CHAPTER SIX: THE WALLS CRUMBLE
813 Words
Lu Meifeng collapsed that night.
Yebai's investigators reported it within hours. Heart attack. Rushed to the hospital. Stable but weak.
I felt nothing.
Maybe I should have felt satisfaction. The woman who threw me into the rain, who watched my babies being stolen, was now fighting for her life.
But revenge tasted empty when my children still didn't know I existed.
---
The next morning, Jingchen called.
I stared at his name on my screen for five rings before answering.
"My mother is in the hospital." His voice was raw. Exhausted. "She keeps saying your name. She won't stop crying."
"That's not my concern."
"What did you say to her? What happened at that meeting?"
"I told her the truth."
Silence.
"What truth?"
"Ask her yourself. If she survives."
I hung up.
My hands were shaking. Not from fear. From the effort of holding back five years of rage.
He didn't know yet. Meifeng hadn't told him.
But she would. The guilt was eating her alive. Sooner or later, everything would spill out.
I needed to be ready.
---
That afternoon, I went back to the kindergarten.
I couldn't stay away from them. Even knowing the danger, even knowing Yiran was watching, I needed to see my children.
Xingxing spotted me immediately.
"Pretty lady!" She ran across the playground and crashed into my legs. "You came back again!"
I knelt down and held her tight. Breathed in her scent. Baby shampoo and sunshine.
My daughter. My little star.
"I'll always come back," I whispered.
Xiaobei approached slowly. He studied my face with those serious eyes.
"Auntie Wan, why do you look sad?"
"I'm not sad, sweetheart. I'm just... remembering something."
"Something bad?"
"Something I lost. A long time ago."
He tilted his head. "Did you find it again?"
I looked at him. At Xingxing. At the two pieces of my heart standing right in front of me.
"I think I did."
---
A shadow fell over us.
I looked up. Shen Yiran stood at the playground gate, watching.
Her smile was sharp as glass.
"Vivienne. What a surprise seeing you here."
I stood slowly. Positioned myself between her and the children.
"I was in the area."
"At a kindergarten? Without children of your own?" She laughed softly. "How strange."
Xingxing pressed closer to my leg. Xiaobei stepped back, his small face hardening.
"We don't like her," Xingxing whispered to me. "She's mean when Daddy isn't looking."
Yiran's smile flickered. Just for a second.
"Children say the funniest things," she said smoothly. "Xingxing, darling, your father sent me to pick you up early."
"No." Xingxing grabbed my hand. "I want to stay with Auntie Wan."
"Your father is waiting."
"I don't care."
Yiran's eyes flashed with anger. Then she looked at me.
"You should be careful," she said quietly. "Getting attached to children that aren't yours. It can be... dangerous."
"Is that a threat?"
"Just friendly advice."
She reached for Xingxing's arm. I stepped forward, blocking her.
"Don't touch her."
"Excuse me?"
"I said don't touch her. She doesn't want to go with you."
Yiran's mask cracked completely. Her eyes turned cold as ice.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with."
"Actually, I do." I smiled. "I know exactly who you are. What you've done. What you stole."
Fear flickered across her face. Just for a moment.
Then she composed herself.
"You're delusional. Stay away from this family, Vivienne. Or whatever your real name is."
She turned and walked away. But I saw her hands shaking.
She was scared.
Good.
---
That night, Yebai called with news.
"Shen Yiran is moving money. Large amounts. Offshore accounts."
"She's preparing to run."
"Or preparing to fight. She knows you're coming for her."
"Let her prepare. I have evidence she can't destroy."
"There's something else." He paused. "Jingchen hired his own investigators. He's looking into what happened five years ago."
My heart stuttered.
"He's digging?"
"Deep. Someone at the hospital talked. He knows the records were altered."
So it was happening. The truth was clawing its way out whether I released it or not.
"What do you want to do?" Yebai asked.
I thought about Jingchen. About the haunted look in his eyes. About the way he named our daughter after stars because of me.
He was about to discover his whole life was a lie.
His children were biological, not adopted.
His mother helped steal them.
The woman he trusted for five years was a monster.
Part of me wanted him to suffer the discovery alone.
Part of me wanted to be there when he broke.
"Arrange a meeting," I said. "Just him and me."
"Are you sure?"
"It's time he knew the truth. All of it."
"And then?"
I looked out at the city lights. Somewhere out there, my children were sleeping. Asking their father where their mummy was.
"Then we go to war."
- Writer
