Kidnappers had taken both my son and my wife’s beloved dog hostage. They told Olivia she could only choose one to save. My eyes were bloodshot as I fell to my knees, shouting, “Save Leo! Save our son! He’s only five years old!” But Olivia was agonizing between our child and the dog. Lucas’s face was pale as he spoke with a trembling voice, “Olivia, don’t worry about Snowball. It’s just a dog. But… it’s my only emotional support now…” She glanced at me, her eyes filled with complexity. “I’ll decide with a dice roll,” she said. The kidnappers laughed and agreed to her proposal. Odd numbers would save our son, even numbers would save the dog. The dice landed on three. I instantly felt relief wash over me, my body going limp. But Olivia shouted, “That doesn’t count! My hand slipped. I demand another roll!” The kidnapper sneered, “One finger buys you another chance to roll.” Without hesitation, Olivia broke her own pinky finger. I watched in horror as she rolled the dice again with her shaking hand. This time… it landed on four.
“Even number! It’s an even number!” Olivia exclaimed with relief, shouting at the kidnappers. The kidnapper grinned, his voice dripping with mockery, “Hahaha! Mrs. Quinn, you’re fucking hilarious!” “You could have saved your son on the first roll, but you chose to save a damn animal instead. Mrs. Quinn, you’re truly one in a million!” Olivia’s face flushed red, but she didn’t argue back. She just stubbornly repeated, “This is fate!” My heart sank to the bottom of an abyss. My whole body was shaking, blood and tears blurring my vision. Olivia carefully walked over to Lucas, opened the cage, and took the terrified Samoyed into her arms. “It’s okay now, Snowball is safe,” she cooed. Lucas ran to her side, crying uncontrollably. Meanwhile, my son Leo had a pale face, his mouth taped shut, crying so hard his body was turning purple. I rushed over to embrace Leo. His tiny body trembled in my arms. Only then did Olivia seem to remember us and walked over. “Is Leo okay?” she asked casually, her eyes never leaving the dog in her arms. My throat was too constricted from shock to make any sound. Suddenly, Lucas cried out, “Olivia, Snowball is dying! We need to get him to the hospital right away!” “Okay, let’s go now!” Olivia said anxiously, turning to leave with the dog in her arms without sparing us another glance. She only threw a cold sentence to the kidnappers: “The money will be transferred to you. Release my son.” With that, she hurried away supporting Lucas. The iron door of the warehouse slammed shut, cutting off everything outside. I held my son, my body ice-cold. The kidnapper squatted down in front of me. He had a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he sneered at me, “I’ve never seen such a heartless wife. Where did you find this piece of trash?” I stared at him blankly, unable to utter a word. The kidnapper blew a puff of smoke in my face, bringing me back to reality and making me cough. “Tell you what, I’m in a good mood today. I’ll give you one more chance,” he said. He held his phone out to me. “Call your wife.” “If she’s willing to turn back now, I’ll let you and your son go.” “How’s that? Pretty merciful, right?” He laughed at his own words. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the phone. I dialed Olivia’s number. The phone rang for a long time before it was answered. “Hello?” It was Olivia’s voice. In the background, I could clearly hear Lucas’s anxious voice. “Olivia…” I sobbed, “Save Leo… please come back…” From the other end came her impatient voice. “Gabriel! I’m in the middle of getting emergency treatment for Snowball. He’s in shock!” “Leo is my son. The kidnappers won’t dare do anything to him once they get the money. Don’t make trouble for me now!”
With that, she hung up without hesitation. The kidnapper listened to the dial tone and took back his phone. He shrugged and said with a cold smile, “I gave you a chance. Mrs. Quinn is a busy woman, and she hasn’t even transferred the money to me yet.” “You can’t blame me for what happens next.” He gestured to his men behind him. One of them with dyed yellow hair roughly snatched Leo from my arms. “No!” I let out a heart-wrenching roar, crawling on all fours to try and stop him. Another thug kicked me hard in the chest. I slammed against the wall before crumpling to the ground. Blood flowed from my forehead, obscuring my vision. My son’s cries echoed in my ears. “I want Mommy! Mommy, come save me!” “Daddy! Daddy, save me!” The next second, both Leo’s terrified screams and my cries were abruptly silenced. I saw Leo’s tiny body collapse softly to the ground, motionless. I kept shaking my head, my jaw trembling, as I slowly supported myself up and staggered over to my son. My hand caressed Leo’s face, which had been so full of life just hours ago. The blood on my hands smeared his face, and I frantically tried to wipe it away, but there was more and more blood. I picked up my son and finally broke down in loud, uncontrollable sobs. When I had cried myself out, I looked up to find myself surrounded by a group of men who weren’t the original kidnappers. Before I could react, they swung the clubs in their hands, striking my legs and arms. I heard the sound of bones breaking and was nearly driven unconscious by the pain. In the last second before I passed out, I heard their malicious laughter. “This bastard can’t take a beating at all. Brother Lucas said to just break his arms and legs, leave him barely alive.” … I woke up in the hospital. My whole body ached as if I had been torn apart and haphazardly put back together. The doctor said I had suffered comminuted fractures in my left arm and right leg, and they had barely managed to save me. I stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling a twinge in my heart, but I had no more tears left to cry. Why didn’t they just let me die along with Leo? A nurse came in and asked me in a low voice, “Is that little boy’s body in the morgue your son?” “The forensic examination is complete. The family can come claim the body now.” My heart was stabbed again. Just then, Olivia pushed open the door to the hospital room. She was holding Snowball in her arms, with Lucas following behind her, his eyes red and puffy. Seeing that I was awake, Olivia’s face broke into a smile. She was about to show me the dog when I spoke. Her voice held a hint of relief: “Snowball was in critical condition, but luckily we saved him.” I remembered the doctor saying I had nearly died too. A dog’s life, a human life… Hah, this was my wife. I stared vacantly at the wall without speaking. After a long silence, just as Olivia was starting to get impatient, I spoke in a hoarse voice. Each word felt like a knife scraping my throat. “Olivia, the doctor said they issued twenty-five critical condition notices for me. I almost died.” “I barely managed to survive, but Leo will never come back!” I practically shouted the last sentence, tears falling in large drops onto the bedsheet. Olivia was taken aback, then sighed, “You know dogs are more fragile, of course we had to save Snowball first.” “You’re fine now, aren’t you? You have good recovery abilities, unlike Snowball who still needs months of care.” Then, as if just remembering something, she frowned and asked me. “What happened to Leo? Did the kidnappers release him?” I looked at the face I had loved for ten years, suddenly feeling it was very unfamiliar. I opened my mouth, my voice raspy: “Leo… is dead.” “You killed him!” My emotions suddenly collapsed, and I began to scream hysterically. “You killed him! Olivia, you’re a murderer!”
