Chapter 2

Without waiting for me to speak, Olivia glanced at her phone a few times before urging me again in Lapine.

"Ava, stop dragging your feet. Hurry up! Dylan is calling for you in the group chat. It's such an important day. Don't make him wait anxiously."

Ava froze for a moment. She set down her soup bowl, pressed a kiss to my lips, and then reluctantly spoke up, "Honey, can you have the maid clean up the dishes and go to bed early? Please? Our friends are asking me to go out and hang out. Please, let me go, honey."

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw her like this.

"Sure, go ahead.

"But you'd better not do anything to make me angry.

"If I find out you did, I won't hesitate to leave you."

She froze, panic and unease flashing in her eyes.

But in the end, with her phone ringing nonstop, she picked it up, stood up, and started putting on her coat.

As she walked out, she tried to reassure me with a serious tone.

"Honey, don't worry. I belong to you in life and death.

"My husband is only you.

"Sydney, listen to Daddy at home. Don't make him angry. If you do, I'll come back and punish you!"

When the door finally shut behind her, cutting off all sound, I snapped back to reality. I let out a long sigh, my eyes starting to sting.

Sydney shot me a look of disdain and cursed me in Lapine, thinking I wouldn't understand.

"Ugly freak, even crying. No wonder Mom doesn't like you.

"Useless."

I chuckled bitterly and wiped away a tear from my eye.

I knew I should let go, but I just couldn't.

After seven years of love, any cold heart should have warmed up by now.

I was just reluctant to accept it.

Sydney was six this year. Since birth, she had never been apart from me. I'd given almost all my love to Ava and her.

For seven years, I had been a husband and a father, but never really myself.

Yet, like her mother, she had forgotten that it was me who taught her Lapine.

For three straight days, Ava didn't come home.

But every day, she'd send me messages, gently letting me know her leg was recovering and that she'd been out having fun.

I quietly read the messages, silently packing my things and planning to leave.

On the seventh day of Ava's absence, I dug up the agreement from my email's trash folder, opened the link, and carefully signed my name.

I had already walked 99 steps toward Ava and Sydney. This last step, I wanted to take for myself.

I had just bought a flight ticket for three days later, ready to shut off my phone, when I saw Sydney, who hadn't spoken to me in a week, glaring at me with a serious face.

I didn't rush to hug her like I usually did. I just stood up and calmly walked away.

She got mad, stomping past me, muttering a curse in Lapine that I had taught her.

"Ugly freak, always messing with my mom.

"Who are you trying to scare with that plane ticket? If you're so tough, just get out of my house for real."