Her Heart Thief: My Son Was the Price

Everyone in Crowglade knows that my wife, Sophia Tuson, treats me and my son, Ashton Yates, as the apples of her eye. When I want to stargaze, she spends 100 million dollars to create an extravagant meteor shower for me. Ashton loves carousels, so she builds the biggest amusement park in the city and names it after him. She has never been stingy when it comes to showering us with love. When Ashton and I get into a car accident, Sophia hires a renowned medical team to save my life. Mustering what little strength I have left, I tell her to save Ashton first. Sophia's voice is thick with tears when she tells me that Ashton has already died of excessive bleeding on the way to the hospital. Overwhelmed by grief, I can't hold on anymore and faint. When I regain consciousness, I hear Sophia speaking with the doctor outside the door. "Mr. Ashton could have been saved, Ms. Tuson. Why did you just watch your son die without lifting a single finger to help him?" "The purpose of Ashton's existence is to save Harold's and my child," Sophia says nonchalantly. "I can't openly remove his heart and give it to Micah if he doesn't die. I've treated Gabriel and Ashton very well in the past few years. Now, it's their turn to repay me." It turns out that Sophia only treated me and Ashton so well because she wanted Ashton's heart in exchange for her kindness. She's the one who orchestrated the tragedy that befell us. If that's the case, I will grant her wish. Chapter 1 I heard my wife, Sophia Tuson, chuckle beyond the doors of the emergency room. "The lower half of Gabriel's body was severely damaged when he protected Ashton. We have no choice but to sacrifice his reproductive capabilities to save his life," she said. The doctor's voice was colored with shock when he said, "Ms. Tuson… Don't tell me that… Mr. Yates has already lost one child. He'll never get a chance to be a father again for the rest of his life if you do this. Aren't you being too cruel?" "Micah will be my only child in this life," Sophia replied calmly. "In compensation, Gabriel will be my husband for the rest of my life. Arrange the surgery as soon as possible. I'm going to look for Micah. He and Harold must need me by their sides right now. "Oh, that's right. Be careful during the surgery. My husband is scared of pain." I heard Sophia's footsteps fading into the distance in my daze. My hand that was resting by my side was a bloody mess. I couldn't stop the tears from spilling down my cheeks. It turned out that the wonderful wife and mother, whom I and my son, Ashton Yates, had been so proud of, had been nothing but a farce. The love that she gave us had been fake too. The only thing that was real was her scheme that had lasted for the past six years. Sophia had meticulously orchestrated the car accident to steal Ashton's heart away. My consciousness began to fade as the anesthetic was slowly injected into my veins. I could feel the cold machines being heartlessly hooked up to my body. The icy sensation caused me to have endless nightmares. I was in a pitch-black place in my nightmare. Ashton stood in the darkness with a gaping hole where his beating heart should have been. He reached out to me and cried, "Daddy… I'm in so much pain, Daddy." "Ash!" As I jolted awake from the nightmare, I realized that I was staring into Sophia's concerned eyes. "You're finally awake, honey," she said. "I was so scared that I was going to lose you too when you were unconscious for the last two days." She was shaking when she pulled me into her arms, saying, "I've already lost Ashton. I can't lose you too." My ear was pressed against her chest. Her hammering heartbeat almost made it seem as if she wasn't lying to me. "The doctor said that your lower half was damaged during the car accident, honey," she continued. "We might never be able to have children ever again. But it's okay. I'm content to just have you." Sophia sounded so sincere. In the past, I would have felt so grateful to be married to such a wonderful woman. However, in the heavily wounded and crippled state that I was in at that moment, her excellent acting only made me feel sick. I quietly pushed her away and asked, "Where's Ash? I want to see him." Chapter 2 Sophia's expression shifted. She rubbed the back of my hand and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, honey. I was worried that you would get upset if you saw Ashton's corpse, so I arranged for him to be cremated yesterday." I knew she didn't actually care if I got upset over seeing Ashton's corpse. She was just worried that I would notice that his heart had been removed from his chest. Suppressing my hatred, I looked at the crooked red bracelet circling Sophia's wrist. Ashton had given the bracelet to her. Sophia frequently suffered from insomnia before the accident, so Ashton asked one of his teachers to teach him how to make a bracelet. He then weaved one out of red string and mugwort, giving it to her after he was done. Sophia had stared at the bracelet that couldn't be considered pretty in shock. Her mouth fell open, but she didn't say a word for a long time. She only accepted the bracelet when Ashton called out to her, carefully slipping it onto her wrist. "Thank you, Ash," she said while hugging him. "I love it very much." Only then did I realize that while Ashton had been worried about Sophia's insomnia, the reason that she was losing sleep in the first place was because she had been planning the car crash to make it look like an accident. Sophia followed my line of sight and looked at the bracelet too. A complicated emotion flickered in her eyes before she covered the bracelet with her sleeve, saying, "I promise I'll do the same as you and spend the rest of my life missing Ash, honey." I looked down and didn't say another