1 In the city's elite circles, there was a running joke: "If your husband's giving you trouble, just have him spend an afternoon with Leo Hanover. He's the only man in the city who'd let his wife bring home a different man every night for the sake of their kid." So at parties, someone would inevitably say with a sigh, "If only my husband had half of Leo's patience." What they didn't know was that Leo Hanover, the man they saw as the city’s most patient and obedient husband, on a day no different from any other, asked his wife for a divorce. He didn't even want the child. When I brought it up, nobody believed me. Including my wife, Victoria Sterling. … "What is this nonsense?" When I said I wanted a divorce, Victoria didn't even look up from her paperwork. Only the ash at the tip of her cigarette grew long, forgotten. "I said, I want a divorce." Victoria glanced at her watch, her brow furrowed, and answered a question I hadn't asked. "Damian gets out of school in seventeen minutes." I knew what she was doing. She was using our son as leverage. But she didn't know what had happened yesterday. At the Sterling family dinner, as I was picking the hated green onions out of his soup, as I always did, our eight-year-old son, Damian, looked up at me. "Dad," he said suddenly, "I've realized you're really pathetic." I froze on the spot. My chopsticks clattered to the floor. Damian didn't even flinch at the sound, continuing as if talking to himself. "No wonder everyone calls you a spineless doormat. Even Grandma can't stand you. And honestly? You're not nearly as fun as the uncles Mom brings home." A ripple of snickering went through the Sterling family members at the table. Only my face was terrifyingly cold. Damian saw my humiliation, but he just frowned. "Dad, don't always act like I'm bullying you. Pouting like a little kid all the time... don't you have any shame?" For a dizzying moment, I saw his mother's reflection in the son I had raised for eight years. Just then, Victoria walked in with her companion for the evening, the hot new movie star, Evan Vance. Victoria's mother finally spoke up, smoothing things over. "Alright, Damian is just a child. You're his father, are you really going to hold a grudge against your own son?" The others chimed in. "Yes, kids say the darndest things. Don't take it to heart." "Besides, everyone in the city knows your reputation. Damian is just repeating what he hears. You can't blame him." I just watched silently as Damian, who had been glaring at me with impatience just a moment before, broke into a wide grin and ran towards Victoria and Evan. He grabbed Evan’s arm, swinging it playfully. Evan, smiling conspiratorially, produced a paper kite from behind his back. The way Damian’s face lit up, it was clear this wasn't their first meeting. They already had their little secrets. Victoria felt my gaze and glanced at me, but her eyes slid right past, as if I were a piece of furniture. She probably assumed the grim look on my face was just the usual breakdown after being the butt of the joke. She was used to it, after all. But this time, the one treating me like a joke wasn't some stranger. It was the son I had painstakingly nurtured, cared for, and raised for eight long years. "Are you sure you want a divorce?" Perhaps my silence had stretched on for too long. Victoria was finally looking at me. My eyes met hers. "Yes, Ms. Sterling," I said softly. Victoria Sterling and I were a mismatch in every conceivable way—family background, status, even looks. The only reason she had chosen me as her husband was because I was compliant and emotionally astute. For years, to keep her happy, I had lived by two simple rules: Never say anything that would anger Victoria. Never do anything that would anger Victoria. "You..." Before she could finish, the office door was pushed open. I was surprised to see Evan. Victoria had a rule: the men she brought home were never brought to the office. Evan was the exception. "Ms. Sterling, am I interrupting?" At the sight of him, the cold lines of Victoria's face softened slightly. "It's nothing important. Just give me a moment. I haven't forgotten my promise to you and Damian." Evan smiled. "As long as you remember." The irony was crushing. Even my request for a divorce was "nothing important" in her eyes. And Victoria, who never bent for anyone, was now being forced to compromise because of an impatient look from Evan. "If this is because you're angry about the dinner yesterday," she said, her voice clipped, "because my family upset you, I promise it won't happen again." Evan chimed in smoothly. "Leo, the park opens soon. Damian's waiting in the car. Please, can you just let Victoria go for now?" My hand trembled. I had tried to take Damian to an amusement park countless times. He had always scoffed at the idea. "Dad, you're a grown man. Can you stop being so childish? Going to a place like that is just a waste of my time." Now, swallowing the bitter wave of grief rising in my throat, I pointed to the divorce papers on her desk—a document I had revised over and over again. "Sign it. I'll leave immediately. I won't bother you ever again." Only then did Evan seem to notice the papers. A flicker of excitement lit up his eyes. "Ms. Sterling, should I give you two some privacy?" He said the words, but he didn't move an inch. Victoria set down her pen with a frown. "No need." I recognized the expression. It was the prelude to her anger. In the past, I would have immediately apologized, scrambling to smooth things over. But now, I was numb. I didn't care. "Ms. Sterling, surely Leo isn't trying to divorce you because of me," Evan said, biting his lip in a display of feigned distress. He immediately turned to me. