No More Chances

When my husband, a college professor, suddenly asked to sleep in separate rooms, I knew he had developed feelings for one of his female students. Then that student hit our seven-year-old son with her car, leaving him paralyzed. I gave Cedric Langley two choices. Either send her to prison, or make sure she never graduated and force her to spend the rest of her life paying for what she'd done. But when Cedric came home, he dropped to his knees beside me, his eyes rimmed red. "She was so ashamed that she took her own life. I'll never betray you or our child again." He smashed the student's gravestone, burned everything connected to her, and became the devoted husband and father he had once been. Three years after our son was paralyzed, I happened to see a file open on Cedric's computer. "100 Reconciliation Coupons: Usage History." "Coupon No. 100: Forgive Elara for her unintended mistake and help her evade legal punishment." A loud buzz exploded inside my head. Elara Beaumont—the woman who should have been burning in hell for what she had done—was actually his teaching assistant, Evelyn Montrose, living under a new name. One reconciliation coupon was enough for him to completely forgive the woman who had left our son paralyzed. But there was something Cedric did not know. That very day, the last reconciliation coupon between us had just been used up. Chapter 1 The Truth Beneath the Grave "Ms. Beaumont didn't actually die. She changed her name to Evelyn Montrose and is now working as a teaching assistant at Kingsley University…" The moment the staff member told me the truth, it felt as though all the blood in my body had suddenly run cold. For years, I had lived beneath the shadow of two things. My son, who had been paralyzed in an accident. And Elara, who had supposedly taken her own life out of guilt. Every year, I went to her grave to pay my respects, trying to let go of the resentment I carried inside. I stroked my son's increasingly wasted arm. It felt as though a wire had wrapped tightly around my heart, squeezing until I could barely breathe. He was still so young, yet he would have to spend the rest of his life confined to a bed. And his father had casually forgiven the person who had done this to him, all because of a single reconciliation coupon. I opened Cedric's computer again, and a news link popped up. "Kingsley University Teaching Assistant Evelyn Montrose Wins Best Teaching Assistant Award, Personally Presented by Her Mentor, Professor Cedric Langley." Evelyn had changed more than just her name. She looked completely different from the woman I remembered. At every faculty gathering, she called me "Mrs. Langley," and I had always greeted her warmly in return. I never imagined my real enemy had been standing right in front of me all along, while I remained completely unaware. As the camera swept across the room, familiar faces filled the screen. The person standing below the stage, holding Evelyn's coat, was my own older brother. The same lawyer who had helped me handle the case back then. And the woman sitting in a wheelchair, wiping away her tears, was Cedric's grandmother, who suffered from dementia. All these years, he had been off living the life he wanted, while I stayed home and took care of his elderly grandmother, whose mind was no longer clear. Everyone knew Evelyn was Elara. I was the only one kept in the dark. I stared at the screen, trembling so violently I could barely hold myself together. It was not until Cedric called that I finally snapped back to reality. "Why are you taking so long with our son this time? Did something happen?" I clenched my fist until my palm was bloody, but I did not feel the pain. I only managed a curt reply. "I'm fine." Cedric seemed relieved. Then, as he always did, he tried to comfort me. "She's already gone. What she did is in the past now. Stop punishing yourself over it." I had once naively believed he was telling me to let go. Now I realized he had simply been making excuses for Evelyn's crimes, over and over again. … After hanging up, I pulled out the divorce agreement he had signed. He had once told me that once all one hundred reconciliation coupons were used up, our marriage would automatically be dissolved. The promises he had once made to me had somehow become my only way out. I filled in the last blank. Then, I signed my name. Finally, I looked at my sleeping son. "I'll take you away with me. Okay?" Chapter 2 The Woman Who Came Back Driven by years of hatred, I followed the address in the post to the awards ceremony. Evelyn—the woman who should have been in hell paying for her sins—was standing onstage in a stunning gown, delivering her acceptance speech. "Professors, fellow students, thank you all so much for supporting my work. And most of all, I want to thank my mentor, Professor Langley. He was the one who gave me…" The moment she saw me, her smile slowly disappeared. Everyone in the room turned to look at me. Cedric nervously grabbed my arm. "You can't come in without an invitation. You need to leave—" I slapped him across the face and screamed, "How much longer are you going to keep lying to me? She's Elara!" The room erupted in an uproar. Evelyn timidly stepped backward, and Cedric quickly moved between us, lowering his voice. "Adeline, we'll talk about this when we get home. Be good." I stared at him with bloodshot eyes as though