After He Slapped Me, I Cut His Funding

Chapter 1

Ethan Robinson stared down at me with contempt.

"Sophia, you're just trying to humiliate me on purpose. This is completely your fault too! I'm doing this for Lucas's own good, to keep him from growing up to be a murderer. If you stop me now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life!" His voice was utterly devoid of warmth.

Tears streamed down my face. Fighting through the searing pain in my arm, I knelt and begged.

"Ethan, I don't care what you say about me. But please, save Lucas. His wound is infected. He's burning with fever. We can't wait any longer."

Ethan kicked me to the ground.

"He's faking it. I only took a third of the skin. There's no reason for him to be like this. Your son's quite the little actor. I'll send him abroad for proper training tomorrow."

A crowd had gathered around us, but not a single person spoke up in our defense.

And Lucas was burning up in my arms.

He couldn't afford to wait another second.

Frantic, I pulled out my phone, desperate to find some help, any help to save his life.

Before I could do anything, Ethan snatched the phone from my hand and began shouting at the top of his lungs.

"I work myself to the bone to earn money, and this is what I get in return. Did I raise two ungrateful wolves at home? That little brat destroyed the experimental results I spent months producing. And you, old and pale b*tch, came here on purpose to make a scene! I understand your hardships, so I sent you a robot to help you out. You are never grateful and never let me touch you. I don't even mind that you've aged, that you've faded, and yet you're the one who disdains me!"

Every word cut like a blade to my heart.

So this is what it feels like to be stabbed in the back by the person closest to me. A heart-wrenching, suffocating agony.

The bystanders, who moments ago had been silent, now turned on me. They jabbed their fingers at my spine, and they cursed me.

"That man is truly pitiful. That's literally a betrayal for not offering s*xual connection. What's the point of marrying? And now look, their son fu*cked up already."

"That woman is a disaster. Men have endless patience, but she's managed to push her own husband to scream in public."

"She deserves to be thrown out! My niece is in her twenties, she'd be perfect as a young wife for a man like him."

A wave of suffocation crashed over me. I could barely breathe and could barely speak.

But for the reason why I refused to sleep with Ethan, no one would know better than him.

"Since your son loves to play dead, I'll send you both to the morgue for a little field trip."

Ethan's two bodyguards immediately wrenched us apart. They dragged my son and me brutally toward the morgue.

"Mommy, save me!"

"Don't be afraid, Lucas. Mommy will be right there..."

In desperation, I bit down on the bodyguard's arm. The next moment, a fist came swinging at my head.

Then, everything went black.

In the haze, I thought I saw my son weakly crawling toward me.

"Mommy, don't be afraid. I will get you medicine. I will save you..."

But when I opened my eyes again, I was jolted awake by a bucket of ice-cold water.

The humanoid robot stood right before me. It tossed a plastic bag carelessly to the ground beside me, as if throwing out trash.

"I'm warning you. If you dare compete with me for Ethan's attention again, what happened to your son today will happen to you tomorrow," the robot said.

The moment I heard my son's name, my mind snapped back into focus.

With trembling hands, I opened the plastic bag beside me.

My son was inside. Lifeless. That small face, once pale and thin from the skin graft, was now so swollen I could barely recognize his features.

They had beaten my son to death!

In that moment, the pain in my heart swallowed every physical wound.

"Lucas, my baby! It's all my fault. I'm sorry..."

Tears fell like rain onto my son's body. But he could never move again.

I looked at his little hand, the hand that always used to wipe away my tears.

"Lucas, lift your hand. Wipe Mommy's tears again, just one more time..."

And then I noticed.

Clutched in that small, still hand was something.

It was a medical record.