The Bell of Southscreen, Each Toll a Letting Go

Phineas Delgado likes to see me cry, wronged and hurt.

So in our three years of marriage, he arranged plenty of flings.

Without exception, I swallowed my feelings and snuffed out each spark of romance.

People in our circle called me a woman with no self-respect, a hopeless fool for love.

Until the beautiful online influencer Phineas had just taken up with stole my daughter's corneas.

It sent my two-year-old daughter to her death on the operating table.

I looked at the apology text Phineas sent me:

"Myra loves her looks more than her life. If she went blind and couldn't see herself, it would kill her."

"The child is still young. If a transplant is possible, I'll get it arranged for her right away."

This time, I wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

I called his brother at once. "Three years ago I married Phineas per our agreement. As long as I made him lose his inheritance rights, you'd give me ten million."

"I don't want the money anymore. Just take me away with you, and I'll hand you the evidence that will make sure he never gets back up..."

......

His older brother's mocking voice came through the phone:

"Weren't you the one who said you wouldn't work with me, that you wanted to give your child a home?"

My eyes went wet in an instant.

"The child is dead."

After a long silence, the voice on the other end said:

"My condolences. But wait until the seventh day after her passing before you leave. Give her some peace, all right?"

"This is my fault too. The Delgado family will give her a proper funeral to make up for it."

Eyes red, I nodded. "All right. Seven days."

But Phineas, I would never forgive.

I had just hung up when Phineas pushed the door open and walked in.

"Honey, why are you kneeling on the floor? I already told you, from now on the corneas will be arranged for our daughter first thing."

He frowned slightly and flicked away my tears.

"Your tears are only allowed to fall for me."

"If you cry for someone else again, I'm going to get angry."

There was tenderness in his words.

But his voice made me sick, made me shake.

When the online influencer's corneas detached,

the first thing he did was ask me what to do.

"Doesn't it hurt you that I'm this frantic over another woman?"

Numb, I told him to do whatever he wanted.

Our daughter stared up at him with her big eyes, reaching for a hug.

Phineas suddenly smiled.

"Baby, what if I used your child to save my lover?"

"Would that make you feel wronged?"

I cried and begged him not to.

Phineas gazed at me, spellbound.

He kissed my tears away,

then turned and dragged our child into the operating room.

The doctor said our daughter was allergic to anesthesia.

I texted Phineas, begging him to spare her, telling him the anesthesia allergy could kill her,

but Phineas didn't answer me for two whole days.

Only later did I learn

that while our daughter was convulsing on the operating table, he was busy at a karaoke bar celebrating Myra getting her sight back.

He was losing himself in the arms of a woman.

He bragged proudly to his friends

about how enchanting his wife looked when she cried.

They congratulated Phineas.

Because if I found out about that night,

Phineas would get another taste of his favorite pleasure.

Seeing that I stayed silent, Phineas reached out to pull me toward him.

"I'm sorry, honey. I was wrong about this. I promise I'll make it up to you and our child."

"I just love you too much. I love the way you cry too much..."

But the moment Phineas's hand touched our daughter's cold body,

he froze too.

It took him a long while to grasp what had happened.

His voice trembled as he spoke.

"Bess, what's wrong with our daughter?"

"It's just an allergy, isn't it? Just a rash, how could it kill her?"

The air in the hospital room went still all at once.

So still you could clearly hear

the sound of my tears dripping to the floor.

"Isn't this exactly what you wanted to see?"

"I'm wronged now, the tears won't stop. Are you happy?!"

"You're a pervert! A monster! I wish you had never loved me."

I wished I had never loved him.

In the inheritance war between the Delgado brothers, I was the spy Godfrey planted at his younger brother's side.

My job was to help Godfrey get the evidence that would bring the younger brother down completely.

At first I only wanted to take the money and do the job.

So I endured Phineas's obsession, again and again.

But over our married life, Phineas's feelings ran hot.

He would flirt with others constantly just to see my tears,

and afterward he would apologize with the utmost tenderness.

Apart from his vile fetish, he spoiled me like a princess held in his palm.

He said this was love.

I believed it.

After we had our child, I even started to think we might build a real life together.

But now, using our child's life, he has killed every last feeling I had.

Phineas is a madman, through and through, and I will never forgive him.

Phineas sat beside me, helplessly wiping away my tears.

This was the first time Phineas had ever truly faced my pain.

Instead of treating my heartbreak as a game.

This was bought with my daughter's life.

"Bess, I was wrong. I just wanted to see you cry."

"I really didn't mean to kill our daughter. You have to believe me, okay?"

His eyes were full of remorse.

I felt nothing, and I didn't care at all.

Because our daughter was never coming back.

I no longer had the heart to figure out whether this was an act.

