“Marr, I love water. Water is so cold and nice and cold and uhm... cold. When I touch water, it touches back! Isn’t it nice, Marr?”

  “Yeah, yeah, we already know it, Timmy. What else?”

  The little boy who was called Timmy pouted at his sister’s words.

  The woman smiled kindly and encouraged her son:

  “Tell your sister that it’s salty too.”

  “Water is s...shalty...”

  All of them broke out into joyous laughter, of course, including Merik.

  Under the brilliance of setting sun on the golden curtain, they felt like they were living their lives to the fullest and nothing else mattered.

  What they wanted was with them, never to leave.

  Merik didn’t want to leave this place – this moment to be exact.

  Everything was perfect... without that man.

  That man?

  Suddenly, the scenery changed distortedly to that of a grim tone and Merik found himself standing right behind the woman, a lot closer than before.

  His field of vision changed as well; he was seeing things from a third-person point of view.

  With him being closer to the woman, the indescribable disappointment he was feeling towards the man grew a lot stronger.

  The man was right in front of them, leisurely shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

  He was a skinny fat man with his hollow and gaunt cheekbones being the most distinct feature of his.

  Merik recognized him immediately. He was Mr. Jackman from the morning.

  Furthermore, the moment he opened his good-for-nothing mouth, it’s always filled with extreme unsavory boasting.

  “Look, Mallory, I have been taking good care of you and your kids, haven’t I not? Without me, these little twats would have kicked the bucket since long ago and that pathetic husband of yours couldn’t do horseshits, I’ll tell ya. Excuse me, your ex-husband.”

  “The bastard acted like he was some kind of golden big shot when it was his time but look at where he is now. A man can only be lucky so many times. He was conceited, arrogant and what’s that word, oh yes, overbearing. Considering the way he acted against me, I’ll gladly say it served him right.”

  A suppressed frown slowly found its way onto Merik’s brow. The woman called Mallory also wanted to deny Jackman’s words.

  Her husband was in no way pathetic.

  Ex-husband.

  Seeing the behavior of his woman, Jackman felt slight disdain and raised his voice:

  “What, you don’t like what I’m saying? Stop being such a hypocrite. You have absolutely no right to look at me that way because it was you who came to me, not the other way round. I’ll admit that you are a cold-hearted woman despite your pretty little face. You left him with no hesitation at all when it served you and yet, here you are, wanting to put the blame on Ol’ innocent me. It wasn’t me who took these huge loans, was I? It was your husband. It was him who bit more than he could chew.”

  He took a rough breath and continued, but this time in a lower tone, full of condescending sarcasm.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not judging you. Because I know what kind of woman you are since the first time I laid my eyes on you. I mean you... aren’t you one greedy woman? Sure, I can’t resist women who’s a little bit spiky but I’ll admit again that even by my standards, you are too... how do I say it? Low?”

  Merik felt gut-wrenching disgust from his heart similarly to the woman, but he couldn’t do anything but to accept it.

  She wanted to deny it, she wanted to scream that Jackman, the twisted and wicked man in front of her, was wrong!

  He slowly walked up to her and twirled her hairs and gazed at her lips unceasingly. And with a smile, he said:

  “You know what’s funny? Despite all these insults to your face, you will never leave me. You don’t want to because... you don’t know what else to do. Worse, you don’t even try to. You keep telling yourself that you are doing all of this for your kids but in fact, you are just lying to yourself for a good night’s sleep. You just want the best life for yourself!”

  Bright red blood seeped out from her lips. She was biting them to the point of grinding them with her own teeth.

  Jackman didn’t seem to notice or he just didn’t care. He continued sprouting these unbearable nonsenses.

  Feeling exactly like the woman, Merik felt that he wanted to scratch Jackman’s face to beyond recognition or at least she wanted to run away from this dreadful place.

  These emotions were boiling like a kettle inside her heart, pumping her chest up and down visibly and uncontrollably.

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  Still, what came out as a winner was dejection, causing her to silently suffer.

  Jackman continued again:

  “I keep giving you everything so why would you want to throw away a stable life for you and your brats, right? You don’t even hate me. Hell, you even enjoy me sometimes. I know.”

  Jackman was chuckling now, being amused by his own words.

  “Uncle Jackman, what is funny? I love funny!”

  The little boy dashed into the room and jumped around Jackman.

  Mallory wanted to take Timmy away from Jackman but she painfully controlled the urge and stared helplessly as she stared at her own son playing happily with Jackman.

  The moment she saw her son, the overwhelming emotions were all overshadowed by these two extreme terrifying feelings.

  They were love and guilt.

  “Run along to your mother. She loves you guys so much and she would do anything for you.”

  “Hehe, I know.”

  Timmy ran to Mallory and Jackman steadily followed behind.

  He whispered into Mallory’s ears.

