"If you two could get married earlier, I would be able to see you start a family, and I would leave this world without regrets."

My eyes welled up with tears, and I tried hard to suppress the bitterness.

"What are you talking about, Mom? You will live a long life," I said.

I gently fed my mother food. She ate it slowly, coughing from time to time.

When I pushed her out for a walk, I suddenly saw Ashley and Isaac coming out of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, hugging each other while talking and laughing.

I quickly turned the wheelchair in a different direction.

My mother paused and asked, "Why another way? The air here is pretty good."

I calmly replied, "Nothing. I just suddenly remembered that the flowers over there are blooming, and I wanted to take you there to see them."

"Alright," my mother said, not saying anything further. However, Ashley kept calling me.

"Why don't you answer the phone?" my mother asked in confusion. "You've screened it several times."

I turned off my phone and pushed my mother to the flowers. "Just scam calls."

My mother nodded and said nothing more.

In the evening, as I was about to head upstairs upon arriving home, Ashley abruptly appeared and stopped me.

"Hold on!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide with anger. "Gregory! Why didn't you answer my call?"

I looked at her calmly and asked, "Why should I bother answering the call of an irrelevant person?"

"You betrayed me, and I'm kind enough not to block you."

Ashley stared at me, a look of disbelief written all over her face, as if she couldn't believe those words had just escaped my lips.

"You changed the door lock and sent all my things at Isaac's place. Are you determined to break up with me?" Ashley's face turned red with anger, and she couldn't even speak clearly.

Looking at her, I retorted, "What else? Do you think I'm joking? Do you have any objection to me changing the locks of my own house?"

Ashley was too incensed to speak.

I continued, "Don't forget, you've lived here for five years, and it was I who paid the rent all these years. Have you ever paid it once?

"So what does it matter to you if I decide to change the locks?"

Unable to argue, Ashley continued acting unreasonably. "Did I agree to break up?! What gives you the right to move my things out?!

"I'm the only one who can break up with you and dump you! Who do you think you are? How dare you dump me?"