I hadn’t even spoken when Gwynne grabbed my arm, her look carrying a quiet insult even as she kept a soft smile and said, “Heather, since you’re already here, come in and sit for a while. Ezekiel and the others didn’t intentionally skip the wedding; listen to their explanation.”

I shook as I raised my head, staring at Gwynne with a drained face.

“Not intentional? After thirty years of marriage, all I wanted was one wedding. My husband chose to help you celebrate your birthday instead. What explanation is left?”

My voice sounded painful. A brief amused spark showed in Gwynne’s eyes, and her nails pressed deep into my arm as she murmured, “See the dislike on their faces when they see you, don’t you realize that no one here welcomes you? You should have left long ago!”

I suddenly pushed her aside, anger burning in my eyes.

But Gwynne followed the strength of my push and fell down. Seeing this, Ezekiel quickly moved forward to hold her, yelling at me angrily.

“Heather! What do you even want? It’s only a wedding. Before, you were the one who said it didn’t matter if we didn’t have one, and now you’re causing trouble about having another. Look at yourself, you’re already old and worn out. I didn’t skip it on purpose!”

“If you want to let out your anger, let it out at me. Don’t touch Gwynne!”

My older brother, Kian Windsleigh, ran over, roughly pushing me aside, and said angrily, “It’s exactly because we knew you would surely make a big scene that we didn’t tell you. And yet you still followed us all the way here.”

My second brother, Milo Windsleigh’s face was filled with hatred.

“Heather, ever since you were found and brought back, you’ve been going after Gwynne, even making her leave the family. And now you showed up at her birthday party to cause problems. Ezekiel, can you watch her? Don’t let her come out and behave like this!”

Everyone there started yelling at me.

Not one person felt sorry for lying to me or for leaving me alone at the wedding place.

All they had for me was disgust and blame for pushing Gwynne.

I was shoved to the ground, stunned, with helplessness washing over me.

These were the family members I had spent thirty years with, yet not one of them stood by me.

I suddenly remembered something and lifted my head to look at my son.

“Jaxon, Mom only wanted a wedding. And just now, she whispered mean things in my ear…”

Before I could finish, my son cut me off with an unpleasant look.

“That’s enough! Aunt Gwynne would never do something like that. Mom, you’re already older. Is that wedding really worth all this?”

“Why did you have to make a scene on such an important day? I really regret being your son, you’ve made me feel ashamed for so long!”

When I heard this, my chest throbbed with pain.

I stared at my son, unable to believe it, my lips shaking a lot.

But he still felt that wasn’t enough; he held my arm and tried to yank me toward the door.

As he pulled me out, he said in complete disgust, “Go home now. I don’t want to look at you anymore!”

I fought with all my strength, trying to stand on my own.

I wanted to tell them I could leave, and I could even end the marriage.

What I hoped for wasn’t just a made-up wedding; I wanted the dignity I had missed for thirty years!

But my son was far stronger than I. No matter how I struggled, he still pulled me toward the door like a dead dog.

Right then, the cancer test paper in my pocket fell to the ground.

The black letters on the white sheet, reading “Cancer Confirmed,” immediately drew everyone’s eyes.

I stopped for a second, just about to explain who the cancer report belonged to.

From behind Ezekiel, Gwynne suddenly rushed forward and ripped the paper into pieces.

“Older sister, I know you want to win back Ezekiel and Jaxon’s hearts, but making a fake cancer report is really going too far,”

Gwynne said with a troubled look.

Ezekiel, who had still been stunned, immediately looked disgusted when he heard what Gwynne said.

“Heather, do you believe having cancer will make anything different? I’m telling you now, after seeing how jealous and mean you’ve been for so many years, my son and I will never forgive you!”

He stared down at me as if he were above me. “Ever since I found out you pushed Gwynne out, there was nothing left between us. The only reason I didn’t get a divorce all this time was that I needed you to stay and care for my son.”

“So many years have gone by, and you still go after Gwynne because you’re jealous. And now you even have cancer, an illness like this can’t be healed, you know that. To avoid pulling our son down with you, leave with nothing.”

