It would be a lie to say I wasn’t heartbroken. But it was true—I had lost all hope.

I gave a bitter smile and shook my head. Since Daniel Brooks was so firm in his own beliefs, there was nothing left for me to say.

“Where are Jason’s and my things?”

My question, so out of line with what he expected, enraged him. Daniel threw me hard to the ground.

“Why are you bringing that up? Do you have any idea how much your post has hurt Chloe Miller?”

He shoved his phone in front of me, the screen displaying my post.

“You even hired trolls to bully Chloe, just a young girl. How could she possibly endure such hateful comments?”

But the comments were nothing more than netizens questioning reasonably, asking Chloe to provide proper safety measures at her lodge.

In his eyes, that turned into me hiring people to slander her.

Looking closer, I noticed something chilling: under every comment, there was the same IP, an account named Brooks defending Chloe’s “innocent mistake.”

Who else could it have been but him?

I let out a hollow laugh, filled with sorrow.

“Daniel Brooks, let’s get a divorce.”

His expression darkened instantly.

“Emma Carter, what nonsense are you spouting now?”

Nonsense? My beloved son was dead, and I had finally reached despair, ready to give up. But in his eyes, it was just me throwing a tantrum.

In the past, he grew closer and closer to Chloe, staying out overnight again and again just to make her happy.

At first, I couldn’t accept that the man who once held only me and our son in his heart had changed. I cried, I raged—but it was useless. Eventually, I gave up.

And in the end, it cost my son his life.

My voice was hoarse as I forced out the words:

“Daniel Brooks, haven’t you always wanted to get rid of me and Jason?”

“Emma!” he bellowed, his eyes filled with shadows.

“Is it so hard for you to just apologize to Chloe?”

“If you apologize, everything will go back to the way it was. I just want to give Chloe some justice. Why make such a big deal out of it?”

“Besides, Chloe is pregnant. Don’t you think you’re deliberately trying to upset her? When her baby is born, we’ll be a family. Jason will even have a sibling. What’s wrong with that? You should have a conscience!”

Conscience?

I suddenly laughed, tears streaming uncontrollably down my face.

How I longed to scream at him—Our son is dead!

He was killed because of your precious Chloe!

But conscience meant nothing to me now.

And I knew—he would never believe me. He would only cling stubbornly to his own version of the truth.

So I deliberately provoked him:

“No need. Jason and I don’t want to be tied to you anymore. He said he doesn’t need a father like you, so we’re stepping away.”

Rage twisted Daniel’s face, as if he had just been toyed with.

He raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face.

“I knew it—you’ve been lying to me from the start!”

“Where’s Jason? I’ll have someone bring him back. I’ll show you how I punish a boy for lying!”

“With a careless mother like you, of course he’s learned to spew lies too!”

His teeth clenched so tightly his jaw trembled, his chest rising and falling violently.

He had always been harsh with Jason, grooming him as the heir to the Brooks legacy. From a young age, he drilled into him the need for honesty, forbidding lies.

And now, he believed Jason had struck at the very core of his principles.

He hastily dialed his assistant.

“Hurry and find Jason! Bring him back immediately!”

The assistant stammered on the other end, trembling:

“M-Mr. Brooks, young Jason should be at his riding lesson today…”

Daniel froze, realization dawning far too late. He hung up quickly and dialed the riding instructor instead.

“Mr. Johnson, is Jason in class? Please put him on the phone—I need to speak with him!”

Mr. Johnson froze for a moment.

“Mr. Brooks, Jason didn’t come today. I even tried calling Mrs. Carter, but no one answered. Was he picked up by someone else…?”

Before the sentence was finished, Daniel Brooks gave a cold snort and slammed the phone down.

“You even bribed the teacher? How long are you planning to lie to me?”

“It’s Monday. Why didn’t you take him to school? What exactly are you trying to do? You think I won’t get angry, is that it? Don’t let me find him, or I swear I’ll beat him!”

Now he thought of his son?

But he had no idea—he would never see Jason again.

The image of my child dying with his eyes wide open haunted me. My chest tightened painfully as I broke down in sobs.

“Jason is dead… you killed him with your own hands!”

“Stop spouting nonsense!”

Daniel’s face darkened to purple, fury blazing in his eyes.

“You think exposing your tricks means you can claim Jason’s dead? Emma Carter, do you even think before you lie? What kind of cruel mother says things like this?”

Tears streamed down my face. I no longer had the strength for pointless arguments.

I tore my hand away and tried to leave.

But Daniel blocked my path, yanking me back by my hair.

“Whatever happens, you’re going to apologize to Chloe Miller first!”

Chloe stood pitifully at the doorway, clutching her collar and feigning concern.

“Daniel, let it go. I think Emma just lost her head for a moment. I can endure something this small.”

Hearing her words only deepened the tenderness in his gaze.

“Chloe, you don’t have to be so understanding…”

Then, without hesitation, he dragged me by my hair toward the hall.

