Chapter 2

Jason, who was supposedly "all alone in the dorm and quite pitiful," showed up in the restaurant’s private dining room five minutes after Mom suggested inviting my roommate.

It was then I realized they had planned this all along.

Watching Dad gleefully order all of Mom’s favorite dishes from the menu, then happily push the menu towards us, my heart ached even more.

All these years, he had wronged no one.

I still remembered when I was little, he was afraid Mom would be scared alone at home in the dark, so he’d commute for hours every day just to come home and sleep beside her.

He was afraid Mom would get too tired looking after me at home, so he’d always take me to his office to watch me, saying Mom deserved to have her own life.

For the first eighteen years of my life, I truly believed my parents were the best in the world—a loving couple, a perfect family.

But reality slapped me hard across the face.

I started wondering, when exactly did Mom and Jason get together?

Was it when Mom constantly worried I wasn't eating well at school and brought me lunch?

Or was it that month, a year when our dorm was being renovated, and the fumes were too strong to live in, so I enthusiastically brought Jason home to stay with us?

No matter what, it was my fault.

I gave Jason the opportunity to destroy my family.

I still remembered a conversation we once had in our dorm.

Jason’s eyes glowed with an intense heat.

“What’s the point of studying in this day and age? Why not just sleep with a rich woman and get everything you want?”

At the time, I just thought that his impoverished background made his views overly extreme.

But I never imagined that one day, his predatory claws would reach directly into my home.

Right in front of my dad, Jason and my mom started exchanging glances and flirting.

“Your makeup today is just stunning, Auntie Victoria. If I didn’t know you were Caleb’s mom, I’d think you were his middle school sister!”

Mom’s face immediately bloomed into a radiant smile.

“Oh, you smooth talker! How old do you think I am? How could I possibly look like a middle schooler?”

“I’m telling the truth! Don’t you believe me? Ask Caleb! Caleb, tell us, doesn’t your mom look like a middle schooler?”

I chuckled.

“Jason, are you just practicing your lines on my mom now?”

“Practicing? What are you talking about?” Dad asked curiously.

“You guys don’t know, Jason used to tell us his dream was to sweet-talk a bunch of rich women, make them spend money on him, and just live a happy life being a kept man. So, he’s gotta practice those sweet-talk lines, right?”