On the eve of our anniversary, my husband, Dominic Prescott, walked hand in hand with his first love, Elsie Stockton, into the hotel.
I dialed Dominic’s number, but the person who answered my call was my thirteen-year-old son, Gavin Prescott.
He said, Dad is having a parent-teacher meeting. Don’t disturb him!
With that, Gavin hung up the phone directly and blacklisted me.
Later that night, Dominic and Gavin punished me, saying that I disrupted the family harmony.
They locked me on an open balcony, where the wind howled all night, and I stood there all night.
This time, I really learned my lesson!
Though feverish, I placed the divorce agreement in front of Dominic.
I asked Dominic for a divorce!
——
In the study…
Hearing the word divorce, Dominic didn’t even lift his eyelids and continued dealing with his work.
I waited there for about an hour.
Just as I was about to faint, Dominic finally spoke.
“Aryanna Gale, you want to divorce me just because I punished you?
“But it was you who did something wrong in the first place. Shouldn’t you be punished?”
I opened my mouth but didn’t say anything.
For the first time, I resisted the urge to defend myself.
I just pointed at the divorce agreement and said to Dominic, “Sign it.”
Dominic didn’t notice the change in my attitude.
He just said casually, “I’ll have custody of our son. Do you have any objections?”
I shook my head as a reply. Seeing this, Dominic raised his eyebrows in surprise.
However, to highlight the so-called fairness, he still called Gavin in.
Then, Dominic asked Gavin, “Your mom and I will divorce soon. Who do you want to stay with?”
Gavin was Dominic’s son, and they were alike in many aspects.
Apart from their similar appearance, the way they looked at me was also very similar. It was aloof and indifferent.
Gavin said, “My family name is Prescott, not Gale.”
If it were in the past, when I heard this sentence, I would definitely stay up all night, silently shedding tears in sadness.
But what happened last night had completely destroyed my last hope.
And my maternal love for Gavin had already disappeared.
Without even looking at Gavin, I turned around and walked back to my bedroom.
In the past thirteen years, I took good care of Dominic and Gavin every day wholeheartedly.
As a result, I neglected myself, and there were very few things that were mine in this house.
It took me less than ten minutes to pack up all my belongings.
As I walked out of the room with my luggage, Dominic was sitting on the sofa checking the stock market.
He didn’t even look at me.
“Where are you going? I’ll have the driver take you,” he said.
“No need,” I replied indifferently.
I endured the dizziness and discomfort caused by the fever and walked slowly towards the gate.
Just then, a golf ball flew towards me from the second floor and hit the back of my head hard.
It was from Gavin’s game room.
He always practiced indoor golf after finishing his homework.
Both Dominic and Gavin saw me holding my head and curling up on the ground in pain.
But they just exchanged looks as if they were saying “she’s doing this again”.
I struggled on the ground for half an hour, but neither of them came to help me.
In the end, covered in cold sweat, I crawled out of the Prescott’s villa and went to the hospital for an infusion alone.
After the fever subsided, I left and got on a bus to the outskirts of the city drowsily.
Two hours later, I arrived at my grandma’s house.
My sudden appearance made my grandma, Maritza Gale, overjoyed. But she didn’t ask anything.
She immediately went to the kitchen and made me some omelets.
When Gavin was still a child, he also loved to eat omelets like me.
Sometimes when he had eaten too many omelets, he would feel bad in his stomach and cry, wanting my hug.
When Gavin was about six years old, there was a child from the branch of the Prescott family came to play with him.
He told Gavin that omelets were junk food, and only bumpkins would eat them.
After that, Gavin no longer allowed me to bring him Maritza’s homemade omelet.
I ate too quickly and got hiccups.
I had to pound my chest, trying to make it stop.
Seeing me like this, Maritza laughed.
“Come on, Aryanna, you’re still like a little girl.”
To prevent me from accidentally eating my hair, Maritza used her trembling and wrinkled hands to comb and braid my messy black hair.
I had been suffering from insomnia for many years. But that night, I had a good sleep.
I knew I was finally at home.
Two days later, I got a call from Dominic.
