Chapter 9
“No. That’s impossible. How could this be? You’re just trying to trick me, right, Annie? These invoices are all fake, right?” Zachary cried out.
Sneering, I replied, “Yes, of course. I’m just trying to trick
you.”
Exhaling in relief, Zachary protested, “How could you joke about something like that?
That’s too much! But you know, now that I think about it, it’s been a while since I last saw
Mom. Let me drop Gigi off, and we can visit Mom together.”
Gigi probably never expected Zachary to refuse to get a divorce. In fact, it even sounded like
he wanted to patch things up with me. Her smile was frozen on her face.
However, Zachary droned on without paying any attention to her. While speaking, he even got his phone out to call Marie.
Alas, when he heard the robotic voice informing him that the number he called wasn’t in service, he became well and truly agitated.
“The number’s not in service? How is that possible? Did Mom do something with her number?” Zachary asked, anxious to get an answer from me.
I simply smiled without speaking.
I knew it was a terrible feeling not to get the answers you desperately wanted, but that was what he used to do to me. This time, it was my turn to stand there and watch as he grew
more and more anxious over Marie’s situation.
Zachary started calling John, but the calls went unanswered. After hearing the busy tone for
the umpteenth time, he was hit with a belated realization. “Did Uncle John blacklist me?”
He soon made the connection to what happened a while back.
“Is it because I said he was putting on an act with you?” Zachary asked before a thought
occurred to him.
1/2
Chapter 9
His expression stiffened.
“Y–You guys weren’t lying that day, right? Something actually happened to Mom?”
+15 Bonus
I continued to eye him indifferently, but soon after that, John appeared at the courthouse entrance. Zachary immediately rushed over and asked, “Why are you here, Uncle John? Can you tell me what’s going on with Mom? I called her number but it’s apparently not in service. How is that possible?”
Ignoring Zachary, John came up to me. His eyes were red with grief as he asked, “Has the culprit been sentenced?”
Shaking my head, I replied, “Gigi was acquitted and released, Uncle John.”
“Gigi? Gigi Norris? She’s the one who hit Marie? It was that bastard Zachary who defended her, wasn’t it?” John snarled.
Turning to Zachary, he fumed, “You’re an ungrateful monster, Zachary! If I’d known this would’ve happened, I would’ve choked you to death when Marie gave birth to you!”
He was so infuriated that he stormed up to the frozen Zachary and kicked him. Zachary clutched his injury, wincing from the pain.
Still, he refused to give up. He grabbed John and asked, “You’re just kidding, right, Uncle John? Wasn’t it Annette’s mother who got into the accident?”
Seeing the terror in Zachary’s eyes, John ripped Zachary’s hand off finger by finger while growling, “Annette’s mother? She’s alive and well. It was your mother who got into the accident–your own mother, you heartless
bastard!”
