I told the lawyer everything that had happened over the years.

There was a long silence on the other end of the call before he finally sighed.

“If that victim settlement agreement back then was signed by your husband on your behalf as your spouse, and someone later destroyed the physical evidence, then after five years, it won’t be easy to pursue Violetta alone.

“But if you have proof that Violetta never actually served her sentence, the circumstances will be different.”

I tightened my grip on the phone.

“What about the divorce?”

“The divorce won’t be difficult.” The lawyer paused briefly. “But have you really thought this through?”

“I have.

“Since he loves her so much, I’ll let them be together.”

The lawyer asked again, “What about the child?”

I fell silent.

Luca was the child I gave birth to while risking my life, and he was also the only person I couldn’t bear to let go of all these years.

I wanted to say that I didn’t want him anymore either.

However, when the words reached my lips, I still couldn’t say them.

Maybe he was just too young.

Maybe if I laid the truth out before him, he would understand.

Just as I was about to ask something else, the front door pushed open.

The father and son walked in smiling, carrying the scent of night wind and perfume on their coats.

When Luca saw me on the phone, he casually asked, “Mom, who are you talking to?”

Damien also looked at me, his gaze darkening for a moment.

“A friend.”

I put my phone face down and picked up the box of marzipan he had specially brought back for me. I unwrapped one and placed it in my mouth.

I used to love this flavor the most.

Now, it only tasted sickeningly sweet and bitter at the same time, just like this marriage. Covered in sugar on the outside, while rotten underneath.

Damien looked at me as if waiting for a reaction.

“Is it good? If you like it, I’ll buy more next time.”

I smiled faintly.

“It’s good, but there’s no need.”

He immediately became tense. “Why?”

I answered calmly, “The doctor said I should eat less of this.”

Only then did he visibly relax.

“I’ll have the chef create new desserts for you that are healthy and delicious.”

I lowered my eyes and looked at the draft divorce agreement the lawyer had just sent to my phone.

‘There won’t be a next time, Damien.’

The next morning, I received a call from Luca’s school.

The teacher invited me to attend the academy’s open house.

For events like this, Damien was always the one who attended.

I thought he had simply forgotten to inform me, and because I didn’t want Luca to be left alone, I still had the driver take me to the school.

The moment I arrived at the entrance, the teacher looked at me politely and asked, “May I ask who you are?”

I answered, “I’m Luca’s—”

Before I could finish, the teacher suddenly showed a look of realization.

“Oh, you’re the woman who takes care of Luca’s daily needs, right? He mentioned that there’s a caretaker at home whose hand was injured.”

My entire body froze.

So in Luca’s eyes, I wasn’t even his mother.

I was only a nanny.

At that moment, the sound of familiar high heels came from behind me.

Violetta walked over slowly in a sharply tailored black suit dress and raised a hand to signal for the teacher to leave.

She looked me up and down, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt.

“Looks like you’re still just as pitiful as before.”

I looked at her expressionlessly.

“So what?”

She crossed her arms and smiled, her red lips curling upward.

“So, I just came to tell you the truth.

“Back then, both the Capello family and the Newman family said your marksmanship was the best. They said you were born to inherit that gun, the shooting range, and the entire family's weapons collection business.

“But why should you?

“I only casually mentioned that I liked that gun too, and Damien chose to look the other way while I destroyed your hand.”

She leaned closer, lowering her voice until it brushed past my ear like a snake’s hiss.

“It’s a pity that I didn’t go far enough that time. Your wrist was still saved. But Damien had the doctors delay the best treatment window and deliberately changed the treatment plan. Your bones healed out of place, and the nerves died.

“So don’t even dream of pulling a trigger steadily again.”

It turned out that Damien had known about that accident from the very beginning, and my wrist could originally have been healed.

My whole body trembled as I raised my hand and slapped Violetta across the face.

It sent Violetta stumbling to the ground, and her cheek immediately swelled.

