Chapter 3

Dad looked at me and sighed deeply.

Lily sat off to one side, her eyes vacant. She looked like a doll with all the stuffing pulled out.

“Get a divorce,” I told her.

“No! Absolutely not!”

Before Lily could answer, Ryan jumped up as though someone had stepped on his tail and glared at me.

As if I were the one who had destroyed their marriage.

Was I? No. He had done that all by himself.

There was no point wasting words on a man like him.

“I already have a lawyer drafting the divorce agreement. Nothing in heaven or hell changes the fact that you’re a cheating piece of shit, Ryan. What could you possibly have left to say?”

Beside us, Mom ran her fingers over her prayer beads, her eyes shut. “What a terrible thing.”

At the word divorce, Lily finally stirred. Ryan seized on her reaction like a lifeline.

He knew that as long as Lily refused, there was still a chance to stop it.

He was also the one who had told her years ago that her parents would agree to the marriage if she got pregnant. Yes, as long as Lily refused, he still had a chance. After all those years of biding his time, he couldn’t get divorced. He’d be left with nothing.

“Lily, I swear, I just lost my head. After all these years, you know how much I love you. You know, don’t you? Please don’t divorce me. I’m begging you.”

“Ryan, you bastard!”

At last, Lily slapped him.

His face was already swollen beyond recognition. That slap only made it worse. So what? My only concern was whether my sister’s hand hurt.

“Yes. I’m a bastard. I’m scum. Honey, I swear, just give me one more chance. Just one, okay?

“I’ll change. I’ll never do it again. Honey, I promise. Please give me another chance.”

Ryan knelt at Lily’s feet, shedding fat tears on command. Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought our family was bullying him. What a pitiful sight.

If he was so sorry now, he shouldn’t have done it in the first place.

Dad had no patience left for him. “I told you when you married her. As long as you treated Lily well, you would have a share in the Bennett assets someday.

“But you’ve disappointed us beyond words. Divorce! You’re getting divorced, and you’re leaving with nothing!”

Panic overtook Ryan’s face. Then he seemed to find another lifeline.

He grabbed Lily’s pant leg. “Oliver! That’s right, Oliver needs his dad. Honey, you know that, don’t you? I’m Oliver’s father. He’s only three. He can’t grow up without a dad. Lily, please talk to your parents.”

Shameless bastard. Why hadn’t he thought about his child needing a father while he was cheating?

“Did you forget? Oliver’s last name is Bennett. He’s a child of this family. You don’t deserve to be his father.

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell him you’re dead. He doesn’t need to hear the ugly truth.”

I was only offering a friendly reminder.

Ryan lost his mind and lunged at me.

“You vicious bitch! No wonder Nathan can’t stand you either! You’re a sick freak! Nobody loves you, so you have to tear us apart!”

He really had gone insane. What did Nathan have to do with any of this?

Even now, he still thought he hadn’t done anything wrong.

Where did he get the nerve?