“Was he not doing it on purpose? Didn’t you see it just now?”

I took a deep breath, trying my best to suppress the fire burning in my chest, but my voice still trembled.

“Mike, he just called Melanie a bastard to her face—why don’t you tell him, is Melanie really a bastard?”

Mike paused for a second, a flicker of hesitation flashing across his face.

But within moments, he lowered his head again, gently coaxing Oliver in his arms, completely ignoring my question, with no intention of asking Oliver to apologize.

At that moment, Jennifer, who had been standing silently on the side, shifted her eyes and suddenly put on a gentle, gracious smile.

She spoke in a soft and delicate voice,

“Ms. Harvey, I truly apologize. Oliver grew up abroad—he’s a bit straightforward and rough around the edges, he just says whatever comes to his mind. Please don’t take it to heart.”

But just as those seemingly peacemaking words left her lips, the smug look on the little boy’s face didn’t diminish in the slightest—in fact, it became even more arrogant.

Oliver raised his chin and shouted at the top of his lungs, “I wasn’t making anything up! That’s what everyone at school says! Melanie is a bastard! She stole my dad!”

My fists clenched so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

I stared at Mike, my gaze burning.

I remembered how, in the past, he had used him being a neat freak as an excuse to show constant disdain toward me and Melanie—and we endured it all.

We tiptoed around him in everything.

I turned a blind eye when he claimed to be “working late”, while he was actually out sleeping with other women.

I swallowed the bitterness and carried on.

But today—I would not let anyone insult my daughter like that.

“Mike, I’ll ask you one last time—” I paused, took a deep breath, my eyes rimmed with red, and asked slowly and firmly, “Is Melanie your biological daughter or not?”

Mike’s expression darkened.

A cold, bone-cutting sneer curled at his lips.

“Don’t you already know that better than anyone how she became my daughter?”

“Enough. Oliver’s paying a visit today. Let’s stop making a fuss, no need to ruin everyone’s mood.”

Mike furrowed his brows slightly, his tone laced with irritation.

His eyes held a kind of blame, as if I were the one being unreasonable, ruining this so-called "harmonious" moment.

Next to him, Jennifer and her child exchanged subtle glances.

The corners of their mouths lifted ever so slightly, eyes gleaming with a kind of triumphant glee—as though they were the true victors of this farce, and Melanie and I were just the unwanted losers in the background.

Mike paid no mind to how I or Melanie felt.

He walked straight up to Oliver, bent down with heartache etched into his face, and scooped him up in his arms.

His voice was so gentle it almost dripped with honey.

“Daddy’s going to buy you lots and lots of toys, okay?

Even that limited-edition LEGO set you’ve been wanting—I’ll get it all for you.”

“Yay!”

Oliver clapped excitedly, his face lit up with pride and joy.

Mike’s gaze softened even more at the sight, filled with a kind of doting tenderness that neither Melanie nor I had ever received.

As I watched his figure grow smaller and smaller, a bitter cold crept up from the depths of my heart, as if I had been thrown into an ice cellar.

All the grievances, anger, and crushing disappointment I had been holding back finally surged through me like an unstoppable tide.

At last, I took a deep breath and said the words I had rehearsed countless times in my heart—the words I had hesitated over again and again, but never dared to speak aloud until now.

“Mike, let’s get a divorce.”

Mike’s steps suddenly halted, as if he had just heard something unbelievable.

He slowly turned his head, his eyes as cold as a frostbitten winter day.

“Shannon, do you think playing this little act is funny?”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, the corners of his mouth curling into a sneer.

“If you think threatening me with divorce will shake me—fine, then I’ll give you what you want.”

With that, he turned and walked away without looking back.

That resolute figure seemed to declare that he had never truly cared about me or Melanie.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile flashed quickly across Jennifer’s eyes.

But it vanished in an instant, replaced by a carefully arranged look of false remorse as she returned to me.

“I’m truly sorry, Ms. Harvey. There’s nothing between Mike and me. Please don’t misunderstand our relationship.” Mike is a man who values loyalty and affection deeply. He just feels sorry for me—divorced so early, my child without a father—so he’s been a little more caring. Please don’t take it the wrong way, and don’t let this make things unpleasant between everyone…”

Before she left, Jennifer even hypocritically added me on WhatsApp, saying she wanted to compensate Melanie for the drawing Oliver had torn apart.

“Jennifer, come here.”

Mike was standing not far outside, holding Oliver in his arms.

His voice was impossibly soft, calling to her gently.

“Coming!”

Jennifer’s face lit up with a radiant smile as she happily trotted over to him.

