I Thought Love Meant Staying, Until She Taught Me Otherwise

Terence's POV

In five years of marriage, Queenie Hawkins, who once claimed I was her whole world, betrayed me three times.

The first time, she was drugged and ended up sleeping with a “pure” college boy someone had gifted her. When she sobered up, eyes red with guilt, she told me she had to take responsibility for him.

The second time, she wanted to cheer that same boy up. So, right after I’d had a vasectomy, she made me sit submerged in a giant aquarium as a live exhibit for three full days and nights. When they finally pulled me out, my wounds had already started to rot.

The third time, that boy got sick. To force me into donating a kidney for him, Queenie hung my mother, who was hooked up to a ventilator, on an excavator like a swing. She looked me in the eyes and said, “Terence, don’t push me. You know he means everything to me.”

I dropped to my knees. My tears wouldn’t even fall. They were stuck somewhere deep inside me.

Only then did I truly realize that he was her everything. The woman who once loved me with all she had was gone.

Numb, I nodded. “Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll donate. Just please, let my mom go. I’ll do anything.”

Queenie smiled with satisfaction. But her hand was already on the control panel.

And then, the rope broke. I watched, frozen, as my mother fell from the sky, her body crashing to the ground.

“Mom!” My scream tore through the air, wild and raw.

But all I got in return was Queenie’s cold voice, “Remember, this is what happens when you let Jeremy suffer one more day. If you just listen and behave, everything can go back to the way it was.”

Ignoring her, I shoved her aside and ran out, crazed and shaking.

But deep down, I knew the truth. There was no “back to before.” Not anymore. Not with her.

——

I ran just a few meters, but I tripped over and over again. Stones scraped my feet open, yet I felt nothing, no pain, no fear. There was only one thought pulsing in my mind—get to Mom.

When I finally reached her, her small body was crumpled on the ground, blood pooling beneath her like a nightmare I couldn’t wake from.

Seeing her awful state, the pain in my chest exploded. I collapsed next to her, screaming from the very depths of my soul. “Mom!”

As if she heard me, her eyes fluttered open. She struggled to speak, her voice barely whispered, “Terence… I don’t think… I can stay with you. You have to… live well. Promise me… you’ll be happy.”

“No… no!” I cried, shaking my head violently, clinging to her weakening body. “Mom, please… please don’t leave me. You’re all I have now. We’ll go to the hospital right now. We'll see the best doctors. We’ll make it in time!”

At that moment, I lost all grip on reality. The only thing that mattered to me was to save her.

I lifted her in my arms and stumbled onto the road, blocking a car with my body. The driver slammed the brakes, furious, but I dropped to my knees and bowed until my forehead hit the pavement.

“Please! Please take us to the hospital! My mother—she’s dying!”

The driver looked annoyed at first. But then, when he saw her pale and bleeding, his expression softened.

“Get in,” he finally said.

I broke down, crying hard as I carefully placed Mom in the backseat.

I slid off my engagement ring, a giant diamond the size of a bird egg, and handed it to him.

“Thank you. I don’t have my phone or wallet on me, but please take this as payment for the ride.”

The driver looked startled. “That’s not necessary. It’s no trouble. And besides, how could I take your ring? It’s huge. You and your wife must be deeply in love.”

I looked down at that ring. Then laughed bitterly.

Love?

Maybe once, a long time ago.

But now?

For the sake of another man, Queenie had actually let my mother fall to her death without a second thought.

Terence's POV

Queenie knew my mother was the only family I had left. And yet, she still chose to do that.

For a moment, the memory of our sweet proposal flashed through my mind. But it collided violently with the scene I’d just witnessed. Together, they twisted into a blade that stabbed straight through my chest.

Tears streamed silently down my face. I shook my head and whispered, “She’s already dead.”

Then I placed the ring on the car’s console, shut my eyes, and prayed my mother would still make it.

But when I carried her, barely breathing, to the hospital, the doors were locked.

A security guard barked, “No one’s allowed in. Ms. Hawkins’s beloved is having surgery tomorrow. The entire hospital is on standby. No interruptions.”

I stepped forward, clutching my mother tighter.

The guard saw me and froze. Panic flashed across his face.

“SSir, those are Ms. Hawkins’s direct orders. I can’t go against them. Maybe try calling her?”

I snatched his phone and dialed that alltoofamiliar number.

As soon as she picked up, I tremblingly begged, “Queenie, my mom fell. It’s bad. Please, let me in. Let the doctors take a look. Please.”

But all I heard on the other end was a mocking laugh.

“Save her?” she scoffed. “And why should I? Terence, remember, she's your mother, not mine.”

Just three sentences, yet they shattered what was left of my heart.

But I didn’t stop. I kept begging, swallowing every bit of pride I had left.

“Queenie… please. My mom was always so good to you. Just for that, I’m begging—”

But then, she hung up.

