They Laughed at My Cheating Rumor, I Divorced Him

Chapter 4

I snapped my head up in shock, and there it was on his phone—my mother's hospital payment receipt, pulled up right in front of my eyes.

The cold, harsh voice coming out of the man standing before me didn't match the gentle, loving Ethan I'd once known at all.

"Clarify things right now, or I'll freeze the bank card I set up for your mother!"

I couldn't believe it. To keep Vanessa comfortable and secure for the rest of her life, he was really willing to blackmail me with my own mother's life.

He knew damn well Vanessa was the one who caused the hit-and-run and ran away!

I dug out the bank card I'd stuffed with my savings over years of work and held it up. "I don't need your filthy money!"

The words were barely out of my mouth when I realized the balance read zero.

That's when my own son's smug voice drifted from behind me. "I used that money to buy this pretty princess dress for Stepmom. You're old now, Mom. You're fine just wearing an apron. And that's what you get for making Stepmom cry!"

My chest seized up with a searing, crushing pain in that instant.

That money was the last bit I had left to save my mother!

The image of my mother crying out for help played over and over in my head, and I broke.

I gave in completely.

I dropped to my knees, abandoning every last scrap of my dignity, and started bowing over and over.

My forehead was soon raw and bloody, blood oozing down my face.

"I'm sorry, Miss Vanessa Hart… It was my mother who hurt you, and caused you all this trouble."

Blood blurred my vision, but I lifted my bloodshot, tearful gaze upward.

"Is this enough for you now?"

Ethan's face twisted into a complicated, unreadable expression, and my son gaped, eyes blowing wide at the blood coating my face.

"Fine. I'll transfer the medical fees right away. Now get out of here."

Around us, the wedding guests started whispering, their snide words carrying straight to my ears.

"Did you see that? The Mrs. Fairfax is kneeling here begging for money like an ordinary beggar. She and her mother are both just rotten low lives."

"She's not even worth as much as Ethan Fairfax's mistress! What a disgrace to our upper-class circle!"

I dragged myself to my feet through the crowd's cutting accusations.

When I saw the medical fee had hit the account, I finally let out the breath I'd been holding.

That was when the monitoring watch I used to track my mom's condition blared to life out of nowhere, shrill and frantic.

A message popped up from the hospital:

Hospital: Ms. Ashford, the medical fee has just arrived, but the account has been frozen by someone!

I snapped my head up in shock, and my gaze locked straight with Vanessa's. She stared back at me with a gloating, triumphant smile.

"Vanessa! Did you freeze my mom's bank card?" I lunged forward to confront her, but the woman immediately crumpled to the ground like a fragile little doll, faking a fall.

"Don't hit me, Mrs. Fairfax! I would never dare do that. I'm already scared out of my wits. Ah!"

Right after that, she suddenly leaned in and breathed the words right into my ear, "Smart Mrs. Fairfax. You better hurry up and scrape together more money to save her, though. Who knows what could happen if you're even a minute late?"

My heart clenched so tight it hurt, and I snapped. I lunged straight at her, my fingers locking tight around her throat.

"Give me back my card!"

The blaring alarm from my watch was so loud it was already driving me insane.

The next second, out of nowhere, Ethan shoved me away hard without a shred of mercy.

"Selena, when will you ever stop this nonsense? Take the money and get out of here now!"

Andrew stepped in front of Vanessa, staring at me with pure disgust written all over his face.

"Stepmom says my grandma is already past her time, treating her is just a waste of money. Besides, you deserved this for hurting her. This will teach you a lesson, so you remember not to do it again! Last month I wouldn't eat my food, remember? You threw away my favorite robot and said losing something teaches you a lesson. Mom, it's your turn now."

A sharp, searing pain split my chest open. I never in a million years thought my own boy would turn on me like this.

Even so, I clenched my jaw and gasped out, "Your grandma is in danger…"

Ethan cut me off with a raging roar. "I just transferred money to your mother's account. What danger could she possibly be in? Stop lying and corrupting my son!"

I went tumbling hard down the steps. Vanessa sashayed over like she was going to help me up, then held up her phone to show me a video.

"See? Your mom's ward is on fire. Hurry up, or she'll turn into ash before you get there!"

My brain went completely blank, as if a bomb had just detonated right inside my skull.

I stumbled and staggered as fast as I could for the exit, but the security guards by the door blocked me and shoved me back inside.

Behind me, Ethan's furious roar boomed out.

"You attack someone and then try to run? Get back here and apologize right now!"

The watch's alarm blared nonstop, screaming in my wrist, loud enough to drive me crazy. I gritted my teeth, grabbed a stray knife and plunged it straight into my own body.

Blood splattered all across the floor.

The whole crowd of guests froze in stunned shock, but I didn't stop for anything. I threw myself out of the banquet hall like a madwoman.

Ethan's gaze followed me, and for some unexplainable reason, his heart kept sinking lower and lower.

When I finally burst through the door of my mother's ward, thick black smoke came rolling out in roiling waves.

"Mom, I'm here to save you…" I hauled at my mother with every last bit of strength I had, my wound screaming and tearing open wider with every jerk. Then I heard the click of the lock sliding home behind me. Someone had trapped me inside.

In an instant, a blast of searing flame from an exploding medical device came roaring toward me like a sharp, deadly sword.

I stared at the heart monitor beside my mother's bed, where the blip had flattened into a dead straight line. I closed my eyes in despair as the fire swallowed her whole…

Ethan and Andrew never stayed with Vanessa to finish the banquet. Instead, the pair brought a bouquet of flowers and a basket of fruit and headed straight for the hospital.

But the second they stepped through the hospital entrance, a deafening BOOM roared out as the top-floor ward exploded.