?<strong>Chapter 432:</strong>


    She felt suffocated, the weight of the world pressing down on her.


    When overwhelmed by inner pain, people sometimes turn to self-destructive behaviors.


    She pounded the steering wheel in frustration, only to regret it afterward, forcing herself to appear calm. Then, the intern’s suggestion to check the onlinements suddenly came to mind.


    Joelle anxiously fumbled through the glovepartment for a pack of cigarettes. They had been bought for a social event, though she didn’t usually smoke. After finishing one, she began to calm down, mentally bracing herself before turning her phone on.


    The words on the screen hit her like a punch to the gut—“traveling… heartless… unfit to be a mother.” Joelle’s fingers tightened around the phone as she scrolled through the hatefulments. Each one felt like a personal attack, each wordnding with painful precision.


    By the time she refreshed the page, thements had disappeared, but the damage was done. The words would stay with her forever, seared into her mind.


    The sun beat down on the deserted road, its heat hammering the asphalt. Joelle drove, her eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead.


    Her eyes were swollen and red, her hair a wild mess, her grip on the steering wheel tight with white-knuckled tension. It was futile for Adrian to try to sweep things under the rug.


    She had seen enough tost a lifetime. She couldn’t live her life with blinders on any longer.


    As she waited at a red light, her phone buzzed. It was the police.


    “Ms. Watson, we opened your son’s coffin… and it’s empty.”


    Without a body, there was no way to confirm if the person who died in the fire was truly Rnd. Thest flicker of hope in Joelle’s heart was snuffed out.


    Still holding the phone, her eyes wandered, noticing the towering, thirty-story building beside her.


    On its rooftop was a deserted amusement park—the same ce she had taken Rnd when he was little, pretending it was their secret hideaway.


    The light turned green, but Joelle didn’t move. Instead, she pulled over to the side of the road. It wasn’t a designated parking spot, but she didn’t care about the rules anymore.


    The building’s security guard shouted and chased after her, but Joelle was oblivious to his calls. She entered the elevator in a daze, and it carried her straight to the top floor.


    The amusement park, once full of life, now stood as a ghost town, its bright colors faded and forgotten.


    The security guard, sensing something was wrong, caught up just as the elevator doors opened. He saw Joelle walking toward the rooftop.


    “Hey! Miss! Don’t do anything crazy!” he shouted.


    Joelle reached the edge, her feet just inches from the precipice. Ny-seven meters of emptiness stretched beneath her. One step, and the chaos in her mind would be silenced forever.


    .


    .


    .