Ezekiel gently pushed all the blame onto me.

By the end, his true nature showed completely, and only then did I finally see what kind of man the person beside me for thirty years really was.

All of his reasons were only because he knew I had cancer and thought I was no longer useful, so he wanted to push me away!

I let out a lonely, broken laugh.

Next to me, Kian looked at me with even greater dislike.

“Heather, cancer can’t be cured. If you honestly care about Jaxon, then separate from Ezekiel. Don’t pull the entire family down with you.”

Milo laughed mockingly. “I saw from her younger days that Heather was never someone who followed the rules, or she wouldn’t have taken Gwynne’s marriage to begin with. Now she’s sick, and she must be planning to make Jaxon pay for everything. She doesn’t care about her own family at all; she’s completely selfish!”

When I saw the disgust in their eyes, my blood seemed to rush backward. My mouth moved, but no words were able to come out.

I understood that my older brothers looked down on me because of Gwynne.

But I always thought that after thirty years of treating them with everything I had, I should have gotten at least a little honesty from them.

Ezekiel and my son were still my husband and my nearest family.

When I noticed my son hadn’t spoken yet, I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him with hope.

My son looked away from me and murmured, “Mom, you should have divorced Dad years ago. Dad always loved Aunt Gwynne. If you hadn’t taken her marriage back then, I would have been Aunt Gwynne’s kid.”

As he talked, he even shot me an angry look, “And your illness can’t be cured anyway. You may as well walk away with nothing and help Dad and Aunt Gwynne be happy!”

Gwynne dropped her head in a shy way, as though she was already seeing her wedding with Ezekiel.

I looked at everything without feeling, my heart aching until it couldn’t feel anything anymore.

A single cancer report showed me who they truly were.

Maybe none of them had ever loved me at all, from the very beginning.

Having fully lost hope, I looked at them calmly.

“Alright, I agree to divorce.”

Ezekiel ignored everything else I said. As soon as he heard my agreement, he excitedly pulled out a divorce contract he had already made beforehand.

This slightly yellow divorce paper was something Ezekiel always kept with him.

He had wanted to end our marriage for a long time.

Seeing that I still wasn’t signing, Ezekiel urged me with worry.

“Heather, you’re not planning to take back your words, right?”

I curled my lips slightly and signed my name without stopping.

“I won’t go back on it. As long as none of you regret it.”

After all, the name written on that cancer report wasn’t mine.

Ezekiel snorted, and after seeing my signature, he carefully tucked the divorce papers away.

My son, noticing this, grabbed my arm with force and pushed me outward.

“Since you’ve already signed everything, Mom, hurry up and leave. No one here wants you. We still need to celebrate Aunt Gwynne’s birthday. You can go home and clean up or do something like that.”

Looking at his expression, acting as if I would still give everything just like before, I turned my head aside.

The door closed hard behind me.

Laughter sounded from inside, and my brothers said happily, “Since Ezekiel and Heather are divorced now, we can really set up a real wedding for Gwynne. I know everyone has been waiting for so long. We need to celebrate it properly!”

“But let’s still hold on until the divorce paper comes through. I don’t think Heather will drop this so easily. I know her better than anyone; she sticks like thick glue. The fact that she signed today is already unbelievable. Once she reaches home, she will surely keep holding on.”

Ezekiel said arrogantly, “After all, we lived as a married couple for so many years. I won’t be too ruthless. She really is good at looking after others. Just let her stay at home as a house servant. I’ll give her a little money every month, consider it paying for her pain medicine.”

Hearing these words, Gwynne began softly praising him.

I felt nothing but strong disgust. I didn’t listen any longer and walked back toward the villa.

Inside the villa, I gathered up everything that belonged to me, which was only a small bundle.

Ezekiel had never given me many items, only a few, and I tossed every one of them into the trash.

Right as I prepared to leave, my son’s girlfriend, Eulalie Collins suddenly messaged me.

