Leon's POV
One night, I was out making food deliveries, my back completely drenched in sweat.
Allison and Clarence were going viral on the Internet, where she sang a deeply soulful song in a video. Every lyric felt like a long-distance love confession.
Though she wore a mask, I recognized her at a glance.
The comment section was flooded with praise.
"Clarence is one lucky guy. Someone always has his back, no matter how much he screws up. His wife spent millions of dollars on a massive fireworks display just to make him smile.
"And now, she's singing to him like a devoted queen. What a life."
The atmosphere in the video was vibrant and full of life. Yet for three years, there was nothing but dead silence between us.
Even in bed, she refused to let a single sound escape her lips during our most intimate moments. Our sex life was mechanical, and our daily routine was robotic. I was the only lunatic desperately trying to keep this marriage alive.
Allison had never been one with high self-control. There was a time when a single smile from me could make her burst into laughter and prompt her to talk endlessly about her day. But for Clarence, she brutally suppressed every desire to speak and never said a word to us.
She wouldn't even speak to Noel, her son.
Noel had always felt lonely. There were several times when he tried to talk to Allison, babbling and cooing, but she would only stare at him with cold eyes until he was forced to give up speaking.
As a mother, she might as well have been dead. How could she be so heartless?
While I was lost in thought, the hospital called.
"Mr. Russell, your card was declined, and it seems like your bank account has been frozen. We'll have to stop the treatments once the current balance runs out. You need to look into this at once."
I was stunned. That was when I remembered that over the years, I had handed every dollar I earned over to Allison to manage.
With Noel's life on the line, I dared not delay another second. I quickly called her, but the line was constantly busy. She never replied to my texts either.
I had no choice but to track down the address from the news and rush to the venue.
The ballroom was spectacular, while I looked completely out of place. The judgmental, mocking stares from guests felt like sharp knives, but I didn't have time to care. I grabbed anyone I could find and desperately asked if they knew Allison.
Finally, I found her on the rooftop, dressed in an incredibly expensive outfit.
I grabbed her and demanded, "Where's my money, Allison? Give me back my money and cards! Why the hell did you freeze my account?"
Even behind her mask, I could see the panic in her eyes. She shoved me away to put distance between us.
"I don't know who you are, sir," she said. "You have the wrong person."
That was the final straw. Gritting my teeth, I snapped, "Drop the act! I know it's you, Allison Strong. I know everything! I just want my money back from all these years. Do you have any idea that was Noel's life-saving money?"
The more I spoke, the more I fell apart. Three years of lies and humiliation completely crushed my pride, and now, I only wanted what was rightfully mine. As for the money she had embezzled years ago, I would think of it as a loss.
Still, Allison refused to admit it, so I moved with lightning speed and reached out to rip the mask off her face.
She went deathly pale. "Leon, let me explain."
I slapped her hard across the face. "I don't want to hear any of it! I don't care if you played deaf and dumb for three years, and I don't care that you stole my money. I just want my card back."
Clarence stepped in and feigned a friendly demeanor as he held me back. "This is all my fault, Leon. Allison grabbed the wrong card by mistake, and I accidentally got yours frozen while spending the money.
"And don't blame Allison for not talking to you these past three years. It's all because of a joke both of us made back then. I told her that if she dared to have a baby before I did, she wouldn't be allowed to say a word for three years.
"She gave birth to a baby for you and for three years, kept her mouth shut for me."
A loud ringing filled my ear. It never crossed my mind that something that ridiculous was the reason behind Allison's muteness.
Leon's POV
All those years of suffering alone, all the maternal love Noel had been denied, had turned out to be nothing more than the price for a ridiculous joke.
Then what had Noel and I been to Allison? What were we to her?
I stared at Allison in disbelief, while she frantically tried to grab my hand.
"Leon, I admit this wasn't fair to you and Noel, but the three years are over now. I've officially paid back everything I owed Clarence, and from now on, our family can live a happy life together."
I avoided her touch as if she were filthy. The nauseating truth felt like a knife ripping through my chest, leaving a bloody, gaping wound.
When I spoke, my voice was completely raw and hoarse. "Just give me my card back. I don't want anything else."
Allison was about to reach into her bag when Clarence tripped over his feet for no reason and scraped his arm. One small cry from him was enough to steal all her attention.
She shoved me aside and rushed to help him up.
The crowd instantly split into two. Only I smashed a wine bottle against the wall and stood blocking the door with broken glass in my hand, screaming hysterically, "Give me back my card!"
"Don't you dare push it, Leon," Allison hissed. "It's just a few thousand dollars. You're delaying us over a pittance.
"I've had my assistant transfer money into Noel's account every day. You're just using this as a pathetic excuse to get back on Clarence!"
With that, she shoved past me, completely ignoring the glass that cut her arm, and ordered her men to hold me down.
But I grabbed the hem of her pants and desperately begged, "That's not true! Noel never received the money!
"Please, Allison. Give me my money back. If I don't pay by tomorrow, they're turning off the machines keeping him alive."
But Allison didn't even look back and walked away, not even willing to spare a few minutes for me.
Before leaving, she assured me that she would unfreeze my bank account and make sure Noel's medical bills were covered.
Even after I returned to the hospital in a daze, they never received a single payment. Allison had most likely forgotten about everything.
The nurses and doctors looked at me with pity.
"ICU care costs 1,000 dollars a day, and that's not even including the medications. The money in the account will soon run out, but don't worry, Mr. Russell. You've done everything you can."
I sat at the door to Noel's room like a madman and couldn't stop thinking about how my own mistake had harmed him. I didn't deserve to be a dad.
In desperation, I reached out to an illegal blood broker.
The cold needle pierced my vein and drained my life until my face turned a shade paler. I grabbed a lip gloss to add a little color to my lips, forced a smile, and headed to the next hospital to sell more blood.
Two blood draws only yielded a miserable 3,000 dollars. When I demanded to continue, even the broker backed away in fear.
"You'll die if you keep going. 800ml is the absolute human limit. Think about your kid. If you die, who's going to be there for him?"
When I buried my face in my hands and broke down in tears, he slipped me an extra 100 dollars.
Meanwhile, over in the hospital's VIP suites, Allison had summoned every dermatologist just to ensure that Clarence's scrape wouldn't leave a scar.
Noel's life meant nothing to her. He wasn't even worth her attention.
My heart died right then. I knew that if Noel didn't survive this ordeal, I was done living, too.
Just then, an ICU doctor came running toward me. "Mr. Russell, come with me right now."
