“Lyra, is there really no chance to fix things?”

Aiden Turner’s mother, Morgana Turner, sighed, still hoping I would stay.

I froze. For a moment, I felt a little pity, but when I thought of my own family, I signed the divorce papers without hesitation.

When she saw what I did, she didn’t say anything else.

On the night before our anniversary, Aiden and his first love, Aurelia Hughes, walked into a hotel holding hands.

I tried calling him, but my thirteen-year-old son answered instead.

“Dad’s at a parent-teacher meeting. No outsiders are allowed to bother him!”

My son spoke in a cold tone, then blocked me.

That night, my stomach illness acted up again. I waited for Aiden to come home and take me to the hospital.

However, Aiden only glanced at me once before leaving on a trip with Aurelia.

While I stayed in the hospital, Aiden posted a message on his Instagram Story.

The picture showed Aurelia standing beside a Ferrari, with flowers and a Rolex he had set inside for her.

The caption said, [My love, always burning with passion.]

I didn’t argue like before and simply left a comment. [Wishing you both a happy marriage.]

The next day, Aiden called; his voice sounded angry.

He demanded, “What will people at the office think of Aurelia because of what you comment? We’re getting married, stop acting out.”

“Listen to me, I left something for you at home.”

I laughed helplessly. “Aiden, this time there won’t be anything left for us.”

***

“You left almost everything to Aiden. What are you planning to do now?”

His mother, Morgana, had always been a respected elder, so I didn’t hide anything in front of her. She carefully went through the agreement, her brow tightening and finally asked me this.

I calmly smiled. “I asked for the divorce and he keeps custody of the kids. It’s natural that he gets the bigger share of what we own.”

I slid the agreement toward her. “Could you check again and see if anything should be adjusted?”

Morgana knew a bit about what had been happening at home.

She had watched me give in again and again, her eyes showed a small look of care

In the end, she nodded.

After I walked Morgana out, I planned to go straight home, but then I remembered Isaiah had said he wanted Ultraman cakes from Brineheart this morning, so I turned around and drove there.

The trip back and forth took a full four hours.

Even though I raised Isaiah myself, his habits and ways were very much like Aiden’s and he was extremely picky with food.

By the time I returned with the cakes, it was already dark.

The scene in the living room, the moment I opened the door, made me freeze where I stood.

My husband and my son were laughing and chatting with another woman.

“Aunt Aurelia, the small cakes you bought taste so good! They’re even better than the ones my mom gets!”

His clear voice hurt my ears.

Aiden’s face tightened when he noticed I had come back and he asked impatiently, “Where did you go? Why are you this late?”

Aurelia sat on the couch, focused on Isaiah’s building blocks. She lifted her head and gave me a smile. “You’re back.”

In that moment, I suddenly felt they were the real family of three.

And I was just someone who had walked in by mistake.

My emotions turned, but I forced myself to push them down.

I slowly moved to Isaiah’s side and softly ran my fingers over his smooth hair. “Didn’t you say you wanted an Ultraman cake? Mom bought it for you.”

He pushed my hand away, annoyed. “Mom, Aunt Aurelia already gave me an Iron Man cake. I don’t like Ultraman now, I like Iron Man.”

Aurelia smiled, her tone gentle. “Kids are like this, always wanting new things and liking whatever catches their eyes. They’ll change again later.”

It sounded like she was soothing a child, but each word felt like it landed on me instead.

Just then, Aiden walked out of the kitchen.

“Dinner’s ready.”

I froze.

We had been married for so many years and he had never cooked before.

This was the first time.

It was also the first time I had seen him make a meal for this home.

I hurried back to the bedroom, changed my clothes and quickly sprayed some medicine on my already dried-up wound before coming out.

At the dining table, the three of them talked and laughed as if it made no difference whether I was there or not.

I quietly went into the kitchen and scooped myself a bowl of rice.

It wasn’t until I sat down that I noticed Aiden’s cooking skills were actually quite good.

Aurelia, with obvious pride, turned to Isaiah and asked, “Isaiah, have you ever eaten your father’s cooking before?”

Isaiah shook her head.

Aurelia seemed to recall something, her tone touched with old memories, “Your father really liked to cook. During the years we stayed overseas, he was mostly the one cooking for me.”

As she ended her words, her eyes stayed on me for a brief moment, almost too small to notice.

Then, with a smile and a light bit of wonder, she looked at Aiden. “So many years have gone by and you still remember my favorite dish, your sweet and sour pork ribs?”

My hand holding the utensils paused a little.

Aurelia’s smile grew even brighter.

Aiden looked at her a bit uneasily, but his voice was gentle, “Why are you bringing all that up? Let’s eat.”

Their talk sounded like a pair long apart yet still matching perfectly.

I lowered my head and felt that the rice in my bowl suddenly had no taste anymore.

After dinner, Aurelia stood up and walked outside. She soon came back from the car holding three pretty gift boxes.

She handed one toward me, her voice soft and polite.

“This is for you, Lyra. Thank you for these years of tiring work, thank you for looking after Aiden so well.”

I lowered my eyes and did not lift my hand to take it.

Aiden’s neat brows pulled together right away and the air around us seemed to stop for a moment.

“Aurelia is kindly giving you a gift, Lyra. Don’t act like you don’t appreciate it.”

“That’s right, Mom, how can you be so thoughtless?”

The father and son’s yelling pressed down on me and I felt a tight ache in my chest, almost making it hard to breathe.

I raised my eyes toward Aurelia.