word. The only thing that I was grateful for was that Ashton believed that Sophia loved him till the very end of his life. However, I couldn't forget that she was the one who harmed him just because of that. I became determined to take revenge for him. I also planned to leave her since she was the culprit who hurt both of us. … Disliking the scent of disinfectant that was a constant presence in the hospital, Sophia took me home the next day. Truth be told, Sophia was a wonderful wife if I didn't know about her malicious true character. She personally prepared my meals for me, thoughtfully remembering all of my dietary restrictions. Worried that I would develop PTSD, she also massaged and soaked my feet in water every night. Three days after I returned home, she finally made up an excuse that there was an urgent matter at the company that needed her attention before leaving the house early in the morning. She hadn't locked her phone in time, giving me a chance to catch a glimpse of the message that her lover, Harold Cox, had sent her. "Micah keeps crying for his mother, Sophia. He refuses to calm down no matter how much I coax him." Sophia had rushed to her other son, Micah Cox's, side without hesitation just because he missed her. Meanwhile, Ashton died before he could even see her for the last time. I silently watched Sophia leave before making my way up to the third floor, standing in front of her study. We had been married for five years. Using the excuse that even married couples needed their personal space, she had installed a passcode lock on the study door. As expected, the door unlocked when I entered Harold's and Micah's birthdays. Their family portraits hung from all four walls of the spacious study. There were other photos of when she was pregnant and giving birth. There were also photos of Micah's one-month birthday celebration, his first tooth, and his first step. Sophia had recorded everything. Meanwhile, Ashton's pictures couldn't even fill a small photo album even though he had been alive for four years before his death. I flipped open Sophia's diary that was sitting on the desk. "May 20th. I told Harold that I had a surprise for him. Although I had expected him to be rendered speechless from excitement, I couldn't stop my tears from falling when I felt how he was shaking when he hugged me." "January 23rd. I've become a mother. I named him Micah Cox. He's so small. When I held him in my arms, I was briefly overwhelmed with the feeling that I wanted to give everything that I had to him and his father. However, the doctor told me that Micah had inherited Harold's congenital heart disease." "September 30th. I got married for Micah's sake. The groom wasn't Harold. I'll definitely be a good wife and mother, Harold." I could sense her incredible determination when I noticed how hard she had pressed the pen into the paper when she wrote the last entry, the paper nearly tearing from the pressure. Chapter 3 The corner of my lips curled up into a bitter smile. It turned out that, from Sophia's perspective, marrying me had been such a humiliating and burdensome experience. It was no wonder that when we received the pregnancy report five years ago, I had been over the moon with joy, while she had remained silent for a long time. She had then thanked me as if she had just completed an assignment. Sophia didn't hold Ashton after he was born. Instead, she coldly ordered the doctor to conduct a full-body checkup on him after only sparing a single glance at him, reminding the doctor to focus on checking his heart. The lights had been switched off on our wedding night. I only managed to get a good look at Sophia's face thanks to the moonlight streaming through the window. In the past, I assumed that she was just shy. But looking back on that night now, I realized that she probably kept the lights off because I wasn't the one she wanted to marry. The face that she wanted to see wasn't mine. Sophia wrote all sorts of things in her diary, but every entry was related to Harold and Micah. The latest entry was written a week ago. "Perhaps mugwort is effective for improving sleep quality. I had a good night's sleep. In my dream, I actually saw…" Sophia didn't describe what she saw in her dream. Truth be told, I also had no interest in knowing. I snapped photos of the diary entries and sent them to the private investigator I had hired. I then placed the diary back in its original spot. Sophia had just returned home when I left the study. A trace of panic flickered across her calm face when she noticed me descending from the third floor. "Why did you go upstairs?" she asked. "You're not fully recovered yet. You should stay in bed and rest more." I rejected her when she reflexively tried to support me, saying, "I got tired of lying in bed." Sophia stared at me, discreetly breathing out a sigh of relief when she didn't notice anything amiss with my expression. She pulled out the bag that she was holding behind her, saying, "I went to the Eastlane to buy your favorite desserts just for you, honey." It was true that I loved the desserts from Eastlane. However, Harold had posted a photo of the same desserts on his social media account five minutes ago. "A certain someone drove for two hours to buy these just because Micah mentioned that he wanted to eat them." Harold frequently included these vague captions with his posts on his social media account. I never would have imagined that the person he was referring to was none other than Sophia. I liked his post when Sophia wasn't paying attention to me. I just had to wait a little more. I would end things with Sophia once I gathered enough evidence. … Harold contacted me when I was making my last payment to the private investigator. He asked to meet me in a villa in the suburbs. The villa was