At the kindergarten parent-child showcase, Sinclair abandoned his daughter Juliet, who was wearing a princess dress, and hurried away because of a phone call from his childhood friend. Juliet finished playing the piece alone onstage, and after she stepped down, she calmly threw the out-of-print piano score he had bought into the trash. “Mom, I won’t need Dad to listen to me play piano ever again.” Looking at the light that had gone completely out in Juliet’s eyes, I did not scream or make a scene, but packed our bags overnight and took Juliet away, disappearing from his world for good. Later, Sinclair searched the whole world for us like a madman. But when he finally found us, he saw Juliet riding on another man’s shoulders, sweetly calling him “Dad.” The backstage of the kindergarten auditorium was hot and noisy, and the air was filled with the excited chatter of children and the reminders of parents. Juliet wore the Snow White dress we had carefully picked out, her little hand clutching tightly at the corner of Sinclair’s suit jacket. She tilted up her small face, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the man beside her. “Dad, it’s almost our turn! Are you nervous? I was even practicing the sheet music in my dreams last night.” Sinclair gave an absentminded hum. His brows were slightly furrowed as he kept lowering his head to check his watch, and his gaze never really landed on Juliet at all. One minute before the host announced them, his phone rang abruptly. As soon as he answered, Margaret’s sharp, aggrieved crying pierced through the speaker, so clear that it could be heard even from half a meter away. “Sinclair, come quickly! Brooks was fighting over a toy with someone at the amusement park, and he got pushed down and hit his head!” “He’s crying so hard he can barely breathe, and he keeps saying he wants you, and I really don’t know what to do all by myself…” Sinclair’s face changed at once, and he suddenly pulled his hand back. He pulled away with too much force and flung Juliet aside. Juliet was caught off guard, stumbled, got her foot caught in her skirt, and nearly fell hard onto the floor. Sinclair did not even look at Juliet and threw out a perfunctory sentence. “Something happened to Brooks, so I have to go check on him, and you can play by yourself.” After saying that, he turned and rushed outside. “Dad!” Juliet anxiously reached out to grab his sleeve, and a sob entered her voice. “It’s almost our turn, and you promised you would be with me!” “Stop making trouble! Brooks doesn’t have a dad to protect him, so do you know how pitiful he is? Can’t you be a little more mature?” Sinclair impatiently brushed away Juliet’s hand, pushed open the backstage door without looking back, and disappeared at the end of the hallway. “Next, please welcome Juliet and her father, who will bring us a piano duet.” The host’s announcement came from the front of the stage. The curtain slowly opened, and the spotlight shone down. Juliet stood all alone in the center of the stage, while the piano bench beside her was empty. Whispers of confusion immediately rose from the parents below the stage. My chest tightened, and my eyes instantly reddened, and just as I was about to rush onto the stage and carry her down, Juliet bit her lip and climbed onto the piano bench by herself. The piece that should have been cheerful and smooth came out broken and uneven under her fingers, and she hit the wrong keys several times. Under the glaring light, her tiny shoulders trembled slightly, but she stubbornly refused to stop. When the song ended, scattered applause sounded from below the stage. Juliet walked off the stage. She did not cry, did not make a scene, and did not throw herself into my arms for comfort like she usually did when she felt wronged. She walked straight to the corner backstage and picked up the out-of-print piano score Sinclair had just given her yesterday. She had begged for it for more than half a month before Sinclair finally asked someone to buy it, and last night, she had hugged the score happily and been too excited to sleep. With a smack, she threw the score into the trash without hesitation. Juliet lifted her head, and in her bright black-and-white eyes, the admiration and hope she once had for her father had gone out completely. She looked at me, and her voice was so calm it was frightening. “Mom, I won’t need Dad to listen to me play piano ever again.” I crouched down and hugged her cold little body tightly. There were no hysterical questions, and not a single tear fell. I only pressed her hard into my arms and replied softly, “Okay.” At that moment, I clearly heard the sound of a string snapping in my heart. For six years, at every important moment of Juliet’s growth, Sinclair could always find an excuse to be absent. And those excuses were always Margaret and her son. I once thought that as long as I was tolerant enough, he would eventually settle down and return to our family. But now, looking at the light in Juliet’s eyes completely extinguished, I only felt utterly sick. It was time for this absurd farce to end completely.
