On the day that I returned to the country, Lola Lawson, the one who was once the love of my life for ten years, sent me a picture of a baby.

She told me to think of a name and meet her at the city hall to register the baby, as she had prepared a welcome-home gift for me.

So, I rushed over with bags full of baby supplies. But when I arrived, she and her girlfriends were bent over with ridicule and laughter.

"I told you! Even though he was gone for a year, he's still a loyal lapdog! Just a wave of my hand and he'd even be willing to raise someone else's kid for me!"

She sized me up with mocking amusement. "Kevin Sheraton. How could you still be this naive? Just one joke and you come running?"

They laughed without any restraint, calling me names and hurling insults, saying I'd do anything for Lola.

But when I walked past them and took a number to register my own child's birth, and later wrapped my arm around my wife as the three of us took a family portrait, Lola's eyes were completely reddened with tears.
Chapter 1
A year had passed, yet Lola Lawson still seemed to hate me just as much as before.
Watching her and her friends clutching their stomachs and bawling out laughing, I clenched my fists tightly.
"Kevin Sheraton, what else can we say about you? You've chased after Lola for so many years, yet there hasn't been an improvement at all."
"Every time we think that you've finally grown some balls and left, you'd turn around and stick to her like glue again!"
"Wake up, honey. Even if you're willing to be her back-up, Lola doesn't like you at all!"
I was so furious by their insults that I was trembling with rage.
Lola noticed that I was not responding, so she feigned concern and said, "Kevin, do you not like the welcome gift I prepared for you? I went to a lot of trouble to prepare them."
Then, she pretended to be mad at her friends. "You guys are too much. Kevin rushed over the moment he landed. How could you bully our daddy-to-be?"
Then, a burst of laughter rang out once more. Lola's laughter was somehow the most piercing one.
Just when I was about to turn to leave and end this farce, Lola called out after me. She handed me a huge dog on a leash.
"Kevin, I can't just take advantage of you like this. Timothy had picked up this dog named Tony on the streets. He had just registered it, but he doesn't have the time to look after it. Since you'd like to be a good father, why don't you let this dog be your son? You'd do a good job of raising it."
Then, she and her friends broke into mocking laughter once more.
"Lola, I'm warning you. Some people might use the dog as an excuse to get close to you!"
Seeing Lola and Timothy Green's names and contact information on the leash, I stood there, frozen.
If it were in the past, I would happily take the dog in just to please Lola. I would even swear on my life that I would be a good dog-dad.
Yet, at that moment, I shrugged off Lola's hand and took a few steps back, saying, "I'm sorry. I have a baby at home. I can't have any dogs!"
Her friends exchanged stunned glances before bursting into shrieks of laughter once more.
"Kevin, wake up! You really think you'd be her back-up?"
"You went to school, but how are you this dense?"
"Everyone said you're a simp, but I never thought you'd be this pathetic!" Lola shot me a gaze mixed with disdain and contempt, one that I was very familiar with, while patting her skirt as if worried I would stain her white clothes.
Of all the scenarios I imagined before returning to the country, no matter how humiliating, I never pictured our reunion to be anything like this.
Chapter 2
Before the flight took off, I posted my flight information on social media.
I then received Lola's phone call. She said she had gotten into trouble and needed me to rush to the city hall the moment I landed.
I still remember how my hands trembled when I saw that it was a call from her. I also could not forget how hard my heart was thumping when I heard how anxious she sounded.
I thought she had come to her senses and finally realized that she always needed me by her side. I just did not expect her to post her entire plan on her social media, and she seemed to have forgotten to block me, the person she had not been in contact with for almost a year.
This was how I came to know their play.
When the aircrew informed me to switch off my phone, tears fell down my face.
She had always relied on my obedience for the past 10 years, which was why she could hurt me over and over again.
She said that if one day she got tired, she would settle down with me and have a baby.
She was not tired, but I was.
I had gone to the city hall to register a child's birth, but it was for my own child.
I rubbed the baby bottle in my palms and tucked it under my arms. I walked past Lola to the reception to get a waiting number. She immediately blocked me in my path.
"Alright, Kevin, you can stop now. You don't have to continue putting on the act! If you had truly let me go and found another woman to have a child with, would I have given you a dog? Who are you putting on this act for?"