The Game That Ended My Marriage In One Sentence Chapter 08

The Game That Ended My Marriage In One Sentence Chapter 08

The ICU doors opened.

A nurse pushed Ollie out for his final pre-op check.

He was awake.

His once-chubby little face had hollowed out.

His skin was as pale as a sheet.

He turned his head and saw me standing in the hallway.

Then he weakly reached out his small hand.

The back of it was covered in needle marks.

Big tears rolled down his face.

“Mom…”

He looked heartbreakingly pitiful as he cried.

His voice was full of fear and desperate need.

“Mom, I was wrong. I really know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have called you a bad woman. I shouldn’t have

upset you on purpose.”

“I shouldn’t have listened to Maddie and made you drink that peanut-butter shake. Maddie’s the bad one.

She said I smelled bad and left me alone in the ward. She never came back to see me.”

“Mom, can you hug me? I won’t eat fried chicken anymore. I’ll eat the healthy meals you make. I’ll be

good…”

Looking at his thin, bony body covered in tubes, I still felt a familiar sting in my heart.

After all, he was still my child.

He was the child I had nearly died to bring into this world.

But I didn’t step forward to hold him.

I only stood there calmly, two steps away from him.

My hands hung at my sides.

“Ollie, I’ve paid for all your surgery costs. You need to listen to the doctors and focus on getting better. But I

can’t hold you anymore. Your dad and I are divorced.”

Ollie broke into desperate sobs.

He struggled on the gurney, trying to sit up and grab me.

“No! I want Mom! Dad, please beg Mom! Don’t let her leave! Mom, I’ll be good from now on. Please take me home!”

Ethan stood beside him, clenching his jaw hard.

Silent tears streamed down his face.

He didn’t dare look at me.

He could only step forward and hold Ollie still.

He was afraid Ollie would pull out the IV.

“Ollie, stop fighting… You and Dad were too cruel. We… we lost Mom because of what we did.”

His voice broke with sobs.

It was filled with endless regret.

I didn’t look back at the father and son sobbing together.

I turned around and walked out of the hospital, step by step.

Outside, the sun was bright.

It stung my eyes, but it was warm.

I took a deep breath of fresh air.

For the first time, I felt light.

The heavy stone that had crushed my heart for five years finally fell away.

Six months passed.

My mom’s condition was well controlled at the private oncology care center.

The cancer hadn’t spread further.

I used the money I had withdrawn to register a new event planning firm.

With the connections I had built over the years and my own ruthless work ethic, the business gradually got on track.

One weekend evening, I had just finished an important business dinner.

When I stepped out of the lobby of a five-star hotel, a steady autumn drizzle was falling.

A sharp chill hung in the air.

My new assistant opened a long-handled black umbrella for me.

Then she guided me toward the Maybach parked by the curb.

Just as I was about to get in, I caught sight of a familiar figure.

It was Ethan.

He wore a cheap, pilled jacket.

He carried a plastic bag soaked through by the rain.

Inside were a few ears of corn on the cob and a discounted convenience-store microwave meal.

He stood in the rain, drenched from head to toe.

Through the curtain of rain, he stared at me blankly.

In half a year, he seemed to have aged ten years.

His back was slightly hunched.

The once-proud, untouchable Mr. Hayes was gone.

All that remained was a man weathered by hardship.

I heard Ollie’s surgery had been successful.

But he needed expensive long-term medication.

Ethan was buried under massive debt.

To pay it off and buy medicine for his son, he worked construction during the day.

At night, he worked as a food delivery driver.

He slept only three hours a day.

He had collapsed on the street more than once from exhaustion.

The man who once stood above everyone finally understood what I had endured for that family.

He finally understood how I had pushed myself to the edge for that family.

He also finally understood that without me, his life held nothing but chaos and mess.

It had become a bottomless hole he could never fill.

Our eyes met briefly in the cold rain.

Regret flashed through Ethan’s eyes.

His lips moved.

He seemed to want to call my name.

Then he took a small step forward without thinking.

As if he wanted to come closer.

As if he wanted one more look at me.

But I only glanced at him.

My gaze didn’t linger.

It was as if I were looking at a random stranger on the street.

Then I looked away and ducked into the warm, luxurious car.

The window slowly rose.

It shut him and the freezing rain outside,

“Ms. Warren, back to the office or the care center?”

My assistant asked softly from the front seat,

“The care center. I wanna spend some time with my mom.”

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the leather seat.

A small, relieved smile touched my lips.

The black Maybach drove smoothly into the rainy night.

Water sprayed up beneath the tires.

I didn’t look back.

But in the rearview mirror, I could still see Ethan standing stiffly in the rain.

The plastic bag slipped from his hand.

The cheap microwave meal spilled into the muddy water.

He didn’t bend down to pick it up..

Instead, he slowly crouched down.

He covered his face tightly with both hands.

His shoulders shook violently in the cold rain.

He was paying the most painful price for everything he had done wrong.

For the happiness he had destroyed with his own hands.

But none of it had anything to do with me anymore.

All I knew was this.

From now on, my world would have only clear skies ahead.

And I would live for myself, always.