Olivia’s face instantly turned ugly. Lucas quickly came forward to hold her back, gently persuading, “Olivia, don’t be angry. Gabriel just woke up and is emotionally unstable.” Olivia shook him off, pointing at my nose and scolding, “Gabriel Gray, have you had enough? What kind of madness are you spouting?!” “Lucas has already contacted the kidnappers. They said they received the money and released Leo long ago!” “Where did you take Leo? What kind of father are you? You can’t even watch your own child!” I looked at her in disbelief. She didn’t believe our son was dead. I stared at her with wide eyes, my lips trembling slightly, “The kidnappers killed him because you didn’t transfer the money immediately…” Olivia let out a cold laugh, “Gabriel Gray, I know you hate me for choosing Snowball, but how can you make up such lies just to make me feel guilty!” “How could Leo possibly be dead? The kidnappers just wanted money!” “You must have lost him and are too afraid to admit it, so you made up this nonsense to trick me!” “Hurry up and find Leo! Stop being so unreasonable!” With that, she left holding the dog and pulling Lucas along, without looking back. I shouted and threw everything I could reach onto the floor. The sudden movement caused my freshly sutured wounds to burst open, blood soaking the sheets. I collapsed to the ground, my chest aching violently. On the day I was discharged, Olivia came to pick me up. I sat in a wheelchair as she pushed me out of the hospital. She didn’t mention Leo again. Lucas told her I had accepted the fact that I had “lost” our son, but the shock was too great and I needed time to recover. She believed it. After returning home, I started having nightmares every night, often waking up crying. In my dreams, I always saw Leo dying before my eyes. That night, I was again awakened by a nightmare and went to the kitchen for water. As soon as I turned on the light, I saw a dog’s body by the sink. I went over and found it was Lucas’s Snowball! Before I could react, Lucas cried out behind me. “Gabriel, you actually… you actually killed Snowball!” The sound drew Olivia, who immediately pinned the blame on me without asking what happened. She looked at me with disgust and scolded harshly, “Gabriel Gray, how could you be so vicious?! Even if Leo’s disappearance broke your heart, Snowball was innocent!” “Besides, it was your failure as a father. How can you make an innocent dog bear the consequences of your own mistakes?!” I shouted back with red eyes, “So Leo deserved to bear it all, to the point of death?!” Olivia looked at me with disappointment, “You’ve really gone mad, completely mad! I’ve told you Leo just went missing. Why do you keep cursing him dead?!” I didn’t want to argue anymore. I rushed out of the house, ignoring Olivia’s angry shouts behind me. I ran to the hospital barefoot, my soles already bloody and raw. At the entrance to the morgue, I couldn’t take another step forward. I crouched down covering my face, sobbing. Olivia caught up behind me. She roughly pulled me up from the ground, her scolding raining down on me. “Gabriel Gray, what the hell are you doing?!” “Running to a place like this in the middle of the night, are you sick?!” “I haven’t even settled the score with you for killing Snowball, and you ran away because you feel guilty!” I looked at Olivia’s contorted expression, the anger in my heart finally erupting. I lunged forward and grabbed her throat. The next second, I was violently kicked away by her, my head hitting the wall. My broken leg couldn’t support me and I fell to the ground, blood dripping down. I looked up to meet Olivia’s bloodshot eyes. She pointed at me, “Gabriel Gray, wasn’t killing Snowball enough? Now you want to kill me too?!” I laughed, laughing so hard tears streamed down, laughing until the wounds on my chest ached sharply. I wiped the blood from my face and struggled to stand up on shaky legs, the pain like walking on knife edges. But it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. “Didn’t you say Leo just went missing?” “He’s lying in there right now. Do you dare to go in with me and see?!” “See what your choice has done to your five-year-old son?!”
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