Chapter 5

"Whose... whose grave is this?"

Mia Winthrop stumbled backward, her high heels sinking into the mud. Her pupils dilated violently, her breathing becoming ragged.

I pointed expressionlessly at the photo on the tombstone.

"Our daughter."

"She lies here."

"Because you refused to pay for the surgery, she died on the operating table."

Each word was like a poisoned icicle, stabbing deep into her heart.

Mia's head snapped up, fury burning in her eyes.

"You're lying!"

"She was playing with her dolls when I left! How could she suddenly need surgery?"

"Liam Evans, just because I went on vacation with Julian, you're using this vicious lie to get back at me?"

She grabbed my collar, her nails digging into my skin.

"Give me my daughter! Don't use such despicable tactics!"

Slowly, I pulled two pieces of paper from my pocket.

The surgical record. The death certificate.

Black and white, with our daughter's name and time of death.

"If you don't believe me, call the Mayo Clinic right now."

Mia's hands trembled as she took out her phone. She misdialed three times.

When the call connected, her voice was shrill and distorted: "I need to check a patient's surgical record! The name is Anna Evans!"

In the silent cemetery, the voice from the receiver was crystal clear.

"You mean the six-year-old girl? It's truly tragic... it was supposed to be a routine procedure, but the payment delay..."

The doctor's sigh cut through the air like a blunt knife.

"If the payment had been made on time, she could have survived."

The phone slipped from Mia's fingers, clattering on the stone pavement.

She stood frozen, her face as pale as the cemetery statues.

"That day when you asked for ten thousand dollars... it was really to save her?"

I closed my eyes, my Adam's apple bobbing.

Suddenly, she lunged at me like a madwoman, her nails digging into my arm.

"This tombstone is fake, right? You're just trying to scare me, right!"

I pried her fingers off one by one.

"All these years, Anna and I just wanted a little bit of your love."

"Even when you only gave two hundred dollars for her allowance, she would smile and say 'Mom works hard.'"

"She was waiting for you to come back until her last breath."

"And you? You were on vacation with someone else."

I pointed sharply at the tombstone, my voice tearing.

"You killed her with your own hands!"

Mia staggered and fell to her knees, shaking her head desperately.

"No... I just wanted to teach her to be frugal, I didn't know it would come to this..."

She crawled toward me, trying to grab my legs, but I pushed her away violently.

"Let's get divorced."

Three words that severed all ties.

In the photo on the tombstone, our daughter's smile was forever frozen at six years old.