Chapter 2

Countdown Day 10.

I'd just finished a six-hour emergency surgery and dragged my exhausted body home.

As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I froze.

The front door was wide open, and I could hear moving workers shouting inside.

I hurried in, and the scene before my eyes made my blood run cold.

The living room was a mess. Several workers were carrying the piano out of Nina's study.

Luke stood to the side in casual clothes, directing them.

"Be careful, don't scratch the edges. This piano's expensive."

That was the Steinway piano I'd saved up three years' worth of night shift pay to buy for Nina's fifth birthday.

Nina polished it every single day, treating it like her most precious possession.

"Luke, what are you doing?"

I walked over with a cold face, blocking the workers.

Luke saw me come home early, and a flash of guilt crossed his eyes, but it was quickly covered by self-righteousness.

"Don't make trouble here."

"Linda just rented a new place. Ryan's being teased at school for not having a dad. The doctor said learning piano could heal his psychological trauma."

He paused.

"Linda's raising a kid alone—it's not easy. She can't afford a piano this nice."

"Nina hasn't been playing much lately anyway. We'll just lend it to Ryan for a bit."

I listened to his absurdly twisted logic and laughed in anger.

Using his biological daughter's treasure to fill another child's wounds?

How could he make such blatant favoritism sound so reasonable?

If this were before, I definitely would have rushed over and fought with him to keep the piano.

Instead, I took out my phone, opened the video function, and recorded the workers' movements and Luke's face.

"What are you recording?"

Luke frowned and stepped forward to grab my phone.

I stepped back, avoiding his hand.

"Keeping evidence."

"This is marital property. You're privately transferring it to an outsider. I have the right to record it."

Luke's face darkened.

"Mia, why have you become so cold and calculating?"

"That's Sean's son!"

"Sean died saving me! It's just a damn piano. Do you really need to be so petty?"

He pulled out his phone and transferred five thousand dollars to me.

"Fine, consider this me buying it out."

"Just go buy Nina a cheaper electric keyboard to practice on."

With that, he directed the workers to carry the piano out.

The door closed. I looked at the empty study and felt suffocated.

Not long after, Nina came home from school.

She walked to the study door with her backpack and stopped.

The space where the piano had been was empty, leaving only four indentations on the wooden floor.

Nina didn't cry or ask me where the piano went.

She just silently walked back to her room and opened the composition book Luke had crumpled.

She picked up her pencil and quietly wrote a fourth essay.

The title was "My Dead Dad Took My Piano Away Too."

I stood outside the door watching my daughter's thin silhouette, my eyes stinging.

My phone vibrated.

I opened SnapChat—it was a post from Linda's feed.

In the photo, Ryan sat at that piano, smiling brightly.

The caption read: Ryan finally has his first piano. Thank you to dearest Captain Luke for giving us mother and son the light to live.

Below it was Luke's like.

I stared at that photo for a long time, then finally liked it too.

I switched out of SnapChat and opened my banking app, paying the full balance on the house in my transfer location all at once.

Right after I completed the payment, Luke sent a text.

[Once Ryan's emotions stabilize, I'll take leave next weekend and take Nina to Disneyland to make it up to her.]

[Stop teaching our kid to hold grudges.]

I looked at the word "make it up" on the screen and sneered mockingly.

I didn't reply.

He didn't know there would be no next weekend.