Chapter 2 A Requiem for My Wife's Departed Soul(2)

As I thought about it, I remembered noticing some irregularities from the time Nadia became ill until she passed away.

I recollected that before Nadia fell ill, Mona had brought Nathaniel to our home, and they had caused trouble for quite some time. They refused to leave even after we offered them money and ended up staying for over two weeks.

During the two weeks that they stayed in our house, I noticed that Mona's behavior was peculiar. She took it upon herself to cook for Nadia and even brought some herbal tonics from her hometown, claiming that Nadia was too thin, and cooked them for her.

If I wasn't mistaken, Nadia had fallen ill shortly after Mona and Nathaniel left our house. After being taken to the hospital for a check, the doctor diagnosed her with acute pneumonia, likely due to inflammation and prolonged coughing.

Nadia's cough started after she drank Mona's herbal tonics. I even inquired Mona about it.

Mona casually explained to me that we lived in a city where air pollution was rampant due to car exhaust, and this caused our poor health. Hence, the medicinal herbs were for maintaining the health of Nadia's lungs. She claimed she had gone out of her way to seek out an old traditional medical practitioner from their village to obtain these medicinal herbs to boost Nadia's health.

After listening to her reasoning, I found her explanation to be convincing, and I didn't dwell on it too much. Moreover, I couldn't believe that any parent would harm their own child.

In addition, Mona also took Nadia to see an old traditional medical practitioner the former knew and got a lot of herbal tonics prescribed for Nadia, which was unusual. Not to mention that each bag of these herbal tonics contained a whole ashwagandha, a valuable herb.

Despite my lack of understanding of traditional medicine, I knew that excessive consumption of herbal tonics could be harmful to one's health. So, I tried to persuade Mona to reduce the amount of ashwagandha in the herbal tonics as an excessive amount of it could have adverse effects on the body.

However, Mona accused me of being suspicious of her and claimed I didn't trust her. She even cried and caused a scene. I had no choice but to give up on trying to persuade her.

As I held the belief that it was a natural parental instinct to protect and care for their offspring, I never once considered that Mona, being a mother herself, would cause harm to her own child.

Nadia experienced an increase in energy levels after consuming the herbal tonics. As a result, she began waking up early in the morning to prepare breakfast. However, she had trouble falling asleep at night due to feeling overly stimulated.

A week later, she experienced sudden bloating in her stomach, feeling like she was carrying a heavy iron weight inside her body, causing her to feel discomfort.

Around that time, Mona and Nathaniel abruptly suggested returning to their home, citing that they had been away for too long and that there was no one to take care of Mark at home. They then left in a hurry.

I was puzzled by their sudden departure but didn't delve into it.

As I listened to their conversation, I recollected that not long after Mona and Nathaniel left, Nadia suddenly fainted one night, and I had to rush her to the hospital in the late hours.

Upon conducting several medical tests, the doctor informed me that Nadia had a significant accumulation of fluid in her abdomen and chest, which caused her bloating. The doctor even warned that if she had not been brought to the hospital on time, it could have been fatal.

I asked the doctor what caused the accumulation of fluid in Nadia's abdomen and chest.

The doctors told me that there could be multiple reasons, and Nadia's condition was due to inflammation in her lungs. However, they couldn't determine the cause of inflammation.

While Nadia was hospitalized at that time, doctors had to extract 2.1 pints of accumulated fluid from her body daily. They had to make several incisions and insert multiple tubes. While witnessing her agony, I couldn't help but blame myself for not taking good care of her.

Despite the pain and suffering she endured, Nadia managed to smile and comforted me, saying, "Don't blame yourself for this, silly. It's just my fate. Maybe I did many bad things in my past life and received the punishment in this life. The only people that matter to me in this world are you and Delia. Without you and Delia, there's nothing worth remembering in this cold world."

At the time, I thought Nadia was speaking negatively because she was ill. But now, I couldn't help but wonder if she somehow knew that her mother and brother were trying to harm her. The mere thought of it terrified me.

It also made me wonder why Nadia didn't reveal her family's scheme to me if she already knew about it.

To obtain answers to the questions that lingered in my mind, I suppressed my urge to seek revenge and chose to wait patiently. I wouldn't make any moves until I uncovered the truth behind Nadia's death.

If it turned out that the Prentiss family was responsible for Nadia's death, I was determined to gather concrete evidence and ensure that they faced the full consequences of their actions.

As I was lost in thought, Delia suddenly woke up and habitually called out, "Mommy..."

Startled by her sudden outburst, I quickly covered Delia's mouth and rushed to the emergency exit stairs with her in my arms. I then took out my phone and muted it in a hurry.

In order to prevent Delia from speaking again, I whispered in her ear, "Honey, let's play hide-and-seek with Grandma. If she comes looking for us later, you can't make any noise, okay?"

