The Ripe Time for Parting

Gavin Fletcher’s twin side chicks had caused trouble yet again. Having gone three months without contacting me, his very first call was to demand I clean up their mess. I agreed calmly. First, I spent the freezing winter night searching through a man-made lake to recover the necklace belonging to our partner’s wife, Mrs. Sinclair—a piece Stella Wright had thrown away in a fit of rage. Next, I took the fall for the video of Luna Wright stripping drunk at a private club, calling a press conference to issue a public apology. That same night, the hashtag #Oakhaven’sMostPatheticTrophyWife was trending like crazy. I swiped the notification away without giving it a second glance. In my past life, I had made a frantic, desperate scene over these two lovers of his, only to ask for a divorce in heart-wrenching despair in the end. Gavin hadn’t bothered to keep me. Instead he used every resource at his disposal to ensure I walked away without a penny. The ink was barely dry on my divorce certificate when I received my son’s diagnosis: terminal brain cancer. Staring at the astronomical figure in the medical expense column, I cast aside every ounce of dignity, begging on my knees before Gavin while sobbing my eyes out. Yet he simply sat there with the twins wrapped in his arms, ordering the butler to throw me out of his mansion. “Using your son’s life for reconciliation—the Fletcher name can’t have any tie to such a snake of a woman!” In the end, I could only watch helplessly as my son drew his final breath in my arms. Now reborn and given another chance, I would do anything to save my son’s life. Chapter 1 The second my son finished his scans, I rushed over and grabbed the doctor, demanding the results. Hearing the words “early-stage brain cancer,” my legs gave out. I pulled my boy into my arms and started sobbing hysterically. Everyone assumed I was crying out of sheer terror over Leo’s diagnosis. What none of them realized was these were tears of utter relief. In its early stages, the tumor was benign. This time round, Leo could be saved. Gavin called right as I finished processing Leo’s hospital admission. On the other end of the line, his voice carried its usual indifference: “Get dressed. I’m taking you shopping. A thank-you gift for handling things earlier.” I put on a white suit set he liked and sprayed his favorite perfume. Gavin arrived half an hour late. I didn’t even need to ask to know that Stella and Luna had held him up. Wasting no more of my time, I opened the front passenger door, only to meet a ridiculous scene. Sitting in the passenger seat were two stuffed animals nearly half a person tall, both buckled in with seatbelts. Hanging around their necks were large sequined letters spelling out: “Reserved for Stella/Luna”. Gavin glanced over from the driver’s seat: “The girls threw a jealous fit when they heard I was coming to pick you up. They wouldn’t let me leave unless I did this.” His explanation was completely offhand, as if recounting the most mundane thing. In my past life, I would have ripped those plushies out, thrown them onto the pavement, and confronted Gavin with red-rimmed eyes, making a huge scene. Instead, I merely opened the rear door with absolute calm. “We can go now.” Gavin froze for a second, watching me through the rearview mirror for a few moments before curling his lips into a dry, smirking tug: “Look who’s being so generous today.” I ignored him, my gaze lowering to the rear floorboards, where several used condoms lay scattered beneath the seat. So that was how he spent the half hour he kept me waiting—soothing the twins’ jealousy in his own way. When we arrived at the luxury boutique, I picked a pink tweed set Stella would have liked, followed by an alligator leather handbag from a top luxury brand Luna frequently carried. Staring at the items, Gavin knitted his brows in confusion. “Since when did you start liking this stuff? “Are you trying to copy the girls?” He wrapped his arms around me from behind. The embrace I used to crave now felt like a suffocating cage. “They’re young girls. Their style doesn’t suit you. Just stay true to yourself. Evelyn, as long as you keep your act together, you’ll always be the one and only Mrs. Fletcher.” I acted surprised: “Didn’t you bring me here to pick out gifts for them?” After all, the wedding gown I had tried on for two months had ended up on Stella’s body. The honeymoon trip I had spent six months planning was ultimately taken with Luna. Even our wedding anniversary had turned into Gavin’s triumphant celebration of landing his twins of lovers. I learned long ago to stop flattering myself. Gavin’s face darkened at