My daughter, Luna Simmons, passed the selection exam for work in the local government on my 20th anniversary of marriage with my wife, Rachel Roberts.

However, when I prepared a party to celebrate both the happy events in my life, the hospital that Rachel worked in informed me that Luna had just passed away there.

This news made my parents have a relapse of heart disease, and the only one who was able to perform the surgery was Rachel.

No matter how many times I called her, there was no answer at all.

While I was wailing in front of bone ashes of the most intimate people in my life, she called me back.

She was holding a celebration party for her first love's son, Cole Bennet, and said nonchalantly, "Look, I don't even want to talk about that you've failed to conceive me with a boy for so many years. It seems that I have to rely on Cole to support my senior life."

***

Rachel's taunt, mixed with the words in Luna's diary in front of me, drilled into my mind.

She recorded everything in her diary.

According to her, Rachel forced her to give the chance of working in the local government to Cole and deceived her to transplant her bone marrow to Cole's father, Raymond Bennett.

Luna: [Mom will divorce dad if I don't give up this opportunity. I would rather sacrifice my future for a happy family.]

Luna: [Mom has always been the best doctor in the world. She has been teaching me to be generous and ready to help others, but I know my bone marrow didn't go to those sick children but was transplanted to Uncle Raymond.]

Luna: [Nevermind, today will be the last time, though. Mom promised me to come home and celebrate their 20th anniversary. Dad's heart will be broken if he doesn't see mom today.]

My hands couldn't stop shivering.

The righteous reason Rachel coaxed Luna into donating bone marrow to contribute to society since she was a child was to treat her own daughter as a mobile blood bank for Raymond!

They exploited my daughter and even tried to snatch away her position in government.

I was so heartbroken that I couldn't breathe. The hospital said Luna died from a bone marrow puncture error. When I arrived, her body had already been cremated.

It had always been so confusing why Luna went to the hospital for no reason in the past.

Unexpectedly, Rachel murdered our own daughter!

Looking at the three urns in front of me, I desperately felt my eyes were dry as desert.

The successive blows made me almost lose my soul, and I didn't even know how I walked out of the house.

It was not until the hospital staff asked about my relationship with Luna that I finally came back to my senses.

I murmured, "I'm her father."

The same question was asked three times.

When they asked the last question, the staff looked at me with pity and sympathy.

Within one day, my daughter, along with my parents, died one after another.

They dare not to imagine the agony I was going through.

After completing the procedures of death certificates, I was devastated and prepared to go home.

Passing by the restaurant, I saw a huge billboard written with congratulations to Rachel Roberts and Raymond Bennett's son, Cole.

I stood there, stunned.

While she killed our daughter and refused to save my parents, Rachel booked the biggest hotel to celebrate that she and Raymond had stolen Luna's bright future for their son.

The shock was like a dagger stabbed into my heart, leaving me to freeze there. However, I ran into Raymond, who was welcoming all the guests.

He said, "Why did you come so late, Christopher?"

Rachel frowned at me. "What are you doing here? Today is Cole's big day, don't mess around."

Her words agitated all my sorrow and bewilderment as well as my tears.

"Why did Cole take Luna's place? Why did she die in the hospital so abruptly? Why didn't you answer my call?" I asked harshly.

Thinking of this, my heart ached.

The food I prepared was still on the table in my house, but no one would go back to unite with me.

My whole family had turned into cold ashes.

And now, my wife became someone else's son's mother.

Raymond hurriedly explained, "Luna voluntarily gave up her place. As a girl, the only thing she needs to do is to marry a good man. But Cole is a boy. He needs a career."

"Luna is dead, so are my parents, and you came here to celebrate with another man?" I questioned her with a hoarse voice.

The huge hotel was filled with guests and laughter.

But I could only stay at home and cry silently in front of the bone ashes of my beloved family.

"Christopher Simmons, can you stop being such a crazy man? Bone marrow donation has no effect on human body, not to mention the last time Luna did that was three years ago. Don't use her as an excuse to bring me home." Rachel paused for a second and continued, "Also, your parents have had heart problems for a long time and never go out for a long period of time, so how can they die all of a sudden? I don't want to talk to a liar anymore."

Rachel's rejecting glare made the words I hadn't finished saying get stuck in my chest.

My daughter died under unclear circumstances, and my parents also passed away because of this misery.

But all these miserable things were my scheme to win her heart from another man in her eyes.

After twenty years of our marriage, the initial passion for each other had long been worn out.

It was our common children who prevented this family from falling apart.

Middle-aged couples could always make do with their lives for the sake of their children.

But with my daughter and parents' death, the last bond between Rachel and me was broken.

I felt hopeless and didn't want to look at the woman in front of me anymore.

"Rachel, I will divorce you," I said.

Rachel frowned and said nothing.

Glancing at Rachel, Raymond sighed.

"It's not your fault to have no son with Rachel with your rather low-quality sperm, Chris. Rachel is Cole's godmother and will treat you two very well in the future. I know every man is a little paranoid about his face, but you can't ruin your family because of it."

Intense pain spread throughout my body.

Rachel and her family had long blamed me for not conceiving her a boy, even though I had been taking care of her for twenty years and persuaded my parents to help Rachel become the youngest dean in her hospital.

In order to win back her heart, I even believed in the folk remedy of having a son and watched as needles longer than my forearms pierced into my body.

But now, everything I did was so ridiculous.

Rachel didn't love me or Luna.

I suddenly remembered that when we began to date, Rachel accidentally got an orange. After tasting a slice, she knew it was the taste I favored, so she rode her bike for more than an hour to give the orange to me.

She gained the recognition of my parents through her unremitting efforts.

We lived happily and lovingly after marriage, and she took good care of me and our daughter.

She even took care of everything, including feeding Luna, coaxing her to sleep, and changing diapers in the middle of the night.

Every day when I woke up, I could eat the loving breakfast made by Rachel and get a kiss from her.

Such happy and beautiful days came to an abrupt end when my father retired due to illness.

She seemed like a different person after that, busy with social events all day and not coming home all night, which crushed her body; she had a serious kidney disease.

In order to save her, I donated a kidney without telling her and also lost the ability to work from then on.

However, she started to be picky about me since I couldn't work.

She despised me for being useless, for not being able to satisfy her sexually, and for not being able to get her pregnant with a boy.

There was even one time when I saw her hugging a younger man on the street.

As I waited day after day, I finally understood that Rachel married me only because she wanted to get the help of my parents to gain more power.

She had been having a secret affair with Raymond for the twenty years we had been married.

The lives of our family were not as important as Raymond and his son.

Now, she could even destroy my family for Cole.