Drunk on Regret

I stared at the scene before, tears welling up in my eyes. Finally, I ran out.

As I rushed to the hospital, I called everyone I could think of. When I reached the last person on my list, I hesitated. It was my mentor, who had been furious about my decision to abandon my research and had not spoken to me since.

I did not know if she had changed her number, but thinking of my critically ill mother, I gritted my teeth and dialed it anyway.

"So, you actually remember my number?" Her familiar voice came through, and I immediately broke down.

"Professor Brown, could you help me find a cardiac specialist? My mom's condition is critical, and Marcus, he..."

"I can try to contact someone for you, but I can't guarantee anything."

After tearfully thanking Professor Brown, I rushed to the hospital. But by then, it was too late.

"I'm very sorry, Ms. Bennett. Your mother's condition deteriorated too suddenly... We did everything we could."

My legs gave out, and I collapsed to the floor. "How could this happen? My mom's condition was stable. How could it suddenly get worse?"

I walked to the morgue to see my mom, feeling all the life drained out of me. Her face still showed traces of pain. Had she been in agony when it happened?

My heart ached terribly, but I still managed to complete all the necessary paperwork with the hospital staff's guidance. As I watched my mom get cremated, tears finally fell.

The two most important people in my life were both gone now. I returned home carrying my mom's urn, finally giving up on Marcus completely.

"Professor Brown, I'm willing to join the medical research project next month."

Just as I was replying to Professor Brown's message, I heard a woman's laughter coming from inside the house. I hurried over and found Marcus playing with Hannah in our pool!

"Marcus, what are you doing?"

While I was dealing with everything alone, my husband was here fooling around with Hannah in our home, completely ignoring my mom!

When he saw me, his expression became unnatural. "Hannah's pregnant. I'm just keeping her company. Besides, your mother's illness isn't going to kill her anytime soon."

As he spoke, he noticed the urn in my hands. "What's that?"

"What else could it be? It's just a prop to scare you." Hannah scooped up pool water and splashed it at me.

I instinctively dodged but could only block some of the water.

"Hannah, stop! This isn't a prop! This is my mom's urn!"

"What urn? You're just jealous that I'm playing with Mark. Fine, I won't play with him today, okay?"

She climbed out of the pool and tried to grab my arm. Without thinking, I pulled away.

Hannah let herself fall to the ground, her eyes turning red. "Claire, if you have a problem with me, just say so. Why did you have to push me?"

Marcus noticed her scraped knee and flew into a rage. "Claire, you've gone too far! How could you treat a pregnant woman like this?"