With that single glance, he became a fixture in my mind that I could never forget.

But almost instantly, the boy's warm smile was replaced by the freezing glare of the adult Ethan—

[Terminate this pregnancy. The divorce hasn't been finalized yet. Don't even dream of using the title of Mrs. Ethan to raise another man's bastard!]

With a violent shudder, I broke free from the nightmare and bolted upright, only to find that it was already noon the following day.

Outside the window, fine snowflakes drifted through the air, and the freezing wind howled like a mournful wail, as if performing a eulogy for a lost life.

I stared blankly out at the winter landscape. Right then, a loud, sharp voice shattered the silence of the room: "Clara, how does it feel to lose a child?"

Turning my head, I watched Melanie glide into the room. She casually set down a bouquet of white funeral flowers on the bedside table, her mocking gaze explicitly savoring my pathetic, broken state as if admiring a battered stray cat.

"Look at yourself right now. How incredibly pitiful."

I had absolutely no interest in engaging with her, turning my head back toward the window.

Faced with my absolute detachment, Melanie remained completely unbothered, elegantly brushing a stray lock of hair from her brow. "Do you know the real reason Ethan chose to marry you four years ago?"

The sudden question sent a sharp tremor through my pupils.

I didn't look back at her, but my hands tightening against the bedsheet completely exposed how much I cared about the answer, my anxiety peaking.

Melanie leaned down close to my ear, delivering her declaration of absolute triumph: "He told me that from behind, your silhouette looks exactly like mine."

A catastrophic sensation of freefall instantly ripped through me, swallowing my consciousness entirely.

My memories began to flash uncontrollably through my mind—

Ethan always loathed kissing my lips. He preferred to approach me from behind, and he never once whispered my name while we were in bed...

So from the very beginning, I was nothing more than a convenient substitute for Melanie?

Having achieved her objective, Melanie straightened her posture, admiring my shattered expression. "If I were you, I would finalize those divorce papers as quickly as possible. At least that way, you can leave yourself a shred of dignity."

With that final blow, she spun on her high heels and clicked out of the room.

The hospital room fell back into a heavy silence.

But my heart could no longer find peace. Tears spilled onto the stark white blanket, blooming into gray, stained flowers.

Just as I felt myself slipping into a dark abyss, unable to draw breath, my phone suddenly began to ring.

Lifting my eyes, the contact name "Mother" displayed on the screen caused me to freeze entirely.

Since the day she disowned me, my mother hadn't dialed my number even once over these past four long years.

Frantically pressing the answer button, I fought with everything I had to stabilize my emotions. "...Mom."

"Ethan informed me that you have officially signed the divorce agreement. Do you finally realize the mistake you made?"

Hearing her voice, a profound lump formed in my throat, leaving me unable to speak.

Following a long, heavy silence, my mother let out a soft sigh over the line. "The only reason I opposed your marriage to him was because I knew a relationship driven entirely by a single party's devotion could never last..."

As she spoke, her voice cracked with a hint of raspy emotion. "Now that you've tasted enough bitterness, just come on home."

The long-lost warmth of her maternal affection completely shattered the stoic facade I had been fighting to maintain.

"Mom..."

"What are you crying for? Sit tight. Mom is coming to the hospital to bring you home."

The call disconnected, but I continued to grip the phone tightly against my chest, unwilling to put it down.

As it turned out, my mother's harsh exterior was merely a mask for her soft heart.

I wasn't entirely alone in this world... It felt so good to know that.

Lying back down to settle my erratic breathing, clutching the device over my heart, I found that the agonizing pain in my chest didn't feel quite as sharp anymore. Perhaps setting go of this love wouldn't be as impossible as I thought?

Closing my eyes, I told myself that moving forward, I would dedicate myself completely to my medical treatments. I wanted to live a little longer, just so I could properly make up for the four years of neglect I had inflicted upon my mother.

...

Visualizing a future, I waited in the hospital room with a heart full of fragile hope. But I waited from early morning all the way until noon, and still, my mother never appeared.

Yet the distance from her home to the hospital was not far at all.

I dialed her number for the eleventh time, but the automated message continued to inform me that the call could not be completed.

A dark thread of anxiety slowly began to wrap around my heart. Unable to stay confined to the room for another second, I threw on my clothes and prepared to leave. But the exact moment my foot crossed the threshold of the room, my phone vibrated.

It was my mother.

I accepted the call instantly, crying out, "Mom, why haven't you been picking up..."

However, a completely unfamiliar male voice echoed from the other end of the line: "Apologies, am I speaking with Clara, the daughter of Evelyn?"

Hearing those words, the dread in my chest violently exploded. "Yes, I am. Who is this?"

"This is the Highway Patrol Division. Your mother was involved in a severe vehicular collision on her way to the hospital. She was pronounced dead at the scene."

Chapter 10

On the way from the hospital to the crash site, the overcast sky began to dump snow once more.

The flakes felt incredibly heavy—so heavy that drawing breath became a struggle with every step I took. Staring fixedly at the familiar silhouette covered in blood on the stretcher, I hallucinated that I was trapped inside a horrific nightmare.

With the remaining strength draining from my legs, I collapsed onto my knees beside the stretcher, throwing my arms around the body that had already turned entirely ice-cold, unable to endure the bone-shattering agony tearing through me for a single second longer.

"Mom, I've come to bring you home..."

The moment I opened my mouth, the tears refused to be held back any longer.

As my tears splattered onto her blood-stained down jacket, panic seized me, and I frantically tried to wipe the fabric clean. But the more I rubbed, the more violently my hands shook.

"Mom, I realize the mistake I made. I don't want Ethan anymore, I'll never cause trouble again... Can you please just open your eyes and look at me for one second? I beg of you!"

"...Mom!"

No matter how desperately I pleaded, absolutely no one answered.

This time, across the heavens and the earth, I was truly left entirely alone...

...

Three days later.

After laying my mother to rest, I sat on the old, worn sofa of her home, clutching the blood-stained down jacket against my chest. I sat completely motionless, looking as though I had lost my soul.

Julian heated a glass of milk and extended it toward me. "You haven't eaten a single bite over these past few days. How can your body possibly hold up?"

Pausing for a beat, he offered another soft word of comfort, "Your mother's spirit in heaven wouldn't want to see you like this either."

I lifted my eyes to look at him, but my gaze was entirely hollow, focusing on nothing at all.

"That day, Mom told me she was coming to bring me home, and she even bought this warm down jacket specifically to give to me." Clutching the garment in my arms tighter, another wave of tears rolled down my cheeks.

"This down jacket matches the one she was wearing—it was a parent-child set. But she never even got the chance to see me put it on..."

Julian sat down beside me, his eyes turning red, his tone laced with a complex grief. "Pull yourself together. Your mother's spirit in heaven only wishes for you to live a good life..."

Hearing his words, my long eyelashes fluttered slightly.

"Thank you for everything over these past few days, Julian. I just want some peace and quiet right now. Please go on home."

Julian opened his mouth as if wanting to say more, but ultimately stood up and departed.

Left entirely by myself, the quiet of the living room turned terrifyingly suffocating.

Regret and self-reproach fermented in the absolute silence.

The only sound remaining was my own ragged, trembling breathing.

If only I had never fallen in love with Ethan. If that were true, I wouldn't have abandoned my mother for four long years, and this horrific accident would never have occurred. Perhaps at this exact moment, the two of us would be sitting together, discussing what to have for dinner...