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have come over last night without calling. I made you angry. It's all my fault." He bowed his head, grabbing my wrist, his eyes full of guilt. But the sharp, digging pain of his fingernails was all too real. Out of Victoria's line of sight, he mouthed the words, his lips forming a cruel smile: She and your son... they don't want you. You deserve this. I felt no anger, only a profound sense of the absurd. I slowly pried his fingers off my wrist. He suddenly stumbled backward, collapsing to the floor. It was such a clumsy, pathetic performance, but Victoria bought it. And so did Damian, who had just pushed the door open. "Have you not caused enough trouble?!" Victoria's voice was sharp. "Dad, are you crazy? Why did you push Uncle Evan?!" In that moment, my wife and my son were both accusing me, defending another man. "Uncle Evan, don't worry. I won't let anyone bully you again," Damian said, rushing to Evan's side, his face a mask of concern. Eight years ago, I had stayed up all night, every night, watching over the fragile life that was the newborn Damian. He was barely the size of my palm, lying in an incubator, clinging to life. The hospital had issued one critical condition notice after another. Nearly everyone had given up on him; the doctors said even if he survived, he wouldn't live past five. Only I refused to let go. I begged the doctors, I prayed to every god I could think of, I sought out anyone who could possibly save him. And I did. I saved his life. That was why I could endure Victoria's neglect, her coldness. In her eyes, Damian was my weakness, the one thing she could always use to control me. Now, she dropped all pretense. "Leo, if you really want this divorce, you will never see Damian again!" At the word "divorce," Damian's head snapped up. He glared at me. "Dad, you're divorcing Mom because of Uncle Evan?" "I'm telling you, even if you get divorced, I'll never go with you. A stupid, useless person like you doesn't deserve my mom. Everyone laughs at you! Grandma and the others can't stand you! Can't you just take a good look at yourself for once?" There was no sadness in his eyes as he looked at me, only disgust. I no longer felt any lingering affection for him either. I just said, flatly, "Good. Because I don't want you anymore, either." Damian froze, his eyes widening in disbelief. A flush of red crept into them. He wasn't always like this. Before he was five, whenever someone made fun of me, he would take my hand and say, "Dad, you still have me." When I was sad, he would hug me. "Don't be sad, Dad. Damian is here." He was once my only anchor in that cold, cruel house. But people change. And I couldn't live a life without a single drop of sweetness anymore. Victoria picked up her pen. With a flourish, she signed her name. "Don't you dare regret this!" I let out a breath of pure relief. The weight I had carried for so many years was finally lifted. "I will never regret it." My absurd marriage to Victoria Sterling had finally come to an end. I had followed her around like a shadow since we were children, but her gaze had never once landed on me. Even our marriage was a fluke. Her fiancé had left her at the altar, declaring he'd suddenly realized he preferred freedom to marriage. Humiliated and furious, Victoria had simply swapped out the groom on the spot. To everyone, I was the lucky one. I thought so too. In a place she could never see, I had secretly loved her for my entire youth. But the Sterling family was furious. They told everyone that a person from a small, insignificant family like mine could never be worthy of a Sterling. I knew it too. So for years, I was careful, cautious, trying to please every single one of them. But I was naive. There are some circles you can't enter, no matter how hard you try. Now, I was giving up. Giving up on all of it. I folded the signed divorce agreement and put it in my bag. I checked the time. "Weren't you going to the amusement park? If you leave now, you can still make it." I had planned so many trips, I had the park's operating hours memorized. I looked at Damian, my voice soft with a final instruction. "You're allergic to mangoes. You can't sneak any more food with mango in it." I remembered a time when Damian would cry every night, begging to see Victoria. She would just brush me off with two words: "Too busy." So Damian secretly ate a mango gummy. He broke out in hives all over his body, gasping for breath. Terrified, I had begged Victoria to come home. Afterward, the Sterlings berated me for days. They said my interruption had cost their company a multi-million dollar contract. They said it was my fault for not watching him properly, that the scars left by the hives were my failure. I was consumed with guilt. But Damian seemed to have found a loophole. Whenever he wanted to see his mother, he would search the house for anything containing mango. In his mind, an allergic reaction was the only way to make his mother come home. He never knew that with each frantic hospital trip, his father's heart broke a little more. "Damian, you're eight years old. You'll be in the second grade soon. You need to learn to take care of yourself." I watched as Damian pouted and turned away, hugging Evan. "You're not my dad anymore after you divorce Mom! I don't need you to worry about me!" A flash of memory: Damian, just learning to walk, toddling after me, endlessly chanting "Dada, Dada." A sharp sting hit the back of my nose. My voice was hoarse. "Fine. I won't say any more." Victoria sensed my emotion and sneered. "Are you satisfied now that you've made this scene?" Evan stepped in front of her, pretending to mediate. "Victoria, take it easy. I'm sure Leo is hurting right now, too. Maybe it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. When you've both cooled down, you can talk it over. After all, how could he possibly bear to leave Damian? It must have just been said in anger." Damian was the first to object, his face twisted with malice. "He doesn't want me? Ha! I don't want him either!" Victoria's voice was cold as ice. "I gave him plenty of chances. He brought this on himself. People have to pay the price for their own recklessness." But from the moment I asked for the divorce, I had