I called again, hands shaking uncontrollably, but this time I was met with a cold, automated message.

"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try your call later."

Just like that, my last thread of hope was cut.

My mom’s breathing was growing shallower by the second.

As such, I snapped.

Grabbing a fire extinguisher, I charged the locked doors. Glass shattered everywhere, slicing into my skin, but I didn’t feel a thing. All that mattered was getting her inside.

The guards hesitated, stunned by how wild I looked. None of them dared stop me.

Shortly, a doctor on duty rushed over, wheeled her to a bed, and immediately began examining her.

Barely two minutes passed, and he stepped back, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. We did everything we could. Her pupils have dilated. You should start preparing for the worst.”

I stood there frozen, my ears ringing. Then my knees gave out, and I collapsed to the floor.

“No… no, this can’t be happening.”

I looked up at the doctor, eyes filled with desperation. “Please. I’m begging you, save my mom. She’s all I have left in this world!”

The doctor looked torn, sighing heavily. “It’s not that I don’t want to help, but she’s already gone too far. If you’d come even a few minutes earlier, maybe…”

Sighing, he added, “Now, unless you can get the top cardiac specialist in this hospital, there’s nothing anyone else can do. But he’s upstairs in a private consultation and—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish.

I grabbed the hospital bed and pushed it straight toward the elevator.

When the doors slid open, I saw Queenie. She was gently helping Jeremy out of bed, like he was some fragile treasure.

But the second she looked up and saw me, her tenderness vanished and was replaced with disgust.

“Terence,” she snapped, “Who let you in here? What if you scared Jeremy?! Get out!”

I ignored the sting of her words and dropped to my knees right there. “Queenie, please… I’m begging you… Let the cardiac specialist take a look at my mother. She’s barely hanging on.”

Terence's POV

"Please… I can’t lose her…" I begged, my voice breaking as I slammed my forehead to the floor again and again. Blood ran down my cheeks, mixing with my tears.

Queenie frowned, clearly shaken. She looked like she was about to say something. But before she could, Jeremy started crying first.

“Terence,” he whimpered, “I know you don’t want to donate your kidney. That’s why you made up this whole story about your mom being in critical condition. You’re just trying to make Queenie feel bad. But fine, forget the surgery. Let me die in pain.”

At those words, Queenie’s face turned ice cold.

She stormed forward and grabbed me by the throat. "Terence, I guess the lesson I taught you earlier wasn’t enough. You’ll say anything to get out of donating that kidney. You think I won’t kill your mother right now?!"

The word “kill” made my whole body tremble.

I forced myself to point at the hospital bed and whispered hoarsely, “You’ve already almost killed her. Isn’t that enough? Queenie… do you really want to turn me into an orphan?”

Maybe it was the look in my eyes, but for a split second, she hesitated.

She took a step toward my mother’s bed.

But just then, Jeremy groaned dramatically behind her.

“Ah—Queenie, it hurts. It hurts so much. Please, help me.”

In a flash, her face changed again. She spun on me with venom in her voice. “Enough already! Terence, do you really think you can guilttrip me into backing down? That I’ll just let you off the hook and not donate your kidney to Jeremy? Save it. And by the way, the person on the excavator was just a dummy, not your mom. So drop the act!”

I shook my head wildly, pointing to the bed where my mother lay, barely breathing.

“No… that’s not true. She’s right there. My mother’s right there! She’s barely alive! Look for yourself—!”

Before I could finish, Queenie grabbed my jaw and pressed down hard with her thumb, sneering at me.

“Still pretending? If it weren’t for that ventilator, your mother would’ve been dead a long time ago. Actually, maybe it’s better this way. Saves me a fortune in medical bills.”

She said it so casually, as if “death” was just another item on her todo list. And in that moment, something inside me shattered completely.

Then, the heart monitor next to my mother’s bed let out a sharp, continuous beep.

My lungs locked up, and panic surged through me like lightning.

I broke free from Queenie’s grip and dashed toward the bed. But I only made it one step before Jeremy suddenly screamed, “Ah! It hurts so much, Queenie! I’m dying, help me!”

Without even glancing at me, Queenie barked at the guards, “Hold him down!”

In seconds, a group of massive bodyguards had tackled me to the ground. I thrashed like a rabid dog, screaming so loudly my throat burned.

“Let me go! Let me go! My mother’s waiting for me! She’s waiting—!”

I bit down on one of the guards' arms, not even thinking. Then, a surge of electricity ripped through me.

The glass cuts all over my body lit up in searing pain as pus and blood oozed out. Immediately, I collapsed to the ground, twitching uncontrollably.

When I managed to lift my head, I saw Queenie standing over me with cold eyes and an electric baton in her hand.

“Terence, if you won’t behave,” she said coldly, “then don’t blame me for what happens next.”