"It's no use, Phineas."

"After our daughter's funeral, let's get a divorce."

The words had barely left my mouth.

Phineas's face went white as paper.

In the past, propped up by Godfrey's promise,

no matter how many women he found outside, I never made a scene.

I never once brought up divorce.

But this time, I was truly worn out.

"Honey, I'm begging you, don't leave me."

In his panic, Phineas dropped to his knees, all dignity forgotten.

He tried to pull me and our daughter into his arms,

and I slapped him to the floor.

Phineas wasn't even angry; he pressed his face against my hand and said,

"Honey, slap me again, make me realize I was wrong."

"Make me get rid of my terrible kink, so I never hurt you again."

He and Godfrey had been raised as heirs since childhood,

always carrying a certain arrogance, thinking highly of themselves, never willing to bow their heads.

Watching this, Myra's eyes flashed with instant jealousy.

"I remember there's a kind of anesthetic that can make a person seem as good as dead."

"Miss Fox, Phineas is about to inherit the family fortune."

"To make Godfrey feel guilty, to keep him thinking of you, you actually went so far as to harm your own daughter!"

The moment she finished, Phineas, who had been pleading in grief, suddenly froze.

Then understanding dawned:

"So it turns out Bess just loves me too much and deliberately lured me in."

"I was wondering tooit was only an anesthetic, how could our daughter have died!"

"But you went too far this time. This is our little game as husband and wifehow could you gamble with our daughter's life?"

Heh...

The words of rebuttal caught in my throat.

I just found it absurd.

Just then, Godfrey called:

"Phineas, don't give Bess a hard time, don't act like a child."

"Let her be laid to rest as soon as possible. The child is of Delgado blood. Don't lose our dignity."

Godfrey meant well, but Phineas's face went white in an instant.

Myra made no effort to hold back:

"Why is Godfrey so concerned about your wife?"

"Phineas, do you really think your wife wouldn't play both sides, cozying up to your brother behind your back?"

It was a blatant lie, and yet Phineas believed it.

He grabbed me by the throat.

Until I could barely breathe.

His obsession was the same as ever; he demanded to know whether I had betrayed him.

But this time, I didn't want to endure it, and I didn't want to beg.

I was nearly suffocating, and only when Godfrey rushed in did Phineas set me down.

"If you don't know how to cherish her, then let her go!"

Slap.

Godfrey struck Phineas across the face.

Phineas acted as if he'd caught them at something:

"Godfrey, you want to seize my inheritance, and now you want my woman too?!"

He pointed at the two of us, grief-stricken and furious.

"Our daughter was my life! I'd rather die myself than hurt her!"

I couldn't take it anymore.

Gritting my teeth, I spoke, word by word.

"Once I loved you the same way, loved you enough to give up everything."

"But this is how you treated me! You're not even as good as your brother."

Seeing the grief I couldn't hide.

Phineas panicked again.

He saw his brother turn his head away in dejection,

and remembered the pain of my ten months carrying her, the care I'd poured into raising her, and the way I used to watch for him to come home.

His reason finally came back:

"Honey, I wronged you, I'm sorry."

He hurried to explain:

"I just couldn't believe something happened to our daughter, and I can't imagine a life without you. I love you so much."

He shot a glare at his brother and Myra.

"What are you two still standing around forone of you apologize, the other get out!"

Myra apologized grudgingly.

Godfrey stayed where he was.

"I want Godfrey to handle the child's funeral."

I insisted, ignoring Phineas's protests.

He was obsessive by nature, and I was afraid that if the funeral was left to him, it would only lead to more trouble.

"Miss Fox, please don't read too much into it, I didn't mean to."

She was the one who killed my child; there was no way I could forgive her.

I wanted her gone, but Phineas coaxed me, "There, don't be angry."

"Once the child's funeral is taken care of, I'll have Myra livestream herself kneeling in the family chapel as penance for seven days and seven nights, all right?"

I stared at Phineas in disbelief.

"Go live? Let the murderer into the memorial hall?"

"Are you trying to roast me and our child over a fire? Or do you want our daughter's soul to have no peace?"

Phineas sighed.

"Sweetheart, I'm grieving for our child too, but life has to go on."

"Let Myra kneel for seven days, and we'll call this settled. It's a comfort that she gets to see the world through our child's eyes."

So that was what Phineas really thought.

Twisting black into white, ignoring the facts.

They were the ones who took my daughter's corneas and her life,

and now I was supposed to be grateful to Myra.

Why should Myra get to wipe out a blood debt by kneeling for just seven days?

And why did I have to learn to let go?

"You want this settled? Fine."

I sneered.

"You take Myra's eyes and give them back to my daughter, and I'll agree."

Tears instantly welled up in Myra's big eyes.