never intended to look back. Evan's eyes lit up with undisguised joy. "Well... Leo, regardless, I still think you should reconsider. We're heading to the park now. Don't worry, I'll take good care of Damian." Victoria looked at me with a smirk. "You got what you wanted. Why are you still standing here? Are you waiting for me to beg you to stay?" Without another word, I turned and left first. "Have fun," I said over my shoulder. Back at the Sterling mansion, I began to pack. It turned out that all my possessions from all these years fit into a single suitcase. I left the necklace I wore on the coffee table. Inside the locket was a family photo of Damian at three years old, a photo I had begged Victoria for three whole days to take. Just then, a news alert popped up on my phone. It was an entertainment headline: Victoria Sterling spotted at an amusement park. The photo showed the three of them—Victoria, Evan, and Damian—looking for all the world like a perfect family. What was there left to miss? Before I left, I gave the money I had saved over the years to the butler. "This is for Damian's child support." The butler hesitated, about to say something, when Victoria's mother pushed open the main doors. She saw the suitcase and froze. "Damian told me you're insisting on divorcing Victoria." I was silent for a moment, then shook my head. "It's not an insistence. It's already done." Her face contorted with rage, and she swept everything off a nearby table. "Leo Hanover, who gave you the nerve?! You worthless piece of trash, how dare you be the one to serve my daughter with divorce papers! I'm telling you, you will leave with nothing! And that includes Damian! You will never see your son again!" From the day I married into this family, her first words to me were a command not to call her "Mother-in-law." Every time Damian had a little scrape, every time Victoria was slightly unwell, it was my fault. I could have endured the screaming. I was her favorite punching bag, after all. But I endured it all for Damian. Now that I was giving him up, I had no reason to endure it anymore. So when she raised her hand to slap me, I caught her wrist and shoved her away. "From the moment Victoria signed those papers, I have had nothing to do with you or the Sterling family." Caught off guard by my resistance, she stumbled and fell. Just then, a familiar voice came from the doorway. "Leo! Have you completely lost your mind?! You dare to lay a hand on my mother?" It was Victoria. Evan was right behind her, his eyes wide as he rushed to help her mother up. "Leo, no matter how angry you are, you shouldn't take it out on her mother!" The servants, drawn by the commotion, began whispering in the background. "I used to feel sorry for Mr. Hanover, but now I see he was just putting on an act." "Right? This is nothing like the weak, bullied man everyone talks about. He even dares to hit his own mother-in-law." Damian stood in front of his grandmother, glaring at me. "You're a bad dad! You bullied Grandma! I never want to see you again! I want Uncle Evan to be my dad!" At only eight years old, he had no idea how lethal those words were. Even a heart as battered as mine could still feel the sharp, twisting pain. "She tried to hit me, I was just..." Victoria cut me off, her voice a cold sneer. "You're saying my mother hit you? Did anyone here see that? But we all saw you push her. What else do you have to say for yourself? Leo, you've caused enough trouble, but bullying my mother is a new low. Apologize to her. Now." I refused. From the moment I stepped into this house, my life had been an endless series of apologies. Damian refused to go to school, and I had to bow to his teachers. Victoria's tie didn't match her suit, and I had to apologize. Her mother lost face at a party, and I had to apologize to the guests. "Victoria, it's fine," her mother said, suddenly magnanimous in front of her daughter. "It's nothing serious. No need to get upset." She was always the picture of grace in front of Victoria, but behind her back, she treated me like a servant. I couldn't stand to look at this family for another second. "Just throw out anything I haven't packed," I said to the butler. "I'm leaving now." But Damian blocked my path. His eyes were red, but the words he spoke were not of reconciliation. "You think you can just walk away after bullying Grandma and Uncle Evan?" "I'm going to punish you! Just like you used to punish me! So you'll learn your lesson about what you can and can't do!" I stared at him in disbelief. No matter how much he disliked me, how could he hate me this much? "Mary... lock him in the attic." The Sterling family attic was their version of a punishment room. I had locked Damian in there once, after he threw his chopsticks at me during a dinner party because he didn't like the food. I did it to teach him a lesson. I never imagined that less than a year later, my own son would use it to "punish" me. Victoria and the others stood by, their faces blank, tacitly approving Damian's actions. The servants grabbed me, and I struggled, my eyes burning. "Damian, I am your father! How could you do this to me?!" He looked at me with the same cold indifference as his mother. "Not anymore. Not since you divorced Mom." The son I had raised with my own hands was now standing with them, against me. My heart, what was left of it, finally died. That night, locked in the attic, I took one last look through the window at Damian's room. He used to love it when I played hide-and-seek with him in there. Now, he had a father he liked better. And I was choosing to let them be. I made one final phone call. Then, I lit a pile of old junk in the corner. The flames instantly roared to life, engulfing the small space. I smiled bitterly in the flickering light. "Everything here... it's time for it to end." Just before I jumped from the window, I thought I heard a gut-wrenching, primal scream coming from the main house...
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