Turning to her bodyguards, she instructed, “Take him to surgery. Right now. I want that kidney out of him immediately!”

With that, they tied me down like an animal and dragged me into the operating room.

I fought and screamed, but the ropes were too tight. All I could do was watch as my mother’s hand slipped lifelessly off the side of the bed, and the monitor went flat.

I let out a broken, soulcrushing scream. It felt like a thousand knives tearing into my chest at once.

The next moment, a cold needle jabbed into my rotting skin. My vision blurred, and darkness crept in.

Just before I lost consciousness, I heard Queenie’s ruthless voice saying, “No mistakes. If one kidney isn’t enough, take the second one.”

Terence's POV

“Remember, I will not allow anything to happen to Jeremy!”

That was the last thing I heard before everything went dark.

Then, I had a long, long dream.

In it, I went back to the day I first met Queenie. It was during our university’s welcome party, and she fell for me at first sight. To win me over, the proud and temperamental heiress wrote me 999 love letters, chasing me patiently through our entire college life.

Eventually, I gave in. She threw herself into my arms like an excited little girl and cried with joy.

Two years later, her career skyrocketed. On the day her company went public, she dropped to one knee with a massive diamond ring already prepared. She looked up at me and said, “Terence, marry me. You’re my whole world. I swear I’ll never let you down in this lifetime.”

When my mother found out, she didn’t approve. She even warned me, “Women in that world are never to be trusted.”

But I didn’t listen. We fought bitterly, and I even made a bet with her that Queenie was different.

And for a while, it seemed I was right.

After we got married, she treated me well. She never came home late, never let me suffer even the slightest injury.

Until the night she was drugged and ended up sleeping with a socalled “pure” college boy.

And that boy was Jeremy.

The next morning, I saw the same burning passion she once had for me, now directed at someone else.

Still, I couldn’t let go. I refused to believe the woman who once loved me so deeply was truly gone. I couldn’t accept that I’d lost to her world and its cruel rules.

So I didn’t bring up divorce. I held on, trying desperately to save our crumbling marriage.

But the moment she hung my mother still on a ventilator from an excavator, that was when I finally realized I had lost completely and brutally.

With that, the dream ended.

I jolted awake with the image of the heart monitor’s flatline still burned into my brain.

Ripping out the IV needle in my arm, I staggered out of the hospital bed and ran straight for the morgue.

But after searching every cold storage locker, I couldn’t find my mother’s body.

Panic surged through me.

Then I heard two nurses coming out of the room next door, retching over a trash can.

“That was disgusting,” one gagged. “He looked so polite and wellgroomed. Who knew he was into that?”

“Right?” the other said. “I don’t even know what kind of fetish that is. Said he wanted to understand the human body, and used a sixtysomethingyearold woman for the experiment. The body was already stiff and he still cut into it. Ugh!”

My blood ran cold upon hearing that horrible conversation. Then I rushed over and grabbed one of the nurses with trembling hands.

“What… what did you just say?” I asked, my voice shaking. “What sixtyyearold woman? What do you mean?!”

Startled, the nurse stammered, “There… there was an old woman who passed away yesterday. We couldn’t reach any relatives, so she was placed in the morgue. But then, the hospital director’s boyfriend had just had a kidney transplant and said he wanted to learn more about the surgery, so he…he dissected the body.”

I didn’t hear the rest. My ears buzzed, and my veins froze. My stomach turned inside out.

I shoved past them and bolted into the next room like a madman.

There, lying on the operating table was my mother.

Her body was unrecognizable, mangled, and dissected. Not a single organ was intact.

My knees gave out at the scene.

I collapsed beside her, shaking violently, unable to even form a coherent sentence.

Then Jeremy walked in, smug and proud, as if this were something to celebrate.

At that instant, I saw red.

I lunged at him, grabbed him by the throat, and squeezed with everything I had.

“You touched my mother’s body?!” I screamed. “I’ll make you pay for that with your damn life!!”

His eyes rolled back as he struggled, clawing at my hands for air.

I reached for the surgical knife nearby and aimed straight for his heart.

But just before I could strike, someone kicked me hard from the side.

My head hit the floor with a crack, and the wounds on my body tore open again, blood seeping out like I’d been ripped apart.

Terence's POV

I looked up and met Queenie’s furious gaze.

“Terence, are you insane? You tried to stab Jeremy with a knife! If he so much as gets a scratch, I’ll throw you and that crippled mother of yours out of our family!”

I laughed. Laughed so hard that I cried.

Pointing at her, I spoke with nothing but despair in my voice, “You’re right. I am insane, driven insane by you! Queenie, after what you did to my mother, do you really think I’d still stay in your family? But how dare you let him do that to her body? That was my mother!”

Her brows furrowed, and she gave me a look of disgust. “What nonsense are you talking about? I didn’t kill your mother! She’s lying safe and sound in her room!”