he were a complete stranger. I wanted to ask him how he could calmly coax me into pretending I had not seen any of this. Before I could say anything, his students began gathering around me, speaking up indignantly. "Mrs. Langley, it's been so long. I think it's time you let this go." "You have no idea how much Evelyn has done for Professor Langley all these years. She's helped him finish one paper after another, and she takes care of him, too. You're just a housewife. Stop holding him back." I opened my mouth, but no words came out. The students who used to call me "Mrs. Langley" at every turn had apparently always seen me as nothing more than a parasite. Just then, Cedric's grandmother, who suffered from dementia, was wheeled over in her wheelchair. "Evelyn is my grandson's wife. Whenever she comes to visit, she sits and talks with me. Not like you. You're always crying at the hospital. You drive me crazy." Every day, I changed her diapers, turned her over, and cleaned her body. I had cared for her more devotedly than the three caregivers before me. And yet, all of it still could not compare to a few sweet words from Evelyn. Then, my brother stepped forward and spoke to me earnestly. "What's done is done. There's no point pursuing it anymore. The statute of limitations has expired, and the surveillance footage is no longer available. "Cedric couldn't bear to see Evelyn go to prison when she was his student. Once I agreed to help them, I had to see it through. You're my sister. Do you really want to see me lose my job?" I had trusted my only brother. I had entrusted my son's case to him, believing he would give me a fair and just resolution. Instead, he had simply dragged things out until all the evidence became unusable, ensuring Evelyn could live the rest of her life carefree. Cedric reached up and wiped the tears from the corner of my eye. "Maybe it's better that you know. Having to keep this secret buried all these years has been exhausting for me, too. Our son is already paralyzed. Sending Evelyn to prison won't change anything. "Besides, it was an unintentional mistake. And she's currently going through an academic promotion review. She can't afford to have anything on her record. You understand that, don't you?" He kept Evelyn firmly shielded behind him as everyone else looked at me warily. As if I were the monster everyone had to fear. I stood there as the emotions churning inside me slowly ebbed away, leaving me without even the strength to make another scene. "Cedric, we should get div—" Before I could finish, the hospital suddenly called. The voice on the other end was urgent. "Your child has a high fever that hasn't come down. Please come to the hospital as soon as possible!" Chapter 3 When Forgiveness Ran Out When we rushed to the hospital, our son had already been wheeled into the operating room for emergency surgery. Halfway through the procedure, the doctor came out, his expression grave. "His condition is extremely unstable. All I can do is try my best to keep his vital signs stable." My knees gave out. I caught myself against the wall, barely managing to stay upright. Evelyn said timidly, "This is all my fault…" "Of course it is!" I could not take it anymore. I shoved her, nearly spent from everything that had happened. "If you two hadn't gotten together behind my back, my son wouldn't be lying in there!" The next second, Cedric grabbed me and pulled me away, his expression darkening. "This is a hospital, not a place for you to cause a scene! And she's about to be evaluated for a promotion. Can you stop dragging up the past?" When he saw my bloodshot eyes, he added, "At worst, we'll use another reconciliation card and put this behind us." From the very first day of our marriage, Cedric had given me one hundred reconciliation coupons. He had also given me a promise I could never refuse. "No one in this world has the right to bully you. Not even me." He had signed the divorce papers with complete confidence, and the agreement gave me the strongest financial protection possible. At first, it had been things like showing up late for dates and forgetting our anniversaries. Then, it escalated to cheating and covering for the person responsible for the state our son was in. What Cedric did not know was that all one hundred reconciliation cards had been used up. There was no future left for us. Cedric thought I had agreed to let it go. He kept trying to persuade me for a while longer before finally taking a phone call. "There are still some things we need to take care of at school. Call me if anything happens to our son." I sat alone in the freezing hospital hallway until, at last, the light above the operating room went out. "Ms. Rosenthal, the surgery was successful, but he'll need to be monitored in the ICU for two days." Through the thick glass, I could see him lying there quietly. Just as he had for the past three years. He could not run or jump, but he was still fully conscious. That was the most painful part. I sat outside the ICU, keeping watch with my eyes open until dawn. … It was not until the next day that Cedric finally sent his first message. "Is our son out of surgery? Is everything okay? There was a problem with Evelyn's promotion materials. I need to help her get everything sorted out." I stared blankly at the screen before turning off my phone. Suddenly, a piercing alarm shrieked from