Chapter 4

She hoped to take her daughter far, far away; while Ryan could finally achieve his happy ending with Mariah.

Thus, despite her daughter's cries, Silvia had to compose herself and console the little one. However, the tears still remained in her eyes when she spoke.

"Autumn, my dear, don't cry. Aunt Rosa’s sick, and I'm taking care of her for now. I won't be home tonight, so sleep with Papa, alright?"

Rosaline also had a child with her ex-husband, a little girl only two years older than Autumn. Rosaline managed to win custody over her daughter, but was currently busy with work.

Hence, Rosaline had to send her daughter to her parents so they could take care of the child in her stead.

Back then, Silvia would bring Autumn along to Rosaline's apartment. The two children played together a lot. Autumn was actually quite close with Rosaline.

For now, Silvia had no choice but to make up a white lie to comfort her daughter.

She initially thought her considerate child would understand after hearing about Rosaline's plight. Unexpectedly, Autumn started crying even louder.

"I don't wanna, I don't wanna!"

"I don't wanna sleep with Papa! Papa is so scary!"

Hearing this, Silvia instantly realized why her daughter was crying so much.

Ryan had never spent time with Autumn alone, even though he was in fact her biological father. In fact, he had never tucked her to bed. They never had any good memories of each other.

Their daughter was very distant with Ryan. It was no wonder she'd be so uncomfortable with him, especially since the man was likely in a bad mood at the time.

"Mama, save me," Autumn continued, wailing sadly.

It was clear as to how horrifying Ryan looked for the little one to beg her mother to save her.

A wave of pain and sorrow gushed into Silvia's chest. Tears poured out of her eyes once more, trickling down to her chin.

‘Just how much of a failure was I, as both wife and mother? How could our daughter have such a negative image of her own father?’

‘He probably doesn't love Autumn because he doesn't love me, right? He didn't want to bond with her because of this association… Even when…they have the same blood…’

Unable to listen to her daughter’s pleas any longer, Silvia made up her mind and yelled at Ryan. “I’m not going back tonight, so you comfort her!”

After that, she hung up and threw her phone aside, biting down on her lip to suppress the strong emotions swirling in her. Even then, the tears dripped down her face regardless.

Seeing this, Rosaline held her hand gently and said kindly, “Just cry it out if you want to. Cry it all out.”

As a fellow mother, Rosaline was familiar with the pain of separating with your own child.

She thought Silvia would continue crying, but the latter wiped her face dry quickly and forced a smile.

"I'm not going to cry. That's right, I won't! I'm releasing myself from that horrible marriage, after all! Why should I cry?" Her tone was stubborn and tough.

"I’ll never shed another tear for this again! I'm only sad because of Autumn, but I just need to endure one more night of heartache. Just one more. I've moved past this."

Rosaline sighed upon seeing Silvia’s firm expression. "You sure are quick to move on. It took me almost a whole year to do that. I've only managed to let go of the past recently, you know?"

When Rosaline found out about her ex-husband's indecent affair, she nearly fainted out of sheer shock.

Even after waking up, she suffered several mental breakdowns and nearly jumped off a building.

Now that Silvia showed that she could get over a five-year marriage so easily, Rosaline couldn't help but admire her good friend.

However, she had no idea that this was precisely because Silvia's heart had already been through all that pain during the relationship. Silvia no longer held out hope for her marriage, nor did she expect anything more from Ryan.

Just then, Silvia's phone started ringing again. The screen lit up; it was yet another call from Ryan.

She hung up immediately and turned her phone off. Before leaving the couch, she said, "I gotta take a shower. You have spare clothes I can borrow, right?"

Rosaline took a glance at the phone, and somewhat understood Silvia’s determination. Without saying much, she headed to her bedroom and rummaged through her closet for extra clothes.

Within Scholaris Street, loud bawling could be heard miles away from the playroom in Ryan and Silvia's manor.

"I want Mama, I want Mama!"

Ryan was standing next to the pink crib, looking upset and scruffy as he tried dialing Silvia's number over and over again.

Despite this, he was sent to voicemail every single time, reminding him that her phone was off.

He was a mess after fetching his daughter back home from the party. She was asleep at the time, so he had to carry her back to her room before showering.

However, soon came his daughter's cries, and he had no choice but to grab any clothing he could find before rushing out.

Autumn was quite a handful as well. She continually asked for her mother's comfort, but Silvia refused to come home.

He didn't have any experience in taking care of his daughter, especially since Silvia handled everything on her own.

His daughter would have been asleep by the time he came back from social events. Even if he got off work earlier than usual, he would hole himself up in the study to work more after dinner. He also went on quite a few business trips throughout the year.

Having spent the least amount of time possible together and with zero experience with children, Ryan was an absolute wreck. He had no idea what to do.

At first, he tried comforting Autumn. However, his patience wore thin when he realized Silvia was nowhere to be found. It didn't help that his daughter was still bawling her eyes out.

'Autumn’s usually such a good and clever child. Why is she being so difficult today?' he wondered.

He was already humiliated at the party earlier. All this incessant crying and screaming was only adding fuel into the fire that was his anger.

However, he didn't expect Silvia to make him comfort Autumn alone, let alone tell him that she wouldn't be coming home that night.

'I tried suppressing my anger to call her, and this is what I got?!'

'How could I possibly calm this girl down when I've never done it before? She doesn't even sound like she'd stop crying any time soon!'