Chapter 2

I was furious. I banged on the door with all my strength.

It took them a moment to stop. When Alex finally opened the door, I didn’t care about their disgusting affair anymore.

"Lucas is in critical condition, Alex. He needs the heart donor your company developed. Please, save our son!" I swallowed my disgust and begged him.

Alex looked at me with disdain. "Sierra, stop joking around. I just dropped him off at school this morning. He couldn’t have left on his own. And even if he had, a heart like that is worth millions. You think it’s that easy to get?"

Jenny wrapped her arms around Alex, looking so innocent. "Sierra, it’s true. Lucas wouldn’t have run off on his own. How could he have gotten into a car accident?"

I couldn’t hold back any longer. "Didn’t the doctor call you?!"

As Alex picked up his phone, Jenny gasped dramatically, clutching her ankle. "Ahh!"

Alex immediately turned to her. "What’s wrong, Jenny?"

Jenny put on a sad face. "Sierra pushed me for no reason, and now my ankle is bleeding."

Her tiny scratch wasn’t even bleeding. I hadn’t touched her.

Alex turned to leave, but I grabbed his hand in desperation.

"Please, Alex. I’m not lying! Lucas needs you. Dr. Stephen said he only has an hour left."

For a moment, he seemed moved, but Jenny cried out even louder.

"Alex, it hurts so much. I don’t think I can walk!"

"You’re too much, Sierra!" Alex snapped, scooping Jenny up in his arms and carrying her back into the bedroom. No matter how much I pleaded, he told me to leave.

A moment later, I heard their voices again from behind the door.

"Alex... do you believe her, or me?"

"Oh, Jenny, I believe you. I don’t trust a word that old hag says."

They continued talking in the most vulgar way, completely indifferent to my feelings.

Meanwhile, my son was lying on a cold hospital bed, waiting for his father to provide the artificial heart that could save his life!

I was overwhelmed with disgust as I banged on the door and cried. For the first time, I hated Alex for his betrayal.

Dr. Stephen called again.

"I'm sorry..." he began, but I hung up before he could finish.

I didn’t care about Alex and Jenny anymore. I raced back to the hospital.

By the third hour, Lucas had died.

There was no heart donor, and the artificial heart never came.

I returned to Lucas’s bedside, but it was too late. He was gone.

On TV, I watched news coverage celebrating Alex’s success in developing the artificial heart.

Meanwhile, I had lost my son forever.

I wept, then laughed through my tears.

The final words Lucas said to me over the phone, his desperate cries for help, pounded in my head.

How ironic. My husband, who had successfully developed an artificial heart, refused to use one to save his own son.

Even more tragic, my son died while his father was busy cheating, enjoying his time in bed with his step-sister, Jenny.

Suddenly, memories of our wedding day came back to me. Why had Alex always been so close to Jenny, even back then?

I held my son’s lifeless body, rocking him to sleep as if he were just taking a nap.

I told myself Lucas was only sleeping, refusing to believe he was truly gone.

Until the nurses came and took his body away.

"Ma’am, I understand your pain, but you can’t keep holding onto a body," Nurse Davis gently said.

I screamed in anguish, "He’s not dead! He’s just... he’s just asleep!"

But I collapsed in exhaustion, my face soaked with tears.

I cried until I had no more energy left, eventually passing out on the hospital floor.

That day, I lost everything.

I organized Lucas’s funeral by myself. No one else came; it was just me and my son.

The only other people present were the cemetery workers. No friends, no family.

I knelt at his grave, sobbing until my heart felt like it was shattered into a million pieces.

Just the day before, Lucas had been laughing as he left home with Alex, and now, that was the last time I’d ever see him alive.

The phone rang again. It was the police.

"Mrs. Heiffman, after reviewing the incident, we’ve confirmed that your son ran out of the school on his own…"

My voice cracked as I interrupted, "How could he have run out on his own?!"

"Please, Mrs. Heiffman, try to remain calm. We have surveillance footage and witness testimony. You’ll want to see what they captured."

I stayed at Lucas’s grave, unwilling to move.

The police finally arrived and handed me photos taken by witnesses on the day of the accident.

My hands trembled as I took the pictures. One photo showed Lucas, my little boy, lying lifeless, pierced through the heart by multiple steel rods from the crash.

The pain in my chest was unbearable.

Then, one photo caught my eye.

It showed Alex and Jenny in a car, kissing passionately. Alex’s hand was inside Jenny’s shirt, and they looked like they were making out.

The officer explained, "Your son saw them in the car, and that’s why he ran out into the street. Witnesses confirmed that a couple was seen kissing and… engaging in other activities in the car."

I laughed bitterly, clutching the phone as I cried.

They left, but my son was gone forever.

How could Lucas have skipped school on his own? He was a well-behaved child, always obedient.

But it all made sense now. Lucas saw Alex cheating with Jenny, and in his confusion and hurt, he ran after them, only to be struck by the car and impaled on the guardrails.

I cried at his grave for three days straight. No food, no water, just endless tears.

My son was dead. And with him, my heart had frozen over.

Then, out of nowhere, Alex texted me.

"Jenny’s birthday is coming up. Bring Lucas to the party."

I stared coldly at the message, my rage simmering.

If Alex hadn’t cheated with Jenny, Lucas would still be alive today.

Fueled by anger, I replied, "Alright."