once. “Evelyn Simpson, I carved out time to take you out because you’ve been sensible lately. Do you have to be such a buzzkill?” I stood rooted in place, offering no response. “I’ve never seen a wife as... ungrateful as you.” With those words, he shoved my hands off, summoned his chauffeur, and sped off into the distance. He left me standing by the curb all alone, clutching arms full of shopping bags as passersby pointed and whispered. I flexed my fingers, which throbbed painfully from the heavy straps, before hailing a cab back. Before I got home, a photo of me taken by paparazzi carrying shopping bags into a cab had hit the headlines. The caption read: “Mrs. Fletcher takes cab alone with shopping bags—a housekeeper’s grocery trip.” Just as I exited the news app, messages from Stella and Luna popped up. Chapter 2 “Hey Evelyn, you can’t blame us on Gavin running away this time. Since you haven’t touched him in like three months, here’s a photo to feast your eyes on.” “When he buys us things, he just has the sales reps ship them straight to our home. A woman being sensible is useless—it’s all about youth you see.” In my past life, I would have broken down, rushed to the villa Gavin bought them to grab them by the hair and brawl. Then Gavin’s bodyguards would throw me out, handing the paparazzi snaps of my bruised and swollen face. Now, I simply replied unperturbed: “Next time you make a mess and need me to wipe your asses, just call me. That way Gavin won’t have to waste time making it up to me and can spend a few more days with you.” After sending the text, I immediately resold every single luxury item on hand. The second the money landed, I transferred it straight into Leo’s medical account. I remembered how in my past life, driven to utter desperation, I had tried to sell my wedding ring to buy painkillers for him, only to discover the diamond on it had long been swapped for glass by the twins. After an incident like this, Gavin wouldn’t come home for at least half a month. It gave me plenty of time to stay with Leo. At the hospital, Leo clutched my pinky finger, tilting his pale little face up to comfort me. “Mommy, don’t be sad. Daddy will come home.” His voice was tiny, yet he tried so hard to give me comfort. “Really. My nanny, my teacher at school, and the other kids’ mommies all said so.” I froze, a tight lump wedged in my throat. I didn’t care about Gavin spending money on his side chicks or walking all over my pride. But he exposed our son to other people’s pity and gossip at such a young age. Gavin hadn’t always been like this. He risked being disowned by his family to get down on one knee and propose to me. I rubbed the wedding band on my finger, recalling the look on his face—now usually painted with cynical arrogance—showing genuine affection and nervousness for the first time. Spoiled since birth, used to getting whatever he wanted, he had made a promise to me, a penniless orphan: “Evelyn, I bought this ring with my own money, none of my family’s. “I’m set on you. Even if I get kicked out the door, I have what it takes to build everything back up. You might have to suffer through some hard times with me at first... Will you give us a chance?” Having grown up in poverty, I never dreamed someone would throw away his silver spoon just to be with me. I agreed through tears then and there. Our marriage started with a certificate and a two-hundred-square-foot rented room. At first, his family thought he was just throwing a tantrum, believing he would turn back once he couldn’t stand the hardship. Yet as time went on, Gavin took on more and more projects, and my belly grew larger and larger. Unable to sit idle any longer, Gavin’s mother came in person to bring us back to the Fletcher estate. Still, she never gave up on breaking us apart. Unable to sway him otherwise, she came up with the idea of mistresses. In the beginning, Gavin was unwavering—women stripped naked and put into his bed were bundled up and thrown out. Over time, the rich heirs in his circle started calling him henpecked. So started the brainwashing. “Which one of us part from you doesn’t have fun with other women? She can keep her title as Mrs. Fletcher, and you get to sleep with any chick you want. That should be enough for her to be grateful.” Bit by bit, Gavin became convinced that fooling around didn’t count as cheating. After I gave birth to Leo, he used the excuse of giving me time to rest to not come home for months on end. I thought that would be temporary, and that once Leo grew older and learned to speak, it would awaken his lost sense of responsibility. Little did I know that to Gavin, I had already devolved into nothing more than a