Chapter 3

My words made everyone freeze.

The man gripping my hair loosened his hold without thinking.

But Cary suddenly laughed out loud.

"You're actually scared of him?"

"I looked into him a long time ago. He's just a widower with no sons, no line to carry on."

"His own daughter's funeral, and not a single relative shows up to pay respects."

"Who's he going to make regret anything?"

The Gilbert relatives burst into laughter.

"Turns out he's just an old man with nobody behind him, and still playing at being somebody important!"

A staff member tried to call the police and was immediately shoved out by two of the Gilbert relatives.

The doors of the memorial hall slammed shut.

Cary snapped my SIM card in half in front of everyone.

"Let's see who you can call now."

"Dad!"

Mia was yanked by the hair again.

Isabel drove her heel into my shoulder.

My face hit the floor hard, and blood soaked through the white chrysanthemums in an instant.

In the chaos, Cary dropped his voice.

"Mom, tell Dwight to hurry."

"Yuna's family only gave me one day. Eighty-eight thousand for the gift money, and we're still short the last ten."

Isabel didn't seem to care. "What's the rush?"

"Renee's already two months pregnant. Where's she going to run to?"

"You two were sneaking around for three years. She waited through all of that, didn't she?"

My whole body went rigid.

Three years. Cary had been cheating on my daughter for three years.

No wonder that ever since she got pregnant, he was always working late, never once going with her to a single prenatal checkup.

Isabel gave a couple of laughs.

"Once Dwight and that girl have gone all the way, you think she'd still dare refuse to marry him?"

"The old man's got no son. This one daughter is all he has left."

"After that, his house, his savings, his pension, it all goes to Dwight."

"We get the ten thousand, and we get to live off him for the rest of his life!"

Cary laughed. "You always think of everything, Mom."

I stared at Cary, wishing I could burn a bleeding hole straight through him with my eyes.

"Who is Renee Henson? Have you been betraying my daughter all along?"

Cary turned his head, and there wasn't the slightest guilt in his eyes.

"You heard all of it? Then I won't hide it from you."

"Renee is the woman I love most. She's been with me for three years."

"She's carrying my child now. I have to give her a proper place."

I shook my head, unable to believe it.

"My daughter died giving you a child. Her body isn't even cold yet."

"And you want to use her gift money to marry your mistress? Cary, are you even human?"

Cary frowned.

"Renee isn't like that poor girl of yours. She's beautiful, she's healthy, and she's the goddaughter of the Henson Group chairman."

"What do you people have to compare with her?"

Isabel stamped her heel down on my daughter's funeral portrait and sneered.

"A woman who couldn't even hold on to her own baby, and she wanted to waste my son's whole life?"

"She died right on time. Cleared the way for Renee nicely."

The goddaughter of the Henson Group chairman?

Since when did Finn have a goddaughter?

I stood frozen, unable to make sense of it for a moment.

Just then, Cary's phone rang.

He glanced at me, then put it on speaker right in front of me.

A woman's sugary voice carried across the memorial hall.

"Babe, the baby and I are still waiting for you at the bridal shop. Did you get the gift money together?"

Cary looked at me, and deliberately cradled the phone and kissed it.

"Almost, baby."

"Once I've dealt with this dead old man, I'll come straight over and try on wedding dresses with you."

A soft laugh came from the other end.

"That plain old drudge really died at the perfect time. Saved us a lot of trouble."

Hearing them tear my daughter down, my heart felt like it was being cut to pieces.

I couldn't take it anymore and lunged at him.

Cary didn't hesitate to drive his heel into my chest.

My forehead struck the offering table, and my daughter's funeral portrait crashed to the floor.

Cary stepped on the photo and spoke coldly.

"Dwight, what are you standing around for? When you're done, take the gift box too."

"All the money in it goes toward buying Renee a diamond ring!"

Behind me came Mia's screaming and sobbing again, raw and desperate.

I crawled toward her, my face covered in blood.

My fingertips had just touched her shoe.

The man wrenched hard and dragged her into the side room.