Chapter 3

My eyes were bloodshot when I slapped him across the face.

“Gregory, you crossed a line!”

Gregory covered his face and seemed aghast. Then, he turned to Alice, who was behind him and cried out, looking aggrieved, “Alice, I didn't mean it! I tried to apologize to him!”

What came after was a terrific, burning sensation across my face.

…

Alice had put everything into the slap and threw me to the ground. She barely even cared to look at me.

Instead, she went straight to Gregory, where she carefully looked after him. “There, do you feel better?”

Gregory embraced her. “It's my fault. I shouldn’t have thrown up on those sheets and ruined them.”

It was then that Alice cast a look at the grotesque stain on the sheet before ordering icily, “Burn it.”

“No, it was the last thing my father left for me! I can clean it myself, don't burn it!”

Alice of all people should know that I suffered from nightmares every night. The only way I could fall asleep was when I was hugging the blanket.

Despite that, she ignored my pleas and ordered the maid behind her. “Throw away all this old and nasty stuff when the new mister moves in.”

Bang!

The wedding picture on the wall was knocked to the floor and swept up like common trash.

I could hear echoes of the vows she gave when the wedding pictures were taken.

Back then, she had sworn in front of everyone, “Alice Foster will only love Oliver Clarke for the rest of her life.”

When the bedsheet erupted in flames, I leapt toward the brazier to salvage it with my bare hands. I risked burning myself to put out the flames.

Soon, my hands were covered with burns and blisters. To my surprise, it was Alice who rushed to my side and grabbed my hand.

She turned to me with a sharp look in her eyes. “Does it hurt?”

Then, Gregory suddenly clutched his hand over his stomach before gesturing at the urn containing my father’s ashes. “Why did you bring home something like that, brother? You know I’m allergic to dust!

“Ahck! Ahck! Alice, help!”

I lunged forward. “No!”

It was too late for Gregory, who had kicked over my father's ashes.

I could not hold back my rage anymore and threw myself at him. I seized him by the hair, my eyes bloodshot with rage, and accused him, “You did it on purpose!

“You scum! As if your father seducing my mother wasn’t enough, now you want to be a home wrecker and steal my wife from me too!”

Gregory cried out, “Alice, my brother has lost it! He's going to kill me!”

I had my hand wrapped tightly around his neck until Alice’s bodyguards sent me flying with a kick.

When I tumbled to the floor, shards of broken porcelain pierced my flesh and drew blood.

I crawled around desperately to collect whatever was left of my father’s ashes while smearing the floor with streaks of my blood.

My tears dripped onto the ashes and formed clumps.

“Dad, I'm sorry. Please forgive me…”

Then, Alice snatched the urn from my arms.

She mercilessly tossed all the remaining ashes of my father into the toilet!

“Splash!”

The sound of the toilet flushing horrified me.

I knelt before the toilet, completely stunned. When I looked up at Alice, my eyes were red and swollen. “Alice! I will never ever forgive you!”

I recognized what seemed to be shock and hurt flickering across her eyes for a brief moment.

Gregory was clutching onto the hair I had ripped out of his scalp and cried out, “Alice, look at how much of my hair he pulled out. Maybe we shouldn't keep the baby after all. If he’s willing to do something like this now, what is he going to do when the child is born? He’s going to kill us!”

Alice hugged him tenderly and assured him, “He won’t. I will protect you.”

Then, she regarded me with a look so cutting it seemed as if I were worthless to her. Then, she turned to her housemaids. “Get the scissors.”

After she was handed a pair of scissors, she stood before me and seized me by my chin. “Oliver, I must have spoiled you too much.”

With that, she pulled a bundle of my hair and cut it at its roots. It looked as if she was doing yardwork on my scalp.

I recalled how she was caressing my hair just the day before the wedding and was fawning over it. “I love your hair. It smells so good.”

It was only when a few strands of hair remained on my scalp that she stopped and tossed aside the scissors.

She turned and hugged Gregory while kissing his hair as if it was a form of worship. “There, do you feel better?”