At eleven thirty that night, the security door opened with a click. Sinclair came in while tugging at his tie. He put on an exhausted act, but the sharp smell of perfume on his collar could not be hidden at all. It was Margaret’s favorite scent. I sat in the unlit living room and watched him change his shoes coldly. “Why didn’t you turn on the lights? You scared me.” He muttered as he casually tossed a limited-edition souvenir bag from the amusement park onto the shoe cabinet. “Juliet waited for you onstage for a long time today,” I said, staring at him in an unusually calm voice. Sinclair paused, and his brows instantly knitted together. “Samuel, do you have to pick a fight in the middle of the night?” “I told you, Brooks got pushed down at the amusement park and hit his head, and Margaret was so scared she kept crying, so how could I ignore that?” “So you abandoned Juliet’s showcase?” “Didn’t Juliet have you with her?” Sinclair raised his voice and argued as if he were completely in the right. “She’s not going to lose a piece of flesh just because she missed one piano performance!” “What about Brooks? He doesn’t have a dad, and he’s already pitiful enough, so what’s wrong with making Juliet feel wronged once?” “Do you have to be so petty with a kid from a single-parent family?” Looking at the shameless man in front of me, I only found it absurd. This was the husband I had been married to for six years. For someone else’s son, he had not hesitated to leave Juliet onstage as a joke, and then he turned around and forced us to be generous about it. I did not speak and directly threw my phone onto the coffee table, sliding it to his hand. The screen was lit, showing the Ins post Margaret had made half an hour earlier. In the photo, Sinclair was holding Brooks with one arm, smiling with a face full of fatherly tenderness. Brooks was holding an oversized cotton candy, and his forehead was perfectly clean, without even a red mark, let alone a cut. Behind them were brilliant fireworks at the amusement park. The caption was painfully glaring: Even without a complete family, he still has the strongest arms to lean on. Sinclair lowered his head and saw the screen clearly, and his face froze. But he only felt guilty for one second before immediately turning shame into anger. “You checked up on me? Samuel, are you sick?” “Margaret only posted a feeling she had, and Brooks was crying too hard, so what’s wrong with me taking him to watch fireworks to comfort him?” “Do you have to make such a big deal out of it?” “Yes, I don’t have to.” I was too tired to listen to his bullshit, so I picked up my phone and got up to walk toward the master bedroom. In the master bedroom, Juliet was sleeping very uneasily. Her little face was tightly scrunched up, and there were still tear marks at the corners of her eyes. I pulled over a thin blanket and carefully picked her up. “What are you doing?” Sinclair followed me over, his face full of impatience. “Why are you disturbing the child in the middle of the night?” “Because you’re filthy.” I did not look back as I carried Juliet toward the guest room. “Samuel!” Sinclair shouted behind me in frustration and anger. “You are completely unreasonable! Fine, make a scene if you want! Let’s see how long you can stay mad!” With a bang, I kicked the guest room door shut and locked it behind me. From outside came the sound of Sinclair slamming the bathroom door. He probably thought I would be like before, sulking for a few days, shedding a few tears, and then continuing to swallow my anger for the sake of giving Juliet a complete family. But he did not know that when a woman even found arguing unnecessary, it meant she had completely given up. I placed Juliet on the bed and gently patted her back. Looking at Juliet’s sleeping face, I had never felt more clear-headed. I could not live like this anymore.
