Chapter 1

Just because my son poured a glass of cold water for the coughing bodyguard, my wife immediately declared he was trying to hurt someone:

“Don’t you know cold water makes a cough worse? You’re so young and already trying to harm people. What will you become when you grow up?”

My wife grounded Leo and locked him in his room for 24 hours, saying she needed to teach him a lesson.

I begged her desperately, explaining that our son had a high fever and urgently needed medical attention. I told her to punish me instead.

But Quinn scoffed dismissively:

“You’ve spoiled him rotten, letting him run wild. And now he’s faking illness to escape punishment? He needs to be locked up for two more days to learn some discipline.”

She was afraid I’d cause trouble, so she locked me in a different room. I slammed myself against the door, not caring about the consequences, but it was too late. Leo died right there, his high fever untreatable.

Three days later, as I was packing up Leo’s belongings, Quinn returned from a trip with the bodyguard. She was in a cheerful mood, plucking a single rose from the massive bouquet of 999 roses she’d received from him and handing it to me:

“Stop acting. So what if he was grounded for a few days? What could possibly happen? At worst, I’ll take you two on a trip in a couple of days and cheer him up.”

But she had no idea our son was dead. And I knew, then and there, that I couldn’t spend another day of my life with her.