Chapter 1
“Seraphina, don’t just stand there. Ten grand is already more than enough for this lowly beggar. We need to hurry and see Leo; we can’t miss his coming-of-age party!” In the video Skylar had sent me, the man hooked his arm through Seraphina’s, about to get into the car.
I recognized him. It was Victor, Seraphina’s childhood sweetheart, the one she’d grown up with!
And my wife, who had been dead for eighteen years and now suddenly reappeared, didn’t even recognize the person she’d hit, lying injured on the ground—it was my sister, her own sister-in-law!
She just gave Skylar a dismissive glance, then turned to comfort Victor: “Alex and I couldn’t have kids back then, so I borrowed your help to get pregnant just to make him feel better.”
“You’re Leo’s biological father. He won’t blame you.”
Watching the two of them, so cold and arrogant in the video, my head reeled.
So, Seraphina’s death was a lie, and tricking me into raising her son was the truth!
What did all our family’s sacrifices over the past eighteen years even mean?
A crushing pain seized my heart, but I had no time for grief. Skylar was still barely clinging to life on the ground.
I frantically rushed to the city hospital. When Skylar was wheeled into the operating room, she was still clutching Leo’s coming-of-age gift in her hand—a custom-made gaming controller.
“Alex… don’t be sad. Leo… he’ll definitely side with you…”
As she was pushed into surgery, I clenched the blood-stained controller so tightly my nails almost dug into my flesh!
If it weren’t for delivering Leo’s gift, she wouldn’t have gotten into an accident.
After three long hours of frantic rescue efforts, the operating room light finally went out.
The doctor told me Skylar was out of critical condition.
But her left leg had sustained a comminuted fracture, and she had a concussion. Her recovery would be long and arduous, with potential lasting complications.
My knees buckled, and I nearly fell, my heart ripping apart.
It took me a while to collect myself and call my parents to reassure them. I pulled out my phone and instinctively clicked on Leo’s latest update on Ins.
In the photo, my son stood center stage in a sharp suit, a brilliant smile on his face.
In eighteen years, I’d rarely seen Leo smile at me like that. With me, it was mostly annoyance. I’d always just told myself he was going through his rebellious phase.
The last photo showed Leo intimately linking his left arm with Seraphina, who was supposed to be dead, and his right arm tightly pressed against the man from the video.
The three of them smiled brilliantly at the camera, a picture of pure, unadulterated family happiness.
The sight burned my eyes.
Below the image was a caption.
“Thanks, Mom and Dad, for my amazing coming-of-age party! This is the best gift ever! Love you guys!”
And then, a follow-up: “Unlike some people’s crappy handmade junk, so cheap and tacky, it was an embarrassment.”
The ‘junk’ he spoke of was the celestial model I had personally polished for three months. It lay silently in my bag now, like a silent taunt.
I had painstakingly carved that celestial model from a treasured piece of rare rosewood, a leftover from before Seraphina’s “passing.”
Leo had loved the stars since he was a child. I had promised him that for his 18th birthday, I’d give him a truly one-of-a-kind gift.
For three months, I’d pulled countless all-nighters, my fingers raw and blistered multiple times, just to finish it before his birthday.
I’d even imagined his surprised expression when he received the gift.
Turns out, Leo knew everything.
He knew Seraphina wasn’t dead.
He knew his biological father was Victor.
And my eighteen years of pouring my heart and soul into him, had been a complete and utter joke.