I stepped forward, voice hardening to steel. "I won't be back for a few days. Move out before I return. Don't make me say it twice."
Ignoring their stunned faces, I grabbed the diary and walked out.
This book was Amy's most treasured possession. I'd already lost her. I couldn't lose this too.
Behind me, my mother's shock curdled into hysteria.
"You unfilial wretch! Just because that bad luck charm died, you're abandoning your own mother?"
"Don't pretend you're some heartbroken lover now! If you loved her so much, why didn't you treat her better when she was breathing?"
"And don't try to fool me! I'm not uneducated! A man can't be infertile! You owe me a grandson!"
I didn't look back.
I just kept walking.
I hadn't lied to them.
Years of stress, late nights, and heavy drinking had destroyed my body. My sperm count was virtually zero.
Amy knew. But she also knew how fragile my ego was. So she took the blame. She let the world think she was the broken one.
She swallowed every insult, every mocking glance, and answered with a gentle smile.
The elevator doors closed. In the polished metal, a hollowed-out man in a wrinkled suit stared back at me.
*Dominic Delgado, you really are a monster.*