"Woman, stop meddling in a man's drinking!"

Barry yelled in a hoarse voice before he turned around and continued to speak to everyone at the table. "Let's go on! Don't bother with a woman like her!"

The men tried to gloss things over while suppressing their laughter. "Ms. Kimberly, maybe you should show more respect for your husband in the presence of others."

"Barry is a true man!"

Jessica was the only one who lowered her head and asked me with concern, "Shania, are you all right?

"It's all my fault. Barry drank so much just to help me out. Go and have a rest first. I'll take care of Barry."

Hearing this, all I did was wipe the blood off my mouth without saying a word. As I went out to get an ice pack, I tore Barry's diagnosis report into pieces and flushed it down the toilet.

Three years ago, my mother brought a plain-looking man who had dropped out of high school to me and cut straight to the chase. "Shania, this is Barry Field. You should get ready and get married to him right away."

In torn clothes, Barry was casually rummaging through things in my office, squinting at me up and down.

At that time, my father had just passed away, and our company was in a mess, so I was too busy to think about my love life. Before I could say no, my mother took out her diagnosis report and looked at me coldly as if she were looking at a nobody.

"I already have advanced-stage uterine cancer. Marry Barry Field immediately if you want me to live well!"

The finality in her voice was as if I would be an unforgivable defiant daughter if I rejected what she said.

I thought she wanted to see me have a family before her death, so I did what she wanted. Out of my expectations, however, Barry was still having fun with Jessica at hotels even after we got married.

Therefore, my mother paid a special visit to Jessica, hence Jessica's departure to Artrone the next day.

Barry had a breakdown like a madman at the airport, and he had given me silent treatment for over a month after he returned.

In the past three years, Jessica had beefed up her resume by going on to art school abroad with my money. She confidently took up designing after returning home but had no success at all.

She was unwilling to give up, so she tried to swallow her pride and entertain potential investors at the dining table. She felt so humiliated that she couldn't help but call Barry in tears.

Then, today's farce was on stage.

In the past, we would whitewash our marriage and pretend to be respectful for each other, but as Barry's say in Harman Group became greater and greater, his ferocious ambition soon showed.

His tyranny made the company's staff complain. Every time I intended to make any moves, my mother would hold my hand and persuade me while coughing, "You are Barry's woman. All you need to do is to support him. A woman is not supposed to manage a company. It's time for you to gradually hand the company over to him."

"But Mom, it was Dad who left this company to me. It only belongs to the Kimberly family. "

My mother's eyes widened, her bony hand holding me so tight that it left a long red mark on my arm. She said, "It's all my fault for not giving birth to a son for your father... In this world, it's not right to let a woman run a company. Barry has swallowed his pride to become our matrilocal son-in-law for you, so it's only fair that you feel guilty towards him for the rest of your life, do you understand?"

I'm lost in memories of the past few years with my head down and haven't noticed that the dinner has ended.

Barry knits his brows and spares a vicious glance at me, asking, "Why are you still sitting there? Drive me back to the company."

I come back to my senses and raise my head. I obediently take the car key from Barry and say, "Mom misses you."

"I'm busy."

Barry tugs at his tie with a frown.

I say in a calm voice, "The doctor said Mom is almost at her last gasp. Please go back and take a look at her."

"Fuck it, I said I'm busy! Is it that you didn't get it?" Barry roars impatiently and is about to storm off, but I only utter in a cold voice with a light smile.

"Barry, do you think I'm showing you too much respect today or not?"

He halts at the door, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his eyes are gnawing at me like a fierce ghost.

I walk up to him slowly and straighten his collar. "I've shown enough respect for you and Jessica, but you should also show me some respect when it comes to my mother's matter."

"Barry, come to me."

My mother tries her best to stretch out her arms on the hospital bed with joy glistening in her eyes. She holds Barry's hand tightly, unwilling to let go. "I always know you are a good boy. I feel much better the moment I see you..."

She is so attentive to the conversation with Barry that she even doesn't glance at me, who has been silently standing by her side.

My mother is talking sincerely to Barry with great concern, while his impatience is apparently written on his face.

However, my mother acts as if she doesn't notice and tells me without turning her head, "Go and prepare a cup of coffee for Barry."

I lean against the door and pretend not to hear it. My mother snapped, "Why do you not listen to me at all? So this is how you serve your man?"

Barry gives me a sarcastic look and says, "How dare I let her serve me?"

He withdraws his arm mercilessly and continues, "Alright, I still have things to do in the company."

