Before I could even hear her reply, Lary kicked me down again.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, calling my wife by her full name?” he seethed. “Acting like you’re the damn CEO of Apex Holdin- gs. ‘Get your ass over here.‘ What gives you the right?”
His eyes were filled with contempt as he ground the toe of his shoe into my calf. “Bella was just playing with you. Did you really
think she liked you? You’re so full of yourself you can’t even see what you are.”
He kept ranting, but I just stared at him, my gaze unwavering and cold. “Keep talking. I want to see if you’re still smiling when she
gets here.”
“Huh? What’s this? A little good luck charm around your neck? Didn’t realize you were so superstitious.” Lary ignored my warning. His eyes lit up as he spotted something else. He crouched down and snatched the small, worn leather pouch from under my shirt.
“A worthless life like yours doesn’t deserve this. Let’s just get rid of it.”
I lunged, grabbing his wrist with all my strength. “Let. Go.”
3
Seeing the ferocity in my eyes, Lary just laughed. “What is this, the dark ages? Still believe in this hocus–pocus?”
He pried my fingers off. “Or wait… did Isabella get this for you?”
My teeth ground together, my hand shaking uncontrollably as I held onto his wrist. “The car, the locket, I don’t care. But you do not
touch that charm.”
I tried to scramble up from the ground, to snatch it back.
My mother had gotten that charm for me from a remote mountain shrine.
I was only five, struck by a mysterious illness that left me in a coma, unable to eat or drink. We went to every hospital, tried every folk remedy. Nothing worked except to make me vomit blood from all the failed treatments. We spent our life savings seeking help abroad, only for the world’s top specialists to tell my mother to give up on me.
Of course, she refused.
She heard of a shrine, a place of great power. Carrying me in her arms, she climbed the mountain, bowing her head to the stone
path with every single step.
2014
2014
Chapter 1
It was a long, grueling path.
Her forehead was a bloody mess, her knees worn down to the bone.
But I, nestled in her arms, felt only warmth. I was her only hope, the only thing that kept her going.
I never knew… that my life would be bought with her death.
Whether by some miracle or sheer coincidence, as soon as she placed the blessed charm around my neck, I woke up.
Overjoyed, she ignored her pain and bowed again and again to the shrine’s keeper, her bloodied forehead leaving a dark red stain
on the stone floor.
Perhaps the ordeal had drained every last bit of her strength. On the way down the mountain, she was exhausted. She entrusted
me to a kind stranger for a moment while she sat to rest by the side of the path.
When she tried to stand, a wave of dizziness overcame her, and she stumbled towards the cliff’s edge.
In the final moment before she fell, I saw the look in her eyes. It was pure, unconditional love. And no regret.
I know the only reason I’m still alive today is because of that charm, a charm my mother bought with her own life.
It was the only proof I had that she had loved me.
It was my breaking point. My absolute limit.
