Her Tiny Hand Chose My Freedom

In the middle of the night, after finally managing to put Clementine to sleep, I had just closed my eyes when the sound of laughter and flirtation suddenly drifted in from the next room.

"You know I can't stand being away from you for even half a day, so why did you deliberately give me the silent treatment?" Shawn asked.

"That's what you get for sticking up for that old hag and forgetting all about your friends," Nancy replied, her voice uncharacteristically coquettish and petulant.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Sorry about what?"

"About… letting you go half a day without seeing me?"

"That's it? Aren't you going to make it up to me somehow? Shawn, I'm not as easy to brush off as that old hag of yours."

"How about this, then? Satisfied?"

"Shawn, you dog. Take it easy—if you leave marks, you'll be hearing from me!"

The man who had sworn that Nancy and he were just good friends now seemed to be pouring out all his pent-up frustration and desire in one go.

The sound of the headboard slamming against the wall, Shawn's heavy breathing, and Nancy's screams crashed into my ears one after another.

At the same time, an unknown number sent me a photo. In the image, Shawn's profile was buried in the crook of Nancy's neck, her bare shoulders covered in provocative scratch marks.

I clutched my phone, my knuckles turning white. Even though I had long steeled myself for this, the moment I saw it with my own eyes, it still felt as if thousands of needles were piercing my heart.

I didn't know how I made it through the night, nor did I know when I finally cried myself to sleep.

It wasn't until Clementine's heart-wrenching wails jolted me awake, and I snapped my eyes open to see Nancy standing right in front of the crib. She was shoving something into Clementine's mouth.

Clementine kept throwing up, white foam spilling from her lips.

I instantly lost it.

I lunged forward and yanked Nancy away from the crib. She stumbled to the ground, and I threw myself on top of her, slapping her repeatedly.

"You evil woman! What did you do to Clementine?"

The next second, a tremendous force hurled me off Nancy. The moment my back hit the floor, I heard the sound of bones cracking.

"Karina, have you lost your mind?"

Shawn stood shielding Nancy behind him, looking at me as if I were some unreasonable lunatic.

"Why did you hit Nancy? She was only trying to feed Clementine some milk!"

I braced myself against the edge of the table and struggled to my feet, staring at him in utter disbelief.

"Are you sure she was feeding Clementine, and not trying to harm her? Have you forgotten about the last time she put a dead rat under Clementine's blanket? Or is it because she slept with you last night that you don't even want Clementine anymore?"

Before I had even finished speaking, he slapped me hard right across the face.

"You are absolutely impossible! What has Nancy ever done to you for you to keep slinging mud at her like this?"

I stared at Shawn in disbelief, feeling as if someone had gouged a hole straight through my heart.

There was nothing left to say.

Clenching my jaw, I scooped Clementine up and turned to leave.

Half an hour later, after calming Nancy down, Shawn searched the entire hospital but couldn't find any trace of Clementine and me.

Only when his patience had completely run dry did he finally send me a text.

"I don't have time to play hide-and-seek with you. The day after tomorrow is Nancy's birthday. Come apologize and we'll put everything that happened before behind us."

I didn't reply. Instead, I boarded a plane with Clementine in my arms.

Two days later, Shawn booked out an entire restaurant to throw Nancy an extravagantly grand birthday party.

"Shawn, is Karina still mad at me? Is that why she won't even come to my birthday party?"

Nancy, perched on her stiletto heels, lazily brushed her long legs against Shawn.

"As if she would ever dare to do that. She's nothing but a lowly flower vendor. Does she really think she's climbed her way up into high society?"

"Shawn, we agreed today that you have to make Karina get down on her knees and apologize to Nancy."

"We can't just let what happened at Clementine's birthday party and at the hospital slide."

Meanwhile, Shawn saw that his messages had been read but not replied to. With a frown, he sent me one final warning.

"Karina, my patience has its limits—"

But before he could even finish typing, his phone and the phones of everyone else there all buzzed at once.

Everyone instinctively tapped to open it.

Then, every single face in the room turned ashen in unison.

"W-What is this?"