At two in the morning, a faint whimper came from the guest room. I jolted awake and scrambled out of bed. The moment I turned on the bedside lamp, my heart instantly clenched into a knot. Juliet was curled up under the covers like an injured kitten. Both of her hands were pressed tightly against the lower right side of her abdomen, and she was shaking all over from the pain. Cold sweat had long soaked through her pajamas, and her little face was so pale there was not a trace of color. “Mom… my stomach hurts so much…” In a panic, I fumbled for my phone and dialed Sinclair’s number with trembling hands. “Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off.” The cold mechanical voice stabbed my eardrums. I refused to believe it and called seven or eight times in a row. Powered off, all of them were powered off! Just a few hours earlier, he had liked Margaret’s Ins post, and the location was a children’s theater in the neighboring city. Now, to accompany someone else’s son to a show, he found my calls annoying and simply turned off his phone! Juliet was in so much pain that she started dry heaving, and she did not even have the strength to cry anymore. I did not dare delay any longer, so I grabbed a thick coat and wrapped it around her, not even bothering to change out of my thin slippers before picking her up and rushing outside. The emergency hall late at night was lit by deathly white lights that made my head spin. “Doctor! Help her!” I rushed toward the triage desk with Juliet in my arms, and my voice was so hoarse it did not sound like my own. The ER doctor moved very quickly, and after pressing her abdomen a few times, he immediately made a judgment. “Suspected acute appendicitis, and the situation is urgent, so prepare for hospitalization and surgery immediately!” My head buzzed, and my legs went weak, almost making me collapse to my knees. “Family member, go pay the fees and complete the paperwork first, then come sign the surgical consent form, quickly!” the nurse urged loudly. I held Juliet tightly with one arm while my other hand frantically searched through my bag. My hands shook too badly, and I could not open the zipper no matter what I did. With a clatter, the bag fell to the ground, and cards scattered everywhere. There was still a long line at the payment window, and Juliet weakly gasped in my arms. Despair was like freezing seawater, drowning me from every direction. “Samuel?” A deep, steady voice suddenly sounded above my head. I lifted my tear-streaked face. Hernandez was wearing a black coat, his brows tightly furrowed as he strode quickly to me. There was no nonsense and no unnecessary small talk. He glanced at Juliet, whose face was ashen in my arms, and immediately crouched down, efficiently picking up the cards from the ground and tucking them into my hand. “Give me the child.” Hernandez’s tone was calm, carrying a force that left no room for doubt. He stretched out his strong arms and steadily took Juliet from me. His broad shoulders instantly blocked the bone-chilling draft in the hall. “Go sit on that chair over there and wait for me, and I’ll pay the fees.” Watching his back as he strode toward the window, my nerves, which had been stretched to the point of snapping, finally found a little room to breathe. Hernandez ran back and forth, and in less than ten minutes, all the procedures were completed. Outside the operating room, a nurse came out holding a form. “Family member, come sign.” I rushed forward and picked up the pen, but my hand shook so badly that I could not hold it, and the tip drew a messy ink mark across the paper. Hernandez came over, and his warm, broad hand lightly covered my wrist. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here. It’s a routine surgery, and Juliet will be fine.” His voice was low and firm. The warmth of his palm miraculously suppressed my panic. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, and signed my name. The red light outside the operating room came on. The moment the heavy doors slowly closed, the last breath I had been forcing myself to hold was instantly drained away. My legs went weak, and I slid down the cold wall to sit on the floor. In my line of sight, a cup of steaming hot tea appeared. Hernandez crouched in front of me and tucked the paper cup into my icy hands. “Drink some hot water.” He did not ask why I had brought my child to the emergency room alone in the middle of the night, and he did not ask where my husband had gone. He only stood quietly to the side, blocking the cold wind in the hallway for me. Through the warm paper cup, my tears silently fell onto the back of my hand. When I was at my most helpless and most desperate, while Juliet lay on the operating table and her life was uncertain, my husband had his phone off and was in the neighboring city with someone else’s child. And the person who gave me the last bit of support was actually a high school classmate I had not seen in years. At that moment, the ruins in my heart named Sinclair completely turned to ash. Sinclair, everything between us was over.
