Chapter 7: My Daughter Is My Last Line

I looked down at her hand.

“Let go.”

She refused.

I pried her fingers off one by one.

“The moment you laughed and said Doa Doa being beaten was just a game, we stopped being family.”

At the entrance, Chu Yao suddenly stood up.

He blocked my way.

“Ha An Thu, you ruined my brother’s life, and now you’re just leaving?”

He clutched a glass tumbler in his hand, the rim aimed straight at me.

Someone in the room shouted.

Doa Doa clung to me in fear.

I looked at Chu Yao.

“Take one more step and see what happens.”

He hadn’t expected me not to back away.

He raised the glass, his face twitching.

“You think I don’t dare?”

I moved Doa Doa beside the eldest aunt.

“Please watch her for a moment.”

The eldest aunt froze, then immediately shielded Doa Doa.

I stepped forward.

Chu Yao stepped back.

I looked at him.

“You were so brave when you hit a five-year-old.”

“I’m standing right here. Go ahead and try it.”

No one in the room spoke.

Chu Yao’s hand holding the glass slowly dropped.

I continued, “If you dare lay a hand on me, I’ll make sure every relative sees that besides bullying children, you’re nothing.”

His face flushed.

He hurled the glass to the floor.

Shards scattered everywhere.

Chu Yao roared, “Just you wait!”

Then he turned and ran.

Du Mei collapsed into a chair.

Chu Chi stood motionless, looking dazed.

In the chaos, Qin Yiran tried to slip away, but the eldest aunt blocked her.

“We haven’t settled this. Where are you going?”

Qin Yiran’s face had gone pale.

“What does this have to do with you?”

The eldest aunt gave a cold laugh.

“You came to someone else’s home to steal her husband and take her house. How is that none of our business?”

The relatives took turns criticizing her.

Humiliated, Qin Yiran finally grabbed her bag and ran out.

Du Mei followed her to the door. She wanted to curse her out, but didn’t dare.

When she turned back to me, fear had appeared on her face for the first time.

“An Thu…”

I ignored her.

I walked up to Chu Chi.

“Move out after today.”

Chu Chi looked up, eyes red.

“I was deceived, too.”

I laughed.

“You weren’t deceived.”

“You were greedy.”

“You wanted her youth and beauty, the boy in her belly, and the family I built for you by carrying everything on my shoulders.”

“Now that you’ve lost it all, you suddenly remember Doa Doa and me.”

His lips moved.

“I can change.”

I shook my head.

“It’s too late.”

Doa Doa ran out of the eldest aunt’s arms and wrapped herself around my leg.

I bent down and asked her, “Are you scared?”

She glanced at Chu Chi, then buried her face against me.

“Mommy, let’s go home.”

At those words, Chu Chi’s face crumpled completely.

She said she wanted to go home.

But there was no room for him in that home anymore.

When we got back, I changed every lock.

Chu Chi stood outside the door knocking for a long time.

I didn’t open it.

That evening, he sent me a long message.

Apologies, regrets, all kinds of promises.

I replied with three words:

Move out.

The next day, I hired movers to pack all his belongings and left them in the apartment complex’s security office.

Clothes, shoes, razor.

And a bottle of the same perfume he’d bought for Qin Yiran.

Chu Chi called, his voice hoarse.

“Ha An Thu, do you really have to be this heartless?”

I looked at Doa Doa, sitting in the living room and building with blocks.

The swelling on her cheek had gone down a little, and her smile had returned.

“This isn’t heartlessness,” I said.

“I’m just cleaning house.”

There was a long silence on the other end.

Then he said, “My mother is sick.”

I smiled.

“Take her to a doctor.”

“She wants to see Doa Doa.”

“No.”

“She is Doa Doa’s grandmother, after all.”

I looked at Doa Doa.

She was fitting a door into a little house.

Every door she installed was shut tightly.

“She doesn’t deserve to.”

Before the call ended, Chu Chi suddenly said, “Yao has gone missing.”

I frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“After he ran off last night, he never came home. Someone said they saw him near Doa Doa’s kindergarten today.”

I jumped to my feet.

When I reached the kindergarten, it wasn’t dismissal time yet.

A crowd had gathered outside the gate.

I spotted Chu Yao at once.

He wore a cap and stood by the roadside, holding a pink balloon.

Doa Doa loved pink more than anything.

My heart sank.

The teacher saw me and immediately came over.

“Doa Doa’s mom, we haven’t let her out.”

I nodded.

“Thank you.”

When Chu Yao saw me, a malicious smile appeared on his face.

He walked over.

“Sister-in-law, why are you so tense? I just came to visit my niece.”

I stood in front of the school gate.

“Get lost.”

He laughed.

“You’re pretty capable now. You made me lose my motorcycle and my money, and you kicked my brother out, too. So tell me, how are we going to settle this debt?”

“If you want to settle a score, do it with me.”

“I just want to play with Doa Doa for a bit.”

He put deliberate emphasis on the words “play with her.”

My gaze turned cold.

Chu Yao stepped closer.