The Group Chat

As expected, Serene turned to me with an apologetic gaze after ending the call.

"Joseph, Keith isn't feeling well. I'm going to visit him with Tina. Start without us. We'll be back soon."

Before this, I would have been too cowardly to say anything as she left.

This time, however, I did not want to compromise anymore.

I looked down at the food, picked up my cutlery, and said coldly, "We're eating."

Serene and Tina froze. Then Tina swept her plate to the floor.

"I'm going! I don't want to eat your food! I want to eat crabs and lobsters with Keith!"

I kept my head lowered.

"I said, you can go after you eat!"

Serene's face grew stormy as well. "We can eat whenever we want. Right now, we're going to visit him. He's all alone in the hospital without a single family member by his side. I can't let him suffer like that.

"Fine. You want a meal together, right? You can cook a new meal after we return later. We'll eat then."

I told her to wait. Then I walked to my room, took out a few documents, and placed them in front of her.

"Let's get divorced."

Serene paused just as she reached the mansion doorway.

She turned and stared at me in disbelief. "Really? It's just a meal."

"It's not just a meal. If you don't sign, neither of you is leaving this house today."

Tina tugged at her arm. "Mom, sign it already. We'll get dinner for Keith. He must be starving."

After shooting me a glare, Serene grabbed the papers and signed them without even reading a word.

"I won't be at the city hall once the 30-day cooldown period is over anyway, so this agreement is all for nothing. Go ahead with your tantrum."

Then, without giving me another glance, she left.

What she did not know was that she had also signed a Power of Attorney. She would not need to appear at city hall.

Hopefully, I would be able to survive until the day I could embark on a new path all on my own.

I stared at the table laden with untouched food.

Sitting back down, I slowly ate in silence. Somehow, it was the best meal of my life.

When we got married eight years ago, Serene told me to quit my teaching job so I could focus on taking care of her at home.

Like a servant, I had to prepare lavish meals for her every single day.

She had been pregnant then, and even a few bites would make her nauseous. I had to patiently coax her and feed her bite by bite.

After the whole ordeal, each meal would take at least one hour.

I could only eat the cold leftovers after she was full and had left the room.

Then, Tina was born. I shifted from taking care of Serene to taking care of Tina, but my life remained the same.

Before my mother passed away, she often told me, "You must first learn to love yourself before you can love others."

Looking back now, she was absolutely right.

I had already lost sight of myself, which was why I ended up losing my lover and child as well.

After the meal, I heard a buzzing coming from the couch.

When I walked over, I realized the buzzing came from Serene's tablet. It had been buzzing nonstop with notifications from her messaging app.

In the past, I would never touch any of her devices. According to her, all her messages contained company secrets, since she was in charge of a major company.

This time, for some odd reason, I tapped into the app.

The messages came from a group chat. The participants were her friends from high society.

Elaine had written, 'That freeloader actually had the nerve to ask for a divorce? Now I've seen everything. Just divorce him, then. He's going to die anyway. You don't want to be stuck mourning him after he dies, do you?'

Serene replied, 'You don't get it. The company will be going public soon. If I divorce him now, my reputation will take a hit.

'I've already asked around. After he dies, our marriage will be automatically annulled. Then I'll hire someone to write a piece about how devoted I was to him. That'll bring some good publicity to the company.'

Keith's Taunting

Aw, you won't be complaining every day about life with a leech anymore. We'll have to find some new entertainment. Oh, right. You asked me about changing Tina's last name to Sawyer, didn't you? I asked around. It can be done as soon as he's dead,' Fanny messaged.

With trembling hands, I scrolled upward through the chat.

There, I found multiple photos and videos Serene had secretly taken of me taking care of Tina, cooking, and even kneeling down to tie her shoes.

The chat was filled with mocking laughter, and Serene had clearly laughed along with them.

I could no longer stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks.

Before we were married, I was a college professor with a bright future.

But I could not help falling in love with Serene.

When she graduated, she suddenly agreed to date me. In fact, we got married right away.

On our wedding night, she burst out crying as she told me about her pregnancy. The baby's father was her first love, who had died while saving her from drowning.

Her father forced her to get an abortion, which was why she agreed to marry me.

I loved her, so I agreed to treat the baby like it was mine.

However, even though I waited on Serene and Tina hand and foot, Tina's family name was Warner.

Keith had only appeared in their lives for six months, yet she already wanted Tina to have the Sawyer family name.

I was a complete laughingstock.

Indeed, Keith was an outstanding, young, and handsome man. More importantly, he looked very much like her first love.

From the moment he appeared in our lives, I had been doomed to lose.

That afternoon, Mary, our servant, helped me erase all traces of myself from the mansion.

It was only then that I realized that we had not taken a single family photo all this time.

