President, I Know How to Listen Now; Why Are You Crying?

Chapter 4

Liam left too.

Farrah immediately came to the lounge with four maids.

Unquenchable fury burned in her eyes.

The maids pinned me to a chair, and the sturdiest one raised her hand and slapped me across the face, again and again.

I collapsed to my knees, and Farrah stomped hard on my hand with her heel.

I howled in agony.

"Does it hurt? Ash had her organs crushed by a car! I never approved of you two being together. A woman like you deserves to die! Burn in hell!"

Blood seeped from my leg, the bright red blood bleeding into the memory of Ash lying in a pool of her own blood.

That day, I had indeed fought bitterly with Saul over sending all the servants away and got furious.

Ash, who was running a high fever, cried and said, "Mom, I want to eat the beef you stewed."

Before I left, she asked me, "When I wake up, can I have the delicious beef soup?"

I kissed her. "I promise, Mom will be waiting for you with the food ready."

That was our last conversation.

I was consumed by regret.

I broke down crying. In a daze, my daughter's scream as the car crushed her echoed around me.

She must have hated me so much that she only called for her father in her final moments.

She screamed, "Daddy! Help!"

The physical pain and mental anguish made me pass out.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the ward.

Saul sat by the bed, and the moment he saw me wake, he said, "All the maids have been fired. I also warned my mother to stay away from you."

I stared at him blankly.

He would rather let Farah hate me than tell the truth.

It was clearly Fannie who sent the servants away, yet she didn't face any consequences at all.

"Okay."

This attitude of mine again made Saul frown.

After taking a few deep breaths, he said in a low voice, "Don't be like this. You can curse me, you can hit me. You can come to me and make a scene like before. Just don't be so compliant."

I turned my head away. "I want to rest."

Saul looked at me, his mouth half open, and only after a long while said, "The day Ash was in danger, I..."

Hearing my daughter's name, I turned to look at him at once.

I knew this had something to do with him. I thought he would say something about it.

But he only paused for a moment before saying, "If only I'd been home. This is my fault too."

With that, he took hold of my hand and kissed it.

"Please forgive me."

He said it over and over, heedless of my numb expression.

Saul must have told himself he had already given in and apologized.

He believed that once I recovered, I would forgive him as before, and life would go on.

But I simply pulled my hand away again.

He got awkwardly to his feet and said, "I'll come back once I've handled the funeral."

Just like so many times before, he didn't come back.

But I didn't wait for him as I had in the past. That very night, I called my lawyer.

"Madam, the divorce agreement takes effect in three hours."

At dawn, I went to the villa.

I found my things piled messily by the door.

In the living room, my aromatherapy and Ash's toys were gone too.

In their place were Fannie's pink pillows and her scattered cosmetics.

And the woman herself was sound asleep in my and Saul's master bedroom.

If this had happened before, I would have completely broken down.

Now, I just set the divorce agreement down quietly on the desk.

When I turned around, Fannie was already standing behind me.

With Saul not around, she was utterly vicious. "You walked here over the very street where Ash died."

She gloated. "How pitiful. It rained the day before yesterday, and the last traces of that child's blood on the street have been washed clean. You know what? While you were drowning in guilt, while Farah was taking her revenge on you in the lounge, Saul was having dinner with me."

Pretending to check my phone, I pressed the record button.

"A brother taking care of his younger sister is only right and proper."

Fannie couldn't stand hearing anyone say she and Saul were just siblings.

In the dim dawn light, her gaze was like a knife.

"So what? You and your daughter put together don't matter as much as I do."

I, who had taken every beating and insult without fighting back, only came alive at the mention of Ash. I grabbed her collar and glared at her viciously.

"How dare you insult my child!"

Her lips slowly curled, as if she'd gotten what she wanted.

"What I said is the truth! Blame your old, broken lock. Blame a stay-at-home wife like you for not even knowing to replace it."

The door lock had indeed been acting up lately.

But Fannie had never been to my house before. There was no way she should have known about that.

"What do you mean? What does this have to do with Ash's death?"

My breathing quickened, and my hand nearly lost its grip on the crutch.

She watched me sway on my feet and smiled even more brazenly.

"Want to know how Ash really died? Beg me."