The “Strawberry Juice” That Saved My Son Chapter 06

The “Strawberry Juice” That Saved My Son Chapter 06

“Captain, the heavy equipment is here!”

The deputy captain’s voice broke the dead silence

Ethan slowly lifted his head and looked at the excavator rumbling toward them.

He stood up, unsteady on his feet, and shouted at the operator,

“Dig! Start here!”

He pointed at the opening that had been dug out before and then buried again.

The massive mechanical arm replaced human hands.

Heavy concrete slabs were lifted and moved away one by one.

Every time one slab was removed, Ethan’s body tightened further.

As the digging went deeper, a faint metallic smell mixed into the dust in the air.

Ethan’s throat worked hard.

He did not wait for the excavator to stop completely.

He jumped straight down into the pit from more than six feet up.

The loose dirt under his feet was mixed with broken stone. He stumbled before he managed to steady

himself.

“Captain!”

His teammates shouted after him, but he ignored them.

He dropped to his knees and drove his fingers into the blood-scented dirt, clawing it away like a madman.

Sharp stones cut open his palms.

Bent nails dug into the mud.

He did not care.

He only knew one thing

She was below.

I floated above him and watched him lose control.

Layer by layer, the dirt was cleared away.

The first thing exposed was a flash of striking red.

It was the heel of a high-heeled shoe.

Ethan stopped moving.

Those shoes were the ones he bought me with his entire first month’s salary after he was promoted to

deputy captain.

I had complained that they were too expensive.

I said a doctor had to run around all day and could not wear shoes like that.

But though I complained, I had kept them carefully in their box on the cleanest shelf of the shoe cabinet.

I only wore them on our wedding anniversary or on the rare days when he came home on leave.

His fingers trembled as he kept digging.

Then came my calf.

Then the hem of a dress whose original color could no longer be seen.

Finally, my whole twisted, broken body appeared.

I was kneeling on the ground.

My upper body had collapsed forward. My back had been smashed in by the concrete slab.

Both my hands were braced against the ground in front of me, forming an extremely small triangular space.

Even in death, that posture had not changed.

I had used the last of my strength to protect the tiny world beneath me.

Ethan stopped breathing.

He reached out, his hand hovering over my back, but he did not dare touch me.

His gaze followed my stiff body down to the space I had protected.

There, a small pool of blood had dried completely into a dark brown stain.

Beside it lay a plastic water bottle.

Ethan’s hands shook so badly he could barely hold it.

He twisted open the cap and brought it to his nose.

The smell of blood rushed into him.

“Strawberry juice…”

He finally understood.

He understood why Noah had a ring of red around his mouth.

He understood why Noah had vomited nothing but blood.

He understood what the “magic strawberry juice that only Noah could drink” really was.

“Joy…

“Joy!”

He repeated my name again and again.

He slammed his forehead against the ground, making dull, heavy sounds.

At the edge of the pit, Claire stood there, her face drained of all color.

I floated beside my body and watched Ethan kneel on the ground.

For some reason, I felt a little sad.

I looked terrible.

My hair was tangled. My body was covered in mud and blood.

Even in death, I looked so miserable.

How did I end up letting him see me at my ugliest?