The truth was out. And it felt glorious.
My father stayed at the police station until late that night. The first thing he did when he got out was come to Kerry’s room. He was carrying bags
of our favorite snacks, asking Kerry with a pathetic, fawning tone if her incision still hurt.
After the things he’d said to her that morning, Kerry’s heart was sealed shut. She simply rolled over to face the wall. “I’m tired.” She didn’t even give
him a glance.
He turned to me, his face etched with embarrassment, and asked how my face was.
“Swollen, thanks to you,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Now all of your old colleague’s know what a powerful man you are.”
A bitter smile touched his lips. “Olivia… I learned a lot at the station today. I finally understand how much you both suffered because of her. Don’t
worry. For you two, I won’t forgive her. I won’t agree to any settlement.”
The anguish on his face told me his regret was real.
But love that arrives this late is worth less than dirt. The image of my sister lying in a pool of her own blood flashed in my mind, and I couldn’t cont- ain my rage. “For us? Don’t make it sound so noble. You’re not forgiving her because she cheated on you, right?”
The color drained from his face. “How can you think that of me? Olivia, I know I was wrong. But this is my first time being a father. I’ve given up so
much for you. You have to allow me to make mistakes.”
Seeing my unmoved expression, he started to play the sympathy card.
“For you, I gave up my career. I had such a bright future at the State University Hospital, and I left it all behind. For you, I didn’t remarry for over a decade. Olivia, why can’t you just give me a chance to make it up to you?”
He spoke with such self–righteousness, as if I were the ungrateful child, as if my inability to forgive him was a character flaw.
I looked at him. “But you never gave us a chance, did you? In our last life, you didn’t even bother to investigate the truth before you murdered our entire family. Dad… I don’t want to drown in toilet water again.”
His eyes widened in panic. “How… How did you… Are you also
I knew it then. He was reborn, too. I’d suspected it the moment he refused to come back and save Kerry.
If I hadn’t been reborn, I might have forgiven him. He was, after all, my biological father.
“Dad,” I said, my voice devoid of all emotion. “This is the last time I will ever call you that. You gave us life, and we paid you back with our lives in the last world. We’re even. Don’t come here again. Seeing you makes me sick.”
He left. And he never came back.
Hospitals are like sieves; nothing stays secret for long. Helen told me the story of what he’d done to Kerry had spread through every department. Patients found out. They reasoned that if a man could be so irresponsible with his own daughter, how could he possibly be trusted with a strang. er?
People started refusing to see him. To mitigate the damage, the hospital suspended his clinical duties. Soon after, one of his former patients came forward, revealing that Dad had borrowed a large sum of money from them and never paid it back–money he’d borrowed to fill the hole Penny had created.
The scandal snowballed. He was fired. At his age, he should have been on track to become the hospital director. Now, he had lost his reputation and his fortune.
Kerry never asked about him. I don’t know if it was because she was too disappointed or for some other reason.
On the day she was discharged, during my nephew’s 100–day celebration, a courier arrived with a package from him. Inside was a bank card and a set of keys. We both recognized them. They were the keys to our mother’s condo.
We later found out that Penny had returned the money. Apparently, her online lover was genuinely in love with her. Terrified she would go to pris on, he’d returned every cent. Their plan was for Penny to divorce my father, and they would get married as soon as he was released.
I thought my father would have lost his mind with rage.
But his reaction was unexpected. He adamantly refused to divorce her.
He wanted, Helen told
I just laughed.
s, to torment her for the rest of their lives.
After that, my father tried to see us a few more times. He hinted that he wanted to reconcile, that he wanted to see his grandson. He was getting older, and the craving for family was gnawing at him.
But Kerry was resolute. She refused, her words growing harsher with each attempt.
Finally, the pressure broke him. One morning, we received a call from the police.
He and Penny had been arguing again. This time, it had turned violent. He had drowned her in the toilet.
Then, he had taken a scalpel and disemboweled himself.
The murder–suicide was a big story. People who heard it were shocked and saddened.
But me?
All I felt was relief.
My father was dead.
I would never have to dream of being murdered again.
I could finally, finally live.
(The End)
