Chapter 4

Grandma Magnolia was wheeled into a private room.

She wore an oxygen mask, and her once kind face was now lifeless.

I stood by her bedside, holding her wrinkled hand tightly, tears falling silently onto the sheets.

"Grandma, you have to get better. You're all I have left."

I prayed silently in my heart.

As long as she could wake up, I'd give up everything.

Sophia Delgado, the money and the trust that had been swindled from me—none of it mattered.

I could let all of it go.

By eight that night, her condition had stabilized a little.

I got up and went down to the hospital cafeteria to buy her some liquid food, so she could eat it when she woke up.

But when I hurried back with the thermos, I saw Owen Harding sneaking into the room while I was gone!

He was standing at Grandma's bedside, bent down, murmuring something in her ear.

The next second, her body suddenly began to convulse violently. The vital signs monitor beside her sounded its alarm, and the red indicator light flashed wildly.

I rushed over and shoved Owen aside.

"What are you doing!"

Owen stumbled from the push and cried out in a panic.

"I only came to tell Grandma some good news."

"I told her that Sophia is already pregnant with my child."

"I don't know why she suddenly reacted like this!"

I turned to look at the bed.

Two lines of tears were streaming from the corners of Grandma's eyes, and a hoarse rasp came from her throat, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't get out a single word.

The heart rate on the monitor plummeted, and her blood pressure dropped to a dangerous level.

I screamed in desperation, jamming the call button at the head of the bed.

"Doctor! Nurse!"

"Someone, come! Someone, please come save my grandma!"

Watching her pupils slowly go slack, my eyes went red and I lunged at Owen, clamping both hands around his neck.

"I'll kill you!"

"I'm going to kill you!"

Owen's eyes rolled back as I choked him, and he beat frantically at my arms with both hands.

"Let… let go of me…"

Just then, Sophia appeared at the door carrying a fruit basket.

"Evan, have you lost your mind!"

Sophia screamed, rushed over, shoved me aside, and caught Owen as he slumped to the floor.

"Owen, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Owen clutched his neck and groaned in pain.

"Sophia, my back hurts so much—it feels like it hit the bone. What if I can't take care of you anymore?"

Hearing that, Sophia immediately helped him up and led him out of the room.

"Doctor!"

"Please save my husband!"

I looked at Grandma on the bed; her chest had stopped rising and falling.

A stark straight line stretched across the monitor, and the alarm echoed through the room.

Then doctors and nurses rushed in, pushed me out of the way, and began emergency resuscitation on her.

The defibrillator shocked her body again and again, but it could no longer bring her back.

Half an hour later.

The doctor set down the instrument in his hand, pulled over the white sheet, and slowly drew it up over Grandma's face.

"The patient has no vital signs."

"My condolences."

I stared blankly at the doctor.

Condolences? How was I supposed to grieve?

Grandma was the only family I had left…

I walked, step by step, to her bedside and knelt down.

Under the crushing grief, I couldn't even shed a single tear.

I knelt there for three full hours.

Only when my legs had lost all feeling did I pull myself up by the edge of the bed.

I called the car from the funeral home and had the cremation done that same night.

The moment the door of the cremation furnace closed, I seemed to see Grandma smiling at me, telling me to live well and not to shed tears for people who weren't worth it.

It was four in the morning when I walked out of the funeral home with the urn in my arms.

I took out my phone; the screen was completely blank.

No missed calls from Sophia, no messages either.

She was probably with Owen right now.

I put my phone away and took a taxi back to the place once called home.

When I pushed open the door, the whole place was full of traces of the life Sophia and I had shared.

The wedding photo on the wall, the couple's slippers in the entryway, and that pair of custom mugs on the coffee table.

How ironic.

I packed a few clothes, then set Grandma's death certificate on the table.

Before I left, I took one last look at the place, and then closed the door behind me without a shred of mercy.

The airport terminal was bustling with people.

I watched the flights taking off outside the window, and felt strangely calm.

The boarding announcement came over the loudspeaker.

I stood up and hugged the urn tight against my chest.

Without looking back, I walked toward the gate.

Goodbye, city that made me lose everything.

Goodbye, Sophia.