

I staggered to my feet, pointing at Tiffany with pure hatred.

"You bitch! It was just a splash of water—why did you scream like that?"

Her eyes instantly filled with tears, and she put on a pitiful act.

“Lorraine... how could you say that? I was really frightened... Miles kicked the water so hard that it hurt…”

“Bullshit!” My whole body trembled with fury, my chest aching with every beat.

“He’s a five-year-old child! How much strength could his splash have? You did this on purpose, you—!”

“Enough!”

Gerald roared, shoving Tiffany aside to stride over to me. His fingers gripped my chin tightly, his eyes blazing as he commanded, “Lorraine, apologize to Tiffany!”

I stared at him, stunned.

“Are you out of your mind? Why should I?”

“Because you scared her!” he snarled.

I froze. Staring at this man I had once given everything for.

There was no grief in his eyes for our dead son. Only protection for Tiffany—and revulsion for me.

“Apologize?” I laughed, tears streaming down my face.

“Gerald, you killed your own son for this whore! And now you want me to apologize to her?”

“He deserved it!” Gerard's eyes flickered with guilt, but quickly hardened with anger.

“He was rude first, splashing at people! As his father, what’s wrong with disciplining him? He was just too fragile, that’s all!”

Too fragile...

That was how he described our dead son.

With those words, the final thread of my restraint shattered.

I raised my hand with all the strength I had left and slapped Tiffany across the face, hard.

“Ahhh!”

She screamed, clutching her cheek as a red handprint bloomed across it. She stared at me, wide-eyed.

“You’re insane!”

“Shut up, you bitch!” I screamed back. “That slap was for Miles!”

I lunged forward, ready to tear her face apart.

But in the next second, a resounding crack exploded across my cheek.