10

After Tommy repeatedly sided with Florence, my heart died, and I treated him as if he were no longer my child. But the father and son didn't think that way. They tried to break into the peaceful life I had worked so hard to build, trying to awaken the love I had long since lost for them. Bradley sent Tommy to Cherry's kindergarten. Every time I went to pick up Cherry, sometimes it was Tommy, sometimes it was both father and son following behind me. They kept a distance that was neither too close nor too far. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to strike up a conversation; it was that I didn’t give them the chance. But since we were at the same kindergarten, contact was inevitable. At the end of the term, the school organized an outdoor camping activity, and parents prepared various lunches to have a picnic with their children. It was Cherry’s first time participating in such an activity. I got up early to prepare sushi, bear-shaped cookies, and a homemade sour-sweet drink. Duri