tool to maintain his reputation as a respectable family man. Looking back now, it was laughable. After returning to his family, his wedding was held with Stella, and his honeymoon was spent with Luna. As for our marriage certificate, divorce applications were submitted every few weeks just to coax the twins. Yet I was still Mrs. Fletcher, in name. When Stella insisted on outbidding everyone at an auction for an heirloom piece belonging to the powerful Mrs. Ferguson’s family, I had to pack up all the jewelry Gavin had given me and delivered it to the woman myself, asking for her forgiveness. When Luna threw a fit and slapped Mrs. Sinclair, who had called her out on a shopping spree, I swallowed my pride, carried luxury gifts to the hospital to visit her, and even offered to let her hit me back to blow off steam, all so Leo could have his father’s company. Yet my compliance didn’t bring his father back. Instead, it built a habit among the high-society circle: whenever anyone took heat from the twins, they tallied the bill onto me. That was why in my past life, when Gavin reappeared after disappearing for three months, demanding I go into a man-made lake in fourteen degrees weather to find the necklace Stella threw away, I instantly snapped. The price I paid was watching my son die in agony in my arms. Remembering that, I wrapped my arms around my boy and kissed his little face again and again. “Baby, Mommy isn’t sad even if Daddy doesn’t come home. All I need is you to be okay.” Before I could finish my words, Gavin’s call came through again. “Aren’t you supposed to be at home right now? Where the hell are you?” Chapter 3 I couldn’t understand what the man even needed me for, with the twins by his side day and night. I hurried back to the mansion. The second I walked through the door, a stack of photos was hurled at my face. Furious, Gavin pointed at me and roared: “Did you tell the girls to keep me for a few extra days so you could go out and see this guy?” I picked up one of the photos on the floor. It was a photo stealthily taken earlier that day while I was discussing Leo’s treatment plan with his doctor. “Look again. That’s Dr. Bell from St. Paul’s Hospital.” After peering closely to make out the person in the photo, his expression eased at once. Yet he didn’t ask me once why I was seeing a doctor. Nor did he notice where Leo was—his own son who usually came clinging to him the moment he came home. He shoved two shopping bags into my arms. “Here. I personally picked them out for you.” I didn’t reject them, nor did I feel any delight. I simply offered a flat thank you. Seeing my muted response, Gavin acted up again. He scratched his head, pulled at his tie, and after pondering for a moment, he spoke up: “About you throwing a fit earlier today, I gotta remind you once more that Stella and Luna are—” “They’re just your temporary diversion. Everyone in your circle keeps side chicks, so it doesn’t count as cheating. I am still the one and only Mrs. Fletcher.” I quickly took over, wanting to bring the topic to an end as fast as possible. Gavin, however, scrutinized me with a strange expression, as if trying to locate any trace of jealousy on my face. “Then why did you—” “I wasn’t trying to spite you. I just assumed. Next time, I’ll ask first.” Gavin looked as though he had finally caught the signal he was looking for and nodded. “Sounds like you still feel wronged after all. “I’ll make it up to you and Leo this weekend. How about a family outing at the amusement park?” The corners of my mouth curled up as irony filled my heart. Once upon a time, Leo’s biggest wish was for the three of us to go to an amusement park together as a family. Gavin always excused himself as being too busy, yet the number of times paparazzi caught him visiting amusement parks with the twins was enough to fill a tabloid cover to cover. Eventually, even Leo developed a traumatic reaction to amusement parks. Now, he finally remembered us, his wife and son. Seeing my smile, Gavin assumed he got me happy and reached out to pat my head. “You’re the mother of a three-year-old, and yet look at you, just as easy to coax as your son. “As long as you keep fulfilling your duties as my wife, not causing a scene, and coexisting peacefully with the girls—I’ll give you whatever you ask.” I didn’t reply, nor did I tell him that Leo had brain cancer and needed a biopsy sample taken from his tumor over the weekend. When the weekend arrived, Gavin’s phone rang right on cue, just as I expected. It was Stella. He looked at his phone, then looked at me standing silently to the side, and made up his mind to decline the call. Yet just as he picked up Leo’s