After 8 Years Coldness, I Ditched Him

Chapter 2

Tears pricked my eyes, but I forced a wobbly smile to comfort my little boy. "Mommy's okay, Carl. Don't worry about me."

That very night, Daniel hired a private nurse to take care of me.

A few more days passed, and once I could manage on my own again, I packed up my things and moved out with my son, renting a tiny apartment of our own.

When Daniel realized I was gone, he blew up my phone with dozens of messages. I didn't reply to a single one.

But early the next morning, crash, Mrs. Wade, his mother, burst right through my unlocked front door.

She loomed over me, chest heaving with rage, and snarled, "Carla, have you got no shame at all? He's Wade's family blood, how the hell do you dare run off with him!"

Marian stood right beside her, oozing sweet concern. It was obvious she'd come along to muddle the truth and smooth things over for her side, same as always.

For years, this had been her go-to move. Every time Daniel and I had even the tiniest disagreement, she'd run straight to my mother-in-law and add all kinds of extra garbage to twist the story against me.

"Carla screamed at Mr. Wade again, called him hopeless trash you can't polish. Poor Mr. Wade, he walked around with a bruise on his face for days, and all his subordinates laughed at him behind his back.

"I saw Carla meeting up with other men lately, you know..."

By the time I caught on to what she was doing, her poisonous lies had already piled up so high, Mrs. Wade hated me with every fiber of her being. There was no undoing the damage.

"Carla, don't be too hard on Mr. Wade, okay? He's still sick, you can't expect so much from him."

There she went again, playing the innocent peacemaker.

"What business is this of yours?" I clutched my still-throbbing stab wound and pushed myself slowly to my feet.

"What else do you ever do besides stir up trouble among everyone? You keep going on and on about how he's sick. What were the two of you doing together the day before yesterday, huh?

"I'll tell you what, they went to a concert together. The whole concert hall was packed full of people. Daniel even pulled strings to get her a photo with the performing artist." I turned my gaze toward Mrs. Wade.

But just one month before that, I'd begged Daniel to come to the amusement park with Carl and me.

He turned me down without a single moment of hesitation, snapping, "Can't even handle this tiny thing? Are you completely useless?"

Marian gaped at me, too stunned to say a word. Then she hunched over and scurried behind Mrs. Wade, blinking back fake tears like I'd just kicked her puppy.

Mrs. Wade was just about to explode at me when Daniel suddenly stepped through the door. In the blink of an eye, both Mrs. Wade and Marian threw themselves into his arms.

"Look at the good daughter-in-law you picked out! Look how she's bullied your own mother! How am I supposed to go on living like this?!"

"CEO Wade, Old Madam just wanted to see her grandson, and your wife immediately screamed at us to get out."

Listening to her twisted, lying accusations, hot blood came roaring straight up into my head.

"What the hell are you talking about!" I exclaimed.

"Enough!" Daniel barked at me, his eyes brimming with disappointment. "Carla, can't you just act normal for once? You always stir up trouble over tiny little things and ruin everyone's peace."

A loud buzz exploded in my head. My eyes burned red as I stared straight at him.

"I'm not normal?"

A two-faced, awkwardly withdrawn husband. A backstabbing homewrecker. A mother-in-law who couldn’t tell right from wrong if it bit her.

And he had the nerve to call me abnormal.

Eight years of hard work, eight years of carrying this entire marriage alone, all of it turned to dust right then.

"Daniel, let's get divorced." My voice was soft, but it held a finality that couldn't be shaken.

Daniel's face froze solid instantly. For once, he looked completely lost, fumbling for what to do.

"Carla, stop joking around..."

I repeated myself, sharp and clear, "I'm not joking. Do you have your marriage license and ID with you? Let's go file for divorce today."

Dead silence dropped over the room in an instant.

The second my mother-in-law processed what I'd said, she started screaming curses at the top of her lungs, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and divorce this b***h! She doesn't even want you anymore. What are you still clinging on to?!"

A thick blue vein bulged and throbbed on Daniel's forehead. His eyes hardened into slabs of ice.

"Carla, I'm only going to ask you one more time. Are you really set on divorcing me? You're not getting the kid, that's final."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Carl went bolting out of the bedroom.

Tears streamed down his face as he screamed at the top of his lungs, "I want to stay with Mom! I won't go with any of you!"

My mother-in-law choked on her rage, gasping for air as she shook a trembling finger at me. "Look what this woman has done to a perfectly good child!"

Marian lunged forward immediately to grab Carl.

Carl fought her with every bit of strength he had, screaming, "Mom! Help me!"

I lunged toward him to yank him free, but my mother-in-law grabbed a handful of my hair and ripped it hard backward.

"b***h, you dare try to hurt my grandson!"

Agony tore through my scalp, every jerk sending sharp, unrelenting pain shooting across my body.

Without thinking, Daniel blurted out, "Mom, let go of her! Carla's stab wound hasn't healed yet!"

But right then, Marian drove her sharp, jagged nails deep into the back of my hand. I screamed, white-hot pain exploding through my skin.

My little boy's eyes turned blood-red. He lunged forward and sank his teeth right into her hand.

"Ugh!" Marian howled and wailed, tears pouring down her face from the pain.

Daniel seemed to see red. His hand snapped up, and a brutal slap cracked right across our son's cheek.

Carl crumpled to the floor, his mouth splitting open on the hard ground, blood trickling down his chin.

My heart split clean in two. I dropped to my knees and threw myself forward to wrap my arms tight around him.

"Carl, let Mommy see, baby."

"Mommy, don't cry. It doesn't hurt, I promise." Carl forced a wobbly little smile, but large beads of sweat rolled down his pale forehead.

But Daniel didn't see a single bit of that. All he could do was point at Marian's injured hand and snarl at me.

"Is this how you teach your kid? What is he, a goddamn feral dog? I can't trust you to raise him anymore, not after this."

When he finished speaking, his face twisted into a dark scowl, and he hauled Carl up over his shoulder in one rough movement.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

Carl screamed for me until his voice went raw and hoarse, but I was pinned tight by his grandmother and Marian. They rained blow after brutal blow down on me.

"b***h! Let's see how you act big now!"

My lip split open, my old stab wound oozed fresh blood, until I had no strength left to fight back.

Only then did they throw my crumpled body onto the floor and storm out, slamming the door behind them.