She kept smiling, her smile soft and calm, but a bit of open self-satisfaction showed in her eyes.

I stayed quiet for a moment, then at last reached out and took the gift box.

As I sat back down at the table, I watched Aiden eagerly opening the gift Aurelia had given him, his eyes bright, even showing a bit of shyness.

This side of Aiden was frighteningly strange to me.

In seven years of marriage, he never showed this kind of look in front of me.

With me, he was always annoyed, distant and quick to be rude and blame.

I always knew that marrying him had been a step upward for me.

After dinner, a polite guest should have left long ago, but Aurelia stayed, cheerfully continuing her talk with Aiden about their funny moments studying abroad.

Isaiah sat near them, listening closely.

I looked at the clock on the wall, pressed my lips together and stayed quiet.

“I’m getting thirsty after talking for so long,” Aurelia said with a smile. “Aiden, is there anything to drink?”

“Lyra, go get a glass of water,” Aiden said lightly, his tone as casual as if he were talking to a helper.

“Me too! I want hot chocolate!” Isaiah yelled right away.

I answered by habit, “It’s too late, you can’t drink anything too sweet. Isaiah, a glass of milk is fine.”

Isaiah instantly got upset, lowering his head and sulking as he played with his building blocks.

“If he wants to drink, let him drink. Why are you so nosy?” Aiden’s tone turned clearly colder. “The child is still young, shouldn’t he enjoy more fun?”

He rarely stepped into my raising of Isaiah.

But today, seeing the child’s upset look, he seemed to suddenly think that all these years, I had been treating Isaiah badly.

“Let me say one more thing, Lyra,” he looked at me, his tone annoyed, “Your way of teaching your child is wrong. Holding back even a glass of juice will surely make him push back in the future.”

“The day he starts to hate you as his mother, it will be too late for you to regret.” Aurelia let out a soft sigh. Every word she spoke felt like an unseen but very sharp cut, hitting me again and again.

Looking at Isaiah’s slowly reddening eyes, I didn’t know what else to say.

Standing across from me were three people.

And I, clearly, had turned into the one pushed aside.

In the end, I gave in.

I turned and walked into the kitchen, poured Aurelia a glass of hot water and made a cup of hot chocolate as Isaiah had asked for.

But when I handed the water to Aurelia, the hand she used to take the cup suddenly let go.

The next second, the burning hot water splashed all over her legs.

“Ah!”

Aurelia cried out in pain.

It was freshly boiled water. I handed it to her without pause, never thinking she would let go at that moment.

But in Aiden’s eyes, there was only one meaning.

It was I who, on purpose, spilled the boiling water on Aurelia.

“Are you alright? Where are you burned? Let me see!”

Aiden suddenly jumped up, rushing over in a panic.

He moved too fast; he didn’t even look at me, pushing me aside with force.

I stumbled backward, my lower back hitting hard against the sharp edge of the shelf. The severe pain made my eyes fill with tears and I almost fell.

“Aunt Aurelia, are you alright?”

Isaiah, forgetting his earlier complaints, leaned in, his eyes red, carefully checking her legs.

Then, he lifted his head and looked at me with a scared look.

At that moment, the tight string in my heart for so long finally broke. From the moment Aurelia stepped into this house, my nerves had been tied tight; I had barely kept myself steady.

But when I saw my son look at me with that look, I couldn’t keep going anymore.

Six years of time and care.

A bond of blood that should not break.

In the end, it still couldn’t win over someone he had known only a short while.

Maybe Isaiah was not only like Aiden in how he acted.

Even the person he chose to care for was the same.

The sharp pain in my lower back was a clear reminder.

Aiden did not care about me, did not think about me and had never loved me.

“I’m fine, ouch…” Aurelia said, her voice shaking as she tried to hold back the pain.

“Don’t push yourself, come on, I’ll take you to the hospital.” Aiden made the choice right away.

“Dad, don’t leave me here alone, I’m scared…” Isaiah grabbed his shirt, his voice shaking with tears.

In that moment, my ears buzzed and the room seemed to go quiet.

Scared? Was he scared of me?

But I clearly did nothing.

I did not spill that water on purpose.

Aurelia let it go herself.

“Lyra, you really are something, scaring the kid like this.”

Aiden coldly said these words.

As he helped Aurelia past me, he simply pulled Isaiah along.

“Isaiah, let’s go.”

I reached out on instinct and held him, my throat tight, my lips shaking a little, wanting to speak.

“It wasn’t me…”

But before I could finish, Aiden interrupted me impatiently.

“I saw it with my own eyes, Lyra, what are you trying to deny?”

He stared at me, his eyes cold and full of disgust.

“Seven years, I thought you had changed a little, but you’re still the same, your head full of dirty tricks.”

“Lyra, you make me sick.”

The door slammed shut and the room went quiet at once.

That quiet was so heavy it almost took my breath. I walked into the storage room, picked up a broom and carefully cleaned the broken glass on the floor, piece by piece. Then I switched to a mop and slowly wiped the spilled water.

During the whole time, my movements were hard but calm.

It was like I was finishing a task I had done many times before.

Only my body moved; my heart had already turned numb.

Aiden and Isaiah didn’t come back until late at night.

I remembered the next morning’s plans very clearly.

Aiden had to attend the company’s usual meeting with the shareholders.

Isaiah had to go to kindergarten.

I always remembered these things better than anyone else.

All along, reminding them of times, looking after their daily needs, nothing was ever handled by them.

Like an assistant, like a nanny.