“I told you already—my patience has limits. Keep this up, and I’ll divorce you. Don’t expect to remain Mrs. Brooks much longer!”

I struggled violently, my arms and legs scraped raw with red welts.

“Do whatever you want—I don’t care anymore!”

“Emma, don’t push me too far!”

He hauled me to the top of the stairs and pulled out Jason’s beloved Spider-Man action figure. His eyes glinted with menace, jaw clenched tight.

“This is your last chance—bring Jason out, or deal with the consequences!”

Before I could respond, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Daniel snatched it up, confident it would be Jason calling.

But when he heard the voice on the other end, his face turned to stone.

“Emma, are you still not back yet? The hospital says the morgue is full. They need to cremate Jason quickly.”

“Cremate…?”

Daniel’s face went black. A second later, he gave a sharp, mocking laugh into the phone, though his eyes burned with rage.

“Still acting? Now your friend’s even making up excuses like cremation?”

Grace Johnson’s furious voice shot through the line:

“Daniel Brooks, are you even a man? Your son is dead, and you dare say we’re making excuses? You’ll regret this!”

She kept cursing, her voice hoarse from anger, defending me and grieving for Jason.

But nothing mattered anymore.

Whatever fragile feelings I still had for Daniel—

in the moment Jason died with his eyes open in despair—

were completely extinguished.

Daniel’s response was to hurl the phone at my face, his voice thunderous:

“Enough! I won’t watch this farce any longer. I’ll call the police right now and have them punish you both!”

I let out a bitter laugh. So this was what it meant for the real criminal to cry thief.

A strange thrill stirred in my chest.

If the police came and discovered that the real murderer of my son was this deranged man himself, what kind of face would Daniel Brooks make then?

I nodded, pretending indifference.

Suddenly, Daniel raised his hand and smashed Jason’s beloved Spider-Man action figure against the floor.

It shattered into pieces, fragments scattering everywhere.

It felt as though my son had been torn from me all over again.

I lost all reason in that moment. My body surged forward instinctively, desperate to snatch back the toy my son had cherished most.

When Jason was afraid at night, he hugged Spider-Man and declared he was a brave little man.

When Jason made mistakes, he pulled Spider-Man close and apologized with earnest sincerity.

Even on the night before the tragedy, he had held the figure, pretending it was his father by his side.

And now, Daniel had destroyed the last vessel of all those memories.

I screamed and lunged at him. He mistook my fury for guilt and gripped me even harder.

Chloe Miller clung to Daniel’s arm, pretending to hold him back.

“Daniel, stop it—don’t hit her, please!”

But in the same moment, she pressed her heel down on the shards of plastic, grinding them viciously into the floor. Her lips curled as she leaned closer, whispering so only I could hear:

“What a pity. Just like your son—dead.”

I snapped, slapping her across the face with all my strength.

The sound rang sharp in the air. The next thing I saw was Daniel’s enraged eyes blazing at me.

“She’s pregnant! How dare you lay a hand on her?”

“You’ve defied me again and again, Emma Carter. This time, you’ll learn the consequences!”

He seized a heavy vase from the table and brought it down hard on my head.

The world spun. Darkness swallowed me. Just before I lost consciousness, I saw Jason smiling at me, waving as if to welcome me.

Am I finally going to be with him again? That would be… so wonderful…

But time passed. A sharp, brutal strike jolted me back to awareness.

I blinked, dazed, and realized I was hanging in the middle of a shadowy forest. The air was damp, the woods silent except for the eerie echo of my own screams.

“Help me! Someone, please help me!”

Only the hollow reverberations answered.

From the distance, pairs of glowing animal eyes flickered between the trees, sending shivers crawling down my spine.

I reached for my phone to call Grace Johnson—only to find my pockets empty.

I cried until my throat was raw. Hunger gnawed at me, cold soaked into my bones. I prayed desperately for a miracle.

Then pain shot through me—something sharp and jagged clamped hard around my left foot.

I shrieked.

“What—what is this?!”

A cold voice cut through the night.

“Awake, are you?”

I looked down. Chloe was crouched there, her hands pressing firmly against the steel jaws of a hunting trap clamped around my leg, her eyes glinting with malice.

“This is Daniel’s punishment for you,” she sneered.

“For smearing me online and hiring trolls to insult me.”

“You probably didn’t know, did you? When your family booked a trip, Daniel purposely chose my lodge. But he felt embarrassed to bring you along, so he decided he’d rather come back alone later to see me.”

Her voice grew sharp with hatred.

“I wanted to be a gracious host, to show myself at my best. But your brat couldn’t stop boasting about how amazing his father was.”

She leaned in, her tone dripping venom.

“Did you know? Even after your marriage, Daniel and I kept meeting in secret. He told me he married you only because you trapped him with that pregnancy. He never wanted you.”

Her face twisted with resentment. And yet, deep inside, I felt no ripple, no shock.

Her fury, her venom—it was because she loved Daniel Brooks.