He asked me coldly, “Where is the silk shirt I bought abroad last year?”
I instinctively told him of the exact location and suggested that he should use the tie placed on the far left of the storage compartment, which paired with that shirt.
A few seconds later, the rustle of Dominic wearing a shirt sounded.
When Dominic picked up the phone again, he praised me in a somewhat awkward tone.
“This tie indeed fits this shirt. I’ll wear this attire for tonight’s dinner.”
After a pause, he continued, “Aryanna.
“Send me your address. I will have someone deliver the custom-made jewelry to you. It’s the anniversary gift.”
But I refused.
“No need, my taste is different from Elsie Stockton’s.”
Elsie was Dominic’s first love.
After she came back from abroad, she became Dominic’s secretary.
From business schedules to trivial gifts, she was in charge of handling all of Dominic’s arrangements.
When Dominic heard me mention Elsie, his tone turned very cold.
“Who do you think you are? Don’t compare Elsie with you.”
Hearing this, I smiled silently.
“You’re right. She’s way better than me. That’s why I let you not waste good things on me.”
My reply made Dominic speechless.
I looked at the clock on the wall.
Then, I continued, “Please ask Elsie to arrange a day. We need to go to the courthouse as soon as possible.
“Text me when you fix the date. No need to call me.”
With that, I put down the phone and was about to hang up, but Dominic made a sound first.
He said, “Gavin is next to me. He wants to talk to you.”
But before Gavin could speak, I directly hung up the phone.
It was just like that day when Gavin blacklisted me without any hesitation.
Putting down my phone, I held Maritza’s hand and watched TV with her.
A week had passed.
While waiting for someone in the hotel salon, I received a call from an unfamiliar number.
It was Gavin’s teacher.
He told me that Gavin had a fight with his classmate at school.
The reason for the fight was that Gavin’s classmate heard some rumors and went to ask Gavin in front of the whole class about the reason for Gavin’s parents’ divorce.
But I told that teacher, “No.
“That is not a rumor. Gavin’s dad and I did get divorced.
“The custody of Gavin is not in my hands. Please ask his dad to handle this matter.”
Hearing my words, the teacher, in an embarrassed tone, told me that Gavin only provided my phone number.
Sighed, I asked the teacher to put me on speaker.
Knowing the injured student and his parents were all present, I calmly said to Gavin, “Gavin.
“You hit someone, and it’s your bad. When you do something wrong, you will be punished. Isn’t this the principle that you and your dad have always complied with?
“Also, please don’t call me again no matter what happens to you in the future. Same for your dad.
“Gavin, you have to remember that I’m not your mom anymore.”
After finishing speaking, I hung up the phone and waved to my best friend Emilie Latham and her daughter, Kyla, with a smile while setting up the Do Not Disturb mode.
When I was pregnant with Gavin, I always fantasized that the child in my belly would be a girl.
Even if Gavin was a boy, I still treated him as my treasure and took care of him wholeheartedly.
Before the age of six, Gavin would plant little trees in the backyard for the cats that died in a cartoon.
He would also secretly put a small red flower in my hair after school.
But later, Dominic started taking Gavin to his grandpa’s house frequently.
After the age of eight, Gavin no longer cried and didn’t like to smile.
He started to dislike Maritza’s house, thinking that the modern skyscrapers in the city were better than the old-style houses in the countryside.
He even complained to me, “Mom.
“You grew up in this kind of place? No wonder grandma always looks down on you.”
The cheesecake fed to me by Kyla brought me back from my thoughts.
Seeing me eating the cake, Emilie smiled.
“Aryanna, now that you’ve accepted Kyla’s bribe, you have to go to her school sports meeting to cheer for her.”
I put my arm around Kyla’s shoulder and smiled.
“Don’t worry. I will be there.”
A month later, on Friday…
I ran into Dominic on the school playground unexpectedly.
Elsie was standing beside Dominic.
She held his arm and greeted me.
“Aryanna, long time no see. I didn’t expect you to come.”
Gavin was the president of the school sprint club, so he had to take part in the game.
