Chapter 8 Ronan said he had something to tell me. I hesitated for a long time, but finally agreed. After all, he'd signed those divorce papers without knowing what they were. We'd never had a real conversation about any of this. I sent lan away and randomly walked into a restaurant. It had been months since I last saw him. He looked haggard, his stubble-ridden face carrying an unfamiliar caution. After a long pause, he forced a hopeful smile:" "Sherry... where's our baby?" I froze for a moment, following his gaze to my flat stomach. It took a second to realize he knew about the pregnancy. I answered calmly, "You kicked it away." My flat belly told him everything. Our child was long gone. And I saw something lost and guilty flickered in Ronan's eyes. When it comes down to it, the first child had been lost because of his young model mistress. And the second, he'd kicked our baby out of me. He should know how much I hated him. We sat across from each other at the table in silence. I suddenly felt exhausted and didn't want to talk to him anymore. So I grabbed my bag to leave, but he desperately caught my wrist. Ronan's voice was almost pleading: 'I'm sorry, Sherry. I was wrong." 'Let me make it up to you, okay? Next time, I'll be a good father." 'I... I know now. I misunderstood you back then. About my mom's cancer, you didn't know at first either." 'When you accidentally saw the test results, she threatened to kill herself if you told me." 'Why didn't you just explain?" 03:11 Three Deaths, One Divorce-Now You'll Pay with Your Endless Regret 3.9 Chapter 8 That last ridiculous question made me laugh bitterly. There he was again-in the end, everything was my fault. Even his misunderstanding me was my fault for not explaining. But I'd tried to explain back then. He just refused to listen. Thinking of his kind-hearted mother, I sighed and sat back down. Ronan's face lit up with hope. I avoided his eyes and fell into memories. "Ronan, your mom really wanted you to succeed." "Pancreatic cancer hurts like hell, but she forced herself to endure it. She even took painkillers in secret at home because she was afraid we'd notice. By the time I found out, it was too late." "You know what? When your mom was dying, I'd already dialed your number. But in her final moments, she smashed my phone and ordered me not to disturb your IPO launch." "Mothers really are incredible." "Your mom's dying wish was to see you succeed-mine was to see me escape the hell I was living in." Tears blurred my vision. Overwhelming anxiety made my whole body shake. I couldn't help but asked: "Ronan, I did everything I could to save your mother. How did you treat mine?" "How could you throw a terminally ill woman into the hallway with no medical equipment?!" I slammed the table and screamed at him! When I went to the morgue after my miscarriage to claim my mom's body, I finally learned how much she'd suffered at the end. No pain pump. No doctors, no nurses. The security guards nearby even punched her when she whimpered from the pain. In her final moments, she wanted to see me most and struggled to find me. But the guards just laughed: "Old lady? You mean your precious daughter? She's back home playing dog for our boss now." "Stop dreaming. You and your daughter are nothing but leeches, still playing the victim here. You think our boss is an idiot?" "What are you mad about? Why are you hitting the bed? Lady, don't you know how pathetic your daughter is? The 03:11 Three Deaths, One Divorce-Now You ́ll Pay with Your Endless Regret 29 Chapter 8 whole city's calling her a cuckold wife." "She's probably being a footstool for our boss and his girlfriends right now." "Rich people are different-living like kings. If I had money, I'd make sure put her in her place." Under this constant stream of shameless taunts, my mother bit through her oxygen tube and suffocated to death. By the end, I was already in tears: "Ronan Henstone, my mother, my two children-isn't that enough to make up for everything?!" Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Freelance photographer Violet Beck is forced into an engagement with CEO Roy Payne. He is everything her wild heart rebels against: proper, predictable, and painfully kind. But love has a way of devel...