Chapter 2

The pouring rain fell, and within a minute, I was completely soaked. After running for several kilometers, I finally found a shared bicycle. I wiped it off and headed straight to my daughter’s school.

When I arrived, my daughter saw me drenched from head to toe and burst into tears with a loud cry. I held her tightly, my heart aching, comforting and coaxing her, “Mom was just playing in the water earlier, haha, it’s okay, don’t cry.”

Ms. Colter, seeing me like this, didn’t say anything more, just instructed, “Lia thought just now that her parents didn’t want her and cried for a long time; her voice became hoarse, so make her some pear soup when she gets home.”

I thanked her gratefully and sent her a gift. The rain had also stopped at this time, and I successfully took a taxi back home.

Just as I opened the door, Joaquín rushed out of the bedroom anxiously. He started off by saying, “Why did you come back so late? What were you doing outside with our daughter?”

I was soaked all over, and the accumulated rainwater flowed down the hem of my clothes onto the floor. Suppressing my anger, I pushed my daughter into the room first, and then turned around and gave him a hard slap.

“Are you fit to be a father? You even forgot to pick up your daughter, and she stayed alone in the kindergarten until after nine o’clock today!”

Joaquín looked at me incredulously. This was the first time I hit him, but he also knew that he was in the wrong. A trace of guilt flashed in his eyes as he stammered, “I originally intended to go, but I gradually… Lia cried so hard that I couldn’t catch my breath. I thought that if I didn’t go, there would still be you.”

He gained confidence as he spoke and started blaming me, saying, “If it weren’t for your big mouth that angered Nyla, would I need to coax her?”

He became more and more excited and aggressively said, “You don’t know, we were childhood sweethearts, but you stole her place. If it wasn’t for you, she wouldn’t be living such a miserable life now. Is it wrong for me to give her a wedding, even if it’s not real? What’s your problem?”

I stared at him blankly, as if I had just realized his true face at that moment.

Joaquín came from the mountains, and Nyla was the arranged doll bride in his family. Later, he got admitted to college, left the mountains, and became my father’s student. Although Joaquín, the young boy, was poor, he was handsome and diligent in his studies. I fell in love with him at first sight and embarked on a passionate pursuit.

From beginning to end, he never told me that he had an arranged marriage for Nyla. Instead, he blamed me for all of Nyla’s misfortunes. He was truly a selfish and cruel man.

I smiled indifferently and said, “Then let’s get divorced, and I wish you a happy wedding today.” These were words I would never have said before, but at this moment, they made me feel incredibly relieved. It felt as if a burden had been lifted.

Joaquín’s face instantly froze. His gaze fell on my face as he pondered whether I was acting. I was too lazy to argue with him, so I sneered and said, “No need to hurry, we’ll leave tomorrow.” However, Joaquín unexpectedly turned his head. It seemed like he didn’t want to continue this topic, so he ran into the house as if escaping.

Gao Sheng said, “I brought gifts for you and Lia, do you like them?”

Lia heard there was a gift and she ran out happily like a little sparrow. “Dad, what did you buy for me?”

Joaquín smiled as he took out a cake and a necklace from inside the house. “For you.”

Lia happily took it, because her father had never bought her a cake before. But the next second, the smile on her face slowly disappeared.