painted in warm tones and was decorated in a cozy fashion. It looked completely different from the home that I shared with Sophia. She told me that she preferred simplicity, so all of our furniture and decorations were either black, white, or gray. Harold sat on the couch and languidly took a sip of the coffee that he had just bought. "So, you've finally found out about my relationship with Sophia." It seemed that he had decided to drop the act since he had successfully gotten his hands on Ashton's heart. "Sophia promised me that she would take me and Micah home and announce to everyone that Micah is her child." "Did you ask me to come here just to tell me this?" I asked, looking at him calmly. Harold's smug expression stiffened upon hearing my cool tone. He shot up to his feet and exclaimed, "Watch your tone when you're talking to me, Gabriel! Who do you think you are? Do you still consider yourself Sophia's husband? "Stop dreaming! Did you really believe that Sophia actually loved you? She only married you for Micah's and my sake—" His words suddenly died on his tongue. However, he couldn't keep his anger in check. "The unloved one is the other man in the relationship. Same goes for the child! Micah will be Sophia's only son. Everything that she owns will belong to him too! As for your son who died prematurely, you can just visit his grave whenever you miss him." My temper exploded at the mention of Ashton. I aimed a punch at Harold's face, but my weakened condition allowed Harold to intercept my attack. Harold moved closer to me and hissed, "This is what you deserve for failing to protect your child." Chapter 4 My eyes reddened as a wave of humiliation and hatred crashed over me. Mustering all the strength that I had, I tried to shove Harold away. However, he suddenly grabbed my hand and used my fist to punch his own face. He shot a troubled look at me after he collapsed to the floor, saying, "I'm really upset about Ash's death too, Gabe. But I didn't offend you in any way. Why are you treating me this way?" A powerful force crashed into my back and knocked me off my feet before I could figure out what was going on. My forehead collided against the coffee table, causing fresh blood to spurt from the wound in an instant. Sophia acted as if she didn't notice my injury and anxiously helped Harold back to his feet. "Are you okay, Harold? Are you hurt?" Tears streamed down Harold's face as he shook his head. "My head hurts a lot, Sophia." Sophia frowned. She shot a fierce look at me and snapped, "I know that you're upset that your child died, Gabriel, but why are you causing a commotion here? Apologize to Harold right now!" My chest burned with fury and loathing. I couldn't stop the tears from spilling down my cheeks when I shouted, "Get your facts straight, Sophia! My child is also your son! He called you his mother for the last four years!" Sophia's expression stiffened before her gaze strayed to the bracelet around her wrist. For a split second, it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Her arm trembled violently, and she didn't dare meet my eyes again. She pathetically turned her back on me. She felt as if her heart was being crushed by a giant hand, making it difficult for her to breathe. She only snapped back to her senses when she heard Harold groaning in pain, behaving as if he was clinging onto a lifeline. Sophia supported him, saying, "I'll send you to the hospital, Harold." She moved quickly as she led him away, but when she walked past me, her feet suddenly felt like they were weighed down by lead. Eventually, I was the only one left in the spacious living room. I had made an audio recording of our earlier encounter on my phone. The private investigator had also sent me the evidence that he had gathered. In one of the videos, Ashton reached out his small hand to Sophia as he lay in a pool of blood. "Save me, Mommy. I'm in so much pain. Mommy…" However, Sophia simply stared at his hand with an icy expression, watching as it slowly fell to the ground. I stared at Ashton's face in the video. The hope in his eyes gradually morphed to confusion before finally settling on despair. It turned out that he had found out the truth that Sophia didn't love him during his final moments. I wondered what ran through his mind at that moment. Did he wonder if he had done something wrong? Or was he confused about why his own mother was treating him that way? Or perhaps, he was silently telling me to escape. My body trembled violently from the pain, hatred, and other turbulent emotions that raged within me. A few moments later, I heard the sounds of footsteps behind me. A boy who looked no older than six years old stood at the door. His face was pale as he clutched his plane model to his chest. "Who are you, mister?" he asked. "Why are you in my house?" Micah's face and the sound of his heartbeat were incredibly familiar. I stared at his chest, knowing that Ashton's heart was beating within him under his clothes. Ashton wouldn't have died if it weren't for him. My gaze turned cold. I slowly crouched down as Micah stared at me in confusion. "My dear Micah, why don't you come home with me? I bought some candy for you." … Sophia frowned during the entire car ride to the hospital. She couldn't stop thinking about my teary face as I questioned her. It was as if a rock was dropped on her heart every time she thought about me. The heavy sensation made her feel uneasy. Just then, her phone rang, shattering the eerie silence. My voice was completely devoid of emotion on the other end of the line. I calmly said, "I have Micah with me, Sophia." The car screeched to a stop at the side of the road. Sophia gripped the steering wheel tightly as a terrifying thought took root and sprouted in her mind. Could it be that I already knew the truth?