Chapter 3

2.

On the day of my mother's funeral, my phone rang. It was Garrett.

"Where the hell have you been for the past few days? Nobody is here to drive Annie to school!"

His voice was thick with annoyance.

I was kneeling before my mother's tombstone, my heart completely frozen and shattered.

"Garrett, my mom is dead!"

I roared into the phone, letting all the agonizing pain I had suppressed explode at once.

Silence hung on the line for a few seconds before he erupted in fury. "Nicole, are you seriously using your mom to lie to me again just to keep me away from Leila?"

"Do you think lying is fun? Your mom came to see me recently asking to borrow money."

"She never helped me with anything since we got married, so why should I give her a dime?"

I froze completely.

My mother had gone to him for help. If he had given her the money back then, would she still be alive today?

"Get back home right now! Annie is waiting for you, and I have to get to work!"

He hung up immediately.

After the funeral ended, I decided to head back home.

Annie was my biological daughter, and I had always been the one taking care of her. Without me, she would be completely neglected.

Yet when I opened the front door, neither Annie nor Garrett was there.

A notification popped up on my phone from Leila.

It was a photo of Annie washing her mother's feet in the hospital room, while Garrett stood by watching with a proud smile.

She sent two messages along with it.

"Annie is so well-behaved. She came straight to the hospital after school to take care of my mom."

"Nicole, you really know how to raise a child and train a husband."

My hands shook violently as pure fury consumed my chest.

Unable to contain myself any longer, I sped straight to the hospital.

I wanted to ask Garrett what our five years of marriage ever meant to him.

Not only did he give our life savings to another woman's mother, but he also dragged our daughter into their sick dynamic.

I had tolerated his endless disrespect before.

However, this crossed every line I had left.