[Aunt, remember to come to my wedding with Jaxon tomorrow. I heard from Jaxon that your family is very rich, so I believe the gift you bring me tomorrow won’t let me down.]

After seeing this message, I froze completely.

Jaxon’s getting married tomorrow?

My son was getting married tomorrow, and I only learned it today.

Thinking about it, I opened Gwynne’s Instagram story, and there I saw an invitation in my son’s handwriting, just as I expected.*

So he had no intention of telling me from the beginning!

As I thought of this, my eyes grew hot, and it felt like part of my heart had been roughly torn away.

Unable to help myself, I searched the closet and took out a wedding dress, quietly looking at it for a long time.

This wedding dress wasn’t very beautiful, slightly yellow in color, with outdated sewing and patterns.

But it was the most treasured gift I had ever gotten.

This was the wedding dress my mother sewed for me herself. She thought I would wear it at the wedding thirty years ago and then enjoy a lifetime of happiness.

Unfortunately, that wedding never came true.

My hands shook uncontrollably. Everything I discovered today had already gone far past what I could bear.

The betrayal from my closest family, the coldness from my own child, my husband’s disgust, everything pressed on me with unbearable pain.

Right when I was about to put the wedding dress back, a hand suddenly appeared next to me.

She grabbed the dress in an instant, staring at me with a mocking expression.

“Heather,” she dragged out her tone, “this wedding dress is outdated. Want me to help you change it? Even though you probably won’t ever get to wear it, hahahaha.”

She burst into a sharp laugh.

“Give it back to me!”

My anger rose, and I grabbed the bottom of the wedding dress, trying hard to pull it back.

But Gwynne refused to release it.

During the struggle, she somehow pulled out a pair of scissors and, with just a few quick moves, completely chopped my wedding dress apart.

“No!”

Looking at the broken pieces scattered on the floor, tears streamed down my cheeks like rain. I knelt down, trying to gather and fit them back together.

But Gwynne smiled proudly beside me. “Heather, you should be thankful to me. You wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. This wedding dress is nothing but trash to you. I helped you throw out the garbage. I did you a big favor.”

Seeing me worryingly gathering the torn pieces on the floor, she cruelly stepped on my hand, the sharp heel of her high heels stabbing straight into the back of my hand.

I screamed from the pain and struggled, causing Gwynne to lose her footing and fall backward.

“Heather! What are you doing?!”

Ezekiel showed up at the doorway, shouting in worry.

He kicked me aside and gently helped Gwynne stand up.

“Ezekiel, don’t blame Heather. I just didn’t stand steady. I only wanted to help my sister pick up the wedding dress. I didn’t mean to ruin it,” Gwynne cried to Ezekiel at once.

With only a few words, she placed all the blame on me.

Ezekiel’s gaze turned cold as ice.

“Heather, you really are heartless!” he shouted. “Gwynne was only being nice, and you knocked her over. No wonder you ended up with cancer!”

I was kicked straight into the corner of the wall, and the old wound I got from saving Ezekiel years ago suddenly hurt again, making cold sweat break out from the pain.

Seeing that I didn’t answer, Ezekiel stepped forward once more and kicked the old wound again.

He even dug his heel into it harshly. “What are you pretending about? Still trying to use that old help from years ago to make me soft toward you?”

“I’ve endured you for all these years. If you hadn’t gone after Gwynne, maybe I would’ve allowed you to stay. But now, someone as harsh as you should get out of my home sooner!”

After speaking, he took the divorce certificate from his pocket and threw it onto my face, as though expecting me to kneel and ask for forgiveness.

I gripped the divorce certificate firmly, not saying a single word.

Seeing this, Ezekiel said coldly, “You have no right to stay here anymore. Leave tomorrow!”

After he finished talking, he lifted Gwynne up and turned around to leave.

I sat on the floor, the old injury from saving Ezekiel still aching deeply.

Thirty years had passed, long enough for Ezekiel to forget that this villa did not belong to him. It belonged to me.

But very soon, he would realize that I was the only person who had the right to send them away, not them pushing me out.