Chapter 3

After deciding to divorce, I clearly knew I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, fight for Stockton’s custody.

After all, I temporarily lacked the ability to provide him with educational resources comparable to the Williams family. For this, I specifically set aside half a month, hoping to spend more time with him.

Stockton’s first wish was to visit Monkey Mountain Zoo again.

Tickets there were only two dollars, and the facilities were rudimentary. When David and I were broke, we often took him there to play.

This wish wasn't hard to fulfill, but I didn't expect to run into David and Addison there.

“Ms. Scarlett, did you find out David and I were here and follow us deliberately?”

Addison's eyes held thinly veiled contempt as she scanned Stockton and me. “And you even brought your child to compete for attention. How pathetic…”

She could speak so carelessly because she knew David would support her.

In the past, I would have certainly engaged her in a war of words.

But now that I had decided to leave, who David liked or who he brought to relive memories had nothing to do with me.

I calmly lowered my eyes, ignoring David's implied warning and impatient gaze behind her, and led Stockton around them.

But I underestimated Addison’s malice.

As I was feeding the monkeys, Addison grabbed a small monkey’s paw and violently threw it off the fence.

The mother monkey was enraged and immediately attacked us.

I barely dodged its claws, and before I could steady myself, Addison shoved me hard from behind, sending me sprawling towards the fence.

I quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her in with me.

Addison’s sharp screams echoed in my ears. When we were rescued, both our necks and arms were covered in monkey scratches.

“David…” Addison, like an aggrieved child, threw herself into David’s arms, exposing the marks on her wrist from where I pulled her.

“I just said a few words to Ms. Scarlett, and she retaliated by pulling me down too… I’m in so much pain…”

David held her, gently patting and coaxing her. The tenderness and warmth in his eyes, when they landed on me, turned into suppressed anger and disappointment: “Scarlett, apologize!”

He just believed her…

Without even needing to hear my explanation, he was convinced I was to blame.

A prolonged, stinging pain rose in my heart, making my fingertips tremble.

“I won’t apologize,” I suppressed the ache in my heart, raising my eyes to firmly confront David. “She pushed me first; she got what she deserved.”

“Truly the daughter of a murderer, lying without batting an eyelid,” David’s eyes were so cold they seemed devoid of emotion.

“Addison is only nineteen. Though a bit childish, she's inherently pure-hearted, unlike your twisted, calculating mind!”

Those words were like a sharp knife, piercing deep into my heart.

Indeed, those who once loved each other know best where to stab to inflict the most pain.

It was David who, when I was shamed about my background, once cupped my face and earnestly told me:

“Scarlett is the best Scarlett. You're not just someone's daughter. I know better than anyone what kind of person you are.”

Now it was him, in front of our child, returning that very humiliation to me.

Humiliation and stinging pain collided in my chest. I finally couldn't bear it anymore, my eyes red as I questioned him aloud:

“Do you have any shame saying that, David? She's nineteen, so she can't harm anyone?”

“But I was only seventeen when I was with you! Was I born evil?!”

“I have no shame? You were seventeen when you got with me, so you had a lot of shame, did you? If you had any shame, would you have thrown yourself at me?”

David spoke slowly, every word punctuated, the contempt in his eyes tearing away my last shred of dignity.

In that instant, it felt like a thousand arrows pierced my heart.

Those words hurt too much. So much that I could barely stand, my face instantly turning deathly pale, my mind completely blank.

What David said was true.

When I was seventeen, I escaped that hellish home with him, avoided the fate of being married off by my mother for money, and successfully got into college.

Because I felt so insecure, I proactively tried to hold onto him by giving myself to him.

Back then, David didn't touch me. He held me all night, his tears burning my heart, making it ache.

He told me again and again that I didn't need to do that, that he would cherish me and be good to me for life.

Now… to protect another woman, he actually used that incident to mock me…