Chapter 2
Her twisted version of events made me laugh, a bitter, angry sound.
She was the one who pushed me into the abyss, and now she dared to question me, playing the victim.
How dare she?
Seeing my cold silence, her emotions flared even more. She reached out, ready to grab me.
“Tell me, who is that woman?!”
I dodged her, wanting nothing more than to get my son away from this toxic scene.
Just then, her gaze locked onto the red string on my wrist.
Instantly, her expression softened, a triumphant smile touching her lips.
She smiled, a smile of absolute certainty.
“I knew it,” her voice softened. “You still care for me. You kept this red string.”
A wave of pure disgust welled up inside me.
She thought I’d spent seven years, wearing her love token, yearning for her return.
But she didn’t know the one she gave me had snapped and vanished the moment I plunged into the freezing depths, just like my dying heart.
This red string on my wrist was given to me by someone else.
A woman who reached out to me when I was lost in the depths of despair.
Seeing my silence, Seraphina’s smile widened.
She confidently reached out to touch the red string, but I sidestepped, avoiding her hand.
Her hand froze in mid-air, her face coloring slightly, but she quickly plastered on that facade of deep affection.
“Liam, I know you’re still angry with me. But I had no choice back then.”
She glanced at Caleb, who looked somewhat helpless beside her. “Caleb… you know, he can’t be without me.”
Caleb immediately lowered his head, trembling slightly, playing his part.
“Bro, don’t blame Sera. It’s all my fault… If it wasn’t to save me, you wouldn’t have…”
I was too tired to argue with them. I just wanted to leave with my son.
“Leo’s feeling a bit seasick. I need to take him to rest.” My voice was ice cold.
“Bro, now that we’ve found you, how can you not come home with us? Mom and Dad have missed you for seven years, they’ve cried their eyes out, practically blind from weeping!”
Caleb immediately grabbed me, putting on a show of being a dutiful son.
“Can you really bear to let them keep grieving?”
He brought up our parents, and I couldn’t refuse.
After all, they were my parents.
Even if they’d caused me endless pain, the ties of blood were still impossible to sever.
I hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Seeing this, Seraphina immediately tried to eagerly help with my luggage, but I coldly refused her.
Her expression faltered. Caleb seized the moment, hooking his arm through hers, and mouthed silently to me:
See? She’s still mine.
I just found it pathetic.
What he wanted, I had long since stopped caring about.
The plane landed in Coast City. Back in that familiar yet strange home, my parents were overjoyed to see me, tears streaming down their faces.
They hugged me, repeatedly checking if I was truly safe and sound.
“It’s good you’re back, so good you’re back, my son…”
My mother sobbed, breathless.
This long-lost warmth made me waver for a moment, as if all those neglected years were just a nightmare.
However, a single sentence from Caleb instantly slammed me back to reality.
“Mom, Dad, look, big brother didn’t just come back himself, he brought a kid too.”
He pushed Leo forward with a beaming smile, his tone innocent yet utterly venomous:
“Big brother is really something, surviving alone overseas, must’ve been tough, huh? I hear things are pretty open over there… easy to accidentally become a dad, with such a big kid at such a young age.”
The air instantly froze.
The surprise and affection on my parents’ faces froze, replaced by pure disgust in their eyes when they looked at me.
They believed him.
Just like before.
They didn’t hesitate to believe Caleb’s most vicious slander against me.
Leo couldn’t understand the adults’ complicated expressions. He only knew these were the grandparents he’d learned about in his books.
He looked up with his innocent little face, opening his arms and babbling sweetly, “Grandpa, Grandma, hug.”
The child’s pure smile seemed to melt the ice in my parents’ hearts.
They hesitated for a moment, then bent down and picked up Leo.
Caleb saw this and shot me a venomous glare.