The next afternoon, Juliet’s fever finally went down, and she fell into a deep sleep. Hernandez had hired a caregiver in the morning and brought over hot porridge, and he had just returned to his company to handle an urgent matter. I tucked Juliet’s blanket in and carried the empty thermos into the hallway to get hot water. Just as I reached the corner, a sweet, delicate voice slipped into my ears. “Sinclair, Brooks’s cough still isn’t getting better, and I’m really afraid it will turn into pneumonia, because he’s been weak since he was little…” My steps halted. Not far away, at the entrance to the VIP pediatric clinic, Sinclair was carefully draping his coat over Brooks. Margaret held a medical record booklet and leaned against his side with red eyes. Sinclair’s eyes were filled with distress as he reached out and touched Brooks’s forehead. “Don’t be afraid, I’ve already booked the specialist appointment. With me here, nothing will happen to Brooks.” What a touching family of three. I stood beside the water dispenser and coldly watched this tragic little performance. Maybe my gaze was too sharp, because Sinclair turned his head and met my eyes. He froze at first and subconsciously let go of Brooks’s hand. But immediately after that, he frowned, strode toward me, and spoke with a tone full of defensiveness and interrogation. “Samuel? Why are you at the hospital? Are you following me?” I almost laughed from anger. “Sinclair, do you have some kind of persecution complex?” Only then did he notice the thermos in my hand and my bloodshot eyes. He froze for a moment, and his tone softened slightly. “Are you sick? Why didn’t you call me?” “It’s Juliet.” I looked at him coldly. “She had acute appendicitis last night and just had surgery.” Sinclair’s face changed abruptly. Margaret, who was standing not far away, heard this and immediately clicked over in her high heels, covering her mouth as she exclaimed. “Oh my, how did Juliet get so seriously ill?” “Samuel, honestly, why didn’t you tell Sinclair earlier?” “Look at how much misunderstanding this caused.” In just a few sentences, she placed all the blame on me. As expected, Sinclair took the way out she offered, felt that he had lost face, and immediately lost his temper at me. “Samuel! Juliet having surgery is such a big thing, so why did you hide it from me?” “Were you trying to make me look irresponsible on purpose?” Looking at his ugly face as he blamed me instead, I did not argue hysterically like I used to. I only stepped closer and stared hard into his eyes. “Tell you? I called you twenty times last night! To avoid me, you turned off your phone.” “Sinclair, when you were accompanying them to watch a children’s play, did you ever think about Juliet trembling in pain on the operating table?” Sinclair was exposed in public, and his face turned blue and white by turns. He stiffened his neck and argued in shame and anger. “My phone was dead!” “Besides, appendicitis isn’t some terminal illness, and once it’s removed, isn’t it fine?” “Do you need to yell in the hospital hallway? Didn’t you see Brooks still has a high fever?” In his eyes, Juliet having her abdomen cut open for surgery could not compare to someone else’s son having a little cold. Looking at the man in front of me, I suddenly felt that saying even one more word would be a waste of breath. “Yes, appendicitis isn’t a terminal illness.” I tugged at the corner of my mouth, and my voice was as cold as ice. “Your Brooks sneezing is the terminal illness that needs the whole city to come rescue him.” “Samuel, don’t talk in that sarcastic tone!” Sinclair was completely enraged, and he pulled Margaret and Brooks behind him to protect them. “I only missed your calls, and you have to keep holding on to it, don’t you?” “You’re completely unreasonable! Margaret, let’s go!” He turned around in a rage, without even the thought of asking which ward Juliet was in. Margaret looked back at me, and a hint of smug provocation flashed in her eyes before she held Brooks’s hand and followed him. I stood where I was and watched them disappear at the end of the hallway. The fire in my heart that had once been called hope had completely turned into dead ash. I filled the thermos with hot water, turned around, and walked back to the ward with firm steps.