  "So, if I say don’t blame me for any of your mishaps, I fucking mean it. Blame yourself for who you are.”

  With satisfaction written all over his face, Jackman left the room with a stifled chuckle and all that’s left was Mallory with her unresolved hatred and guilt.

  And regret.

  “Why are you crying, Marr? Are you sad?”

  Noticing the tears streaming down, little Timmy asked his mother in worry while pulling his skirt.

  “No, Marr’s not sad, my little sunshine. I am happy, even! Now go play, but promise Marr that you won’t stay near the water for long. I don’t want you to get sick.”

  “Yes, Marr.”

  While helplessly staring at his son leaving, Merik felt that his whole heart was about to burst out from his own overflowing and uncontainable feelings.

  It was overwhelming him and slowly making him lose sense of himself.

  He was scared for his life and he was also worried for his children.

  Wait, I don’t have any children.

  Before the thought reached the end, the scenery changed abruptly once again.

  This time, it was different.

  Rather than seeing a certain scene, Merik noticed that countless flashes of memories were slowly drifting across the space.

  Some were like a distorted vision; abrupt and blurry but some resembled a photograph.

  Nonetheless, Merik felt that he was familiar with these memories as if they were his own.

  They were Mallory’s and yet, at this moment, they were Merik’s as well.

  She was bullied. She was abandoned. She was lonely.

  Pain from the bruises, dry tears on her cheeks, scars in her heart were still eating away at her just as they were yesterday.

  She wanted friends. She wanted a family. She yearned for love.

  Felt inferior. Felt discontent. Felt jealousy.

  She wanted what she couldn’t have, thus, she hopelessly craved.

  Loved. Cared. Adored.

  She was human.

  No mountain was huge enough, no ocean was broad enough for her own love was magnificent and unparalleled in itself.

  No temptation was significant enough to sway her, not even eternal happiness.

  And yet, she gave in.

  She gave in to the very temptation while dumping her own ideals.

  Her beloved husband gave her everything he had and yet, she chose to have more.

  She acquired life and love and yet, she chose to have more.

  Lust. Greed. Imperfection.

  She told herself it was for her children but deep down, she knew.

  Knowing was there but denial was stronger.

  That’s why she had to pay for the horrifyingly humane that she was.

  Merik was now staring at the entrance of the room when his daughter rushed in with panic flashing all over her little face.

  “Mommy, Timmy is going to the well now, hurry up.”

  “Huh? The well? Tina. Wait. What’s going on?”

  He followed Tina towards the well.

  At the sight of the ancient well, Merik fell down to the floor, suddenly assaulted by these mental tremors once again.

  The pain was excruciating but what mattered most right now was his son, Timmy.

  Merik...

  Merik got up from the ground after a faint whisper rang in his head for several moments.

  The whisper was calling out a name.

  The thought instantly vanished as he ran straight to the well.

  Jackman was “kind” enough to keep their tummy warm and full but one thing he couldn’t bear was them going near the well.

  There was nothing out of ordinary with the said well.

  It had the handle, the bucket and the ropes albeit a bit old and out of use.

  It didn’t seem as dangerous as Jackman warned it to be.

  However, seeing that Timmy was already climbing onto it, Merik was frightened to his core.

  “Timmy! What are you doing!?”

  He screamed while running towards Timmy. His daughter Tina was in front of him and they both were trying desperately to reach for the same thing.

  “Water calls me, so I come, Marr.”

  Timmy was leaning onto the rope when both of them reached him.

  Contrary to their dreaded expressions, Timmy wore the most joyous smile with glints of excitement kept flashing all over his eyes.

  “Timmy, dear, come down here. It’s too late right now. And Uncle Jackman is coming back soon and you know what'll happen when he comes back.”

  Timmy pouted and answer immediately:

  “Nothing, Marr. It’s okay. Uncle Jackman loves me.”

  Panic started to boil in his heart and what that mischievous little kid of his said stinged him a little bit after all.

  “Timmy, come down here at once. Or I will come drag you from there.”

  The kids would be fine but he, clearly doing something Jackman asked them specifically not to, would not get off the hook so easily.

  Fearing for himself, he decided to pull Timmy down by himself.

  Timmy dodged his mother’s desperate grab while giggling to his heart and kept running on the edge of the well.

  “Timmy, dear, please. Don’t scare Marr like that. Please.”

  “What’s scary, Marr?”

  He kept dodging Merik’ every attempt while Tina was staring at this awkward situation with her mouth agape; her face full of worry.

  When frustration and worry finally blended in, a certain emotion erupted from the deepest part of him.

  It was anger.

  Suddenly, he realized that he wasn’t aligned with himself after all; he felt like he was someone else.

  Merik...

  But then, just as he worried, little Timmy slipped onto the edge.

  Merik was starting to sense that something was amiss but this slight moment changed everything for him.

  He lunged to catch his little son.

  But only to see himself fall into the well.