However, I didn’t come for Gavin today.
I ignored Elsie and walked straight to the bleacher. Seeing this, Dominic finally reacted. He let go of Elsie’s hand and strode to me.
With sarcasm in his tone, he asked, “Aryanna, didn’t you say you were not Gavin’s mom anymore? Then why are you here?”
I didn’t want to waste my time chatting with Dominic.
I just said, “Please don’t stand next to me. I don’t want others to misunderstand us.”
“Misunderstand what?” Dominic was confused.
I briefly explained, “Misunderstand that we are still a couple.”
Upon hearing this, Dominic was first stunned, and then his face gradually turned sullen.
He gritted his teeth. “Aryanna, don’t try to provoke me.”
I didn’t understand what he meant.
At this moment, I was just excitedly waving to Kyla who was on the runway.
Gavin stood only about 16 feet away from Kyla. I knew he saw me.
He obviously thought I was waving at him, otherwise, he wouldn’t have shown disgust and disdain on his face.
As the gun went off, the boys and girls started running at the same time.
To my surprise, Kyla actually ran very fast.
But unexpectedly, Gavin, who had always been outstanding, fell halfway through the race.
As soon as the race ended, Dominic and I both ran towards the racetrack.
Dominic was faster than me and strode to Gavin’s side first, solemnly inquiring the school doctor about Gavin’s injuries.
The school doctor was about to speak, but Dominic made a pause gesture.
Then, he turned his face and looked at me unhappily. I was standing not far away from him, texting with my head down.
He asked with a frown, “Aryanna, what are you doing there? Can’t you see that your son is injured?”
Dominic’s reprimand attracted the attention of the surrounding teachers and students.
I put away my phone and looked at Gavin, whose lips were pale, expressionless.
Gavin’s knees were broken and swollen, covered in blood.
His left ankle joint was twisted.
Gavin instinctively reached out to me in pain, looking at me with helplessness in his eyes.
But I found it a bit funny.
I sneered in my heart, What does this have to do with me?
Just as Gavin wrote in his composition last year, he had grown up.
In his eyes, I was just a mediocre and useless mother, a housewife, who only knew how to cook and do laundry at home. I couldn’t even play a complete piano piece. He didn’t need me or my care at all.
Under the crowd’s gazes, I walked past Gavin directly and went to the girls with a smile on my face, embracing Kyla excitedly.
I praised, “Kyla, you did an amazing job. Congratulations on winning the silver medal.
“Let’s go, sweetie. Your mom’s waiting outside in her car. She said she’d take us to have the seafood feast. That’s what you’ve been wanting to eat, right?”
I walked out of the campus in a relaxed and happy mood. As soon as I got in the car, Dominic called me.
I didn’t want to answer the call.
But Dominic sent me a message. [It’s about our divorce.]
So, when we arrived at the restaurant, I asked Emilie to take Kyla in first. I would join them later.
It had been two months, and this was the first time I took the initiative to call Dominic.
I waited only half a second, and Dominic picked up the phone. His voice came from the other end, sounding somewhat frustrated.
“Aryanna, where are you now?”
“No matter where I am, you can directly tell me when you have time to go to the courthouse.” I sounded very calm.
Dominic fell silent for a moment.
After calming down a little, he said in a softened tone, “You need to come to the hospital first. Gavin is seriously injured and may not be able to take part in the race in the future. In short, the doctor wants to discuss something with us.”
“Oh, he can’t take part in the race anymore, huh? That’s fine. You don’t need to tell me about such a trifle.”
Dominic couldn’t believe what I had just said.
“Aryanna, how can you say that? You’re Gavin’s mother!”
I leaned back against the soft pillow in the back seat of the car.
Then, I replied calmly, “Dominic, it was you who called Gavin to the study in the first place. It was you who asked him to tell me in person who he wanted to live with in the future. He chose you because I was just an outsider to your family.
“Why do you behave as if I’m the one who ditched him?
“Don’t you think you and your son are very contradictory and ridiculous?”
Dominic fell into a long silence again.
When I thought he was deliberately ignoring me, he spoke again.
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