She was still acting and pretending.

“Hospitals use cadavers to teach anatomy, Terence! That’s just a random body, not your mom,” she even added.

Then, without another glance, she gently helped Jeremy to his feet and walked away.

But I couldn’t take my eyes off the body, the one with the exact same birthmark on her chest as me.

Just then, I coughed up blood.

How could I not feel pain?

That was my mother, the woman who carried me for nine months, the woman who raised and protected me.

And now she was gone, ripped from this world right in front of me.

And I never even got to close her eyes.

Numb, I dragged myself up and quietly arranged her funeral alone.

Afterward, with my heart in ruins, I dialed a number.

“Hello? Didn’t you say you’ve been waiting to take down Queenie? I’ll help you. But you need to agree to one condition.”

After the call, I took my mother home.

The same home where she once smiled and fussed over me like I was her whole world.

Now, she was reduced to a box of ashes. And I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I broke down sobbing.

On the seventh day after her death, I brought her ashes to a church to pray for her soul’s peace.

While the priest was chanting a blessing, Jeremy suddenly appeared, looking fresh and lively, nothing like someone who’d just had surgery.

He walked up, grinning ear to ear as he glanced at my mother’s photo.

“Well, she’s finally dead, huh?” he said smugly. “You have no idea how hard it was to swap her out for that dummy body!”

Remembering something, he lively added, “Oh, and Terence, wasn’t it satisfying? Watching Queenie toss your mom to her death just for me? Funny thing, when I cut her open, even her kidneys were smashed to pieces. Brutal way to go.”

He then clapped his hands like he was celebrating a job well done.

My blood turned cold, and my stomach twisted with a pain so violent it felt like my organs were ripping apart.

In that instant, I snapped.

I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head to the floor, again and again.

“Kneel!” I roared. “Kneel and apologize to my mother!!”

Blood streamed down his face. But even then, he smirked, eyes filled with defiance.

“You think this’ll bring her back? You think this is revenge? Dream on, loser.”

Before I could react, he shoved his hand straight into the church’s candle altar.

Smoke curled from his blackened fingers as he collapsed to his knees before me, tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Terence, I’m sorry!” he wailed. “I shouldn’t have taken your kidney. I shouldn’t have let Queenie fall for me. Please, just let me go. It hurts so much!”

When Queenie arrived, this was the scene she walked in on.

Without hesitation, she slapped me so hard I crashed to the floor.

“Terence! How dare you keep hurting him? Have I given you any right to behave like this?!”

I lay there in a mess of blood and melted candles, laughing bitterly.

Such a pathetic performance, and yet Queenie didn’t even ask what happened. To her, I was already guilty.

Disgusted, she sneered down at me and said, “No wonder, you really are her son. Just as worthless as your crippled mother!”

The moment she brought up my mother, I felt something inside me snap.

My eyes burned red as I glared up at her.

Terence's POV

“Queenie, don’t you dare speak about my mother! You’re a murderer! You don’t deserve to say her name!”

My voice trembled with rage, every word burning in my throat. For a moment, she hesitated, as if sensing I wasn’t faking this pain. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but Jeremy clung to her like a helpless child.

Trembling, he said, “Queenie... I can’t breathe. Terence said he burned my photo and mixed its ashes into the urn. It must be working... it hurts…”

The moment those words left his mouth, all the doubt on Queenie’s face disappeared.

Her expression turned cold as ice.

She picked up the urn from the floor, opened the lid, and her gaze darkened.

I shook my head violently, heart thundering in my chest. I begged, pleaded like a madman, “No! Please, don’t! Queenie, that’s my mother in there—!”

Before I could finish, she let go, and the urn slipped from her fingers and dropped into the fire pit.

In an instant, everything was gone.

“No!”

I screamed until my voice gave out. I plunged my hands into the flames without thinking, causing blisters to erupt instantly. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to grab anything that was left of her.

But there was nothing.

Not even a trace of her ashes.

I collapsed on the ground, broken and howling in despair.

But Queenie simply looked at me like I was insane, then turned and walked off with Jeremy in her arms.

As she left, she threw out one cold sentence, “Jeremy’s birthday is next week. If you show up and apologize, I’ll pretend none of this happened. I’ll even keep your mother in the hospital, just like before.”

But I said nothing and just held the scorched, discolored urn to my chest like it was the last piece of my soul.

Third Person's POV

A week had passed, but Terence never showed up to apologize.

Furious, Queenie stormed into the hospital room where his mother had stayed, ready to drag him out herself.

But when she pushed the door open, the room was completely empty.

Something sank deep in her chest.

Just as she reached for her phone, her assistant came rushing in, face pale with panic.

“Ms. Hawkins… they said Mr. Shaw’s mother passed away… a week ago! And no one’s seen him since!”