On the third day after Juliet was discharged from the hospital, she held up her body, which had not fully recovered yet, and sat at her desk assembling a model airplane. It was the project she had prepared for half a month for the science and innovation contest, and even when she had been in the hospital, hurting so badly that she broke out in cold sweat, she had still been clutching the blueprints in her hand. “Mom, only the tail wing is left.” A faint smile finally appeared on her pale little face as she carefully held the plane. I was just about to praise her when the front door was shoved open with a bang. Sinclair swaggered in with Margaret and Brooks. Margaret carried a bag of discounted oranges, smiling so sweetly it felt fake. “Samuel, Sinclair insisted that Juliet was out of the hospital and dragged us over to see her.” I looked at them coldly and did not respond. But Brooks was like a wild dog off its leash, shaking off Margaret and rushing straight toward Juliet’s half-open bedroom door. “Big plane! I want to play!” His eyes lit up as he pounced and tried to snatch it by force. Juliet was so scared that she hid backward, shielding the model in her arms with all her strength. “No! This is for my competition!” “Give it to me! I want it!” Brooks reached out and started yanking. During the struggle, Brooks tripped over his own feet and fell onto his butt. He froze for one second, then immediately howled at the top of his lungs. “Mom! Uncle Sinclair! She hit me!” Sinclair heard the commotion and rushed into the room with a dark face. He did not ask what had happened at all, and he grabbed Juliet’s wrist and yanked her outward. “What are you doing!” I rushed over like a madwoman to protect Juliet. But it was still too late. Sinclair had already snatched the model airplane into his hands. He lowered his head and glanced at Brooks, who was throwing a tantrum and rolling on the floor, and to coax him, he gripped the body of the plane with both hands and snapped it hard without hesitation. With a crack, a piercing sound of breaking rang out. Juliet’s half-month of hard work and its precise structure were instantly broken into several pieces. “Don’t cry, Brooks, I’ll let you play with it.” Sinclair threw the wreckage into Brooks’s arms like he was throwing trash. Brooks instantly stopped crying, grabbed the broken wing, and smashed it wildly against the floor while letting out shrill laughter. I was so angry that my whole body trembled, and I pointed at the mess on the floor and roared. “Sinclair, are you sick? That was Juliet’s competition project that she has to submit tomorrow!” Sinclair patted his hands, his face full of impatience. “What’s the big deal? It’s just some broken plastic toy, so can’t she make another one?” “She has to submit it tomorrow! How do you expect her to make another one?” “That’s your problem!” His brows were tightly knitted, and he glared at me as if he were completely justified. “Brooks wanted to play with it, so what’s wrong with letting him play with it?” “He doesn’t have a dad and is already pitiful enough, so isn’t it only natural for Juliet to give in a little when she’s older?” “Is this how you usually teach your child to be selfish?” Looking at this self-righteous man in front of me, I only found it absurd beyond belief. I suddenly turned back to look at Juliet, afraid that after just having surgery, she would not be able to handle this kind of blow. But Juliet did not cry. She did not shed a single tear, and she did not even argue loudly. She only stood there quietly, staring at the crushed parts on the floor, her eyes as hollow as a dry well. Then she walked around Sinclair, went to the corner, and picked up the broom. “Juliet…” My throat tightened. Without saying a word, she lowered her head, swept the fragments little by little into the dustpan, then walked to the trash can and dumped them all inside. After doing all this, she lifted her head and swept her gaze over Sinclair as if she were looking at a dead object, her childish voice cold enough to pierce bone. “Mom, it’s okay. Trash belongs in the trash can anyway.” Sinclair froze after being stabbed by that look, and he opened his mouth to curse, but the words got stuck in his throat. Looking at Juliet’s thin yet determined back, the string in my heart that had been pulled tight for six years finally snapped completely. Together with this rotten marriage, it was swept into the trash can. I did not want to endure this for even one more second. I was going to take my Juliet and leave this disgusting place.
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