"Okay, don't let me keep you," My mother responds quickly, "Don't worry about me. I feel much better after drinking the coffee you gave me last time."

Hearing this, I can hardly restrain my laughter, but my smiling eyes soon become misty.

During these three years, every time she had a flare-up of her illness, I took care of her by her bedside day and night in every possible way even when she was incontinent. My arms were covered with bloody scratches from her.

By contrast, Barry would only come and see Mom with apparent unwillingness on his face once a month even if I urged him.

I've done so much for my mother, yet she seems to notice nothing and never cares about me. However, she has been praising Barry for the coffee, a giveaway that Barry casually regifted to her a year ago.

Even when she was suffering from cancer pain, she would repeat Barry's name over and over again in unconsciousness, burning my heart in a painful way.

There are moments that I truly wish Barry was her son, for I would feel the whole thing is much fairer in this way.

Unfortunately, it's just my unrealistic fantasy.

When my mother abnormally compelled me to marry Barry and lavished most of her attention on him, I did a maternity test, which verified that Barry had no blood ties with my mother or me.

The ardent smile on my mother's face soon fades after Barry left the hospital. Seeing her cover her chest with several coughs, I habitually hand her a glass of warm water and help her drink it.

"Shania."

Mom grabs my wrist and fixes her eyes on my face, afraid to miss a single change in my expression. "You and Barry have been married for three years, but why do you still have no child?"

I say with indifference on my face, "Mom, I can't get pregnant by myself."

She is silent for a while before she says firmly as if she has made a great decision, "I will go and tell Barry that I don't have much time left, so you must have a child right away.

"I've already prepared a name for the child, no matter if it is a boy or a girl, the child's name will be Danis Field."

I pause for a moment before I put the glass on the bedside table, pretending nothing has happened. I ask her with a smile, "Mom, are you kidding? If the child's surname is Field, then who will inherit our Harman Group?"

"A child surnamed Field is still your child, so why can't he inherit the Harman Group?" My mother's face suddenly darkens. She looks at me unhappily and retorts, "How can a child take his mother's surname? Do you want him to grow up and be taunted by others because of his surname?"

"No one will laugh at him for this." The smile on my lips gradually turns cold as my heart becomes as cold as ice.

"Mom, Harman Group was founded by Dad. I will never hand it over to an outsider. You should give up on this idea."

"You, you unruly girl!" My mother rages as her lips quiver. She throws the cup to the ground vigorously, coughing violently with her hand on her chest. I subconsciously want to reach out to support her, however, she unexpectedly raises her hand and slaps me heavily across the face.

I've been slapped twice in just one day. I rub my numb face, no longer able to smile at all.

"The child's surname must be Field!"

My mother screams at me at the top of her lungs. She's nothing but skin and bones trembling violently like a blower. "I'm dying, yet you are still angering me this way! You want me to die sooner, don't you?

"Barry has endured so much contempt for being the matrilocal son-in-law of our family. We owe him so much! Not to mention the Harman Group, you and I can even die for him to repay him!"

I feel it so unfair that I can't help but burst out laughing, "Mom, you know what? Barry and Jessica Holmes have got back together. They just kissed in my presence.

"He's been treating me like this, yet you still ask me to die for him?"

"No man doesn't cheat!" Mom interrupts me with impatience, "Just turn a blind eye to it, and time will mend. Do you have to make such a fuss about it?

"Anyway, I don't care! The child must have Barry's last name, otherwise, otherwise..." She resorts to the same trick she used to coerce me into marriage. "Otherwise, I won't live!"

I watch her go mad for the sake of Barry. The gentle and elegant woman in my memory fades away and finally turns into an illusory bubble that bursts at the slightest touch.

I can't believe my mother has become like this.

My beloved mother.

"Alright." I stifle my bad feelings and nod in agreement. "I'll listen to you, Mom. The child's surname will be Field."

My mother knows I'm a woman of my word, so I can tell that she is visibly relieved the instant she hears my promise.

I turn and walk out of the door to see my mom's personal doctor.

"How long will she live?"

"At least half a month, but not longer than one month," says the doctor.

It's already a miracle that my mother has lived until now. I've done everything I could to prolong her life, which has also cost me tens of millions of dollars.

This time, instead of eagerly asking the doctor to buy more time for Mom as I did before, I close my eyes and watch the dead leaves swirling and falling with a faint rustle outside the window.

I utter lightly, "Let her have a comfortable death with dignity."