Old Madam Lu's gaze softened slightly, though her eyes still held quiet steel, "Good," she said simply, picking up her tea cup again, "Do not let sympathy make fools of you. Your father has rebuilt his life, and your mother's return will only wreck his peace, but if you want to get entangled with her, we won't stop you; it's just that you would have to do it far away from this home!"
Lu Zhi Hao had a new wife, a baby in the way, so, how could they trade the peace they had for someone who had traumatized them?
They all fell silent after that, the quiet clinking of chopsticks and faint rustle of silk was the only sound filling the elegant dining room.
Outside, the warm noon sun streamed through the wide windows, illuminating the Lu family sitting together, united in silent understanding.
No matter what storms came from the past, this house and the people in it would remain unmoved.
—
The black SUV rolled down the wide stone driveway, exiting the Lu mansion's imposing gates and they could only watch as the gate closed behind them helplessly.
Inside the SUV, Song Yaya sat slumped against the leather seat, her shoulders trembling violently with each broken sob that escaped her lips. Her son just threw her out without any mercy, she didn't know how her other son was doing!
Her face was blotched red from crying, tears streaming continuously down her cheeks as she clutched her own hands tightly in her lap. Her entire body shook with silence and racking grief.
"No… no… no…" she kept whispering hoarsely, her voice shredded with hysteria. "They… they hate me… they truly hate me… how can they treat me like this? I'm their biological mother!"
"Yaya…" Gabriel reached over from the seat beside her, gently prising her clenched fingers apart and holding her cold hands between his warm palms, "Darling… please… breathe… You are hyperventilating…"
But she shook her head wildly, her dishevelled hair falling into her tear-streaked face as her sobs turned into choked gasps.
"I lost them… I lost them forever… Ting Zhou… Ting Cheng… they won't even look at me…!" Her voice broke completely, dissolving into a wretched scream muffled by her trembling hands, "I… I just wanted to see him… I just wanted to hold him once… to say sorry… to say sorry…!"
"Shh… shh… darling… It's okay…" Gabriel murmured, his deep voice gentle and low as he cupped the back of her head, pulling her against his chest. "Please… don't cry like this… it will only break you further…"
"I deserve it… I deserve it…" she sobbed into his suit jacket, her tears soaking through the fabric as her entire frame convulsed with grief, "I left them… I left them when they needed me most… I don't even have the right to call them my sons anymore…!"
Gabriel closed his eyes, his strong arms wrapping around her trembling body. He pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head, his heart aching at her pain.
"Don't say that…" he whispered against her hair, tightening his embrace, "Don't say that… you were young… You were broken too… There were reasons why you did what you had done… You are still human…"
"But… but they won't forgive me…" she cried out in a broken wail, her nails digging into his arms desperately, "They won't forgive me… and I… I don't know how to live with that… I don't… I don't…!"
Her voice cracked and dissolved into harsh, choking sobs, her entire being crumpling against him in utter despair.