backpack, another call came through. This time, it was Luna. I spoke up before he rejected it again. “Answer it. What if it’s an emergency?” Yet Gavin seemed set in his resolve. Not only did he decline the call, but he decided to turn off his phone altogether. But before he could slide to switch it off, a barrage of notifications from Luna popped onto the screen. Gavin accidentally tapped one, and a photo showed Stella sitting astride a windowsill. Chapter 4 I watched in silence as Gavin instantly dropped Leo’s backpack and walked toward the door. Everything was unfolding exactly as I had anticipated. For the past three years, whenever Gavin took time away from the twins to spend it with me, they would throw a fit and threaten suicide. If it wasn’t swallowing vitamin supplements pretending they were sleeping pills, then it would be holding an eyebrow razor against their wrists. In the past, I would block the door and scream hysterically: “You know they’re posing! They just wanna lure you over there! “What would happen if you don’t go this time? You think they’re really gonna kill themselves?” Back then, Gavin would shove me aside, his gaze cruelly cold. “If something actually happens, can you take responsibility for it? Those are two human lives!” Yet this time, seeing that I made no move to stop him, Gavin paused at the doorway. I held out the car keys to him: “Hurry up and go check on them. What if something bad happens?” He stood rooted to the spot, some emotion I couldn’t decipher flashing within his eyes. “I’ll have my assistant go with you then…” His assistant again. His assistant going along to the amusement park, his assistant keeping me company at birthday dinners, his assistant helping pick out anniversary gifts... In my past life, clueless paparazzi had even assumed I was having an affair with Gavin’s assistant. I nodded indifferently, turning around to pack up my things. My wrist was suddenly seized by Gavin. “Evelyn, have you ever considered that you’re the one pushing me further and further away? “When the twins can’t see me, they cry, throw tantrums, and pull tricks to coax me over. Being with them makes me feel good. “But you, you always have that expression on your face like I’m wronging you. “We men have pride, you know. If you show that you need me, I might just stay.” I looked at him in disbelief, barely able to hold back a smirk from breaking across my face. Seeing his dead serious expression, I pulled my hand free from his grip. “Alright, don’t go then. Stay and keep me and Leo company. “Leo is at the hospital. He—” Before I could finish my sentence, Luna sent another video message. On the screen, more than half of Stella’s body was leaning out of the window frame. It was just two stories up, yet Gavin charged straight out like a madman. “They’re doing it for real this time. I have to go over right now!” Fortunately, any hopeful expectation I had held for this man died with me a while ago. At the hospital, I got the good news that Leo’s cancer cells had not yet metastasized. The resection surgery could be performed today. Tears welled up in my eyes as I urged: “Schedule it now! The sooner, the better!” Leo was wheeled into the operating room. I knelt alone outside the doors, repeatedly thanking God for giving my boy a chance to grow up healthy and whole. Yet halfway through the operation, the chief surgeon rushed out, still wearing his blood-stained gloves. “Dr. Bell, what’s going on?” I lunged forward frantically. Looking conflicted, he kept moving as he answered: “We just received an emergency notice from Mr. Fletcher. All of our doctors have to go check on Ms. Wright’s injuries at once.” My eyes turned bloodshot with fury: “What about Leo’s tumor? Was it removed yet?” Dr. Bell’s gaze dodged mine: “We got the notice just after opening his skull. We’ll just have to reschedule...” “Reschedule? My boy’s only three years old! How could you leave him on the operating table just like that? What if the cancer cells spread? “You’re not allowed to leave! He’s Gavin Fletcher’s son—I’m calling him right now!” I forced myself to stay calm, my hands trembling violently as I dialed Gavin’s number. “Leo is in surgery right now! You can’t reassign the doctors at a time like this—” “Evelyn,” his voice oozed with impatience and rage, “are you weaving stories on our son’s life just to throw a jealous fit?” The line went dead immediately after. When I dialed back, I realized he had blocked my number. “Give me your phone!” Overwhelming despair and powerlessness made it nearly impossible for me to stand. I lunged to grab Dr. Bell’s phone, my voice all raspy and ragged. Yet a hand reached out from the side and stopped me.