Chapter 5

Serena’s POV

I hadn't walked far before I ran right into them.

Eleanor was walking up the path with Aaron, carrying the bakery cake Luke used to love and a massive bouquet of lilies, followed by two family drivers.

Eleanor stopped dead in her tracks. The moment she recognized me, all the color drained from her face.

"How dare you show your face here?"

I took half a step back. "Mrs. Hayes, I just..."

"Don't you dare call me that!" Eleanor cut me off, her voice shrill. "My son's resting place isn't somewhere trash like you belongs! How young was he? When he died, he wasn't even as old as you are now!"

"I know," I choked out, my throat tight. "I just wanted to see him."

"See him?" Eleanor sneered. "Or did you come to check if he was really dead? If it weren't for you, he'd be finishing his degree abroad! He wouldn't be rotting in the dirt!"

My mouth opened, but not a single sound came out.

Eleanor lunged forward, ripped the lilies from my hands, and hurled them violently onto the stone pathway.

The pristine petals scattered across the mud, caught by the cold mountain wind and carried away.

"Get out!" Eleanor pointed furiously down the hill. "Get out of here right now! Don't you dare defile my son's grave!"

"Mrs. Hayes..."

She shoved me hard.

Already weak, the force sent me stumbling backward, my lower back slamming violently against the sharp edge of a stone marker behind me.

Agony ripped through me, turning my vision black, leaving me gasping for air.

"Mom." Aaron finally called out from behind, briefly reaching out a hand to steady his mother before dropping it back to his side.

He stood there, staring coldly at me, making no move to help me up.

I saw the gesture clearly.

That hand was extended only for his mother.

"Aaron," I whimpered, clutching my throbbing waist as I looked up at him. "Just one look. Let me take one look and I'll go."

"You don't deserve to look at him," Aaron said, his eyes devoid of any warmth. "Haven't you done enough to destroy our family over the years?"

"I never..."

"Drag her out," Aaron commanded the men behind him.

Two security guards seized my arms, roughly hauling me down the path toward the cemetery gates.

One of my shoes slipped off, my bare foot scraping against the freezing stone steps, but nobody cared.

"You don't belong here," Aaron's voice drifted down after me. "Every tombstone here is sickened by your presence. If I ever catch you here again, you know what will happen."

They dumped me at the bottom of the grand stone staircase outside the gates.

All I had wanted today was so simple: leave some flowers, look at his picture, and walk away.

Even that was too much to ask.

I walked back along the lonely highway alone.

The sun beat down overhead, yet I felt freezing cold.

The memories I had buried deep inside bubbled up again—things Luke had told me when he was still alive.

He used to say, Serena, Aaron just sounds harsh, but he isn't cruel at heart.

He used to say, Once this busy season passes, let's take your mom on a trip to the beach.

And on that final night, Luke had shoved me violently to the curb, turning back with that desperate scream: Run!

So I ran.

And that run became an eternal goodbye.

Unable to hold it in any longer, I collapsed onto the dusty gravel, buried my face in my knees, and wept uncontrollably.

For so long, I hadn't dared to cry out loud.

In the Hayes household, in front of Aaron, I hadn't even dared to frown.

Now, with not a soul around, I finally let out the terror of my diagnosis, the crushing weight of this endless debt, pouring it all into the dirt.

I knew why that family hated me so much.

Luke was such a bright, wonderful boy, dying young beneath the wheels of a truck in my place, while I got to go on living.

It was my debt.

So I stayed, enduring his cruelty, letting him grind my dignity into the mud.

I was paying it back.

Repaying a life I could never truly afford.

Luke told me Aaron had a good heart, and I had foolishly believed him.

Only today, hearing that cold You don't deserve it before the grave, did I finally understand: he had never intended to let me clear this debt, nor did he care to ask me a single question.

All I could do was the one thing left: keep paying until my very last breath.

When my tears finally ran dry, I pulled myself up by a tree trunk, patting the dust from my clothes.

I smoothed out the wrinkles in my battered jacket and began the long walk back toward the city, one agonizing step at a time.