My Son Called Her Mom So I Named My Price Chapter 03

My Son Called Her Mom So I Named My Price Chapter 03

“Give me back my bracelet!”

I lunged at Vanessa, trying to take the bracelet back.

It was the only thing my mother had left me. For all these years, I had kept it safe with the utmost care.

I could barely bring myself to touch it more than necessary.

I never imagined Vanessa would take that from me too.

Before I could get close, Ryan suddenly shoved me to the ground.

He spread his arms and stood firmly in front of Vanessa.

“I gave it to Aunt Vanessa!”

“Name your price. I’ll send you the money right now.”

Ryan lifted his kids’ smartwatch as if he were about to Venmo me.

I was so stunned that I could not even feel the pain. Looking at the son in front of me, I felt my hands and feet go numb.

“Ryan Bradford, what did you just say?”

Ryan repeated impatiently, “I asked how much. Don’t you sell anything as long as there’s money involved?”

“Hurry up and give me a price.”

It felt as if someone had seized my heart in a fist, leaving me unable to breathe.

When Ryan was still too young to speak clearly, I had once shown him this bracelet.

I told him it was a symbol of his grandmother.

My mother was gone forever, and this was the only thing I had left to remember her by.

Back then, tiny Ryan had thrown himself into my arms and comforted me in his sweet, babyish voice. “You still have Ryan, Mommy.”

But now, he was wearing the kids’ smartwatch I had bought for him, trying to buy my most treasured possession from me so he could give it to someone else.

Vanessa pretended to take the bracelet off.

“I’m sorry, Clara. Ryan said you never wore it, so I thought you didn’t want it anymore.”

Adrian, who had been talking with the wedding planner, heard the commotion and quickly walked over.

When he saw Vanessa taking off the bracelet, he immediately looked at me in displeasure. “Clara, what are you making a scene about now?”

“It’s just a bracelet. Your wrist is too thick for it anyway. If it’s only sitting there, what’s wrong with letting Vanessa wear it for a while?”

I finally could not hold back anymore and shouted, “That was my mother’s heirloom!”

“Vanessa, you even had to take this? Aren’t you afraid my mother’s ghost will haunt you tonight?”

At my words, embarrassment flickered across Adrian’s face.

“It’s fine, Vanessa. Give this one back to her. I’ll buy you a new one.”

“It’s bad luck to wear a dead woman’s things.”

Ryan immediately promised, “Yeah! Daddy can buy you one that’s bigger and prettier.”

As he spoke, he took the bracelet Vanessa had removed and hurled it straight at me.

“Don’t throw it!”

I reached for it in a daze, only to watch helplessly as the bracelet crashed hard onto the floor.

It shattered into pieces.

In that instant, I felt as if a part of me had shattered with it.

I knelt on the floor and desperately picked up the fragments, my tears falling heavily onto the ground.

“Stop picking them up.”

When Adrian noticed the cuts on my hand, he frowned and reached out to pull me up.

“It’s just an object. Is this really necessary?”

I slapped his hand away, my eyes bloodshot.

Then I threw the divorce papers I had prepared long ago right into his face.

“No need, Adrian. I want a divorce…”

Adrian misunderstood and mistook the divorce papers for a stock transfer agreement.

He gripped the documents, his expression cold.

“Clara, money isn’t enough for you anymore? Now you’re going after my company too?”

“Did you deliberately let our son take the bracelet so you could use my guilt to get shares from me?”

He scoffed and signed his name without even looking.

“What a manipulative little scheme. I’ll let it go this time.”

“But I won’t tolerate the same trick from you again.”

He flung the papers back at me and walked away without looking back.

I sat on the floor and watched the sheets of paper scatter around me, then laughed bitterly despite myself.

He had no idea there would be no next time.

I did not want him anymore.

I did not want our son anymore either.

In the days that followed, I spent every day at the hospital.

The money Adrian had paid me was enough not only for my surgery, but also for the follow-up exams and post-op care afterward.

Once the heart transplant succeeded, I would be able to completely rewrite the tragedy of my previous life and begin again.

At last, the day of the surgery arrived. I was waiting to be put under when the doctor suddenly removed his gloves.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Sullivan. We can’t perform your surgery today.”