Chapter 2

The next day, I still made breakfast like I always did.

Just as I was about to bring the milk to Lucas’s room, the door happened to open, and the milk spilled all over him. I reached out to wipe it off, but he dodged me.

I was a little surprised. When had Paul come over last night?

Just as my thoughts drifted away, Jenna suddenly ran over, shoved me aside, and rushed forward to check on Paul. Her voice was full of concern. “Did you get burned?”

Lucas somehow ran over too, and with both hands flailing without any sense of order, he slapped at me randomly. “Ethan, you’re so bad. Uncle Paul is already hurt, and you still set him up!”

I looked at the worried expressions on their faces and felt a sudden ache in my chest. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Stop making excuses!”

The moment Lucas finished speaking, Paul smiled and touched his hair. “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.”

Jenna frowned, her voice cold and harsh. “Paul, don’t defend him. I know exactly what kind of person he is!”

I poured the remaining half cup of milk in my hand onto the floor and looked coldly at my child and my partner. They treated me like an enemy and blamed me just to protect an outsider.

“Jenna, when I suggested we get together so I could better take care of Lucas, you didn’t refuse. These seven years, I’ve taken care of you and Lucas with all my heart, and I know I’ve done nothing wrong. Why do you have to humiliate me like this just for an outsider?”

After saying that, I looked down at Lucas. “I took care of you because you’re my brother’s child, because half your blood is from my family. I personally handled everything in your life just to make up for the fatherly love you lacked in childhood, but what about you? How did you treat me?”

By then, tears were already streaming down my face.

I thought they would at least react a little, but Jenna’s face stayed blank as she said in disgust, “Ethan, you’re a grown man. Stop embarrassing yourself in front of Paul.”

Paul looked a little awkward. After hesitating for a moment, he still tried to persuade me. “Jenna and I are completely innocent. Mr. Ethan, please don’t misunderstand.”

The second Lucas heard that, he immediately stepped in front of Paul, furious. “You still have the nerve to say that? Do you know that because of you, I get mocked at school every day for having a stay-at-home dad? They say you’re a coward, that you’re living off a woman, and that I’ll end up as some useless pretty boy too!”

Lucas—I had held him in my arms since the day he was born. For all these years, he had never once called me Dad.

He was just like his mother and called me by my full name.

I had just come out of the graveyard the day before yesterday, had a fever all day yesterday, and this morning I still forced myself to make breakfast for them while sick. My body was exhausted right now, but all they cared about was Paul, and no one even asked me a single question.

Looking at the scene before me, I felt completely hopeless.

After sending Paul off, I watched the two of them sit at the dining table eating breakfast, and I thought, this should be the last time I ever make food for them.

I stood at the door for a long while before finally gathering my courage to speak. “Jenna, I’m planning to leave.”

She looked at me coldly. “Leave? Go where? What about Mom? And what are we supposed to tell the relatives? Ethan, how can you be so selfish? If you wanted to leave, why did you beg me to stay with you seven years ago? And now you say you’re leaving? Your brother is dead, and now you’re abandoning me too? How do you expect others to see me after this?”

Thud.

I dropped straight to my knees.

I bowed my head and knocked one hard kowtow on the floor. “I’m sorry. This first kneel is because my brother was incredibly good to me. I promised him I would take care of you and your son, and now I’ve gone back on that promise!”

“This second kneel is because, as your husband, I failed to take care of you and instead made you look bad, even letting Lucas get mocked at school. I’m useless!”

“This third kneel is my wish that you will take care of yourselves. As for us, let’s part peacefully and go our separate ways!”

After saying that, I got up and was about to leave.

“Stop right there!” Jenna’s angry voice came from behind me. “Ethan, you’re thirty today, not three. Are you trying to pull some dramatic cut-ties-and-run-away-from-home act?”

“Enough. If you dare take one step out of this house today, then even if you beg me later, I’ll never let you come back!”

Jenna looked completely confident, as if she was certain I would never leave, certain I couldn’t bear to leave Lucas.

And she definitely didn’t believe I would give up my current life of luxury.