I Put a Price on My Don Husband Chapter 05
She caught the triumphant glint in Natalie’s eyes. The next second, Natalie tugged timidly at Vincent’s coat. “Vincent, Leo hasn’t been feeling well and needs more soup. I heard Claire makes amazing soup. Could we ask her to make a bowl for Leo?”
Vincent agreed at once, his voice soft with adoration. “You call the shots in this home.”
He snapped at Claire. “You heard her. Go make the soup.”
Claire lowered her gaze to hide her emotions and nodded blankly. “I understand.”
Vincent frowned. He had expected her to fight back, and her quiet obedience only fueled his unexplained anger.
Claire walked into the kitchen. She carried out the soup over an hour later. Natalie complained it was too hot, and Leo said it was too salty.
She took the pot back and remade the soup again and again. Her hands swelled and blistered from the constant heat before the pair finally stopped complaining.
The night was suffocating. Claire lay awake in the guest room until dawn.
Early the next morning, she headed out to buy cupcakes and a wild flower bouquet. She was going to the Memorial Cemetery. It was Lily’s birthday, and also the anniversary of her death.
She stepped out of the shop holding the treats and flowers when her phone began vibrating wildly. Her blood ran cold the second she saw the caller ID.
It was the cemetery management office. The caller told her a woman had shown up with several suspicious people, messing around near Lily’s grave.
Panic gripped Claire. She rushed across the road without watching for traffic and narrowly avoided being hit by a speeding car. A large patch of skin was scraped raw on her arm.
The driver turned pale with fright and jumped out to help her up. “Ma’am, are you hurt? Where’s your family? I’ll contact them right away.”
Family. The word alone felt like a ton of lead on her chest.
Her father’s hair had turned white overnight after being charged with Narcotics Trafficking Felony. Her mother had fallen ill from stress. Her beloved daughter Lily had died during the kidnapping.
And her husband? While brilliant fireworks lit up the sky the night before, he had stood beneath the stars with another woman.
She thought back to the muffled sounds from the next room last night, seeping through the thin door like sharp needles pricking her ears. She told herself she no longer cared, yet it felt as if a chunk of her heart had been torn out, leaving a hollow space for cold wind to rush through.
She answered the driver without hesitation. “I have no family.”
She declined his help, pulled herself unsteadily to her feet, and stumbled toward the cemetery.
Natalie’s shrill voice reached her long before she got close. “She’s just a dead girl. Does she still dare compete with my son? Bring the spiritual cleansing ritual water. Make sure this brat never finds peace, even in the afterlife.”
Claire ran forward to find Lily’s tombstone splashed with the ritual water. Her daughter’s portrait had been deliberately damaged. A deafening buzz rang in her head.
She lost all control and slapped Natalie hard across the cheek. Natalie stumbled and fell to the ground.
Leo saw his mother attacked and lunged forward to bite Claire’s arm. Claire cried out in pain and pushed him away. The boy landed on the ground and burst into loud sobs.
Vincent arrived just then. He grabbed her wrist tightly, his face twisted with rage. “Enough! You vicious woman! What is wrong with you? How could you hurt a child?”
Claire wrenched her arm free. Her eyes blazed red as she shouted uncontrollably. “A vicious woman? Fine! That’s what I am! Wasn’t killing Lily enough for her? Does she have to keep torturing our daughter even now?”
Vincent glanced at the damaged tombstone and his brows drew together sharply.
Natalie instantly put on a tearful, helpless expression and spoke in a trembling voice. “Vincent, Leo slept in Lily’s room last night. He had terrible nightmares and spiked a fever. I asked a priest for help this morning, and he said Lily’s spirit was haunting Leo. I only used the cleansing water on his advice. I never knew it would turn out like this.”
“You’re lying!” Claire’s voice cracked. “I heard everything -“
“Quiet.” Vincent cut her off, his tone softening slightly. “Stop this nonsense, alright? Natalie acted out of worry, not malice. You hit her, so you two are quits now.”
He tapped a few times on his phone. Almost instantly, a transfer alert popped up on Claire’s device.
“You love money, don’t you? Will one million dollars satisfy you?” A sneer tugged at his lips.
She curled her fingers tight, nails digging deep into her palms, but she felt no physical pain. Her daughter’s desecrated grave was nothing but a figure on a phone screen.
She pulled a document from her bag and smiled coldly. “I do like money. But one million isn’t enough. You also need to sign this paper.”
Vincent frowned and reached to read it, but she spoke first. “No need. This is a one-million-dollar donation to charity in Lily’s name. Didn’t you say you wanted to do good deeds for her?”
He studied her calm expression, doubt lingering in the back of his mind.