Chapter 3

My words made them all freeze.

The man gripping my hair loosened his hold without thinking.

But Colin suddenly laughed out loud.

"You're actually scared of her?"

"Her husband died years ago. She's just a widow with two daughters."

"Today she's burying her elder girl, and not one person from her side came to pay respects."

"Who exactly is she going to make regret anything?"

The Gilbert relatives roared with laughter.

"So she's just an old woman with nobody behind her, and here she is playing at being somebody."

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

The doors of the funeral hall slammed shut.

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

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

"Mom!"

Emily was yanked by the hair again.

Cornelia kicked me in the shoulder.

My face struck the floor hard, and blood ran red into the white chrysanthemums.

In the middle of the chaos, Colin dropped his voice.

"Mom, tell Bruno to hurry up."

"Sylvia's family only gave me one day. The bride gift is eight hundred eighty thousand, and we're just short the last hundred thousand."

Cornelia was unbothered. "What's the rush?"

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

"You two were together in secret for three years. She waited through all that, didn't she?"

My whole body went rigid.

Three years. Colin had been cheating for three years.

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

Cornelia let out a couple of laughs.

"Once Bruno gets the little girl into bed and it's a done thing, you think she'll dare refuse to marry him?"

"The old woman has no son, just this one daughter left."

"Down the line, her house, her savings, her pension, all of it goes to Bruno."

"We pocket the hundred thousand, and we live off her for the rest of her life."

Colin smiled. "You always think of everything, Mom."

I stared at Colin, wishing I could bore a bleeding hole straight through him.

"Who is Sylvia? Have you been betraying my daughter this whole time?"

Colin turned his head, and there wasn't a trace of guilt in his eyes.

"You heard all of it? Then I won't bother hiding it."

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

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

I shook my head, unable to believe it.

"My daughter isn't even cold in the ground, and she died giving you a child."

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

Colin frowned.

"Sylvia 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 any of you have to compare with her?"

Cornelia stepped on my daughter's memorial photo and sneered.

"A woman who couldn't even keep her own baby alive, and she wanted to hold my son back for the rest of his life?"

"She died right on time. Cleared the way for Sylvia."

The goddaughter of the Henson Group chairman?

Since when did Marcus have a goddaughter?

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

Just then Colin's phone rang.

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

A woman's simpering voice carried through the whole hall.

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

Colin looked at me, deliberately pressing the phone close and kissing it.

"Almost, baby."

"Once I'm done with this old hag, I'll come try on wedding dresses with you."

A soft laugh came from the other end.

"That washed-up woman died at just the right time. Saved us a lot of trouble."

Listening to them tear my daughter down, I felt like knives were twisting inside me.

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

Colin kicked me square in the chest without a shred of hesitation.

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

Colin stepped on the photo and spoke coldly.

"Bruno, what are you standing around for? When it's done, take the cash box too."

"Every bit of money in it goes to buying Sylvia a diamond ring."

Behind me, Emily's screaming and crying tore out again.

I crawled toward her, my face covered in blood.

My fingertips had just touched her shoe.

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