Delia was still very young and couldn't fully understand what I meant. She only asked with tears in her eyes, "Daddy, is Mommy playing hide-and-seek with us too? Is she hiding in that red wooden box?"

"The red wooden box" that Delia referred to was Nadia's coffin. Delia had seen Nadia lying in the coffin as it was being pushed into the incinerator. When it came out, it had turned into a handful of ashes.

I held back my tears after hearing Delia's words and nodded heavily. I also hummed softly in response to her.

Just then, I heard the sound of a door opening, followed by Mona's sharp voice. "Who's there? Has Delia returned? Delia, where are you? I miss you."

Mona was a very cunning person. She called Delia's name to confirm my presence, knowing I might remain silent if she called my name to hide myself, but a child wouldn't have such a thought and would likely respond.

Fortunately, I had already told Delia not to respond in advance.

As soon as Delia heard Mona calling out her name, she turned to look at me. I quickly gestured for her to remain silent.

Delia understood me and nodded with a smile despite her pale face.

"Mom, are you sure you heard correctly? There's no one there." Nathaniel and Mark followed her outside.

Mona muttered to herself, "This is strange. I thought I heard a little girl calling 'Mommy' just now. Could it be that I was too nervous and heard it wrongly?"

"Considering the time, Henry should be back soon. Nathaniel, why don't you call him and ask him where he is? I'll go get ready with your mother," Mark suggested in his gloomy voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, my phone screen lit up. It was Nathaniel calling me. If I had not reacted quickly and muted it previously, we might have ended up in a heated argument.

I didn't answer Nathaniel's call even though he called a few times.

Nathaniel expressed his helplessness, "He's not answering the phone. With so many guests at the funeral today, I bet he must still be busy."

"Let's get in and get ready first!" Mona said before closing the door behind her.

After that, they continued to discuss something else, but I was unable to hear anything.

I quietly took Delia downstairs, and we walked around for a while before returning. To prevent Mona from getting any information from Delia, I told my daughter to remain silent about everything.

When I arrived at the front door and took out my key, I discovered I couldn't unlock the door. It seemed that the Prentiss family had locked the door from the inside, fearing that I might return unexpectedly.

I had no other option but to knock hard on the door. After a while, a voice came from inside the door. "Who is it?"

The door opened, and I saw Mona standing inside with red eyes and a sad expression on her face. If I hadn't overheard their conversation, I might have been fooled by Mona's acting skills.

"Henry! You're back. How is my poor daughter's funeral going?" Mona exclaimed, throwing herself at me and wiping her tears and snot on me.

Suppressing the disgust in my heart, I put on a sad face and replied, "Don't worry. It's over."

"Did you ask us not to worry? How can you ask us not to worry? How dare you? Our daughter, whom we raised, passed away after being married to you for only a few years. How can you, an outsider, understand the pain of having to send our daughter away? If you cannot give our family a satisfactory answer today, I will not let you get away with my daughter's death easily," Mark said solemnly, targeting me.

It appeared as though they had conspired to play the roles of good cop and bad cop in order to deceive me.

Without giving me a chance to speak, Nathaniel, who had been lying on the sofa, suddenly jumped up and rushed over to punch me in the face.

To prevent Delia from getting hurt, I chose not to dodge Nathaniel's punch and took it to my face.

Regardless, I had no intention of fighting back or dodging because I knew that by enduring this beating, I could obtain the evidence I needed.

It wasn't enough for Nathaniel to calm his anger after punching me once. Hence, Nathaniel charged at me again, delivering punches and kicks. I held onto my daughter tightly, afraid that she might get hurt in the process.

Delia let out a horrified scream at the sight of me being beaten, "Stop hitting my dad! You're all bad guys! How could you hit my daddy after bullying my mommy? I hate you all! Get out of my house!"

Delia's words seemed out of character for a young child, making me wonder if she had witnessed the Prentiss family bullying Nadia in the past.

"Delia, what are you saying? Your mother was my biological daughter. How could we bully her? Now that she's gone, we are the closest family you have. Come to Granny now. You will live with us from now on." Mona quickly stepped forward and tried to take Delia out of my arms.

Delia fiercely resisted Mona's attempts to take her away and refused to leave my arms. In the end, she resorted to biting Mona's hand.

Feeling the pain, Mona had to release her grip.

Mona clutched her injured hand and cursed viciously, "Ow! You little devil! You and your mother are both wicked people. I'll make you regret this. Just wait and see."

After saying that, Mona raised her hand, wanting to teach Delia a lesson.

Upon observing her actions, I seized Mona's hand, gave her a fierce look, and declared, "You can hit me all you want, but if anyone dares to lay a hand on Delia, I will kill them."