Pity shone in Mary's gaze.

In the past, Serene's parents had looked down on me, so they refused to let her hire a servant. Since I had so much free time at home, what right did I have to hire someone else to wait on me?

I did not even have the right to sit with them during meals.

Later on, due to my kidney disease, they reluctantly hired Mary to take care of Serene and Tina.

Mary had not been here for long, but she saw and heard how they treated me.

"Sir, if you don't mind, I actually have an old place that's still vacant. You can move in there. I won't make you pay rent. Don't worry. I won't tell Ms. Warner either."

As I had accepted a job teaching in a rural region, I would be leaving in a few days. The money saved could be used to buy clothes for my future students.

Thus, I accepted the offer. Mary would take me to my temporary home the first thing the next morning.

Before I knew it, it was ten o'clock at night. As I got up to get ready for bed, I heard the front door unlock.

Then I watched as Keith walked in with Tina asleep in his arms. Serene followed behind them.

"Joseph, Keith spent the whole evening entertaining Tina. As it's late, he won't be returning to the hospital. Get a guest room ready for him. I'll be putting Tina to bed."

She then went upstairs with Tina, leaving me alone in the living room with Keith.

Acting like he was the master of the house, he sat down next to me and barked out, "I want dark colors for my bedsheet. Also, light an incense for me. Oh, right. Get me a glass of warm milk before I turn in for the night."

I got up to leave, ignoring him.

With a snort of laughter, he stopped me.

"Who knew? A freeloader like you has a backbone. No wonder Serene said you asked for a divorce. I didn't believe her at first. You can divorce her, but don't even think about getting a single penny from her!"

The smug, scheming look on his face made me lose all desire to respond. There was no need anyway.

Keith's Scheme

I turned to leave, but Keith stopped me once more.

This time, the grin on his face was gone, replaced by barely concealed rage. "Must I spell it all out for you? I'm going to steal everything away from you and the Warners! Then, I'll have those two kicked out of the family.

"I don't love her or her b*stard kid anyway! Aren't you mad?"

My face remained calm and blank, as if I felt nothing for Serene and Tina anymore.

Even if I warned them, they wouldn't believe me anyway. They reaped what they sowed.

Suppressing the agony stabbing through my heart, I replied coldly, "The two of them have nothing to do with me anymore. Whatever happens to them, they chose their own path. Move aside. I'm tired and need to rest."

While I did not know why he insisted on provoking me, I was not interested in talking to him anymore.

Suddenly, he leaned in close and whispered into my ear, "You're not angry about that? Well, then let me tell you this. I'm not even sick. Are you angry now?"

My heart skipped a beat as I stared at him in disbelief.

"What did you say?" My voice was low as I did my best to remain composed.

Keith's smug grin widened, full of mockery and provocation. "I said, I'm not sick at all. That's just a lie I made up to win Serene over."

The rage carried over from my past life overwhelmed me, no longer able to be suppressed.

After all, I wanted to live in freedom with no restrictions.

"Keith, aren't you afraid of what goes around comes around?"

I grabbed him by the shirt collar and glared at him with bloodshot eyes. At that moment, I wished I could tear him apart with my bare hands.

However, he did not care at all.

In fact, he continued to smile at me with that same provocative grin. Then, he punched himself in the stomach and let out a howl of pain.

Serene swiftly dashed down the stairs and slapped me across the face.

"Joseph, you b*stard! You can be mad at me, but what right do you have to hit him?"

"Serene, he's not even sick! I can move out of the way so you two can get together, but you have no right to take away my right to live with such a lie!"

"That's nonsense!" Serene snapped. "Keith is kind. He would never lie!"

With one arm wrapped around his stomach, Keith gasped between breaths, "I know you hate me, but you can't slander me like this. If you don't like me staying here tonight, I'll just leave."

At that moment, a heavy object crashed against my head. Warm liquid trickled down my forehead. The metallic stench of blood made my stomach churn.

Tina's voice rang from behind me. "You're mean, Dad! I'm avenging Keith!"

I burst out into loud peals of laughter.

Perhaps the blood on my face made me look terrifying, for Serene looked rather panicked.

"I'll take you to the hospital," she stammered.

I walked around her, swaying and stumbling.

Grabbing the luggage I'd spent the evening packing, I walked to the doorway.

"Serene, Tina, from now on, there are no more ties between us. Goodbye."

I left without a backward glance.

Pulling out my phone, I called my friend.

"Can you help me ask if I can start that rural teaching job early? It'd be great if I could leave in the next two days. I don't have much time left."

I just wanted to spend the final moments of my life with children who were truly innocent and kind.

Hopefully, with the last bits of good deed, I would never have to meet Serene again. Not even in another life.