She was so frightened she fled in a daze.

Phineas frowned, his voice jumping an octave.

"Bess! Don't push it too far!"

"Fix your attitude. There's a limit to how much of a fit you can throw."

With that, he chased after her to soothe her.

That night, the door to the hospital room was pushed open again.

Myra came in carrying a bowl of porridge,

and said with false sweetness:

"Miss Fox, I know you're angry with me, but please don't take it out on Phineas."

"This is a little token from me, to help you recover."

I looked at the pig's eye floating in the bowl,

and an uncontrollable wave of nausea rose in my throat.

The horrific image of my daughter being pinned down while her corneas were taken flashed before my eyes.

I whipped my hand around and smashed the bowl on the floor.

"What's going on here..."

Phineas pushed the door open and came in.

Myra dropped to her knees with a thud.

Facing me, she started slapping herself across the face.

Again and again, her eyes bloodshot, she said:

"I came to apologize to Miss Fox, and I brought her something to help her recover, hoping she'd forgive me."

She sobbed, and that alone made Phineas's brow furrow.

"Bess, when did you become so out of line?"

He strode forward, gripped my face, and forced me to meet his eyes.

I hated him so much that even my gaze was full of loathing and rage.

"I'm out of line? Then go find another woman! You disgust me!"

I shoved him hard, pushing him straight into Myra's arms.

Like throwing out trash.

"You're going to hand me over to another woman?!"

Phineas said in disbelief.

"You'll regret this!"

All he got in return was coldness and silence.

"Fine. You've got nerve."

"Then I'll give you exactly what you want!"

He scooped Myra up with one arm,

and slammed the door on his way out.

In the days that followed, Phineas never came to see me again.

Godfrey took my daughter's body away.

She was cremated, and a revered monk was brought in to perform the rites.

The Delgados had money to burn, and they spent it lavishly and with dignity.

This counted as the last thing I could do for my daughter.

When she had become nothing but a small box of ashes,

Godfrey let me know I could come see her one last time.

Holding back my tears, wearing a black armband,

I was about to head out when someone stopped me.

"Mr. Delgado gave orders. You aren't allowed to leave."

I flared up.

"I'm going to see my daughter. Who says I can't?"

Just then, a cold voice sounded.

"I say so, because you want a divorce from me."

Phineas came walking over with Myra, fingers laced together, not hiding it in the slightest.

He looked down at me from above.

"I'll give you one last chance. Apologize, make up, kiss me. Otherwise"

He raised his other hand.

What he was holding made my pupils shrink all at once.

It was my daughter's urn!

When I said nothing, Phineas

assumed I had chosen to forgive him in silence.

He handed the urn to Myra

and, magnanimous as ever, leaned in to let me kiss him.

I never imagined Phineas could be so shameless.

That he could sink so low as to threaten me with our daughter's ashes.

The instant he pressed close,

my mouth went sour.

The nausea made me shove him away on reflex.

He clearly hadn't touched Myra at all,

and yet he deliberately let go.

"No!"

The ashes scattered through the air.

A piercing scream tore out of my throat before I could stop it.

Smack.

I slapped Myra to the ground.

I dropped to my knees in despair, trying to gather the ashes back together.

Myra was crying, but I couldn't spare a thought for her.

"Apologize to Myra."

Phineas grabbed my collar with one hand

and hauled me bodily to my feet.

"Phineas, are you even human? These are your own child's ashes!"

I roared, but he only shrugged, indifferent.

"Myra did it by accident. Why won't you let it go?"

"You love kids so much, I'll just give you another one."

"I'll say it one more time. Don't wear down my love for you. I don't like it when you cry over other people."

Phineas's cold-bloodedness drove me almost to despair.

When would he ever understand that our daughter was dead?

Even if I could have countless more children,

she was never coming back.

I struggled with everything I had to break free of his grip.

He slapped me back, hard enough to draw blood from the corner of my mouth.

"Apologize."

Phineas repeated.

"Ugh, so filthy."

Myra looked at me, taunting.

She lifted her foot and ground it down again and again.

And Phineas watched, without the slightest intention of stopping her.

The last shred of feeling I had for him scattered completely.

Once I pulled free, I got up, numb.

I carefully tucked a small handful of the ashes into my pocket.

I left in a daze.

"Walk out that door and I'm done with you for good!"

Phineas shouted.

The corner of my mouth twitched, then twitched again.

It didn't matter. Soon Phineas's wealth and his family wouldn't want him either.

I sent all the evidence to Godfrey.

And I filed for divorce.

Then I boarded a plane out of the country.

Before the plane took off, I saw the Delgado news shoot to the top of the headlines.

Wealthy heir suspected of killing his own daughter; family chapel convenes hearing to strip Phineas Delgado of inheritance rights.