3: 3

The day before the livestream, we had the finance team set aside all the liquid cash we could, and we sat in that livestream room from the first second to the last, never letting up for a moment.

That one stream, we burned through more than fifty million dollars.

And when it ended, my heart dropped straight to the bottom.

We were still ranked second.

Caroline's parents were still sitting comfortably at number one.

In the family group chat, Caroline started in with that snide tone of hers:

"My mom and dad mortgaged their house again for their grandson, and took out more than ten payday loans on top of it!"

"Grandparents who own a publicly listed company, and they still can't beat a grandpa and grandma making three thousand a month. Fine — starting tomorrow, Riley Abbott can just take my family's name instead!"

The chat stayed dead silent. Not one relative dared say a word to smooth it over.

Sebastian's voice message came right behind hers, cold as ice:

"Dad, Mom, if there was never any room in your hearts for me, or for Riley, then there's no point being family anymore."

"From today, we cut ties completely. We go our separate ways, and we stay out of each other's lives!"

A few short lines, and it was like a knife driven into my chest.

I stared at the phone screen, the room spinning around me.

Owen looked at those messages and couldn't hold his fury down another second. He shouted straight into the phone:

"Sebastian! Have you lost every shred of decency?"

"What did your mother and I ever do to you? We valued you above our own lives, your whole life. How dare you say something like that? Where's your conscience?"

Sebastian answered fast, his voice full of impatience and scorn:

"Drop the act. If you two really loved me, would you fail to grab number one every single time? Who's this performance even for?"

I couldn't hold on any longer. I slumped limp onto the sofa.

Owen panicked and called for an ambulance, rushing me to City Central Hospital.

I truly thought this time our son was really going to cut us off for good.

But that same night, Sebastian and Caroline actually came, and they brought Riley with them.

I looked at the small figure in the doorway, and most of the hardness in my heart melted away.

He was still our own child, after all. However cruel his words, we were still in his heart somewhere.

Owen froze too. His face, tight with anger all day, softened just a little.

But before either of us could speak, Caroline pulled a huge face mask out of her bag and clapped it straight over Riley's face.

The boy's whole face was covered, sealed tight.

The anger I'd just swallowed shot right back up. I pushed myself up to look at her.

"What is this supposed to mean?"

Caroline pursed her lips.

"Can't be helped, Mom. Even though I'm a kind person, I felt sorry for you, getting so worked up you landed in the hospital, so I made a point of bringing Riley to see you."

"But rules are rules. You didn't get number one this time, so you don't qualify to see the child's face."

"If I made an exception, how could I face my own parents and everything they've given?"

The moment those words were out, the room went cold.

Owen's face darkened completely.

We had lived most of our lives, and we had never been humiliated like this.

Sebastian let out a snort of a laugh, looked at me lying weak in the bed, scorn flickering in his eyes:

"Babe, I told you my mom was faking it. Look at that voice on her. Does that sound like a woman collapsed from rage?"

"Another minute later and she'd probably be marching home on her own two feet."

Caroline heard that and burst out laughing.

Something in me went cold all the way through. I didn't want to say another word to them.

I looked at them, my voice hoarse and drained.

"Get out!"

Instead of leaving, Caroline reached over and tore two holes in the mask on the boy's face, just enough to bare a pair of eyes, everything else still covered.

She crouched down, took Riley by the shoulders, and turned him toward Owen and me.

Caroline's mouth curved up.

"Take a good look, baby. These two are your grandpa and grandma. But they don't love you one bit. They won't spend money on you, they wouldn't come see you for five whole years. They're the worst grandparents in the world!"

A five-year-old knows nothing, can't understand the rights and wrongs between grown-ups. He only followed Caroline's lead, his little mouth crumpling on the spot:

"I hate Grandpa and Grandma! I don't want them! I hate them the most!"

That small, tearful voice, that plain, open loathing, drove deep into my heart until I couldn't breathe.

This was the grandson I had waited five years for.

The first time I ever heard his voice, and it was full of loathing and hate.

Caroline straightened up, smug all over her face.

"You see that, Mom, Dad? This is what you get for refusing to give from the heart."

"Your son isn't on your side, and your grandson hates you."

"I really can't understand you two. What good is all that money in your hands? You've got one foot in the grave already."