In the next second, a force violently shoved me over.

A man’s voice, filled with suppressed fury, rang out above my head.

“Have you lost your mind?!

“If anything happens to her, I won’t let you off!”

As I struggled to push myself back up, I saw Damien rush forward and pull Violetta into his arms.

She covered her cheek, tears falling at just the right moment.

“Damien, I only wanted to apologize to her…

“I know she hates me. After all, I was the reason her hand was injured. But I really didn’t do it on purpose…”

Damien frowned as he turned back to look at me, the dissatisfaction in his eyes impossible to hide.

“Elena, what happened five years ago is already in the past. She’s already paid the price for it. What you did today was completely out of line.”

I looked at him and suddenly laughed.

Even I was startled by how cold that smile felt.

“Did she really pay the price?

“Damien, was it fun lying to me?”

His expression stiffened. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to expose everything so directly.

“Elena, I can explain—”

However, before he could finish speaking, Violetta suddenly gasped in pain in his arms.

“My foot hurts so much… Could it be broken?”

Damien lowered his head to look at her. A trace of hesitation flashed through his eyes, but in the end, he still carried her in his arms.

“You head back first.

“I’ll give you an explanation once I’ve dealt with this.”

With that, he left Luca behind with me and hurried away with Violetta.

Luca stood behind me and carefully called out, “Mom.”

I didn’t respond.

He immediately panicked, and his eyes quickly turned red.

“Mom, please don’t ignore me, okay? I know I was wrong.”

I closed my eyes briefly and decided to give him one last chance.

“Luca, if your father and I get divorced, who would you choose to stay with?”

He froze. Standing there helplessly, his lips pressed so tightly they turned pale.

After a long time, he finally spoke in a low voice.

“Dad would be sad.

“Mom, he just made one mistake. Don’t divorce him, okay?”

I looked at him as my heart slowly sank.

The moment he hesitated, the answer had already become clear.

He chose to stand with his father.

I raised my hand and gently touched his head, as calmly as I did every night when I used to put him to sleep.

“I still need to see someone.

“Go back to the estate first. There’s a black velvet box in the drawer beside my bed. Help me give it to your father. Once you deliver it to him, I’ll forgive you.”

Luca’s eyes immediately lit up, and he nodded repeatedly before turning and running toward the driveway.

I watched his back until he completely disappeared before softly saying, “Goodbye, Luca.”

After that, I told the driver to head in the opposite direction from the estate.

…

Inside the hospital room, after Damien had settled Violetta down, he finally found time to call me.

He thought that as long as he lowered himself enough and apologized, I would soften like I always had in the past.

However, call after call went unanswered.

In five years of marriage, I had never ignored him like this before.

The hidden unease in his heart finally began to spread until at last, the phone played a cold automated message.

“The number you dialed is currently powered off.”

Damien’s expression instantly changed.

He didn’t even bother responding when Violetta called after him from behind. He immediately turned and rushed out.

As he passed a jewelry store, he suddenly stopped the car and bought a pair of diamond earrings I had once looked at but never purchased.

Then he ordered an entire car full of white roses from a flower shop.

As if doing that could somehow make up for everything.

But when he rushed back to the estate, the living room was frighteningly quiet.

There was no sound of my voice or the soft noise of my wheelchair rolling across the carpet.

He searched through the entire mansion like a madman, yet still couldn’t find me anywhere.

At that moment, Luca ran downstairs and happily handed him a black velvet box.

“Dad, Mom asked me to give this to you.”

Seeing that his son was still there, Damien was relieved.

If Luca were here, then I couldn’t have gone far.

I treasured this family so much. There was no way I could truly bear to leave.

He took the box and casually opened it.

The next second, his entire body froze in place.

Inside the box were not jewels, but the wedding rings from when we registered our marriage at the church after getting married.

Beneath the rings were two documents.

One was a divorce agreement.

The other was a signed statement severing the mother-son relationship.