7
Wes sobbed, explaining, “We just wanted to find a necklace for Addy as a gift… Mom didn’t want us to, even tried to grab it from us… I just accidentally…”
Reuben crouched down and tried to help Evelyn.
“How did you get hurt? I’ll take you to the hospital.”
The two kids scrambled to help, too.
Right at that moment-
“Ah!”
A scream came from the dining room, and a servant rushed in, panicked.
“Mr. Gregson! Ms. O’Neal was scalded by hot soup!”
Reuben froze.
“Is it serious?” he asked anxiously.
“A large part of her skin was all red from the scald…”
Before the servant finished, Reuben stood up.
“Evelyn, call an ambulance yourself. We’ll take Addy to the hospital first.”
The two kids instantly let go of Evelyn’s hand.
“Mom, you may have to go to the hospital alone!”
“Reuben… Wes… Nolan…”
Evelyn reached out weakly, but the three hurried straight to the dining room, not looking back, carefully helping Addison leave.
Blood blurred her vision.
Evelyn fumbled for her phone, using her last strength to dial 911.
“Help… help me…”
The moment the call connected, she was fully engulfed by darkness.
When Evelyn woke again, the ward remained empty.
A nurse entered to change her dressing.
Seeing Evelyn was awake, she sighed. “Your husband and children are in the VIP room next door, taking care of Ms. O’Neal.”
After a pause, she sounded faintly distressed.
“Ms. O’Neal only burned a small spot on her hand, but they’re all frantic. Mr. Gregson is applying medicine for her himself, your elder son is blowing on her wound, and the younger son ran out to buy her ice cream to comfort her. Yet you’re so badly hurt, and…”
Evelyn listened in silence, her heart already so bruised it had gone numb.
Her phone vibrated, the screen lighting up.
It was a reminder from the courthouse:The divorce procedure is ending. You may collect your divorce papers in three days.”
She stared at the message for a long while, then suddenly laughed.
Finally, it was about to end.
After being discharged, Evelyn began preparing to leave.
On the first day, she went to the cemetery.
Beside her parents’ tombstones stood a small, new stone.
It was Eddie’s.
Mery
She knelt before the grave, gently wiping the photo of her brother’s young, smiling face.
Dad, Mom, Eddie… she murmured, “I loved the wrong person.”
‘I never should have fallen for Reuben. Never should have had those two children…”
A smile tugged at her lips as tears slipped silently down her cheeks.
I’m leaving… This time, I truly don’t want them anymore. I’ll take good care of myself. Enjoy yourselves in heaven. Don’t worry about me. In years to come, I’ll come to join you.”
The mountain wind lifted her long hair, and the flowers before the tombstone quivered softly, as if in quiet reply.
The next day, Evelyn went to Lovers’ Bridge.
Once, she and Reuben had hung a love lock here, etched with both their names.
She found the lock, severed it with a firm clamp of pliers, and cast it into the river.
The moment the metal hit the water, she thought she heard the echo of her own youthful laughter.
How absurd!
Those vows of “forever” had lasted a mere five years.
After that, she visited every place steeped in memories of Reuben.
The restaurant they’d frequented, the park where they’d had their first date, the church where they’d married…
She gently and deliberately wiped away every trace of that love.
Back home, she gathered all the gifts Reuben had given her over the years and tossed them into the trash.
Finally, she packed her belongings, waiting only for tomorrow.
When she’d collect the divorce papers and leave for good.
STF