Owen couldn't take it anymore. He roared at them:

"Get out! Get out of my sight right now! And never come back!"

4: 4

Back home.

The moment I opened the door, the family portrait in the center of the living room TV cabinet caught my eye.

I stared at that photo, and my eyes reddened before I could stop them.

Even with my heart gone cold, twenty-some years of mother and son couldn't be cut clean in a single breath.

Owen stood beside me, following my gaze to the photo, and let out a long sigh.

The year Sebastian turned three, he came down with severe pneumonia and went straight into the ICU.

For three full days and nights, Owen and I never closed our eyes, never dared step away.

We were worn down to nothing, and finally fell asleep slumped against the edge of the bed.

Half-dreaming, we felt a small hand reach out and gently take hold of Owen's hand and mine.

The child had only just been pulled back from the edge, his whole body drained, his movements soft and weak.

First he took my hand and bent his head to brush his lips against the back of it.

Then he turned, took Owen's hand, and kissed it the same gentle way.

Clumsy and obedient, with the pure, dependent trust only a small child has.

My nose stung at once, tears almost spilling over, but I forced them back and kept my eyes shut, pretending to be fast asleep.

Owen did the same, lying still, quietly taking in the child's love.

Owen reached over and drew my shoulder in, his voice hoarse and tired:

"I really can't understand it. How did he turn into this?"

"Love and everything money could buy, we never shorted him one bit. Where did we go wrong?"

I looked at Sebastian in the photo, everything tangled up inside me.

I stayed silent a long time, and in the end my heart softened again.

I said:

"How about we sit down and talk with him properly, one more time?"

Owen was quiet for a few seconds, then nodded.

Early the next morning, we brought gifts and went to his door ourselves.

Just as we reached it, we heard voices coming from inside?

Caroline was the first to speak.

"Honey, did we push too hard this time? What if your parents really dig in and cut you off? Then we lose more than we gain."

But Sebastian sounded completely sure of himself:

"No way! Absolutely no way! I'm the only son they'll ever have, they've treated me like the apple of their eye since I was little."

"They're only getting older, and the one thing they cling to is having someone to care for them in old age. Just wait. In a few days they'll come crawling back on their own, begging me to forgive them."

"Hmph! Always going on about how they love me, and yet they're the reason I can barely have kids. They know I'll only ever have one child in my life, and they still won't hand the company over to me! Such hypocrites!"

Caroline's mother laughed and picked it up:

"Exactly, people that fake deserve to be taught a lesson!"

"Oh, that's my Caroline for you, so clever. Just spent a little money faking a livestream page and cleaned up, and got to see whether those two really meant it, too."

Caroline's father sounded thoroughly pleased:

"Tomorrow we'll get your brother a new car. That last one's already a year old."

"We're not the kind of family that hoards it away. When we've got money, we spend it on our son, no holding back!"

But Caroline's brother sounded a little hesitant:

"Sebastian, I've been reading these novels lately, and in a lot of them, when only-child parents get squeezed too hard, they just have a second kid and squeeze right back."

"Your parents aren't all that old. You're not worried they'll have another one?"

The moment he finished, Sebastian's loud, careless laugh rang out from inside:

"Don't you worry. I planned for that a long time ago."

"For years now I've quietly been slipping something into the health supplements they take every day. Their bodies gave out long ago. There's no way they could ever conceive again."

"In this life, I'm the only son they'll ever get!"

I froze on the spot in the doorway.

Before I could even come back to myself, Sebastian's voice turned suddenly cold, thick with hatred:

"They owed it to me in the first place!"

"If they hadn't put me through surgery after surgery as a kid, overdosed me on all that medicine, my sperm count would've been fine! I wouldn't be like this!"

"And now they still won't even make it up to me!"

Caroline soothed him at once, her voice soft:

"Don't be afraid, honey, you've got me right here~"

Sebastian was moved, and the two of them fell into kissing right then and there.

The little wet sounds were unbearably grating.

Caroline's whole family clapped and cheered them on, laughing again and again.

Owen and I stood outside the door, hands and feet gone ice-cold.

Everything in me died.

I turned my head toward Owen, his face livid beside me, and my voice came out strangely calm:

"Honey, make that call."

Owen's head snapped toward me:

"You're sure? Once it goes out, there's no turning back."

I looked off into the distance and gave a small nod:

"I'm sure."