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I went back to the house. There was one last
thing to do. The house was dark and silent. No
staff. The front door was ajar. Shouting came
from inside. Ethan’s voice, hoarse and ragged.
“Mark! I hate you! You drove Mom away!
You’re the reason I don’t have a mother!”
Crashes followed.
I peeked inside. Ethan, hair disheveled, thin and
gaunt, was throwing things. Mark sat on the
sofa, coughing, his back hunched, hair graying.
He looked frail.
“Ethan, show some respect! I’m your father!”
he rasped.
“You’re nothing! You cheated on Mom with
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that… that woman! You drove her away with your stupid elixir! You deserve to die!” Ethan
screamed.
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Mark, trembling with rage, threw a teacup. It hit
Ethan in the face. Ethan lunged, tackling Mark
and raining blows down on him. He was bigger
and stronger now. Mark was no match. But he
fought back, a pathetic display of fading
dominance.
I walked in. Both men froze, staring at me. Then
Ethan scrambled to his feet, tears streaming
down his face. “Mom! You came back!” He ran
towards me, arms outstretched.
“Stop,” I said coldly. He froze, looking at me
with desperate hope.
“Mom, I’m sorry. I knew you’d come back. I
knew you still loved me…” he babbled, tears
flowing freely.
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I looked at Mark, who was coughing, wiping blood from his face, straightening his tie, clinging to a shred of dignity. I stared at him,
impassive.
棒
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He managed a weak smile. “Lily, you came back. Everything will be alright now. We’ll be a family again…”
“No,” I said, pulling out a document and tossing it at him. He picked it up, his eyes widening in
horror.
“Divorce… papers… No… I won’t… I can’t lose
you…”
“I’m just informing you. This isn’t a
negotiation.” I turned to leave. My lawyer would handle the rest. Both men followed me. “Stop!”
I snapped.
They stopped, pleading. “Lily, please… I know I
messed up… I sent Amelia away. She’s
miserable. I’ll prove I love you…”
Ethan dropped to his knees, sobbing. “Mom,
please… I know I hurt you… but the elixir didn’t
work! You still love us, right?”
“It didn’t work!” Mark rushed over, waving a
crumpled lab report. “Lily, look! It was a failure!
You still love us! Tell me what I have to do to
make it right!”
I looked at them, their faces mirroring the
expressions they’d worn when they’d tricked
me into drinking the elixir. Back then, they
wanted me to stop loving them. Now, they
desperately wanted my love back. How
pathetic.
I laughed, a soft, humorless sound. “You still
don’t get it, do you? It doesn’t matter if the
elixir worked or not. The moment you tricked
me into drinking it, it already had. Even if I
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hadn’t swallowed a drop, it would have worked.” Eighteen years of devotion and pain had crystallized in that moment.
“I don’t love you anymore,” I said, and walked away. Their cries of despair echoed behind me.