inside the ICU. Doctors and nurses rushed into the room. A few minutes later, a young nurse came running out. "He's having trouble breathing. He urgently needs special medication to keep his vital signs stable. It's very expensive—$500,000 a dose, and he needs three doses." "Okay… Okay." I immediately handed over our family savings card and followed the nurse in a daze to the payment counter. But after checking the card, the clerk handed it back to me. "Could there have been a mistake? There's no balance on this account." My mind went completely blank. I immediately had someone pull the bank records. There were two major withdrawals—one for a suburban mansion, and another transferred directly to Evelyn. With trembling hands, I called Cedric. He sounded annoyed. "You checked my bank records?" "Our son's condition got worse, and I didn't have enough money to pay his medical bills. What else was I supposed to do?" My voice was hoarse. Cedric instantly grew impatient. "Do you really have to lie over a little money? Evelyn hasn't had an easy time these past few years. I was her professor once, so I have to help her. I can't just stand by and watch her end up homeless. "And she needed money to help secure her promotion, so I used it for that first. I'll transfer it back in a month. It won't delay our son's medical expenses." He hung up. When I called again, I could not get through. I had no choice but to beg everyone I could for money, humiliating myself however I had to. Finally, I managed to come up with enough for all three doses. But when I stumbled back to the hospital, a document immediately caught my eye on the table in my son's room. It was a euthanasia consent form. Chapter 4 The Final Hour There, unmistakably, was Cedric's personal seal. The sheer absurdity of it hit me like a blow. I took the consent form to the doctor. He could only sigh. "It's true. The lawyer came in with the child's father's seal and submitted the euthanasia request. All the paperwork is in order. If you don't consent, you have three hours to discuss it with the child's father. He has to come in personally to withdraw the request." My heart stopped. For a moment, I did not even know which way to turn. Time and again, friends and relatives had seen our son suffering and tried to hint that euthanasia might be kinder. "At least it would be a release for him." Cedric had always been the first to object. "That's my son. I can't just watch him die." So why had he suddenly agreed? Rage completely overwhelmed my reason. Clutching the consent form, I hurried home. … Cedric was in the kitchen making chicken soup, while Evelyn sat on the couch eating fruit. The moment he saw me, he hurried over and stepped between us, clearly afraid I would go after her. "I was the one who asked Evelyn to come here. Because… she's pregnant." A deafening roar exploded through my mind. The tears I had been holding back finally spilled down my cheeks. "So, you agreed to euthanize our son just to make room for your new child?" Cedric frowned. "What euthanasia?" There was only an hour left. I was frantic, barely able to think. "Come to the hospital with me and withdraw the request. If you don't, I swear I won't let either of you get away with this." "Enough!" His voice suddenly rose. "I'm keeping this baby for you! Ever since our son was hurt, you've refused to have another child, while he's stuck lying in that hospital bed. The baby Evelyn's carrying is going to be our child!" I staggered backward in disbelief. The same husband who had once insisted over and over that he wanted only one child was now plotting to replace our son with another. Just then, Evelyn cried out, "Professor Langley, my stomach suddenly hurts so much!" Cedric immediately rushed to her side to comfort her and called the family doctor. He did not spare me another glance. As I watched the clock tick relentlessly toward the deadline, I had no choice but to hurry back to the hospital and plead with the doctor. "I'm his mother. I'll find a lawyer right away. I can apply to have the request withdrawn too, can't I?" The doctor sighed helplessly. "The problem is that the patient himself has also consented to euthanasia. He's lost the will to go on living." "What?" As I stood there in utter shock, a surveillance video came through on my phone. At some point, Evelyn had made her way into our son's hospital room. Her pregnant belly was already prominent. "Look. Your dad's going to have a new son soon. He'll be so much better than a burden like you, lying helpless in that bed. Think about your mom, too. She's exhausted. "The truth is, she wanted to euthanize you a long time ago, but she didn't have the courage. I know you're a good boy. You might as well die." Our son, who had been unable to move for years, had a single tear slip from the corner of his eye. In despair, he nodded. At that very moment, the ICU alarm went off. The doctor walked over with the signed euthanasia consent form. "The euthanasia has been completed." My son was gone. … I held his urn in my arms. Then, with the surveillance footage saved on my phone, I called a criminal attorney. "I have a murder case. Will you take it?" Three hours later, Cedric hurried back to the hospital. When he walked into the room and saw the empty bed and the agreement lying on the table, the fruit basket in his hand slipped from his grip and crashed to the floor.