The “Strawberry Juice” That Saved My Son Chapter 07

The “Strawberry Juice” That Saved My Son Chapter 07

The rescue workers carefully lifted my body onto a stretcher and covered me with a white sheet.

Ethan knelt in the human shaped hollow my body had left behind and did not move.

He looked like a stone statue.

“Captain… There’s a bag here.”

A young team member dug my canvas bag out of the dirt beside my body.

Ethan took the familiar bag stiffly and pulled at the jammed zipper until it finally opened.

He took the things out one by one.

Noah’s spare jacket.

A pack of tissues.

My phone.

The screen was cracked like a spiderweb, and the body of the phone was bent out of shape.

He wiped the mud from the screen with his sleeve and held down the power button.

The screen did not respond.

So he pressed it again and again.

I floated in front of him and watched his stubborn movements.

Don’t try, Ethan.

It was broken.

Just like me.

At that moment, the screen flickered.

A weak light came on.

It was as if he had grabbed the last lifeline in the world.

His finger slid across the cracked screen and opened the messages.

At the top was an unsent draft I had written to myself.

The time stamp was one hour after the earthquake.

“Ethan, when the concrete slab fell, I realized I didn’t hate you anymore. I only regretted it. I regretted getting angry about Claire’s text before I left today and fighting with you again. If I hadn’t been stubborn, maybe I could have reached the daycare earlier and taken Noah somewhere safe. From now on, take good

care of Noah. Don’t let anyone bully him. I don’t think I can hold on much longer…”

The hand Ethan used to hold the phone began to tremble uncontrollably.

She had been angry because of Claire?

A text?

He suddenly stood up in the pit and pulled out his own phone.

He opened his message thread with Claire and scrolled upward quickly.

There was nothing.

Only work updates and that missed call.

“You touched my phone.”

He did not raise his head, but his voice was certain.

Claire, who stood at the edge of the pit, stiffened.

“Ethan, what are you talking about? I… I don’t understand.”

Ethan lifted his head.

His bloodshot eyes locked on her.

He did not shout.

He did not question her.

He only repeated it.

“You touched my phone.”

Claire’s face turned paler inch by inch.

Her lips trembled, and she could not form a full sentence.

“I… I saw your phone was dead that day, so I charged it for you for a while. I didn’t do anything.”

Ethan looked at her.

Suddenly, he laughed.

He did not waste any more words.

He looked down and tapped on his phone.

A deleted message lay there quietly.

Sender: Claire.

“Ethan, congratulations. Come over tonight. I made your favorite food. Let’s celebrate alone.”

The time it was sent was the night before our wedding anniversary.

The source of every grievance and every bit of pain I carried before I died was laid bare.

So I had not been making trouble for no reason.

And he really had known nothing.

Ethan held up his phone and walked out of the pit step by step.

He stopped in front of Claire and shoved the screen toward her face.

“Celebrate alone?”

“Was that your joke?”

Claire was frightened by the violence in his eyes.

She kept stepping back. Her foot caught on something, and she fell to the ground.

“I… I was just… I didn’t think Joy would see it! I deleted it afterward! It really was just a joke!”

“A joke?”

Ethan’s voice was hoarse.

He raised his hand and smashed the phone hard beside Claire’s feet.

With a sharp crack, the screen and casing broke apart.

“Because of one joke from you, she died believing I had betrayed her!”

He bent down, grabbed Claire by the collar, and dragged her up from the ground.

“She thought I didn’t want her anymore. She thought I didn’t want this family anymore. She died here with regret and pain in her heart.”

“Claire, are you satisfied now?”

I looked at his face, twisted by rage.

I looked at Claire, terrified out of her mind.

The heavy stone that had been pressing on my chest suddenly disappeared.

I drifted to his side and wanted to pat his back.

Ethan, enough.

Knowing that you did not betray me was enough.

He released Claire and let her collapse to the ground.

Then he turned and stumbled back to my stretcher before kneeling again.

He picked up my shattered phone and rubbed the blood from the screen again and again with his thumb.

It was as if he believed he could wipe away every misunderstanding between us.

He pressed the phone to his ear as if he were making a call.

Again and again, he spoke.

“Joy, I didn’t celebrate with her.”

“That night, I sent everyone away and waited for you in my office. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Did you see the necklace? I bought the pendant you liked most. The one with your name on it.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Joy, say something…”

His head rested against the white sheet covering my body.

His shoulders shook violently, and muffled sobs broke out of him.

The misunderstanding was gone.

But my mouth was closed forever.

I could never give him any answer again.