Their figures hadn’t even fully disappeared from view when their hushed voices reached my ears with perfect clarity.

“Mike, really? Ms. Harvey was just angry when she mentioned divorce. How could you just agree like that?”

Jennifer’s tone carried a hint of playful blame, as though she were defending me.

Mike let out a cold snort, his voice thick with ridicule.

“She begged and schemed for this marriage—how could she possibly be willing to let it go? She snapped at Oliver just now. This is just a little punishment, and before long, she’ll come crawling back to me in tears.”

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but curve my lips into a cold smile.

‘Mike… you’re wrong. People change. The Shannon who once chased love like a moth to a flame—throwing everything away without regret—she’s gone. Now, for the sake of my daughter, I would walk away from you without hesitation, leave behind this endless pain and humiliation once and for all.’

Melanie had locked herself in her room.

Her muffled sobs pierced straight into my heart like sharp needles.

After a long while, she finally choked out a question, her voice laced with that innocent grief and helplessness unique to children.

“Mommy… everyone at school says Daddy is Oliver’s daddy. But I never tried to take Daddy away from him…”

Her cries came in broken bursts, as if she was trying to pour out all the sorrow in her tiny heart.

Eventually, the weeping faded.

I gently pushed the door open.

Melanie had fallen fast asleep, still clutching a photo of Mike, with teardrops glistening at the corners of her eyes.

Her little face was streaked with dried tears, and the sight of it felt like a giant invisible hand had reached into my chest and twisted my heart.

It hurt so much.

And as for me me—

I tossed and turned the entire night, unable to sleep.

In my boredom, I reached for my phone.

The screen lit up, and the moment it did, a new post caught my eye.

Jennifer had just updated her Twitter.

"Oliver finally has the fatherly love he’s been missing. No one can take away something that belongs to us!"

The words were blindingly harsh, and the photo that followed was like a sharp blade, cutting straight into my heart.

In the picture, the three of them—Mike, Jennifer, and little Oliver—were huddled closely together.

Their faces beamed with happiness, the perfect image of a warm and loving family of three.

Almost as if possessed, I tapped “like” on the post.

As if that casual, indifferent action could somehow hide the devastation roiling inside me.

But before I could even gather my thoughts, my phone chimed with a ding.

A new message popped up—it was from Jennifer.

Confused, I opened it.

It was a video.

And there, clear as day on the screen, was Mike’s familiar yet increasingly unfamiliar handsome face.

The timestamp showed it was from shortly after he returned to the country.

In the video, a friend teased,

“Mike, what do you think is the happiest thing in life?”

Mike gave a lazy smile, but there was a tenderness in his eyes I had never seen before.

He answered in a relaxed tone, “Last week overseas, after coaxing Oliver to sleep, I pulled Jennifer into the bathroom.”

Laughter erupted from the people around him.

But on this side of the screen, I felt cold from head to toe, as if I had been dropped into a frozen abyss.

Before I could fully process the shock, another memory surfaced—a moment when Jennifer had once shared a post that read, “After having a kid, we never get alone time anymore. We can only sneak around after Oliver’s asleep to do this and that…”

The implied intimacy between those lines now hit me like a hammer, each word pounding against my already shattered heart.

Just then, my phone buzzed again—another message from Jennifer.

“So sorry, I sent that by accident. Meant to send it to someone else, and by the time I realized, I couldn’t recall it.”

Then came another.

“But honestly, I think you already know how Mike feels, don’t you? You forced your way into this marriage with all your little tricks. The only reason you became Mrs. Ashton was because you backed him into a corner. For the past three years abroad, he’s been with me and Oliver. Even though Oliver’s not his biological child, Mike treats him even better than a real father would. Even if we separated, he’s never been able to let me go. It’s only a matter of time before we’re back together.”

My heart felt like it was steeped in bitter water, each word soaking deeper than the last.

To top it all off, she sent one last image—

Oliver stood in the center, grinning brightly, while she and Mike kissed either side of his face.

A flawless picture of a “perfect family”.

I stared at the screen, lips twitching into a bitter, self-mocking smile.

Then my fingers flew over the keyboard and typed just two words.

“Alright then.”

I took a deep breath and dialed my father’s number.

The line connected, and his familiar voice came through. “Hello?”

I fought back the sting behind my nose and tried to keep my voice calm.

“Dad, I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to take Melanie and settle abroad. We’ll leave in a few days.”

There was a pause on the other end, then a burst of joy.

“Really?

But I heard Mike has just returned to the country—didn’t your little family finally reunite? Is he okay with you leaving?”

Hearing that, my eyes reddened.

I let out a cold, bitter laugh. “He couldn’t be more thrilled.”