The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 578

Garrison stood perfectly still. His gaze cut straight through the crowd, landing solely on Sloane.

Sloane looked back at him. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came out.

At that moment, Rosemary spoke again. Her voice had lost its previous harshness, replaced by the frail, desperate pleading of an old mother.

"Garrison, I'm begging you. Just come home with Mom!"

But Garrison didn't even glance her way. His eyes remained locked on Sloane, waiting, as if hoping for something.

Sloane, however, kept her head bowed and refused to meet his eyes.

Watching Sloane's seemingly hesitant, hot-and-cold demeanor, Rosemary felt a surge of uncontainable fury.

She gritted her teeth, spitting out every word. "Garrison, if you leave with that woman today—you no longer have a mother! I will pretend... I will pretend I never gave birth to you."

"I, Rosemary Hayes, only have one daughter, and that's Quinn!"

Vincent glared at his wife and hissed under his breath, "What nonsense are you spewing?!"

Then he turned back to Garrison, his voice heavy with exhausted sincerity.

"Garrison, stop pushing us. I know you've had it hard too, but whatever issues there are, let's just go home and talk about them. Your mother hasn't eaten or slept properly in over a month because of you. Half her hair has turned gray—"

Garrison looked at his father's pleading eyes, then at the deep lines etched into his mother's face by years of time and resentment. Suddenly, a faint smile touched his lips.

It was a very slight smile. Not one of sadness, nor of anger. Just an overwhelming sense of relief.

"Mom, then just pretend you don't have a son."

With that, he stepped down the stairs and walked straight toward Sloane.

"Garrison Foster!"

Rosemary dropped heavily to her knees, her voice shrieking out as if it were being violently ripped from the deepest part of her chest. "I am begging you, isn't that enough?! You can't do this to me—I raised you for over thirty years. You can't do this!"