Chapter 38: Broken Ideals

I couldn’t take it anymore.

My thoughts were a tangled mess, every answer Mom gave only raising more questions.

The image of Dad that I had carried with me for years was colliding with everything she had just revealed, and I didn’t know which version of the truth I was supposed to believe anymore.

The pressure building inside my chest became unbearable.

Before I even realized it, I had raised my voice.

“How could you do this?” I demanded, staring at her across the table.

“You knew he would never agree to this.”

Mom didn’t react immediately.

She simply looked at me with tired eyes, as though she had expected this question for years.

When she finally spoke, her voice was calm, almost painfully so.

“I didn’t do it for him,” she said.

“I did it for you, so you could keep believing what you thought was right.”

Her answer only left me more confused.

I frowned, struggling to understand what she meant.

“Then why tell me now?”

For the first time since this conversation had begun, uncertainty crossed her face.

She looked down at the table before letting out a slow breath.

“Because there are things Chris has done that you’ll see as black.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“What things?” I asked immediately.

Mom slowly shook her head.

“It’s not my place to tell.”

That was it.

No explanation.

No reassurance.

Nothing.

I stared at her, waiting for more, but none came.

It felt like someone was repeatedly striking my head with a hammer, each blow shattering another piece of the world I thought I understood.

Dad’s innocence had been real, yet the justice that restored his name had been built on lies.

Chris had saved us, but now Mom was telling me there were things about him that I might never be able to accept.

Everything I had believed in suddenly felt uncertain.

“So everything…” I whispered, barely hearing my own voice.

“The truth… the justice… everything…” I lowered my head, unable to stop the bitter laugh that escaped me.

“…It was all just a façade.”

The dining room fell silent.

Neither of us spoke.

The food on the table had long gone cold, yet neither of us even looked at it anymore.

I could hear nothing except the sound of my own breathing and the relentless pounding of my heartbeat.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally looked back at Mom.

“Can I ask you something?”

She gave a small nod.

“Do you miss Dad?”

For several long seconds, she said nothing.

She simply stared at the table, her expression unreadable.

When she finally spoke, her voice was calm, but it carried years of exhaustion.

“No, Gwen.”

The answer caught me completely off guard.

“I hate him.”

I blinked.

“I hate his guts.”

Every word felt heavier than the last.

“I hate his truth.”

“I hate his self-righteousness.”

“I hate that every single time I begged him not to do something, he ignored me and did it anyway.”

A tear slowly rolled down her cheek, but she didn’t bother wiping it away.

“And I hate how little his own life meant to him.”

Her voice cracked for the first time.

“He cared so little about himself. He cared more about everyone else than he ever cared about us.”

She closed her eyes for a brief moment before taking a shaky breath.

“Do you know what I did after he died, Gwen?”

I silently shook my head.

“I went to news stations. I explained everything. I told them everything I knew. I thought… I truly believed that if people just heard the truth, someone would finally help me get him justice.”

A bitter laugh escaped her lips.

“I got nothing.”

She smiled, but there wasn’t a trace of happiness in it.

“Only suspicion.”

“And contempt.”

“They looked at me as if I was trying to protect a corrupt cop instead of my husband.”

She swallowed before continuing.

“I even went to the people your father had helped over the years. The people whose lives he had saved. The families he had protected. I thought… if anyone would stand beside him, it would be them.”

For a brief moment, hope appeared in her eyes, only to disappear just as quickly.

“No one came.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“No one spoke for him.”

“No one defended him.”

She lowered her head, unable to meet my eyes anymore.

“There was…”

Her voice broke.

“…just us.”

The moment those words left her mouth, something inside me shattered.

I had spent years believing Dad’s kindness had inspired people, believing that somewhere out there were countless lives he had changed.

I had convinced myself that even if the world had abandoned him at first, the people he had helped would never forget what he had done for them.

I had been wrong.

It felt as though someone had driven a knife straight through my chest.

My breathing became uneven, each breath harder than the last.

The walls of the dining room suddenly felt like they were closing in around me.

I couldn’t look at Mom anymore.

I couldn’t look at the table.

I couldn’t bear another word.

Without saying anything, I pushed my chair back so quickly that it scraped loudly across the floor.

I turned and ran.

I barely noticed myself climbing the stairs.

My vision had become blurred by tears, and every step felt heavier than the last.

All I wanted was to get away.

I reached my room, slammed the door shut behind me, and leaned against it, desperately trying to catch my breath.

But I couldn’t.

For the first time since Dad had died…

I felt completely broken.

Helen POV

I wiped the tears from my face and leaned back in my chair, my eyes drifting to the empty seat Gwen had occupied only a few hours ago.

I could still picture the look on her face after learning the truth.

The disbelief, the anger, the heartbreak…

and then watching her run upstairs without another word.

Every time I replayed that moment in my mind, it felt as though I had broken my own daughter’s heart.

Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to regret telling her.

It was better for her to question everything now than years later after she had completely fallen in love with Chris.

Right now, she still had a choice.

She could think about everything I had told her, decide that this wasn’t the life she wanted, and walk away.

It would hurt, but she would recover.

If she waited until her feelings became too deep, there would be no turning back.

Love had a way of making every logical reason disappear until all that mattered was the person standing in front of you.

My greatest fear wasn’t that Gwen would love Chris.

It was what loving Chris would eventually turn her into.

Chris wasn’t an ordinary boy.

He was a mutant, and that meant his future would never be ordinary either.

Sooner or later, people would discover what he was capable of.

When that happened, the ones who came after him wouldn’t just be criminals or corrupt officials.

They could be powerful organizations, enhanced individuals, or enemies that weren’t even human.

His life would always be surrounded by danger, and anyone who chose to stand beside him would inevitably be dragged into that world.

What terrified me most were the choices Gwen might one day be forced to make.

She believed the world was divided into right and wrong.

She believed every problem had a righteous solution.

But life didn’t always offer you that luxury.

One day, Chris’s life might depend on a decision she would have once condemned without hesitation.

She might have to lie to protect him.

She might have to hide the truth from the people she trusted.

She might even have to stain her own hands because the alternative would be watching the person she loved die.

I had already been forced to make that choice once.

I never wanted Gwen to face the same one.

Closing my eyes, I let out a long, tired breath.

More than anything, I hoped she would think carefully before deciding what she wanted.

If, after everything she had learned today, she still chose Chris, then I would support her.

At least then it would be a choice she had made knowing exactly what kind of life awaited her, not one built on innocent dreams.

Five hours passed, but sleep never came.

I had tried lying in bed, reading a book, even watching television, but nothing could distract me.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Gwen’s face again.

I kept asking myself whether I had been too harsh, yet deep down I knew there had never been a gentle way to tell someone a truth like this.

The house had fallen completely silent by the time I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

I looked up and saw Chris walking into the dining room, probably looking for a glass of water before heading back to bed.

The moment he noticed me, he stopped walking.

His eyes settled on my face, and concern immediately appeared in his expression.

“Helen… why are your eyes red?”

I had spent the last five hours convincing myself that I was fine.

I had forced every emotion back down, telling myself I had done what was necessary.

But the moment he asked that simple question, all the strength I had been holding onto disappeared.

I opened my mouth to answer, intending to tell him it was nothing, yet no words came out.

My vision blurred as fresh tears welled up in my eyes, and before I realized what was happening, I had started crying all over again.