Chapter 4
"Dad! Mom!"
I rushed back like a madwoman. Julian and the others grabbed me:
"Lisa! It's dangerous! You can't go in!"
"My parents' belongings are still in there!"
"Lisa!"
They held me tighter.
Fire trucks and patrol cars arrived one after another. The scene was cordoned off.
Everyone held me back, not letting me get close.
My breathing shook:
"My parents' belongings are still inside! Everything's in there! Let me go!"
"Even so! They're gone now anyway!"
The rescue workers pleaded earnestly.
I stared at his soot-blackened face. All my strength to rush forward vanished.
I turned around. In the distance, a Rolls-Royce. A familiar face appeared behind the window.
Terry held a cigar between his fingers, watching my side with satisfaction.
In the passenger seat, Mary held her child, finally smiling.
Terry got out of the car.
"You humiliated Mary in court. You should give her some compensation, right?"
I couldn't speak.
"Although all the inventory is gone, I'll pay to replace it afterward. Don't blame her—it was all my idea."
My throat tightened painfully.
Inside were all the traces left by my parents and grandfather.
When I was five, Mom held me while she and Dad took me through it all.
Pointing at each piece of equipment, telling me the story of the brand's founding.
They stroked my head:
"The company will be yours someday. Take good care of it."
"Dad, Mom, I'm sorry..."
Everything went black. The world spun before my eyes.
Terry's smug, leisurely expression froze in that moment.
"Lisa!"
Before I lost consciousness, I heard his panicked voice.
When I opened my eyes again, my abdomen ached with a sinking pain.
I covered it, looking blankly at the doctor and Terry.
The doctor sighed:
"The baby is gone. Caused by excessive grief."
"Baby..."
I propped myself up: "I was pregnant?"
The doctor nodded: "Two months."
I fell back onto the bed.
Two months... these past two months, I'd been busy with the lawsuit.
So those times I felt dizzy and nauseous weren't just from being too tired...
"Your body already has difficulty conceiving. Why weren't you more careful?
"In the future, I'm afraid you really won't be able to get pregnant."
I closed my eyes. Tears streamed down my temples, soaking the entire pillow.
After the doctor left, Terry gripped my hand tightly.
"Lisa, I'm sorry, I didn't know... I..."
His voice caught.
His forehead pressed against my hand, his shoulders trembling slightly:
"I've been hoping for this child for so long... It's all my fault... I should have noticed you were pregnant...
"But at that time I was still preparing for the lawsuit against you..."
Indeed, both he and I had been hoping for a child of our own.
Now it was gone. There would never be another.
Because he wanted to vent Mary's anger.
"Lisa, I'll send them away. This time I'll really send them away."
His phone rang. He answered, his expression freezing instantly.
"I'll be right there."
"Where are you going?"
I looked at him with red eyes: "Mary, right?"
He hesitated: "It's not her. The child has a fever."
"What about my child!"
My nails dug deep into his palm and the back of his hand.
He paused, then pried my fingers open one by one:
"I'll come back."
I covered my aching abdomen, laughing through tears.
I had no child anymore. But he did. Mary did too.
When Julian came to see me, I'd already fallen from the bed.
She quickly helped me up:
"Lisa! I'll get the doctor right away!"
"No need."
I stared straight ahead: "Discharge me. Take me home."
In front of Terry's and my marital home, I wore a warm coat, holding a torch in my hand.
"You're really going to burn it?"
I tossed the torch onto the pile of kindling. My voice was flat:
"Yes."
Terry had carried me into this place once. Those beautiful memories were too painful to look at.
If I was leaving, I'd burn the past clean.
"Should we say goodbye to Terry?"
"No need."
The private plane was already waiting on the tarmac.
I handed her the divorce papers:
"Just give him this."
The plane took off. The fire still hadn't died. I didn't look back.
I'd never come back again.